Radio Shack in the U.S. apparently going out of business
Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2017 2:11 pm
Radio Shack in the U.S. seems to be going out of business. I remember they were having trouble a year or two ago and closed a lot of stores and turned other ones into combination RS/Sprint stores; but now the one near us is closing, and I just went to the website and it says "Clearance sale up to 60% off" so I ordered ten more of the 276-170 solder-type breadboards I use so much for analog circuits to have on hand, and a few more of the 276-168B. Shipping is free, at least for my $25 order. (It might not be for smaller orders.)
It's sad what has happened to the electronics hobby over the last few decades. It seems like we've discussed this before, but I can't find it. In 1975 when we came to the city I'm still living in now, I was a teenager and especially interested in amateur radio and stereo, and there were quite a lot of electronics stores of different kinds within bike-riding distance. The closest one, less than a mile away, was privately owned and not part of a chain, but had a load of components and tools and things which to me were just the cat's meow. The local high school and the local community college taught electronics and had amateur radio clubs too, and there were plenty of others of us hobbyists bringing in floor traffic. Gradually the schools quit teaching electronics, hobbyists either got discouraged with all the SMT stuff or took to the convenience of just buying everything cheaply, throwing it out when it went south, never building their own, etc.. The big-box stores undercut everyone in pricing for TVs and stereos. The TV-repair business dried up too, because SMT made things cheaper to produce and nearly impossible to fix. Eventually the owner of this shop found himself doing only the distributor part of the business which he could do on the phone and get things drop-shipped, and he could do that from his house, so he closed the shop.
Of the other shops nearby, some were surplus and carried electronics from WWII and cold-war-era equipment. There's not much interest in that anymore. Most shops sold at least some new parts. Today that business, what's left of it, has gone to internet sales. So many of the local stores are gone, and now Radio Shack too (although it has not been as suitable for electronics hobbyists anyway in recent years).
I'm glad to be able to pick up the phone with credit card in hand and order from Jameco, Mouser, Digi-Key, etc., or even order on eBay; but in spite of the hundreds of thousands of parts I have at home, I still occasionally find myself urgently needing something, and I don't want to wait for shipping. It would be nice to still have stores nearby that I could go to.
Of the other shops nearby, some were surplus and carried electronics from WWII and cold-war-era equipment. There's not much interest in that anymore. Most shops sold at least some new parts. Today that business, what's left of it, has gone to internet sales. So many of the local stores are gone, and now Radio Shack too (although it has not been as suitable for electronics hobbyists anyway in recent years).
I'm glad to be able to pick up the phone with credit card in hand and order from Jameco, Mouser, Digi-Key, etc., or even order on eBay; but in spite of the hundreds of thousands of parts I have at home, I still occasionally find myself urgently needing something, and I don't want to wait for shipping. It would be nice to still have stores nearby that I could go to.