[HN Gopher] The last RadioShack in Maryland is closing
___________________________________________________________________
The last RadioShack in Maryland is closing
Author : ivewonyoung
Score : 102 points
Date : 2025-04-15 18:00 UTC (23 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (marylandmatters.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (marylandmatters.org)
| codingdave wrote:
| If anyone is curious, there are definitely a few stores left with
| the RadioShack brand, though most if not all of them are
| independent of any centralized organization:
| https://www.radioshack.com/locations
| SoftTalker wrote:
| The ones I've seen sell mostly phones and toys now. They might
| have a very small selection of components in a corner.
| luma wrote:
| Phones are radios, it's right there in the name of the store.
| ks2048 wrote:
| There are also RadioShack stores in Guatemala, El Salvador,
| Honduras, and Nicaragua
|
| https://www.radioshackla.com/guatemala/storepickup/
| iancmceachern wrote:
| Bummer
| EA-3167 wrote:
| I've finally lived long enough to both remember when Radio Shack
| was mocked as low-quality, staffed by teens who knew nothing...
| and now to watch that same company given a hagiography.
|
| "It was the place to go if you needed..." sounds a lot better
| than, "It was often the only game in town, and woeful at that," I
| guess. I still remember them trying to sell Monster cables for
| amounts of money that were downright comical.
| a_shoeboy wrote:
| They were always terrible, but I have fond pre-teen memories of
| saving up my allowance to buy components off the pegboard in
| the back and then failing to make anything that worked with
| them.
| colecut wrote:
| Those were the days
| EA-3167 wrote:
| I also have fond memories of being young, but when I really
| stop and think about it, the key ingredient was *being
| young*.
| a_shoeboy wrote:
| I have plenty of unpleasant memories of being young. They
| don't involve RadioShack though.
| ryandrake wrote:
| The only things worthwhile to get at RadioShack were
| electronics project components, breadboards, soldering
| equipment, circuit board etching stuff and so on. Once they
| threw that stuff under the bus in order to sell cell phones
| and $9 toys, the place went downhill fast.
| tomwheeler wrote:
| I have fond memories of the manager letting me play with the
| computers for hours. Our Radio Shack was in the mall and I'd
| drop in and start writing programs on the TRS-80 display
| models while my parents were shopping.
|
| The manager not only didn't kick me out (like the manager of
| the bookstore always did if I looked at a book for more than
| five minutes), he'd come over and teach me some things when
| he wasn't busy.
| EA-3167 wrote:
| That sounds like a great example of the difference between
| people who love their job and see it as an opportunity to
| meet interesting people, and someone who hates their job
| and just grudgingly draws a paycheck.
| bsimpson wrote:
| I hated that an aux cable cost $30 (back when $30 was $50).
|
| I also loved that I knew exactly where to go to get an aux
| cable, or any other random component I might need.
| dole wrote:
| "You've got questions, we've got blank stares." 1994-1995
| alumnus
| tombert wrote:
| Sad to see that the last two in Orlando are dead now too.
|
| I miss Radio Shack, particularly when they were a bit more
| "component based". As a general electronics store, they were
| almost always strictly worse than any of the big box stores, but
| if you needed something like a resistor or individual LEDs, it
| was great to be able to be able to drive over there and find
| something. I live in NYC now, and fortunately we still have Micro
| Center which is still fun, though I do worry that it might go the
| way of Fry's Electronics soon enough.
|
| I understand it, it's really hard to compete with Amazon in
| today's environment, and I'm not judging anyone for using Amazon
| instead of buying from a store, I buy online too, and
| fundamentally these are for-profit businesses and I don't feel
| any obligation to give them charity.
|
| Still, seeing Radio Shack and Fry's dying does make me a little
| sad. When I first moved to Dallas, one of my favorite things to
| do on the weekend was go to Fry's, look around the store, and buy
| a cheap DVD of some anime that I hadn't heard of.
| Carrok wrote:
| > I'm not judging anyone for using Amazon instead of buying
| from a store
|
| Given Amazon's labor practices, maybe you should be.
| scarface_74 wrote:
| I'm always amused about people criticizing Amazon's labor
| practices since they are hiring people directly and based in
| the US and don't share the same concern about labor
| conditions in China where all of manufacturing happens and
| where RadioShack got its products
| Carrok wrote:
| > and don't share the same concern about labor conditions
| in China where all of manufacturing happens and where
| RadioShack got its products
|
| [Citation needed]
|
| We can care about both things.
| scarface_74 wrote:
| So exactly how buying from Radio Shack better than Amazon
| as far as labor practices downstream from their supply
| chain?
|
| How many people working in China would find it a dream to
| work in an Amazon warehouse? I know about Amazon
| practices second hand from my step son who has both
| worked in an Amazon warehouse and as a driver.
|
| There have been plenty of stories about small towns
| having labor shortages and having to increase wages to
| compete against Amazon warehouse pay because people would
| rather work there than at a fast food store, daycare,
| etc.
| Carrok wrote:
| So because we can't fix every problem, let's do nothing
| instead. Got it.
| scarface_74 wrote:
| Exactly what problem is being "fixed" by being concerned
| about Amazon workers and not mentioning the Chinese
| workers? Amazon pays its warehouse workers and drivers
| $20+ an hour. Radio Shack paid minimum wage + a 1-3%
| commission and a $5 spiff for signing customers up for a
| needless warranty. I mentioned earlier that I worked at
| RS back in the day.
| nandomrumber wrote:
| Here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43696747
|
| That's where you didn't _share_ the concern.
| pixl97 wrote:
| I mean, no not exactly.
|
| Amazon is just one of the nails in the coffin, and if it
| didn't exist there are still 50 others holding it shut.
|
| We've seen most retail stores fail to convert from a physical
| to mixed physical+online format.
|
| The number of items a successful electronics store needs is
| huge. The small mall format wasn't going to work.
