I would much rather fondly remember the demise of Citibank, Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and the federal reserve bank.

Loved that place for 150-1 kits, solar cells, strobe lights on and on and on.

We had a TRS-80 Model III. It was sort of a POS for a Z80 computer, but it worked. I coded the quadratic equation on it many times, including the check for sqrt(-1)!

I bought my brother floor standing Realistic speakers in high school. They were great. He had them until he was like 30!. The Realistic Mach One speakers remain desirable. Parts Express still sells replacement drivers.

Recently, I grabbed a power MOSFET from there to replace the fried one my car's variable speed fan drive. ~$2.29 vs ~$400 for the OEM part!

So sorry they lost their way. Seems to me they couldn't bridge the gap from component-oriented electronics 70's to the present modular Ardiuno, Rapsberry PI robotics, etc. Their sales force will have a real problem with that transition now. They should not get into a fight with consumer electronics retailers. This is saturated. They should drop one level lower to the educational and DIY crowd and stay there. Perhaps those DIY guys with initiative just buy stuff online.

Radio Shack is/was a term used by "Ham" radio operators. The Shack was where they assembled their electronic equipment and used their skills to talk around the world.
Cell phones and other means of communication put the amateur radio operator out of business and they no longer needed to buy parts and I believe this help further the impending death of Radio Shack, Inc.. So 88's, from; dit da da, da dit dit dit, dit dit dit da da, da dit da, dit, dit dit da dit. 73's. CQ.

An excellent article.

I remember Radio Shack for its Science Fair department, where you could build simple breadboarded circuits and learn how circuits worked. You could even buy their 100-in-1 project set, with instructions on 100 different products with permanentlyl mounted components. The only other company offering comparable products was the Heath Company (Heathkit).

Does no one build their own circuits anymore? Is that the problem--no more use for analog circuits?

This goes against independence of spirit. And it bespeaks a woeful failure in American education. Where are the students who used to flock to Radio Shack to buy the kits to build those projects I mentioned? Nowadays, no one even takes an interest in it.

John Galt wouldn't let Radio Shack die. By his inspiration, the next generation of achievers would also flock to it to buy the latest components. Why, they probably would derive from his lecture series on theoretical physics. I could see him producing a line of parts for anything from transister radios to his trademark electrostatic motor.

A part of life in the Gulch we didn't think about, and now are about to lose.

Am I the only one that remembers Radio Shack selling kits for sewing together a pair of moccasins?
The brand was TANDY, and they had lots of DIY kits.

I guess that this generation doesn't build things...just consumes things. We are a disposable age, and old farts like me are next!

Sorry to see another landmark brand go.

Another household name bites the dust in Obama's rip-roaring economy. Sorry, I misspoke. In Obama's rip-off economy.

Ten or so years ago I thought to do some of Christmas shopping at the local Radio Shack that I would shop at for my own sake from time to time.
When I arrived, all I saw was an empty building with the Radio Shack sign removed. Another business has moved in since.
I know where another Radio Shack is but at an inconvenient location in my west of Birmingham satellite cities area.
Not local at all, providing it is still there.
Oh, it's also in a neighborhood where you should pack a pistol.

Here in Europe there is a movement against Modern football. Soccer to other folks. Anyway, seems that big business is forcing the fans to conform to the new family footballers. The movement is sort of like leaving the new clubs and going on their won. Sounds like AS?

Tandy is the parent company, and they had 3 divisions, RS was one, Tandy Leather was another and I forget what the third was. I worked for RS and they had a change in their beliefs at the end of the 80's. They did not want to sell items like CB's, ham radios, scanners, geek stuff, they wanted to sell more TV's and cell phones. They hated us techs and wanted salesmen who could sell but knew nothing of how anything worked. Makes me happy to see them go down the drain. been a long time coming.

Another sad loss. Growing up I thought Radio Shack was cool with all the electronic gadgets. True it was a place where nerds would hang out. My first purchase was a set of realistic walkie talkies. I hate to see companies like this die. It reminds me that I am getting older.

The likely reason DIY electronics are fading like this is because electronics manufacturers (not to mention automakers) want to limit the ability to make and fix their products to overpaid, expensive professionals, to protect their trade secrets. It's likely that at least some repairmen, at least those not working for chain establishments, are worth the money, most charge more than they're worth, in the name of "quality." Real quality means doing the job with as little expense as possible, and keeping your products completely user-serviceable.

Sad, worked there and then managed a store before Charles Tandy died. left when he passed, the shyster were into destroying the company even then.

I am in the tiny crowd who still have been buying
things from RS every month or so. . I need a part
for an experiment and sometimes they have it -- or
something close enough. . so I will resort to online
searches. . bye-bye, RS;;; I will miss you. -- j

You have to see my notes as I I did the dot dash thing. I knew it would get a quick response. I am not active now but I do miss ham alot. Thanks.

It's a conspiracy by TPTB so no one can fix anything!

given the lack of do it yourself type people these days I am surprised that they didn't go out of business in the late 1980's.

Over the years I have used Radio Shack often however brick and mortar businesses are facing huge challenges in rent utilities insurance and payroll. The internet is probably the biggest factor. I am old enough to recall Lafeyett electronics as well. I will surely miss them when they are gone.

Radio Shack was always ridiculously overpriced, even on the TRS-80 (Trash 80) computer I used in my junior year of high school.

I worked for The Shack for over five years back in the 80s. Retail tech support and teaching at computer stores in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. I still own working examples of most of their computer system lines. Left the firm when everything went IBM PC compatible and I didn't want to lower my standards.

Some of you good friends may like www.hamradio.com/ if I have this link wrong just do a search of ham radio. Who knows we may be able to replicate Galt's "Force Field"!

"it's likely that my local Radio Shack will become a Sprint store sometime soon. "
They became a cellphone store over ten years ago.

I worked there in college, and they were already getting away from carrying parts in favor of carrying consumer electronics that they put one of their name brands on and sold for high prices. A few years ago they began carrying Arduino, but they caught on to that trend too late.

I went there a year or two ago to see if i could get a small decoupling capacitor, a part that's typically 40 thousandths of an inch long. All they had were huge ceramics the size of a quarter, which were already old school when I first started playing with electronics at age 10.

It's not that I'm mad at them, but I cannot understand these decisions. Who uses huge ceramic throughmount caps from the 70s? Why not sell existing brands that people recognize instead of developing your own brand and damaging it by putting on various products? Their internal training and their ads for the public betray a contempt for their customer. They had running jokes about why anyone would buy their stuff.