Federated
The Wiz
Sam Goody
CompUSA
Circuit City
Adrays
The Good Guys Inc
Crazy Eddie's
Incredible Universe
Computer City
Tweeter

paid triple what the item was selling for some where else. They are like the 7-11 of electronic stores.

and the sales practices that got promoted were very predatory.

RS was always the source of last resort. I'd only go there when haste was needed. I found very quickly that the active components were highly over rated and even when that was accounted for, you could expect a short term failure of something operating at half its stated ratings.
They actually did and probably do sell some good consumer electronics. But it is still a crapshoot.

I regret the fact that they have to, supposedly, close stores to remain profitable because it will eliminate access for people who need parts now.
The number of local electronics parts supply houses is probably a tenth of what it was in the 70's. Back then I could have an account with 10 different outlets and pick up my parts in 10 minutes. Today I've got one choice and have to drive half an hour to get there.
To make matters worse today, people don't fix things. With SMT and VLSI you don't fix things on your workbench. You have to rely on the manufacturers diagnostic and repair facility.

Instead, they'd make you give them your email, and after the item was sent to a warehouse for checking, they'd email you a credit/gift code - this was standard operating procedure for years. I always thought that was rude, but put up with it because of the convenience of their locations for me.

Only recently have they started to refund you at the store, or let you exchange it for another.

These service gaffes are the kinds of things that happen when you let Wall Street run your shop.

was under about $5. The clerk went around asking other clerks in the store if they had sold me the item. Like I was some kind of cheat coming in. And the manager was there, and I had bought several things for an antenna system the week before costing several hundred dollars in a pinch, I never used RS.

I was furious and made it well know in a loud voice. They gave me my few dollars back, as leaving I told them in a loud voice to go fuck them themselves, there are plenty of places to buy shit, one doesn't need to go to Radio Shack to buy shit!

I was really pissed off. What a creepy place! Years later it still pisses me off. The other thing about RS that was creepy was how they used to want your name, address and phone number even for cash items, like even dollar items. As far as I'm concerned RS can go totally out of business. They are crap for customer service, even worse than Circuit City used to be when around.

I've kind of had the same thought. If it weren't for the fact that they are literally across the street, I'd go the extra block to Best Buy.

and changed that which was fine.

They used to hire qualified sales people back in the day, folks who knew electronics, as in how to use a soldering iron and build circuit boards. Their computers were BIG back in the early to mid 80s. (I owned a TRS-3 with dual disk drives and 48K RAM) and their computer stores staffed with people who knew computers, and not "Best Buy" knew them, but "Apple Genius on steroids" knew them.

But, they didn't make the transition to "IBM compatible" systems until very late in the game, and never got their footing again. They have been stumbling toward a face plant since the 90s and I have marveled they last this long.

These days, they don't even try to get you to sign up for their battery club.

The mistreatment of the employees... I had to check EVERY paycheck with a fine toothed comb. Some bounced. Some were late.

They didn't give a shit about employees.

compliments of Steven Colbert.....

RadioShack needs to be a place you go to get technology you can't get anywhere else in the area at prices competitive with online. They're running a place that looks very much like the Home Entertainment department at Target or Walmart.

Showcase their products with an onsite ordering and pickup system.

I would expect to see Amazon offering guaranteed same-day delivery for most of their products across most of the US before I see them operating bricks and mortar outlets.

Perhaps I am wrong but I would be very surprised.

Just that its something that would be a good idea.

Best Buy is where you go to fiddle with stuff before you order it online for thirty bucks less with free 2-Day shipping from Amazon Prime.

and they didn't ask for my phone number...I felt like I was WAY overcharged, though.

It seems all the electronic parts stores are closing shop.
Several independent ones I know are gone now.

fly to the Czech Republic, where in my town, we still have three independent electronics store.

Hell, they even still sell vacuum tubes!!

I think RS lost it's focus years ago, they now seem like a cell phone store.

They used to be big in scanners, CBs and stereo equipment, but when those product lines dried up so to speak they didn't know where to go.

I still shop at RS for electronic odds and ends, I recently bought a nice little am/fm radio with a speaker, something that's pretty hard to find believe it or not.

I really miss their catelogs, when I was young I would pick one up every year.

they didn't have a LOT of the common values, or even a slot for them. Complete waste of time.

I hated being pressed to buy a new cellphone every time I got a bit of wire or a knob for a pot.

For components now I use Jameco or Ramsey, and SparkFun or Adafruit for Arduino stuff or larger projects. If I need something quickly it's not too long a drive to the Fry's.

and I did buy parts from SparkFun.
I think RS actually did start selling some Arduino parts but they were overpriced.
Also Ebay a good choice because you can get parts from China for a fraction of the normal cost.
I picked up a real time clock module for about 2$. It works fine.

Ordering online isn't too bad except you have to wait for the parts to be delivered instead of picking them up right away.

Radio shack's selection of that stuff has been pretty poor for quite a while now. We have a local brick and mortar in tulsa that has a lot of that stuff, resistors and capacitors galore, but we still have to go online to get good audio grade transistors, opamps etc.

but I've always wondered when this was going to happen.

sold radio, antennas and electronic thing-a-ma-jigs. if you were working on a project or installing a car radio... I would go in and they would say no we don't sell that stull, my answer was well you did. Now I check e-bay or vintage electronic places. Stinks when you have to wait a month for an item to be sent from China to adapt a radio wire harness.

from RS that is anything more than a simple tool, adapter, something like that. I've been in electronics for years, most of their stuff we use to laugh at.

I also find the staff in RS 'sometimes' rather augmentative and often clueless. Like they had better plans for their lives but hard luck ended them up working in RS. I'm surprised they have survived this long, better stores than RS have faded away.