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| > We've seen most retail stores fail to convert from a
| physical to mixed physical+online format.
|
| For a while, people were sure Barnes and Noble was doomed,
| but recently they've done a big turnaround, even opening
| new stores. Anecdotally, the ones I've been to in recent
| years do seem nicer and more attractive than previously.
| Maybe there's a lesson in how they were able to stay alive.
| TheOtherHobbes wrote:
| B&N hired James Daunt, former CEO of UK's successful
| Waterstones book stores. He de-corporatised the company,
| ripping out central control and management-by-metrics and
| giving managers and talented staff in each store the
| chance to build a more personal and local experience.
|
| It helps that books have become Veblen lifestyle
| collectibles for (mostly) younger women, and there are
| entire subcultures on social media dedicated to promoting
| the lifestyle.
| os2warpman wrote:
| What distinguishes how Amazon treats their employees from any
| other logistics/retail employer?
|
| Union busting? Piss bottles? Intrusive tracking with zero
| tolerance for shortfalls? Poor safety? Low pay?
|
| That's rampant everywhere.
|
| There are exceptions, but they make the rule and the
| exceptions only apply to direct employees so you have to dig,
| take time, do research, verify certifications/audits, spend
| more money, and wait longer, to truly avoid abusive
| companies.
|
| Shopping at unionized Costco doesn't count for shit. That
| gallon of ketchup you bought was made by someone pissing in a
| bottle on a dangerous production line.
|
| Please note: I'm not saying it's right. It is not right.
|
| What I'm saying is that people SEEM to be saying "Amazon
| sucks brah <they clap their hands together like they're
| knocking dust off> I don't use 'em" and then they're shopping
| at Target, where the distribution centers and stores are
| filled with poorly-paid workers pissing in bottles in between
| safety stand downs because an unsupervised and poorly-trained
| worker died crushed between a manlift and a wall:
| https://www.sungazette.com/uncategorized/2024/11/muncy-
| targe...
|
| If anyone wants to compete in the smug olympics, I'm the
| unholy lovechild of Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps when it
| comes to only buying union-made/public benefit
| corporation/domestic/local products.
|
| Simultaneously, I recognize that not everyone makes as much
| as I do so Walmart or Amazon may be their only option.
| ryandrake wrote:
| Sometimes you just want a resistor, but when you buy online,
| you generally have to buy them by the thousand, and then find a
| place to store the other 999 of them in your house somewhere.
| There is definitely room for local stores because the cost to
| ship something very small has a high floor.
| anyfoo wrote:
| I buy single components (usually two or three, to have spares
| for soldering etc.) that cost a few cents on Mouser all the
| time?
| hosh wrote:
| I remember a story I heard about Microcenter. It was started in
| my hometown (Columbus, OH) by a Radio Shack store manager. When
| PCs were coming out, the store manager kept putting those PCs
| up at the front of the store. The district manager would come
| back and make him put it in the back. This went on for a bit
| until the store manager quit, took his best sales guy, and
| opened up Microcenter at the mall next door, selling PCs. They
| eventually took over the entire mall, before moving to another
| part of town, and then expanding to other towns. By the time
| Radio Shack figured out where things were going, things were
| too late.
|
| I didn't know this years later, watching Young Sheldon ... that
| Incredible Universe was Tandy's attempt to get into the
| consumer electronics when Radio Shack's profit started falling,
| and that Tandy has a whole (very profitable) leather company.
| My SCA friends tend to know a lot more about Tandy Leather than
| they do about Radio Shack.
|
| Fry's Electronics closed here in the west part of Phoenix,
| several years ago. Their shelves were starting to get bare and
| were selling things from consignment. It took a while for them
| to die, and I finally found out why: they were having trouble
| getting credit to buy inventory.
| tombert wrote:
| > Fry's Electronics closed here in the west part of Phoenix,
| several years ago. Their shelves were starting to get bare
| and were selling things from consignment. It took a while for
| them to die, and I finally found out why: they were having
| trouble getting credit to buy inventory.
|
| In 2019, I was in San Jose for a business trip, and I was
| excited that there was a Fry's Electronics within walking
| distance of my hotel, so after work one day I walked over to
| it.
|
| It was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. I went
| in there, and it was almost completely empty. Very few
| workers, most of the shelves had absolutely nothing on them,
| there were barely any workers. The walls that usually had a
| bunch of TVs were completely bare, they managed to still have
| a full shelf of PlayStation Classics, and like one little
| basket of USB cables.
|
| I genuinely thought they might have forgotten to lock the
| front door after closing, and that I was accidentally
| trespassing, but nope: there was a person behind the register
| and I was able to buy a flash drive.
| CommieBobDole wrote:
| For what I can only assume are obscure financial reasons,
| Fry's kept their stores open for like a year after they'd
| effectively gone out of business.
| tombert wrote:
| Yeah that's what I figured, but it was really really
| weird when I was there. It is so odd to go to a giant
| decorated store in a nearly empty state. I don't think
| Backrooms was really a meme at that point, but that's the
| sort of vibe it gave me.
| flyinghamster wrote:
| > Fry's Electronics closed here in the west part of Phoenix,
| several years ago. Their shelves were starting to get bare
| and were selling things from consignment. It took a while for
| them to die, and I finally found out why: they were having
| trouble getting credit to buy inventory.
|
| I was going to do some of my 2019 Christmas shopping at the
| one and only Fry's in the Chicago area, but I walked inside
| and it looked like a bomb had gone off. Nothing was
| organized, lots of empty shelves, the cafe was closed, and I
| got a serious case of the heebie-jeebies and hightailed it
| out of there.
|
| Google Street View shows it as it was in August 2019. As far
| as I know, the building is empty now.
|
| And then there was TigerDirect, but that's a separate rant. I
| used to have three major computer shops within driving
| distance, but it's down to one now with MicroCenter.
| musicale wrote:
| > the store manager kept putting those PCs up at the front of
| the store. The district manager would come back and make him
| put it in the back
|
| It's interesting and sad that RadioShack somehow managed to
| succeed and fail at least twice in computing, first in the
| 8-bit microcomputer era and second in the Tandy PC era. It
| seems like they failed in the build-your-own-cheap-PC era as
| well.
| SJC_Hacker wrote:
| Its not just Amazon. Amazon's electronics catalog isn't even
| that great compared online retailers like Mouser, DigiKey and
| NewEgg for PC parts.
| anyfoo wrote:
| Yeah. I rarely, if ever, buy electronics components on
| Amazon. It's almost exclusively Mouser for me.
