Radio Shack closure date

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Remember this. My wife liked to do puzzles so I spared no expense in getting her this:

[W9ZSL]

Read about the probable closing of around 700 stores a couple months ago on one of the financial web sites.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Read about the probable closing of around 700 stores a couple months ago on one of the financial web sites.

In an earlier post: "They're being squeezed by at least two hedge fund investors, one of which wouldn't permit Radio Shack from doing what it wanted to do last year (closing at least 1000 stores)."

[ka4koe]

I built one of those Globe Patrols in my pre-ham days. Not a bad little regen. Worked on first power-up.

[WB5IRI]

Wonder if they will still honor the lifetime warranty on Realistic tubes.

[K9PNP]

Wonder if they will still honor the lifetime warranty on Realistic tubes.

Good question.  Of course the local employees around here have never heard of a vacuum tube.

[KD6VXI]

Wonder if they will still honor the lifetime warranty on Realistic tubes.

Yes,  from my experience.   They really can't not honor it.

Because of that,  I buy all the realisdick tubes I can find.   However,  they only do it once now.   Meaning,  no forever replacements.

Last ones I got didn't say realisdick on them,  either.

--Shane
KD6VXI

[W2NBC]

 How many QST, CQ, etc. homebrew projects used RS parts lists as a reference? (even here) LOTS.. That was the paint by the numbers qualification to get folks to slip on their Hush Puppies and actually build SOMETHING

They DID stock and actually manufacture some really solid stuff for the $$.. This speaker (early 70's) is STILL one of my favorites and is solid wood with the original drivers.. still sounds FB

[KB2WIG]

"
                   Remember these?  "

Didn't pFair Radio also have a grab bag? Or the Meshina??? place?


klc

[W1ITT]

It was John Meshna, in Massachusetts, who had some good grab bags and boxes.  Also, up the road was PolyPacks for semiconductors.  That was back when companies made so much stuff in the USA that they had to surplus some of the parts out to make room for more.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

They DID stock and actually manufacture some really solid stuff for the $$.. This speaker (early 70's) is STILL one of my favorites and is solid wood with the original drivers.. still sounds FB

I thought the majority, if not all, of their private label stuff (Realistic, Optimus, and several others) were manufactured by other companies and the private label just slapped on.

[W2NBC]

Pete, seems as though half of their products were private label stuff until the late 80's..

"In the late 1980s, Tandy still manufactured about half of the products sold in its Radio Shack stores. Twenty–five North American and six overseas manufacturing plants produced everything from simple wire to sophisticated microchips, and Radio Shack’s “Realistic” brand name had achieved nationwide recognition."

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Tandy_Corp.aspx

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Pete, seems as though half of their products were private label stuff until the late 80's..

"In the late 1980s, Tandy still manufactured about half of the products sold in its Radio Shack stores. Twenty–five North American and six overseas manufacturing plants produced everything from simple wire to sophisticated microchips, and Radio Shack’s “Realistic” brand name had achieved nationwide recognition."

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Tandy_Corp.aspx

From the same link:

In 1963, Tandy purchased Radio Shack.Tandy kept Radio Shack prices competitive. He eliminated a whole spectrum of middleman costs by limiting stock to private label items. At first, the company established exclusive contracts with manufacturers, but as Radio Shack grew, more and more items were designed and manufactured by associates or subdivisions of the Tandy Corporation.

I wonder who the associates and subdivisions were. As indicated in the link, Tandy did design and assemble their various computer products before that went down the tubes.

[WU2D]

Getting the DX150 as a Christmas present in 1970 was a huge deal. I also built the little super-regen aircraft receiver kit which was not really a kit since the RF section was pre-built! I can say I bought buckets of parts and speakers and gadgets through the years.

My brother in law who knew nothing but retail sales bought a 100 in 1  kit from Radio Shack and learned about electronics from it and made a huge career leap into electronic component sales and the big bucks of the 1980's - 90's parts business starting two companies that he sold. 

[WQ9E]

Tandy/Radio Shack was a pretty good example of extreme vertical integration with their corporate production, transportation, warehouse, and retail facilities.  It gave them strong control of the entire process but exposed them to the basic efficiency issue that in order to meet peak demand much of the time they had excess capacity which is a profit killer.   

Radio Shack and Sears were the co-kings of having "good", "better", and "best" choices in all of their major product areas.  There was a product positioned for every income level and a good salesperson could often move people up a level creating more happiness for him/her self and the corporation

[W3LSN]

I wonder who the associates and subdivisions were.

