RadioShack Still In Business ???

[Carl WA1KPD]

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/even_ceo_cant_figure_out_how 

Carl
/KPD

[ve6pg]

..radio shack went outta business here in canada, about 4 yrs ago...the scraps were picked up by "the source, by circuit city"...

..sk..

[KF1Z]

I remember that article from a year or two ago....
Funny stuff.

[WB2YGF]

Amazing he was so candid, but it sounds like he's the wrong guy for the job.  I bet he never went to Radio Shack as a kid, full of wide-eyed wonder, like I did.

Perhaps they could bring back some ham radio accessories and team up with Ramsey and offer kits.  Have some microprocessor stamp kits too.  Bring the hobbyist back.

Also, have a more complete inventory of supplies. A couple of years ago I went into a RS to get a particular gauge if speaker wire.  They didn't have it so I picked it up at Walmart.  Pretty sad when Walmart has a better stock of speaker wire. 

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Yo! It's The Onion.

[W3RSW]

I like Radio Shack.
guy brought me a three pack of magnet wire from back room.

And in Dec. I bought a $299, 26 in. HDTV for mummy's (and mine if I'm good) bedroom. Think it's an AOC , but better pix and features, probably cause it's newer, than the big Samsung in the living room.  The AOC's picked up dig. and HDTV channels right off the cable without a Sci. Atlanta cable box.  Even has a keypad on the remote with '-' (dash) so you can directly key in, say ch. 84-9, NASA digital here.  I've found all the dig. equivalents of what Time Warner converts to the lower 74 analog channels. All the 'free' (read advertising) HDTV channels in my plan, HDNTM, HDtheater, all the Pittsburgh and Clarksburh HDTV chan's,  everything but HBO, SHO and stuff I didn't have on my plan.

Back to the tv, -fantastic little thing.  even with 720p instead of 1020p or whatever.

R.S. still has solder, wire, common transistors, electrolytic assortments, trash-o-rack EQ's panels in metal cases, etc. Parts are just in a cabinet of drawers now instead of on sliding racks. Both stores within a couple of miles.  I do miss their larger assorment of the past, of course.  So I order my MPF-102's in 10 packs from Mouser now at ten cents each 

-later-
looked up tv , it's an AOC, model L26W861, 10watt af amp, neat stuff for such a 'small' HDTV. good reviews and decent price.

[W1RKW]

I guess he never had the privilege to see RS's catalogs.
http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/

[KA1ZGC]

You guys do know that The Onion is a humor site and not an actual newspaper, right?

[W3RSW]

Yeah, my daughter lives in Alexandria and brought over a copy over Christmas.
- quite the parodies.
Reminds me of an upscale "Mad."
I guess it's a modern if somewhat acerbic and foul mouthed equivalent.
...for inside the beltway types.

[WB2YGF]

You guys do know that The Onion is a humor site and not an actual newspaper, right?

I didn't suspect it 'till Steves comment - then I realized I'd been April fooled.

[WA1GFZ]

My kids tell me Mad has a ball with the "stick with the motor mouth pushing her latest hate book"

[KA1ZGC]

My kid tells me you bring politics into the discussion way too often.

[flintstone mop]

Shadio Rack WAS nice to run and get project type parts and transistors. Their prices are out of this world for audio cables and Lithium batteries.
I can go to Wally World and pay half for the same EverReady batt.
And Cables-to-go for any audio cables/adapters.

Fred

[KC4HGH]

Naw, they've reorganized into "Cell Shack", just haven't changed the signs yet.

I went into my local store the other day, to pick up a radio-related item (coiled mic cord) they commonly had in the recent past.  As I entered the store, a fellow stopped me and asked if he could help.  I described the item I wanted and he asked what variety!  I told him specifically what it was and said, "here, I'll show you where it's at on the rack", but he immediately stopped me and told me they didn't carry those any more and haven't for some time.  Well, Lawdy! I looked around and saw stereo, batteries, some TVs and WALL-TO-WALL CELL PHONES and their related accessories; even their parts drawers were pitifully lacking and low on stuff and what WAS there was just thrown in the drawers, mixed up and such- and I finally realized that Radio Shack is NO MORE....