|
| It has the added advantage that I can export the order lists
| as XML, to keep a little bit of an inventory. I think every
| electronics hobbyist knows how you tend to very quickly
| forget what components that you have on hand, from the lowest
| resistor to entire FPGA dev boards.
| jcranmer wrote:
| > I live in NYC now, and fortunately we still have Micro Center
| which is still fun, though I do worry that it might go the way
| of Fry's Electronics soon enough.
|
| When Fry's died during (not because of) the pandemic, basically
| half the comments on articles were "oh no, what about Micro
| Center?" to which the immediate response was invariably
| "they're all completely packed" (partially due to the pandemic
| meaning everyone wanted better computer gear for WFH). During
| the height of the GPU shortage, it was often said that your
| best chance of getting a GPU was going to the nearest Micro
| Center. On all of my more recent trips, Micro Center has seemed
| to do pretty strong business.
|
| Somehow, Micro Center does seem to have found a strong niche
| that makes it survive as a brick-and-mortar store in an
| increasingly online store (hell, Micro Center's website is
| pretty notorious for looking like a 90's webstore). Part of
| that is probably knowledgeable salespeople (something Fry's was
| known for lacking). And I think there's also a savvy
| psychological rationale behind its expansion policy--its stores
| always come across as just a bit too small, and its locations
| too few, but the flip side is that you don't have cavernous
| spaces you need to fill (like Fry's did).
| soylentcola wrote:
| Can confirm. Finally got the GPU for my new PC in 2020 by
| (first) showing up at Microcenter on days when deliveries
| were expected, then eventually joining a discord where people
| posted daily updates when stock actually showed up (once I
| got tired of driving a half hour there and back a few times).
|
| In the end, a helpful discord member was already at the
| store, purchased a GPU for me, and held it until I could get
| there and buy it off him. Due to the shortage there was no
| risk of him stuck holding the "bag" but it was a huge favor
| from my end. Wasn't scalping but I still threw in an extra
| $20 just for helping out.
| MSFT_Edging wrote:
| The Microcenter near me always seems busy. There's always a
| steady flow of kids(I see more girls than boys interestingly)
| with a cart full of PC parts and a fat grin.
|
| I always check there first when I need some kit. I much
| rather drive over and get what I need same-day. Routers,
| adapters, deoxit, solder, PC parts, generic flash drives in
| bins at the checkout like they're candy.
|
| Their electronics section leaves something to be desired, but
| where else can I just grab a Pi zero w to-go for 10 bucks or
| some random sensor I've been meaning to play with to add on
| to whatever I was already buying. I cant even be mad at the
| markup because it's so valuable to have same-day.
|
| That and the old-school sticker from the salesmen for
| commission means they tend to actually be nerds looking to
| help and I'm always happy to slap the sticker on whatever I'm
| buying to give them a piece.
|
| If you have a Microcenter in your neighborhood, give them
| some business. I can only describe the feeling like you're a
| kid walking into Toys R Us again.
| BrenBarn wrote:
| > I understand it, it's really hard to compete with Amazon in
| today's environment, and I'm not judging anyone for using
| Amazon instead of buying from a store
|
| I am. :-)
|
| > I buy online too, and fundamentally these are for-profit
| businesses and I don't feel any obligation to give them
| charity.
|
| You can also judge people for prioritizing profit over all
| else.
|
| Even from a purely utilitarian-calculus perspective, it's a bit
| strange to me when people say "I wish we had X" but then "but I
| understand people need to make money". Like, if you wish you
| had X, then X has utility to you. Now, it may be that the
| amount you would pay for X is less than what was needed for X
| to survive, but that's not necessarily implied by the mere fact
| that X has to make money.
|
| And that's leaving out all the other positive and negative
| utilities that come from these various choices. Like living in
| a town where you can go to a place and have interactions with
| people, or even just browse unfamiliar and interesting
| products, instead of just a big warehouse.
|
| There isn't any reason not to judge people for doing things
| that you think make the world worse.
| tombert wrote:
| I'm not 100% sure what you're getting at.
|
| I didn't mind paying a bit more for stuff at Fry's because it
| was directly available and I liked walking around the store,
| but I certainly had no plans of buying a product I wasn't
| already going to buy just to patronize Fry's. These stores,
| while I do like them, are not charities. I don't want to
| needlessly give them money for stuff if I don't want it. I am
| not going to directly donate to them either.
|
| I agree that the experience does have some amount of value if
| I am reminiscing about these things, but fundamentally what
| gives me (and I suspect most people) the most value is simply
| lower prices, and I think these things are at odds.
|
| Big fun stores like Fry's have overhead, and they have to pay
| for that overhead somehow, meaning that it is rolled into the
| prices. Amazon is more boring, leading to lower prices.
| BrenBarn wrote:
| My point is essentially that there are enormous higher-
| order effects that are totally ignored by just focusing on
| the price of individual consumer transactions, and many of
| those higher-order effects are detrimental to our society.
| tombert wrote:
| Isn't this kind of a privileged perspective though? Not
| so much saying that something is lost, but judging people
| for shopping on Amazon (which you said in an earlier
| comment).
|
| It's easy to say something like "there's more to life
| than prices!!!!!" when you're a yuppie software person on
| Hacker News making six figures with full benefits, but a
| large percentage (most?) of the population isn't as
| fortunate. Something being five percent cheaper can be a
| meaningful difference to those people, and I certainly
| cannot blame someone in that situation for prioritizing
| their finances over some nebulous completely undefined
| and arbitrary "greater good" that you seem to be hinting
| at.
|
| Now, I _am_ one of those software people who (generally)
| makes plenty of money, so you could reasonably judge me
| for shopping on Amazon and focusing primarily on prices.
| I don 't know what to tell you; even if I make plenty of
| money, it's not _infinite_ money, I still have to
| prioritize how it 's spent, and again I just don't feel
| the need to try and optimize for some undefined greater
| good.
| macNchz wrote:
| > I live in NYC now, and fortunately we still have Micro Center
| which is still fun, though I do worry that it might go the way
| of Fry's Electronics soon enough.
|
| There are actually five in the metro area: Brooklyn, Queens,
| NJ, LI, and Yonkers. I live in biking distance of the Brooklyn
| store and drive past (stop at) the Yonkers one pretty
| frequently and find they're both usually quite busy, so
| hopefully they'll stick around.
