eevBLAB #7 - Radio Shack Declares Bankruptcy!

[EEVblog]

Radio Shack has gone bust, declared bankruptcy!
or Tandy as it is known in Australia.
Dave reminisces about the good'ol days

TRS-80 Model 100 teardown:
TRS-80 Model I teardown:
Forest Mimms Interview: http://www.theamphour.com/171-an-interview-with-forrest-mims-snell-solisequious-scientist/
Dick Smith talk:

[GK]

I still have the 200-in-one kit sitting somewhere under my bench, got it when I was 9 or 10 years old. Some years after its initial introduction (about mid nineties IIRC) it was redesigned with different-look front panel (ugly, IMO) and the battery compartment shifted from the bottom of the case to the top. Coincidentally, just two days ago, I received an Altronics catalog with a parts order and, flicking through, I was surprised to see that they are now selling it, design unchanged:

http://www.altronics.com.au/p/k2209-maxitronix-200-in-1-electronics-lab-kit/

This is a pretty good run for one product, IMO. The good'ol days aren't exactly over in that regard. I also recognize in the current Altronics catalog the exact same spring-terminal AM crystal radio kit that I also had ~25 years ago!

[miguelvp]

Chapter 11 doesn't mean they are gone, but in my mind they've been gone for 2 decades anyways.

Not the same place and now sharing the space with sprint phones for whoever uses that service and there is no much space on those newer RS stores to begin with.

I recall part bins galore a long time ago but it's long gone as I remember them when I was younger.

[Artlav]

Fond memories...
Actually, i never heard of it before EEVBlog.
I don't think they had any presence in the post-soviet space.

Tandy, on the other hand, sounds a touch familiar.
Somewhere along things like ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64.

[Kjelt]

Here in Holland they already disappeared over 16 years ago.
When I was a kid I remember the stiff not very friendly or helpfull personell that would like to sell you the expensive stuff but did not bother to answer any question about which capacitor I should use.
I remember the odd US components, transistors we never used, relays with 110VAC rating in our 220VAC country 
Then the prices exceeded a factor two of what you paid at the local electronics shop so buying components at Tandy naaaaaaah

Then the computer age emerged and I was drooling at those green character CRTs with their magic'ness, I could get a catalogue after lying that my father wanted to buy a computer and wanted me to pick up the catalogue. So I had this shiny computer catalogue but the prices exceeded a thousand times my monthly pocket money so they were totally out of reach. If only my father had bought one then and I had started programming already back then my current situation could be totally different 
Later on I owned the model 100 and even 200 (gave it away to a friend collector few years back) which had a Microsoft OS and the millenium bug on their RTC

Oh well, as said they went belley up about 17 years ago, the whole supplystock was sold to a 3rd company that started selling it by the bags in their shop, and I ended up with a lot of inventory that lasted me 16 years of hobbyprojects already 
So this is for instance my left over supply of switches and I have another box of relays and other stuff from them. But looking at those prices, more than 4 guilders that is around 2 euros for a single switch , they were way too expensive, too many personell and an expensive site (city is high rent).

[david77]

Being German I know next to nothing about Radio Shack or Tandy. My childhood electronics memories are of Conrad Electronic and some long gone companies like Radio RIM or Holzinger Elektronik that used to be around the main station in Munich.

The memories are kind of the same as Dave's though. Conrad is still around today, not quite the same as it used to be, but they're still doing pretty fine and they still sell components in every store and sometimes you even find people at the counter who know a bit about electronics.

Radio RIM had brilliant kits, mainly audio and T&M stuff. Their paper catalogue was legendary in its day, it was a valuable source of information in the pre-internet days. Today they are collectors items, I have a few from the 70ies and 80ies - brilliant stuff.
They went away in the early 1990's, I've only been in the shop two or three times as a kid. Sad.

[jancumps]

[jancumps]

[GK]

Tandy down here was always a ripoff, as far as I can remember. It was the first electronics store that I discovered as a youngster and I shopped there with all of my pocket money religiously only until I knew better. Back in the early '90s a 555 timer was $3.95 a pop. Getting only 50c a week pocket money (and rarely a dollar) saving up for a "build" would take ages. I recall just randomly visiting the store when I had a few dollars and spending ages in the cubicle-like section of racking for the electronics components agonizing over how best to blow my bucks. A pack of OA91 germanium diodes?, or maybe a LED or two? Hmmmmm... Once I elected to spend all of my birthday allowance (ahead of the date) there, mostly on discrete component packages. There were several dozen individual items and the store clerk took up half the morning writing out a separate form for each and every single item, complete with my full name, address and telephone number. By the time he finished he could spell my surname without having to ask.

About every two weeks a new, complete Tandy catalog and other associated promotional material would turn up in the letter box, addressed to me personally, which I found really amazing at the time. That relentless (Readers Digest-like) "spamming" must have cost the company a lot of dollars, and I guess went towards their inflated prices. I remember drooling over the HiFi systems detailed in the catalogs and really wanting the portable ghetto-blaster with a built-in B&W CRT TV, but at $399 it was well out of reach. I recall the TV ghetto-blaster being reduced to $299 in a Christmas sale one year, but mom still said no. It was a year or two after that that I discovered Dick Smith electronics. They stocked the exact same TV ghetto-blaster, only sporting a different name badge. RRP was $249! 

