Radio Shack Stores Are Back! Let's take a tour of one.

[bryank]

I hope they return. I miss being able to buy wire and electronic components while actually looking and holding them in my hand instead of relying on maybe's through internet pics.

[rpcarrier]

I miss Radio Shack as it was in the 70's, 80's and 90's. I spent major money there throughout my life. The local Radio Shack that was near me became a cell phone store. The only business they cared about was selling phones and plans. I miss the days when you could buy capacitors, diodes, stereo equipment and all sorts of necessities. I miss walking in the store and being greeted by someone who knew what they were talking about. I also remember in the 80's our local Radio Shack had a repair technician in house.

[bogdanfutera]

I missed Radio Shack a lot - I used to spend there hours and hours, buying incredible stuff, you can find in that store only. I am very, very happy that Radio Shack is coming back!!

[carolriley]

I managed a radio shack. One of my keys to success was knowing all about the diodes and capacitors and electronics. Studying the new products and passing along to my team. No customer left our store without getting the help they needed. Know the products you sell!

[BryanFixesIt]

The 300 in one electronic science project kit was one of the things that led to my early education in electronics

[kalynlambert]

I am SO excited about this!
Radio Shack, welcome back.

[Mrshoujo]

What was the best thing about Radio Shack was the availability of various electronic parts and supplies, odd cables and plugs and jacks, and just the general support of the maker community as it could be called. They failed in later years by selling over priced technology products and cutting back on electronic components. I liked being able to go into a Radio Shack and getting all the parts to build a light pen from a magazine article.
My last purchase at a physical RS store was Arctic Silver thermal paste.

[thewanderer]

Wow! That is great. Hope to see one soon. Miss Radio Shack, such a unique store and was always helpful.

[profdc]

I really hope the current management of Radio Shack is a lot smarter than the last one. There's so much potential in radio shack as a hobbyist store, yet the old management focused on the most common items that anyone could sell. They should be selling buckets of components rather than having huge blister packs for tiny parts, maybe even holding maker meetings like comic and gaming stores hold meetings of gamers.

[jasonstahl]

Welcome back RadioShack. Glad to see you recovering.

[BrotherAlan]

Glad to see they still have stuff for doing real electronics projects.

[GrandCamino]

Back in the early 90’s when I carried a boombox that took 10 D cells everywhere. I discovered their batteries in barrels near the front of the store. They had red ones and green ones. The green ones were their premium line of batteries and they were nearly half the price of Duracell & Energizers but by far lasted longer. I had a couple of green batteries that were like 12yrs old and they STILL had a charge and worked for a while. Nuts!

[jamesdenson]

Man, RS was a staple for my brother and I growing up in the 60s/70s and we continued to shop there until our last local store closed about 15 years ago. I hope they manage to survive in retail moving forward.

[ppentertainment]

I love it. I really hope they start bringing more stores back. It’s nice to be able to just walk in the store and grab what you need instead of having to wait for it in the mail.

[DonTheVoice]

I majored in electronics in college in around 1965, and radio shack was my home away from home! So I have some great memories! I spent 50 years in radio and TV, mainly playing with tape recorders -- it brings back good memories! Thanks for the update!

[AmericanSoldierLakotaSioux]

Glad to hear! I used to always buy audio cassette repair kits back when cassettes were popular as well as RCA cables and various audio adapters, couplers, etc.. I had fixed many cassette Sony Walkman internal parts, wiring, and soldering equipment thanks to Radio Shack. Fun days!!!
Thanks for posting and sharing, gonna have to see if I can find one close to my town. 👍👍

[allanegleston]

id love to see them bring back the science fair kits.

[MovieMakingMan]

I made so many things with parts from Radio Shack. I needed a device to be able to control my 8mm & 16mm film cameras. I wanted to make time lapse movies but nothing existed to control my cameras. So I built my own intervalometer. It allowed me to take one frame every 0.001 seconds to 1000.00 minutes. Of course the lower capacity of every 0.001 seconds was beyond my camera’s capabilities but I could have the intervalometer release the shutter every 1 sec, 60 sec or 600 minutes. I used one of Radio Shack’s metal boxes to put a circuit board and everything else I needed. The intervalometer worked perfectly. I made a lot of time lapse movies in film class in college. I’d attach the intervalometer to my cameras and put it on top of a tripod and leave it there for a week or a month shooting frames at any predetermined interval I wanted. My professor was amazed at my invention. He also loved my films. My classmates loved it too.

That’s just one thing I created using Radio Shack supplies. I loved being able to but resisters, capacitors, wires and everything else I needed to assemble the devices I made. I had a BS degree in electrical engineering so it was easy to design and build anything I wanted.

I was disappointed when Radio Shack closed all around my town. There wasn’t another store that had a huge inventory of parts to create things.

Of course a lot of people won’t understand my need to build an intervalometer because cell phones can now do that. But if you were alive before cell phones people had to be creative and make things from scratch.

Thanks for this video. It reminded me of all the cool times I spent there looking for parts I needed to make things.

[theElderberryFarmer]

I worked at 4 different Radio Shack stores when I was a kid in NJ back in the early 1980's. I really, really miss those stores. If you were an electronics or audio enthusiast, you could find stuff at Radio Shack that you just couldn't find anywhere else. Plus, it was a place where all of the geeks and nerds could meet up and discuss common interests without fear of being mocked or picked on by "the cool kids."

It was sad to see the stores go down the path of trying to become cell phone resellers.

[MitchellMaichak-zemr]

I hope the Radio Shack stores return, a lot of people don't know one of the best reasons . I played guitar in " bar bands " most of my life, and there were numerous occasions when the easy availability of replacement components for various amps saved our butts, and I'll bet I'm NOT the only one with the same or similar experience !!!