|
| I make a point of trying to buy from them because I value
| having a place nearby that employs actual purchasing staff so I
| don't have to sort through junk and counterfeit products, and
| because I like having a place where I can deal in person, have
| things same day, return without shipping etc.
| tombert wrote:
| I have only been to the one in Brooklyn, and yeah usually
| there's a fair number of people in there.
|
| It's kind of a pain in the ass for me to get there from my
| house by train, and I don't have a car, but I always make a
| point to visit there when I'm in the area (usually because I
| need to go to Lowes and/or Harbor Freight).
|
| I agree that it's nice to not have to worry about
| counterfeits, and it's nice to be able to buy a
| microcontroller or a Raspberry Pi or something without have
| to wait for shipping.
| ghc wrote:
| The good news is Microcenter seems to have found a niche that
| keeps them relevant. My local branch is always packed with
| people trying out new mechanical keyboards, buying new computer
| cases or monitors, and buying hobby electronics kits.
|
| Hopefully tapping into the gamer & hobbyist markets keeps them
| afloat.
| MisterTea wrote:
| > I live in NYC now, and fortunately we still have Micro Center
| which is still fun, though I do worry that it might go the way
| of Fry's Electronics soon enough.
|
| Thank god for Micro Center. Bought a cheap first Gen
| Threadripper and a board for it, turns out the board needed a
| firmware update to get the CPU working. Called the Flushing
| Micro Center, asked if they could help me and They said "Sure
| thing! bring the CPU and board over, no cooler needed." Dropped
| it off and they called me back in three hours, board was ready.
| Amazon can't do that.
|
| I also love spending a bit of time walking the aisles and
| always stop by the clearance table to scrounge for cheap fun
| stuff.
| colecut wrote:
| My only retail job ever was at Radioshack back in 2009, I lasted
| about 2 months before landing an office IT job..
|
| It was barely a shell of its former self then.. the only training
| I remember was being told to upsell batteries with every
| transaction..
|
| I didn't make it long enough to be trained on selling cell phone
| plans which was the only way to make commission...
|
| I don't understand the mindset of someone willing to be sold a
| cellphone plan during a random radioshack visit enough to work
| with them =p
|
| Black Friday was during my short time there, I wasnt overly
| familiar with our inventory or locations of things, and fielding
| questions like "What gift should I get my grandson?"
|
| I was anxious pretty much every minute that I worked there. May I
| never experience retail again.
| scarface_74 wrote:
| My first job was also at RadioShack but back in 1995. We were
| all focused on batteries, adapters and consumer electronics.
| and cell phones were starting to be a big deal as carriers
| started subsidizing phones.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| I remember the "Battery Club" you could get one free battery
| a month I think. They gave you a little card and would punch
| a hole in it for every battery you got. My dad would stop in
| every month to get his free battery. I don't recall if any
| purchase was required but I don't think so.
| michaelcampbell wrote:
| It wasn't; at least for me as a teenager in the 80's. Could
| have been a per-store policy, but the one in the Lockport
| suburb of Chicago and the one in the Winter Garden suburb
| of Orlando didn't.
| typhonic wrote:
| In the 1960's, my brother and I would walk about three
| miles (over Red Mountain in Birmingham AL) to the closest
| Radio Shack. We would each get a free battery using our
| cards and usually we didn't buy anything. Eventually we
| became pretty good customers.
| khedoros1 wrote:
| 2009 is around the last time that I remember going into a Radio
| Shack, with the intention of buying a Nintendo DS and a game. I
| watched the guy go to the back to get a baggie containing the
| system, manual, accessories, etc, and stuff it into the box. He
| went back looking for the game (which was similarly absent from
| the case, along with the manual), came out empty handed.
|
| "Well, couldn't find the game. So just the system?"
|
| "Umm...no. I'll just buy the system down the street, since I'm
| going to have to go there to buy a game anyhow."
|
| I have great memories of buying electronic components, kits to
| work on with my grandfather, and such. They were pretty sad by
| the end though. No decent kits, no little drawers of
| components.
| soylentcola wrote:
| Oh yeah, it was awful by then. At my store you made essentially
| minimum wage plus a sort of commission for addons/upsales (as
| long as they were over a certain percentage of your total
| sales) and flat bonuses for new cell contracts, phone/accessory
| sales.
|
| Theoretically it could add up to a passable paycheck for
| retail, but they had it set up so that only a few senior staff
| ever got enough hours/good shifts where you could conceivably
| hit the addon percentages needed to qualify for commissions. So
| the only way to make any money was to sell cell plans, phones,
| and accessories. The whole store was totally focused on hawking
| cell plans.
|
| Then we had to go to monthly meetings an hour out of town on
| our own dime. That's where they talked at us about the company
| and how cool and great it was. Such a shitty place to work.
| IIRC there was a dedicated web forum called "RadioShackSucks"
| or something like that where staff complained to each other.
| kbolino wrote:
| Also anecdotal, but it seems that RadioShack in that era was a
| particularly awful place to work. I applied around that time
| (might have been that exact year, or else it was 07-08). I was
| weeded out by the online personality test. My dad was friends
| with the store manager and he said "your son doesn't really
| have what we're looking for". Mind you, this would have been my
| 3rd or 4th retail job by that point, and I had references. I
| knew they did commission sales, and I had no experience in
| that, but I also wasn't the kind of person to upsell crap the
| customer didn't need. I'm glad I didn't get the job.
| myvoiceismypass wrote:
| Does anyone have any recommendations for niche physical shops
| that are still open in the Bay Area that are Radio Shack esque,
| even if small?
| ramenbytes wrote:
| Urban Ore in Berkeley. It's a salvage shop with an electronics
| area. Scored some vintage Tek scopes there.
| myvoiceismypass wrote:
| Oh! I have been there but I was only focused on house /
| remodeling type stuff, thanks for the recommendation!
| jwagenet wrote:
| If you mean components, I think jameco and anchor electronics
| are still open. Unfortunately Halted and Weird Stuff are gone.
| epsilonaurigae wrote:
| Anchor is the only one left.
|
| Fond memories rifling through HSC back in my Cisco days :(
|
| American Science and Surplus .. I think ... still exists in
| Chicago.