The end to my Tandy shopping days came the day I visited the very first established bricks and mortar outlet for a new firm called Force Electronics, and almost fell over when the dude behind the counter charged me only 65 cents for my (albeit non-packaged) 555 timer.


   

[ryanmoore]

Tandy left the UK market in 1999, and I don't think anyone mourned the loss. They had a silly gimmick of using hand-written receipts, and you couldn't buy a £5 item without them trying to talk you into buying it on credit.

We've still got Maplin, and they seem to be doing pretty well considering all the complaints about Radio Shack apply equally to them - aisles full of phone cases and LED computer fans, and all the components kept in the back room so you have to ask a staff member to get them.

[Razor512]

In the US, they used to be quite popular in the past since it was convenient in terms of getting that one part that you needed. Then they made changes that made them self irrelevant.

Radioshack stores are typically very small with limited selection, but even with that, they tried to compete with stores like best buy and circuit city, by selling cellphones and cellphone accessories. If you walk into a current radioshack, you will see roughly 90% of the floorspace dedicated to smartphones, bluetooth speakers, and beats headphones. (basically everything that you would find at the smartphone section of a bestbuy.

Another issue is poor/ outdated management and pricing. They dedicate 90% of the store to selling products that you can find for less money at stores like bestbuy. The electronic components are then massively overpriced. e.g., I needed 4 capacitors for a project, and they had it in stock (they were some unheard of brand but 105C rated, and I was just making something for short term use. They wanted $10 for them. So instead i spent about $10 on the element 14 store ($7 went to shipping and handling, and ordered  8 capacitors ( 105C rated Nichicon branded caps which I think may be better than the unknown brand that radioshack was stocking).

Overall they became more and more overpriced for electronic components (to a point where even with shipping, online stores were a far better deal (even with priority mail)

For the poor management, they regularly stocked outdated parts that were overpriced. e.g., you would walk into a store and see a socket 939 motherboard being sold for $200 in in the year 2014. (they overcharged for it in 2004, and probably through a lot of cocaine sniffing, thought they they could still make $200 off of it in 2014.

Overall, overpricing products, poor management (not stocking the right stuff), and transitioning from an electronic component store, to a smartphone store, lead to their downfall.

[Radio Tech]

Dave,
Wow is all I can say. Nice video and old memories.... Last week I was thinking of doing my next video on Radio Shack since it is what led me to electronics. Glad to see you do it first

I grew up on a farm way out in the country here in North Carolina. What we ate we grew and raised. We only went to town once a month for the things we did not have on the farm.
When I was 10 years of age someone gave me an old tube short wave receiver and a ton of old electronic magazines. But the bloody receiver did not work. So this is when I got my first start in electronics and my first look inside a Radio Shack store. When mother would go to the market I spend an hour in Radio Shack looking at parts. Across the street was a TV repair shop. I would spend the next hour rambling threw his dumpster for parts (with his permission). He gave me a bunch of old electronic books also. After my third dumpster dive I finally found the last tube I needed to fix the old receiver. So much fun sitting in my room and listening to folks on that thing.

I have so many Radio Shack related stories, unopened gadgets, parts and equipment from there.
To me they died 15 years ago but I always hoped they would come back to be part of what they used to.
I guess the end is here.

[spackard]

A lot of experiments when I was young, with those spring board kits.  Built my first am radio with one of those.

Took me ages to figure out if you want a half watt 330 ohm resistor you don't ask for that, you ask where is 271-1113?
They know where everything is by their store part number!

Still have one of their VOMs, which I "built" as a kit, mainly by soldering in all the resistors and putting in three battery of the month club batteries.

[cosmicray]

Another fine product from 20-30 years ago.

[codeboy2k]

I too started out with with the 65-in-1 kit and a tandy meter, and a tandy battery club member  

I went there all the time to get a single transistor or resistor in a single plastic bag for $3

I had a model 1, model 4P, and a model 100.

[Radio Tech]

Another fine product from 20-30 years ago.

I had and worked on quite a few of those in my time when I ran a cb repair shop here.
At times I felt like I kept RS in business back in the cb hay day.  I probably sold more Realistic radios for them and JC Pennies than they sold. I would buy up their lot, modify them then resale.
The good ole days.

Here is just a scratch of some of the RS stuff I have around. There are 3 items never opened and used in the photo. The meter with the red "X" is not Radio Shack

[G7PSK]

I still have one those voice recognition chips, I bought it when the local Tandy store was closing down in Kings Lynn Norfolk. The surprising thing is that H. Gee electronics the shop that I got stuff from when I first started is still going strong in Cambridge must be the University trade.


http://cambridge.openguides.org/wiki/?H_Gee

[ornea]

The Free Battery of the Month Club got me in the door but the high prices meant my visit was a window shop.

