I Toured A Radio Shack!

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I was looking for zip cord and noticed a Radio Shack in my search results, so I had to pick up the camera and grab some video.

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Intro music provided by one of these;
Silent Partner - Fortunate Note
Noir Et Blanc Vie - Brighton Lights
John Deley & the 41 Players - Heat Wave
Doug Maxwell - Psychedelicacy

[CdnRockiesRadio]

I remember going into Radio shack when I was about 7 or 8 years old begging my dad to buy me a RC monster truck, and I remember just growing up always walking threw with my dad.

[joeblow]

I miss that place. Bought countless things from there. Scanners, shortwave radios, ham radios including my first HT. The HTX-202. Antennas, coax, batteries, resistors ham power supplies. Ham radio books and Morse Code cassette tapes.

[DonDegidio]

Hi Kyle,
Sure miss Radio Shack. There was at one time five stores within a ten minute drive. I was a regular at one of the stores and became friendly with Kat, with one of the salespersons. One time was needing some disc capacitors and when I walked in Kat immediately said "Hi Don how are you today?". We exchanged pleasantries while I walked to the back of the store. There were five other customers in the store and two were at the counter waiting to be checked out. Kat next said "Do you need any help finding anything?" to which I answered "Thanks, but I know where to look." Found the capacitors I needed and was on the way home in about ten minutes. 73 WJ3U

[rickf.]

I was a multi site store manager for RS up until the doors closed forever. At one time you could actually survive on a RS managers salary but all that changed over the years. Quality managers and experienced, knowledgeable staff all left. We were left hiring folks that literally could not find any other job, with few exceptions. As noted below, reliance on razor thin profit margin wireless sales killed the business. I have some good faded memories of RS, back in the day but those memories are blurred by the events leading to RS's demise. One memory I will share of the "bad ending days". I walked into one of my stores one day and observed an employee being handcuffed by police officers. The officers had been called after a customer observed the associate sitting on the parts drawers "huffing" canned air. I asked the officers if they had seen the store manager. They responded; "Yea, he's in the back seat". He had numerous retail theft warrants for his arrest.

[KYVY]

Almost every time I would go in our local RS when it was around back in the day, I always managed to confuse the person working when I was looking for a connector or something uncommon lol.

[Obeeewaan]

back in the '90's ... that's where my HTX 202 and HTX212 came from... my first amateur equipment

[davidsradioroom]

Wow, a real Radio Shack! Wish there were one near me.

[KGNLWMotoRadio]

Man I miss the REAL RadioShack's not the early-mid 2000's stuff where all they knew was cell phones! Thanks for the flashbacks @Kyle - AA0Z!

[Bill-HRT]

Kyle! Crazy you found that dinosaur, lol. I went to one all the time in Yorkville, IL. just a couple years ago. It was part of an Ace Hardware; small but very comprehensive. It still had the big, gray, parts drawers with resistors, capacitors, and maker bits and pieces. I wish they'd come back, lol. Nice video! See you out there. 73 de Bill

[ThomasKSWL]

The RS catalog was my Christmas catalog as a kid. I did cut my teeth on the CoCo 2. Saved up my money for ages and bought it on sale in middle school. It, paired with Family Computing magazine, and I was all set! I did work, briefly, at a RadioShack in Athens, OH, while my wife was doing her MFA. It was there that I met Mike (K8RAT) and it kicked off my ham radio journey. Thanks for the video, Kyle!

[SDJim]

I remember as a kid my dad bought me a trc432 base station. I used to love looking at all their cb's

[LdHrothgar]

My best story was when all the Radio Shacks were going out of business, I ran around to all the local ones and bought up a BUNCH of their stuff on deep discount. I'm sure they still made money on me on a few items but I have 18 gallon totes full of components and parts and bits and bobs.

[summerwindcharters]

Omg! I loved RS! I really miss them....😢

[RookieLock]

its been about 20 years since I've been in a radioshack as well.. I remember being 13-14 and going there with my mom and buying myself some speaker wire and speaker connector/terminals

[BLACKHEAT]

In the 80’s and 90’s if you were into anything electronic you were in RS. They usually had what you needed in stock, way before on line ordering was even thought of.
Miss them being everywhere 😢

[auto]

I don't have any RS stories but this did remind me that there is a RS about 25 miles away. Next time I am in that town I'll stop in to see what ham stuff they carry.

[hamradioonthego]

They are on line and attempting a comeback in brick and mortar. Picked up my technician guide with Gordon. Also my first HT, built my first kit all with RS.

[PaulGriffith]

The only suggestion I would have is to stock Arduino and single board computer related items, and some learn-to-solder type kits.
I liked the P-box kits in the 1970's. More recent history, I liked the Christmas toys.

[KCBKM]

What the heck! what worm hole back in time did you fall through! I miss Radio Shacks of yore.

[BryanDaniel]

when i was a teenager, i bought parts needed to build an alarm that sounded whenever the door to my bedroom was opened because my little sister kept going inside my bedroom when i wasn't in there. the alarm was meant to dissuade her grom going inside when i wasn't there. it worked! she stayed out of my room after i added the alarm.