Likely Allied and Archer at one time.  I recall there was some federal action that compelled Tandy Corp to divest their holdings.  As for private label stuff,  several of their shortwave radios have been manufactured by Sangean.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I wonder who the associates and subdivisions were.

Likely Allied and Archer at one time.  I recall there was some federal action that compelled Tandy Corp to divest their holdings.  As for private label stuff,  several of their shortwave radios have been manufactured by Sangean.

The original text said:  "designed and manufactured by associates or subdivisions of the Tandy Corporation."

Archer, I assume, was another one of their private labels. Allied, for the brief period that Tandy had them, was the industrial parts supplier.

Tech America also came and went in a flash.

The link above (W2NBC) also states that in 1993, it restructured its entire operations to focus on retailing and, in a bold move, sold all its manufacturing operations.

[WQ9E]

The link above (W2NBC) also states that in 1993, it restructured its entire operations to focus on retailing and, in a bold move, sold all its manufacturing operations.

I bet that "bold move" was one of the early attempts to generate operating funds to offset years of poor decision making.

Maybe it is due to becoming accustomed to all of the retail bankruptcies in recent years but with RS it will just seem like the end to an extended terminal illness.  I remember when Lafayette disappeared and that did bother me, it was a more interesting store to me and I knew the local owner who was a ham.  I picked up a NC-183D he sold from his personal gear during his closing out sale and after Lafayette he opened sort of a low-key pawn shop to keep him occupied during retirement.  He had a nice Hallicrafters SR-2000 setup there with a beam on top of the shop.

[N2DTS]

All the stores around here are still open.
 

[KC4VWU]

I visited one store here in town the other day and either the employees know something the general public doesn't, or they're totally oblivious. I think corporate tactics nowadays is to keep their employees totally in the dark until the last possible moment, then drop the bomb on them. Their business reasoning for the covert operations is to keep the employees unaware so that they won't quit the company in droves and leave them hanging months away from closure. Kinda like herding sheep to the slaughter so to speak.

Phil

[W3GMS]

I stopped in at our Parkesburg store the other day and said, when are you guys closing?  He said, "we are not going to close and where did you hear that"! 

Yes after spending a lifetime in Corporate America a lot of companies will just tap one on the shoulder and escort you out of the building.  I tried to do it in a much more humane way and would let people know as soon as I knew when something was about to happen.  Its never easy though.

Joe GMS   

[N2DTS]

Maybe its just to get people in the store, like those places that have going out of business sales, for years....

[KY4SP]

2 stores close by me have closed and a third is being made into a "clearance store". Employee there said they were getting left over stuff from closed stores and when it was all sold they too would close.

[KD6VXI]

Sherwood (low and mid grade audio)
Kenwood (high end audio)
Uniden (most 2 way radios and scanners up until the mid 90s)
Wireless marketing (2 way and scanners since then)

MT was their speaker supplier.

I used to have notes on all their products and the lines they got them from,  but over the years,  started to not care and throw them away.   Didn't matter,  after a time,  nobody wanted to fix the stuff,  so I didn't need a cross reference to the real mfg service info.   China came in.

--Shane
KD6VXI
(ex manager of 01-8969 Corp store South Ft Myers,  Fl)

[Pete, WA2CWA]

[ I remember when Lafayette disappeared and that did bother me, it was a more interesting store to me and I knew the local owner who was a ham.  I picked up a NC-183D he sold from his personal gear during his closing out sale and after Lafayette he opened sort of a low-key pawn shop to keep him occupied during retirement.  He had a nice Hallicrafters SR-2000 setup there with a beam on top of the shop.

During the first bankruptcy restructuring which impacted half of the Lafayette retail chain(but not Associate Stores), the Lafayette store I worked out of opened as usual. Call was received from Corporate a few minutes after opening, that the store was being closed immediately. We had 48 hours to pack everything up that had a current stock number for the trucks that were coming. Anything that was discontinued, defective, service parts, unclaimed customer repairs(beyond 30 days), and anything else in the way of products that was not current or questionable was to be thrown out. My understanding was that 67 other stores also received the same call. Since there was still going to be several stores remaining open in the NJ/NY metro area, all the discontinued, defective, service parts, "what to do with this item stuff" came home with me so that I could continue service work on the Lafayette merchandise the remaining stores would still be selling and any customer defective items that needed to be repaired. It was an interesting period as slowly all the Lafayette lights dimmed and finally went out.