| wmlavender wrote:
| There is also Electronics Plus in San Rafael. It is an old
| school electronics parts store, complete with the ability to
| sell you cable by the foot.
| wg0 wrote:
| What are the reasons for decline? Online commerce? Or shift in
| hacker culture?
| sokoloff wrote:
| Selling one transistor for $1.99 when Aliexpress will sell you
| 100 for $1.02 is a big part of it.
| pixl97 wrote:
| Expensive mall based rents in general and large amounts of
| company debt.
|
| Which falls apart when you have competitive online shopping.
|
| Which falls apart further when you buy a giant bag of what you
| need online cheaper.
| RiverCrochet wrote:
| - The first thing the great Internet consumed in the 90's (and
| earlier, really) was technical occupations and hobbies - people
| affiliated with those were likely amongst the first to spend a
| lot of time online and want to do things online like buy stuff.
|
| - Anything small and where part numbers matter greatly is going
| to have advantages when sold and bought online. You'll be able
| to type in a part number and get a straight answer on cost and
| availability. This can also happen if a store has a good
| customer service representative but that stopped being a thing
| somewhere between 9/11 and the GFC of 2008 - also around the
| time Walmart had to raise it's starting wage to $10/hr. just to
| get people in the door.
|
| - Less people are repairing electronics and less electronics
| are repairable. The way consumer electronics are built are
| different now than say in the 80's or 90's - components are
| often surface mount and often things are just a
| CPU/MCU+RAM+flash on a board with a bit of surrounding surface
| mount stuff.
|
| - A lot of what used to be consumer electronics exists on
| everyone's smartphones. No more clock radios, walkmans,
| boomboxes, tape decks, VCRs, DVD/CD players, landline phones,
| etc. I would bet Bluetooth speakers have essentially replaced
| home stereos for many. One thing Radio Shack did sell was media
| and all forms of converter cables for home electronics and
| there just isn't a great need for that anymore with how
| everyone interacts with media now. Desktop PCs are niche now,
| non-gamer non-business laptops are disposable. Many just use
| their ISP router for WiFi. Home assistant stuff had to take on
| a friendlier, non-hacker image to gain acceptance.
| musicale wrote:
| > A lot of what used to be consumer electronics exists on
| everyone's smartphones. No more clock radios, walkmans,
| boomboxes, tape decks, VCRs, DVD/CD players, landline phones,
| etc. I would bet Bluetooth speakers have essentially replaced
| home stereos for many.
|
| I still seem to use a lot of electronics: bluetooth and wired
| speakers, headphones and earphones, power strips and
| adapters, USB cables and gadgets, SSD enclosures, phone
| accessories, game systems, all sorts of computers,
| tablet/e-reader, monitors for computing/gaming/video, musical
| instruments and amplifiers, functional and decorative
| lighting, chargers for everything, networking/WiFi stuff,
| automatic cookers, etc. RadioShack and Fry's used to sell
| those things.
|
| It's a shame that the maker/DIY electronics revival turned
| out to have limited appeal, because I'd like to visit a store
| that had Raspberry Pi and other microcontroller boards,
| components for real-world interfaces and robotics, 3D
| printers and supplies, etc.
|
| In addition to the electronics components aisles at Fry's, I
| miss their PC component section. And their convenient return
| policy. I'm surprised that there aren't more shops for PC
| customization. I also wish there were a shop where you could
| put together your own custom mechanical keyboard, picking out
| switches, keycaps, etc.
| reverendsteveii wrote:
| "The Last RadioShack In Maryland" is my new favorite Tom Waits
| song
| bbeonx wrote:
| Followed closely by "The Breadboard Has Been Drinking"
| bee_rider wrote:
| What's he ProtoTyping in theeerreee? What the hell is he
| prototyping in there?
| mavilia wrote:
| Weird to see my home county pop up on HN. As soon as I saw
| RadioShack + Maryland I immediately pictured exactly where this
| was on rt 4. I have a distinct memory of going to this very store
| to buy a PS2 internet adapter and an ethernet cable back in the
| early 2000s. It was also my go to for anything electronics
| related.
|
| It was always nice to visit back home (including this year) and
| see that this store was still around. It will certainly be missed
| :(
| jasonmarks_ wrote:
| > Weird to see my home county pop up on HN
|
| I second this sentiment. It is sorta bizarre, there is not
| really a tech scene in the area except for a few niche roles in
| support of Pax River Naval Base (I'm also operating my SaaS
| down here https://weatherthetrip.com/download :peace_sign:). I
| remember visiting this store back in the 2000's and was
| surprised when I saw it still in business a few months back.
| neilv wrote:
| > _She said that since she didn't go through training, Edward's
| father said she couldn't officially be a repair tech. But through
| the years, she honed her skills._
|
| > _Before he passed away, she said he was incredibly impressed
| with her growth._
|
| > _"Last year, (Michael King) informed me, 'I can't give you the
| title because you didn't go to college, but you do a heck of a
| good job repairing things and fixing it and taking care of
| people,'" Henning said._
|
| Maybe the writers ended the piece like they did because they
| wanted the "good job repairing things and fixing it and taking
| care of people" note.
|
| But I also heard echoes of systemic sexism or classism.
|
| And also, really, someone being snubbed by _Radio Shack_ , of all
| things?
|
| Radio Shack was where kids, and anyone else without credentials,
| could go and get the Forrest Mims electronics book, and some
| tools and parts, and... _just do things_.
|
| Classist gatekeeping by affluent Stanford bros at Google is one
| thing, because they've always been in an echo chamber. But a
| Radio Shack franchise should've known better.
| WorldPeas wrote:
| Forrest mims, now that's a blast from the past. I've gotta see
| if I still have that book
| SnoJohn wrote:
| Good. If I can get there this weekend I can get my last free
| battery from the battery club.
| WorldPeas wrote:
| They will be missed. I still have my multimeter, solder, and
| alarm clock from there. I wish home hardware stores had a
| component cabinet like RS did, always good for an impulse buy
| project. Still remember a few that I did out of make magazine
| with their parts.
| bsimpson wrote:
| I smile whenever I see the RadioShack logo on my solder and
| soldering iron.