All I can say is, R.I.P. to what used to be a nice place to buy parts- DIE, CELL SHACK!  It's Mouser, et. al. for me....

[Opcom]

they still have a parts chest at some locations. Selection is limited though.

[Jim, W5JO]

Amazing he was so candid, but it sounds like he's the wrong guy for the job.  I bet he never went to Radio Shack as a kid, full of wide-eyed wonder, like I did.

Correcto my friend.  There is a theory out there that corporations have subscribed to many years after the government.  The FCC is an example.

It is called Universality of Management.  Anyone who has been trained in management can successfully operate any type of business.  We all know how this has affected Amateur Radio and radio in general.  It is also nice to have a close relationship with the hiring party.

[WA1GFZ]

Here is a good one. I go over to RS yesterday to buy a converter box before my card runs out. While there I pick up some resistors and an audio adapter.
I walk up to the counter and the and the guy at the register picks up the resistors and gives out a smile and reports. These things do cool things in the micro wave. Capacitors also are pretty cool. My buddy and I like to cook parts to see what they do. ( poor kids without real explosives) I didn't know what to say yet thought it might work better if you shorted the leads to act as a pickup loop.
Top of the food chain.....

[W3SLK]

Frank said:

I walk up to the counter and the and the guy at the register picks up the resistors and gives out a smile and reports. These things do cool things in the micro wave. Capacitors also are pretty cool. My buddy and I like to cook parts to see what they do.

They must be lacking for entertainment around that area, Frank. 

[WA1GFZ]

Things flashed through my mind, like future AMer (OH My)

[KB2WIG]

" These things do cool things in the micro wave. Capacitors also are pretty cool. My buddy and I like to cook parts to see what they do. ( poor kids without real explosives "

I had a chemisery Proff. that said  most chemests got into the field because they either liked to explode things, or create nasty smells...... these guys may make fine AM'ers ---  they have some interest in the stuff they sell


klc

[k4kyv]

I go over to RS yesterday to buy a converter box before my card runs out. While there I pick up some resistors and an audio adapter.
I walk up to the counter and the and the guy at the register picks up the resistors and gives out a smile and reports. These things do cool things in the micro wave.

Recall the Solidarity movement in Poland, just before the fall of the Iron Curtain?  During that time when open expressions of criticism of the government was risky, it became popular for dissenters to take a resistor and attach it to their lapel. Thus identifying themselves to other sympathisers that they were actively "resisting" the regime.

[K3ZS]

In my younger days, we used to connect a low voltage electrolytic cap across the 110VAC line in some prototype equipment.    When it was turned on the cap blew up like a firecracker, making some engineers thinking they were failures with their equipment designs.

[WB3JOK]

A 1/4 watt A-B carbon comp resistor of about 1k ohm does the same thing, but without the flying aluminum shrapnel (although with a short but very hot arc) 
don't ask how I know 

[Ed/KB1HYS]

worst practical joke:

One of my "lab mates"  gently unplugged my Iron while I was wire-wrapping a project.  He then proceeded to wrap about 5-10 turns of thin solder around the prongs and gently placed it just inside the receptical.

When I went to solder the project, the iron was cold, I looked up and saw the plug just out of the socket and assumed I had pulled it loose... so I shoved it back in...     (we were in a high school electronics lab).  I had a big black mark around the outlet and the devils own time trying to explain what "I" had done... mean while the culprit and his cronies were in hysterics.

I am lucky, the radio shack in town still has the parts bins with some usefull parts in them.  They are over priced and you can't trust everything they sell. (I have had a hard time getting solder to stick to some of the connectors they sell, have to use LOTS of flux and heat).  But I can get odds n ends with out having to wait for mailing, and with shipping charges the prices are about the same after all.