Man, I miss Radio Shack

Not only do we learn nothing of what we buy, (many roads lead from here) we are constrained at the choke point.

If, as is happening in China today, your “social media credit score” (online and off) will keep you from what you may want.

If it’s low enough.

If one is a Deplorable.

Your attempted order will be refused.

No local supplier means no supplier at all.

So it’s a good thing RS is essentially defunct. (Vote Democrat. Vote early. Vote often).

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Another thing that stinks about not being able to buy locally is the chances to run into like minded hobbyists. I suppose us radio nuts don't mind fishing around HF spectrum to meet folks who are in our not-so-secret society.

We have a group up in Seattle (40LSB) that meet up at 7PM for a SSB net and we are out there from quitting time until 9PM usually just shooting the #### or all watching the Seahawks. We commiserate mostly this year....

 

Not my Image...I stole it from google. Nice of them to have one of my local store.

Radioshack - Nags Head, NC


Yes it's still there. It's also a record store. LOL One corner of it is records, rest is your typical RadioShack. RC cars and parts, funky things I don't know what they do, computer parts/attachments, etc etc etc.

They must do decent business to have been around as long as they have down here. I don't go often but when I do I usually see another person or two in there chatting with the owner/staff. Tech/geek stuff, not just chatting about hot chicks an waves. I rarely see "young" people in there. Most are older folks.

Some of their geek chat should be in 1's and 0s. Ha. Good folks though.

They do still exist...an not just on my sandbar.

We here on the sandbar shop local when we can. Lots of times though we're forced online or to drive to one of the nearby cities.

Sirscrapntruckalot - Everyone has a little nerd in them. It's just matter of what kind of nerd. - Me, or someone else if you liike

 

They failed to adapt their business model to changing times, that's why they're history.

Gone are the days where people are actually repairing electronics. For the past 20 years plus, electronics have been disposable. Very few people do this anymore, they just buy a new one when the old one goes out. But rather than adapt and change, their store remained almost unchanged for the past 20 years. And their prices were ridiculous.

 

Well hell Brandon, think about this, you are a amateur radio operator, you buy a radio for say $400 that was made in say 1985, you can't get most of the parts in that thing unless you find a parts radio. One reason why I like older (pre-1980) equipment is the fact I can adapt something to make it function right but anything in the 80's onward, forget it.

 

Have you tried Fry’s Electronics?

Way better than radio shack ever was.

Frys has a whole aisle of pl-259 type connectors, cb radios, all sorts of test equipment.

Fry’s is the newer, bigger, better radio shack...in my opinion.

If you’re fortunate enough to live near a amateur radio store, they have everything a radio shack used to have. Some of them will even have ham radios hooked up and turned on to listen to. HRO is a good chain of ham stores.

 

The nearest one from me is 265 miles away. The nearest RS where I used to live was 1.5 miles away.