| evanmoran wrote:
| I recently took my son on a "GameStop run" to sell our super old
| PS4. He's 7 and never been to a store with video games before. So
| we jumped in the car and arrived at the store about 30 min north
| of Seattle just as the sun was setting. In the window were two
| kids in Taekwondo uniforms. Both were super nice to a younger kid
| and immediately let him play and gave him pro tips on how to do
| slide turns. We then sold the console for $50 and he immediately
| wanted to use the money to buy a giant Eevee squishmallow that
| was next to the checkout line. What can you do? :) Now he tells
| me the story as "remember that time we bought my Eevee and those
| karate kids gave me a quarter".
|
| Having real places is still awesome. I know the finances don't
| really scale, but shoutout to Lynnwood GameStop for keeping it
| real out there.
|
| And RIP RadioShack. You always had a hard drive when we needed
| one to reinstall windows during a lan party. _holds up a glass_
| dylan604 wrote:
| There are many retail places that I know that are just unable
| to keep up with ever increasing rent. There is only so much a
| retailer can do with the prices of their products before they
| lose customers. Losing customers only worsens the pressure on
| paying rent.
|
| Consumers say they lament the loss of brick and mortar stores,
| yet their actions of only buying online shows that isn't really
| that big of a loss to them. It's such a weird situation for a
| retailer. I don't envy their situation.
| Shog9 wrote:
| Even before "online" was an option, folks were fleeing high
| prices in high rent districts for cheaper goods on the
| outskirts. Heck, I remember folks banding together to get in
| on bulk buys decades ago, when that was neither convenient
| nor quick. High rent will kill retail in an area no matter
| what; if online also gets you faster and easier, then who
| would choose anything else?
| dylan604 wrote:
| What it suggest to me is that delivery fees are too cheap.
| Amazon subsidizing shipping to the point customers expect
| same-day as an option on something as insignificant than it
| was just a simple button click. No other thought given to
| the actual cost. Where going to the store probably means
| putting on clothes, driving somewhere, dealing with other
| humans, before driving back. The original online purchase
| meant possibly saving taxes, but now everyone collects
| taxes so no savings there. If there was a tipping point of
| being able to save brick&mortar, COVID pushed it over to
| the non-recoverable side.
| dehrmann wrote:
| > Amazon subsidizing shipping
|
| Do they still do this?
| dylan604 wrote:
| Do, did, does it matter. The sheeple are now hooked on
| the free shipping, and are now too addicted for how it
| happened to matter.
| dehrmann wrote:
| It matters. If it's not subsidized, it's not actually
| free, it's just baked into the price, and a large player
| like Walmart might be able to compete.
| Shog9 wrote:
| Which is possibly the bigger deal. Every time I shop at a
| specialty provider I end up frustrated by their lack of
| clarity around shipping costs - many will actually force
| you to go through the entire order process before giving
| you a shipping estimate, complete with collecting contact
| information.
|
| Makes it very tedious to price-shop.
|
| I will actually go out of my way to search for some
| suppliers on Amazon, eBay, Walmart, even Tictok before
| dealing with buying directly, just so I can rule them out
| if they're gonna pull a "$10 + $60 s&h" trick.
|
| And... Again, this isn't new; pretty sure Ronco was doing
| this on TV before the Web.
| dylan604 wrote:
| And the old 10 CDs for $0.01 requiring a minimum full
| price purchase of some sort of subscription that is
| difficult to cancel has been around long before modern
| SaaS platforms.
|
| The old "which long distance carrier do you want?" with
| an "I don't care" response resulted in you receiving the
| most expensive long distance plan from a company called
| "I Don't Care".
|
| Just because scams/shaddy practices existed in the days
| of yore does not make them any more acceptable today.
| Shog9 wrote:
| Which is why companies that tell you what you'll pay up-
| front (Amazon, eBay) have made life hard for
| "traditional" sellers. Your sheep are tired of being
| fleeced.
| Gothmog69 wrote:
| What I find wild is at least at my walmart they pay the
| employees to shop for customers for their delivery
| service. Like how can that be cost effective? Walmart
| used to be a leader in tech in the 90s now it's applying
| ancient techniques to modern problems.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| On a per-customer basis the cost of last-mile shipping is
| just the cost of the truck driving from the prior
| delivery to your house. That's probably less than the
| cost of you driving to a store and back.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Conveniently ignoring the cost from the distro warehouse
| to the neighborhood and the return leg back to the
| warehouse. sure, it can be split amongst deliveries on
| the route, but it is not free
| bluGill wrote:
| Retail is just a warehouse you walk into: they pay the
| same costs
| foobarchu wrote:
| Retail does not need to employ the fleet of drivers going
| door to door with those packages. The drivers need paid,
| they need fuel, the trucks need maintenance. Those
| externalities are made way more clear when someone has to
| get themselves to a store to pick up the item instead.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| There was a local camera shop in my town, this was back in
| the 1980s. I went in to look at some cameras and the
| salesman mentioned how they were having problems because
| people would come in and look at the cameras and get advice
| and then go order them from 47th Street Photo or Adorama or
| one of the other big mail-order places that advertised in
| photography magazines.
|
| Not a new phenomenon.
| dylan604 wrote:
| I purchased my telescope and mount from a "local" store.
| It was >30 miles away in the metroplex, but it was a
| physical store with human employees. I went in with an
| idea of what I wanted to buy, but the person there asked
| me a whole slew of questions to ensure I was going to be
| happy with the purchase. They then also knew that my
| selected scope and selected mount would need an
| additional adapter plate that I would not have known
| about if I bought the items online. When I went to pick
| it up, they opened the boxes with me and helped me
| assemble the whole thing with a quick walk through on
| operating the mount. The only thing missing from this
| white glove service were the literal white gloves.
|
| A year later, I wanted to buy a scope as a guide scope,
| and they had sadly closed. Telescopes are clearly a niche
| market, and even though it was a proper store the market
| just wasn't there to sustain the rent. There are plenty
| of places to go online to get similar advice, but nothing
| online can replace the experience of having someone right
| there showing something to you.
|
| Sadly, the longer the internet exists, the less I'm
| liking it. It is soulless and just sucks the soul out of
| humanity more than it adds.