[Tandy]

Tandy left the UK market in 1999, and I don't think anyone mourned the loss.

I bought my first components from a Tandy store and worked there for a while, so I was somewhat disappointed when the UK stores closed. That is why I bought the remaining assets of Tandy from RadioShack and started re-establishing Tandy in the UK.

See this thread for more info https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/radio-shack-bankrupcy/

[Stonent]

RadioShack was my favorite store as a kid. Here's some of the stuff I had

Electronics: 50 in 1, 60 in 1, 200 in 1 (the 80s one, just like Dave had), many many parts, that stupid "computer" thing with the lights that switched on and off.

Meters: One similar to what Dave had, but with more ranges and the "Range Doubler" switch.  I also had a smaller pocket one.  My dad had a digital meter that was about the size of an iPhone that had a pocket case. Oh yeah forgot about my digital meter.  It was made by Metex, and had a serial port on the side that you could use with some software that came with it.

Mimms Books: Getting Started in Electronics, Engineer's Mini Notebook, Digital Circuits (forget the exact name)

Computers: TRS-80 MC-10 with 16K expansion, Color Computer 2 (64K), Tandy 1000 HX (final config was 3x 3.5" drives, 640K)

Misc: A 200 channel scanner, and an unserialized engineering prototype 2 channel CB radio that I got at the RadioShack Clearance center.  It even had a sticker that said "Engineering Sample" on it, I don't know how it got out, but it was, as far as I could tell a final revision of the product.

Stories:  The RadioShack Clearance center just outside of Downtown Fort Worth had a monthly swap meet for HAM guys.  Lots of neat stuff there.

At 18, I worked at Incredible Universe, which was one of Tandy's attempts to compete with large retailers like Best Buy. My original job was a service coordinator.  I would sit in the back room and wait for the repairs to come in from the Tandy Service Center (on North East Loop 820, in Fort Worth).  Then I would open all the packages, call all the customers, and log it in the computer.

Most of the Realistic brand products were rebadged RCA, Philips, Magnavox etc products.  I had a set of Yamaha speakers that I bought at Incredible Universe that after a few years had started rattling internally.  They had a 5 year warranty so I sent them off to the Tandy Service Center.  They somehow lost them and after a couple of months of fighting, they gave me a refund.  Since Incredible Universe no longer carried those speakers I just happened to go to Radio Shack and saw the EXACT same speaker set branded as Optimus.  So I bought those instead.

A year or so ago, I had heard that Radio Shack was clearancing out a lot of kits, so I picked up a Velleman PIC development board (the one with the bit-bang serial), and a PIC based Velleman Tennis game.  Both were $5

There is still nowhere else that I know of that's within driving distance of anyone's house in the US that you could go to if you needed a capacitor RIGHT NOW.  Sure you could look up a repair shop (if many are still around) and buy one.  But they typically close at 5:00 and aren't open on the weekends typically.

[radiomog]

All this talk of Tandy/RadioShack... I went to one near me yesterday in the US

While there, I was told that "they came in the other day and removed a lot of the higher value items/fixtures to relocate to another store.  Everything else in the store is 25% off."
They didn't know what was going to happen at this particular store, other than it's one that is slated for closing.  There was rumor of a buy out by Sprint and another company I don't remember.
Also mentioned that supposedly there are store representatives going round, looking for people to relocate to other stores (~).  The employees seemed to be taking it very well

I looked at what little stuff was left for sale.. not much for value.  A lot of the "Make" and Arduino based kits I looked at, were still overpriced at 25% off (heck, even at 50% they would still be over priced)

[jzoeller]

Radio Shack was my favorite store as a kid too!

[DIPLover]

Wow, reading you guy's stories, I wish we had that store up here in Canada.

I'm 34 and as far as I can remember, Radio-Shack here was this ultra-overpriced junk store where you could buy crappy speakers at 3 times the price, a phone cord extension, crappy headphones at 10 times the price, a smoke machine, a karaoke machine...

Just junk all of it and oh so expensive. And the blue NiCad rechargeables... 8 of which would last 2 hours in an original Gameboy... just dreadful...

Then they switched to Compaq computers and cell phones, then they sold to circuit city and became a smart phones and useless gadgets store.

I even worked at one of them during christmas season just after being laid out post dotcom bust... They had us wear a tie to sell that junk, never understood why. They paid comission and we would see the cost and markup on everything we sold. It was sickening. Digikey is a charity in comparison.

[Stonent]

Rather than add videos to this thread, I created another one.

In the early 1990s RadioShack signed a deal with Sprint to sell phones at their stores and Sprint services.  The commercials used the Jetsons to promote it.  I put a few of those here:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/this-is-when-radioshack-lost-their-way-(jetsons-commercials)/

[nixfu]

It is their time to go

... but darn it. 

It still makes me sad.


>I'm 34
You are just about 10 years too young, and you just missed the heyday, RadioShack's good days were over by the mid-90s.