Does anyone still go to Radio Shack in pinch.

Richard J. Johnson

Richard J. Johnson

Joystick Member
When I had my recording studio open to the public and when I was a DJ I used to always go in there for odds and ends. I drove by my local radio shack yesterday and remembered that I have not been inside that store in 5 or 6 years.

I guess no one buys "Realistic" anymore.
 
As much as I cannot stand that place, I do run in for one thing and one thing only: BNC adapters (BNC>RCA, RCA>BNC, couplers).

Their odds and ends are cheap. Those adapters work and work well, and they're inexpensive. But their raw parts are terrible. There's a cheap coating on the contacts that chips off and makes soldering ineffective. If I need to make cables, I go to an independent electronics supply store here in Knoxville.
 
I have used them in a pinch, and really don't like the entire experience. They either don't have it, want 3X the price for it, or have a really cheap imitation from China... at 3X the price. There was an old Electronics Warehouse in the little town I grew up. This place catered to DIY HAM and CBers, and pretty well had any odd thing you might want, plus old fashioned free advice. They even had a Tube tester! That place rocked! I would always check there first, Radio Crack second.

Another thing that bugs me about them, is the way they rape you for personal info when you buy something.
 
My Radioshack always has about ten people that need help with really weird things and one guy working there that doesnt know what he's doing. Periodically have to buy an adapter or something there, but pretty useless place otherwise.
 
Yeah I started a thread about a year ago asking the same question. I cannot for the life of me figure out why or how its still open. I can't think of anything they do well. Least of which, a specialty that can afford to keep an entire chain open.
 
Adapters only. Otherwise they suck. :zombie: Seems to be full of teens looking for car stereo speakers when I've been in there.

Our town had a computers/electronics parts DIY store w/everything you could imagine incl tons of military-surplus gear & stripped-out parts, crammed into a 2-story house, run by an elderly dude who started as a teenager building crystal radios in the 30's.

4 or 5 years ago the city declared eminent domain on him, shut him down & bulldozed this geek paradise for a shopping strip mall that now sits 2/3 empty. Ironically, one of the tenants is a Radio Shack.

Crying into my :beer:
 
i'm really not sure how they stay in business either. it seems like the only time anyone buys at radio shack it is something like a $5.99 adapter. the more i think about it, the more suspicious this seems. could radio shack really be a front for organized crime?
 
Only for the adapters that no other store carries.

As far as a front for the Mob they are not that stupid. Years ago a Comedian had a routine that they were really owned by Aliens for outer space and they take your info so they know were you live when the invasion starts.

My theory is some people get confused by big box stores and use Radio Shack as a get in get out electronics store.
 
I worked there in the early 80's. Back then they were ahead of the game- carried TRS80 computers and could hook you up with Compu serve ,before anyone else was on the net.
I hated having to ask for names and addresses (for the mailing list).

Their parts were OK- I still have a huge box of cables and adapters, most of which came from there, and 30 years later they stil work. Strange though- went in a mall store last week and there were no longer any small parts available, and just a few audio adapters, etc. Everything else was MP3 players, navs and other stuff you could just pick up at Best Buy.
 
They ask my name, I tell them Cash. They press me for my phone number, I ask the what theirs is. They tell me they won't give me their number, I tell them I feel the same way, now shut up and give me my change.
 
Radio Shack helped save my wedding day...well, at least the music on my wedding day because I was responsible for the sound setup and had rented and use some of my own gear to save money. I should have rented everything because the one thing I didn't have was a couple of cables to hook the speakers up. The cables I did have had the wrong connector on the end and luckily a nearby Radio Shack had the converter connectors. Saved my butt.

Up until that day I had always asked the same question about how and why Radio Shack is still in business. ..good thing for me they were.

Best,
Andy
 
Jeff Anderson said:
My Radioshack always has about ten people that need help with really weird things and one guy working there that doesnt know what he's doing. Periodically have to buy an adapter or something there, but pretty useless place otherwise.
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Yeah... that's why I go there for adapters... it's quick in, quick out, ad when they ask if they can help, I say "Nope, I'm good." I walk straight to the adapter section, grab what I need and head for the counter.

It's probably been 15-20 years since I have seen some one working in there who actually knew what he was talking about. Now, they're just high-school and college students with no electronics experience (couldn't tell you what those pretty colored bands on a resistor mean...) who are simply there to run the cash register and sell mobile phones.
 
C2V said:
Now, they're just high-school and college students with no electronics experience (couldn't tell you what those pretty colored bands on a resistor mean...) who are simply there to run the cash register and sell mobile phones.
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I had a friend who worked there briefly (hated it!) and you are correct. The training is woefully inadequate. Their prime directive is to sell mobile phones with as many upgrades as possible.
 
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