| wrp wrote:
| I remember that from the 1970s, too. I think photo gear
| might have been a unique case because the market was big
| enough to support those huge mailorder shops in NYC, and
| most items were expensive enough that the markup of
| buying at a local shop really hurt. As a young, cash-
| strapped, photography enthusiast, I felt guilty about
| buying all my major gear online, but I could bring myself
| to purchase only small accessories from the (really nice)
| people at the local camera shop.
| glimshe wrote:
| If retail is dying, how can rents keep going up?
| dylan604 wrote:
| The landlords do not care what type of tenants are renting
| (for the most part). They just rent to a new retail
| customer that thinks they can survive. I'm sure there's a 6
| degrees to Spirit Halloween to compete with Bacon.
| bluGill wrote:
| Retail is not dieing. Spetiality retail is dieing though.
| werdnapk wrote:
| Specialty retail is what I generally buy from brick and
| mortar as it's almost always cheaper in-store compared to
| what I find online.
| bluGill wrote:
| IF you can find the store at all maybe. Your city might
| not even have one store depending on the specialty.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| Tax crap. An empty rental lot can be used to offset taxes
| from a more profitable location of the same owner - you
| just use virtual or real expenses such as mortgage
| payments.
|
| The ultra rich are, once again, externalizing costs to
| society (because a run-down mall is a blight that takes
| down the value of everything around it) while taking and
| gobbling their profits.
|
| The other alternative is that instead of niche specialty
| dealerships, you got national or even international chains
| moving in, that sell cheap-ass clothes from Bangladesh or
| other sweatshops in masses.
| darknavi wrote:
| I have the fondest teenage memories waiting for Halo midnight
| releases.
|
| For Halo 3 we had LAN parties in the back of pick-up trucks
| after rushing down to GameCrazy (Hollywood Video's game store
| chain which was attached on the side) after middle school in
| Canyon Park.
|
| Halo Reach was the Lynnwood GameStop after a friend begged his
| parents to let him stay out late that night.
|
| So many friends and memories. I miss those energetic meet-ups!
| alexpotato wrote:
| Had a similar experience going to a GameStop with my son to fix
| a gift card that wasn't working online.
|
| Store was great and the young men who worked there were
|
| - polite
|
| - helpful
|
| - persistent in calling HQ store help line to get the card
| working
|
| I even asked them if there was a way I could give feedback on
| the store and mention them specifically. They said "Given how
| the company is doing, that would be great but it won't matter
| but thank you."
|
| Which prompted another thought:
|
| Retail was a great first job for kids in high school. It taught
| you customer service, sales, responsibility etc. Barrier to
| entry was also low in case you came from a lower socioeconomic
| tier and were looking to gain experience for your resume etc.
|
| Feels like we lost a lot by killing off physical locations on
| multiple fronts.
| magnusss wrote:
| Yes, Radio Shack was often the only place you could find the odd
| resistor, vacuum tube (for an audiophile-grade amp, what else?),
| or coax signal splitter. But they always asked for your phone
| number on checkout -- why? It's not like they ever called you or
| anything (thankfully).
| tomwheeler wrote:
| Obviously so they could track your purchases. Thankfully, I
| learned a valuable lesson as a kid when my parents told them
| "None of your business."
|
| Too bad this question has become so commonplace that few people
| seem to challenge it anymore.
| bsimpson wrote:
| In NYC, even if you walk in to a restaurant with open tables,
| they'll often insist on taking your number before you can be
| seated. It goes through a platform called Resy.
| soylentcola wrote:
| And then (at least around here) they often make you scan a
| QR code in order to see the menu. It's often not a direct
| link to the menu, but rather a third party site or a link
| shortener that tracks traffic for marketing data.
| bsimpson wrote:
| Oh shit - I never thought about the privacy ramifications
| about the death of paper menus.
|
| I get that it's more eco friendly, and that it allows
| each dish to have more space for a photo and detailed
| description; but I hate the experience of staring at my
| phone to try to pick a meal.
| tomwheeler wrote:
| It happened to me last week at a small Thai restaurant in
| Las Vegas.
| michaelcampbell wrote:
| Unless they're going to text me when my table is ready, I
| give them my first phone # that I grew up with.
| magnusss wrote:
| Yes, but they asked even if you were paying with a credit
| card! I guess it was "separate systems."
| karpatic wrote:
| I remember fondly the talks I had with strangers about their
| hobbies and learning about technology while I was employed there.
| I remember seeing this specific stores sales numbers and thinking
| to myself that their daily sales were close to our monthly. Our
| store closed shortly after.
| marcusb wrote:
| The last one in my area shut down in 2014/2015. I stopped by and
| bought several large shopping bags worth of components, all for
| around $75. Now, I don't think there's _anywhere_ locally to buy
| electronic components, except for industrial capacitors and
| things like that at trade supply shops.
| beloch wrote:
| There's something of a parallel history for Radioshack up here in
| Canada.
|
| Radioshack's were everywhere once upon a time. As things became
| less repairable and less repaired, the components racks gradually
| shrank and the stores pivoted to selling a variety of other
| electronic junk: video games, cell phones, toys, etc.. Their
| prices were consistently higher than the competition and what
| they stocked was frequently of low quality.
|
| In the early 2000's the Canadian franchises were bought out, and
| re-branded as "The Source". I asked a store manager why they'd
| turned their back on such a well recognized brand for "The
| Source", and he told me that the Radioshack brand was indeed well
| known, but associated with junk and high prices. I couldn't argue
| with that. They kept selling the same stuff at the same prices
| and quickly earned the same reputation Radioshack had. By this
| point the components racks were long gone and they were no longer
| even a good place to find adapters, cables, etc.. Somehow, "The
| Source" stores continued to persist.
|
| Last year, they closed a significant chunk of their stores and
| re-branded again as "Best Buy Express". I haven't bothered to go
| into one since this happened but, if they're selling Best Buy's
| stock at Best Buy prices, it should be a distinct improvement
| despite the loss of identity.
|
| Back when Radioshack re-branded to "The Source" I felt like some
| piece of my childhood had been lost, but Radioshack had already
| ceased to be Radioshack by that point, in Canada at least. "The
| Source" was always one of the stores you just walked past. I
| doubt anyone will miss them.
| 0xbadcafebee wrote:
| The truest form of hacking was when you could fuck with public
| utilities using parts you got at Radio Shack. I wish I still had
| my DTMF dialer, it was so cool. Maybe kids today are buying parts
| to build GSM base stations. Maybe they'll bring back pirate
| radio, once all the analog radio bands have been replaced with
| digital. I just hope they get to experience that thrill and
| wonder at the power that hidden knowledge brings.
| panzagl wrote:
| The local Hobbytowns had an aisle of RadioShack branded
| components- really basic stuff you might use for an elementary
| school science fair. Of course one of the stores closed last
| year, and the other is 90% R/C cars, so even that couldn't last.
| bityard wrote:
| I was under the impression that RadioShack went bankrupt a few
| years back? Were the existing stores just "squatting" on the
| name?
|
| Sometimes these kinds of things escape my notice, but I recall
| RadioShack because the minute I heard they were shutting down, I
| hopped in the car to get to the one nearest me and loaded up two
| shopping bags of electronics components, switches, banana jacks,
| oddball high-wattage resistors, etc. Because it's RadioShack,
| even at 75% off the prices were only "meh" but it's all stuff I
| was more or less guaranteed to use eventually in projects or
| repairs.
|
| Speaking of, I really hate buying one-off components from Amazon.
| I needed a panel-mount BNC jack the other day and literally the
| best option was $7 for 10 of them. So effectively I paid $7 for
| one (which is way too much) and now I have 9 that will be sold
| for pennies at my estate sale a few decades from now.
|
| And now the tariffs are basically going to shut down my usage of
| AliExpress for bulk orders of cheap components, I'm pretty sure
| I'm just going to end up dropping electronics as a hobby
| altogether in the long run.
| MisterTea wrote:
| > I hopped in the car to get to the one nearest me and loaded
| up two shopping bags of electronics components, switches,
| banana jacks, oddball high-wattage resistors, etc.
|
| The real bargains were the component cabinets themselves. Those
| big commercial chest of drawers retail for thousands of
| dollars. My co-worker bought the entire aisle of drawers after
| they were empty of components for I think a hundred bucks.
| Organized his entire basement shop into them.
| bityard wrote:
| I tried to get those too, but they were already marked as
| "sold" by the time I got there. :(
| mycall wrote:
| I found a RadioShack open in Mexico City last week, along with
| Sears and Woolworths. I thought they were all gone too.
| michaelcampbell wrote:
| I'm within months of my 60's, have been a developer since 1984,
| and Radio Shack is where it started. My family moved when I was
| 1/2 way through high school, of course in the Summer. So I had no
| network of friends, and wandered into a Radio Shack with the
| ubiquitous TRS-80 on display. Over the course of the summer, the
| 1 employee there and I became friends enough to where he'd boot
| up the BASIC interpreter, and let me type in programs.
|
| That was my start. Went on to consume as much info as I could;
| lots of it from BYTE magazine, took all the programming classes I
| was allowed in my final 2 years of high school, continued to get
| a CS degree, and have been programming ever since.
|
| But RS was the genesis.
| donatj wrote:
| A number of years ago, maybe six or seven, I was staying at a
| cabin in the middle of nowhere northern Minnesota. Well over an
| hours drive away from any major town or retailer.
|
| My intentions were to work from the cabin for the week in peace
| and quiet. Have some nice secluded time to relax. The rub was
| that the WiFi password simply didn't work. The owner of the cabin
| was being no help, said the password on the note was correct and
| I could otherwise plug my laptop in to Ethernet directly. My
| MacBook had no Ethernet port.
|
| In the small nearby town there was a RadioShack, and inside I
| find a single make of USB Ethernet adapter. I buy it, and take it
| back to the cabin. It doesn't work with my MacBook. Activity
| lights don't come on. I don't know if it was a driver issue or
| what. It came with a CD, but that's no help on a relatively
| recent MacBook.
|
| I needed to get work done, and in pure frustration end up
| resetting the firmware on the wireless router using the button on
| the back and reconfiguring it with their hard wired Xbox One's
| built in browser. This infuriated the owner of the cabin as it
| knocked out their temperature and water sensors, which I ended up
| setting back up for them. I was however able to get work done.
| Probably not what I should have done but it worked.
|
| On my way out of town, I swung back by the RadioShack to return
| the Ethernet adapter. I explain to the guy behind the counter
| that it had not worked with my MacBook and the guy proceeds to
| argue with me that it's Mac compatible and accuses me of buying
| it, using it, and returning it. I have to argue with the guy for
| what seemed like several minutes, and recounted him the story of
| resetting the WiFi. I've never had such a hostile return process
| in all my life.
|
| Anyway, that's the last time I ever visited a RadioShack.
| markbnj wrote:
| Lots of memories from my own childhood and my kids'. My dad took
| me on my first visit to a Detroit-area store in the mid-60's.
| Used to love just walking around and checking out the shelves.
| Sort of a Fry's vibe but there was one in nearly every decent-
| sized town. The oldest piece of running tech currently in my
| house is a 20 year-old Realistic 4-port gigabit switch that
| connects my office machines to the router in the family room :).
| phendrenad2 wrote:
| It's too bad that Radio Shack misunderstood the threat posed by
| Amazon. To get a bit ahead of myself, Best Buy did NOT
| misunderstand the threat, and they're still around. Anyway, Radio
| Shack went all-in on impulse buys. They focused on putting stores
| in shopping malls near entrances/exits, and filled their store
| window with silly gadgets like plasma balls and robots. They also
| tried to become a cellphone store, for some reason. Best Buy
| survived by picking the worst locations. In industrial parks,
| near highways, land nobody else wanted. They properly realized
| that Amazon's weakness was their two-day shipping. If you need
| something _right now_ , you're willing to drive 30min-1hr to get
| it.
|
| A closer competitor to Radio Shack was Fry's Electronics, which
| also located their stores on non-prime real estate, but their
| infamously bad customer service [1], embezzlement losses, and
| poor inventory choices doomed them.
|
| [1] - shout out to the Fry's employee at the Freemont location
| who got in a huffy fit when I decided that the price for an
| oscilloscope probe was too high, and tried to argue with me and
| say he couldn't remove the item when I wouldn't insert my card to
| pay for it. Really A+ attitude there bud.
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