Radio Shack 19-210 Mag Mount Antenna

[Eclipse]

That's right boys, 20 years on card, just got opened and tossed in my trunk.




For you kids in the front row, this was from back when you had to drive to something called a "mall"
and browse physical objects hanging on hooks before purchasing them and bringing them home with you.

Yes, it's as barbaric as it sounds.

(My apologies.  The "mall" is that big empty building in the center of your town that has the weird pastel
colored furniture and the 12 iphone case kiosks.)

The rest of us can "pour one out" for our nametag-wearing, free-battery-card pushing homies...

[MSG Mac]

Your're old, did you get the SeniorCitizen discount,  automatically or did you have to ask for it?

[N6RVT]

The Red radio shack batteries - that lasted about as long as it took you to read this thread.

Or the green ones that lasted twice as long!

[baronet68]

The Red radio shack batteries - that lasted about as long as it took you to read this thread.

Or the green ones that lasted twice as long!

I miss the Radio Shack Free Battery Club. 


* Not my card, just an image from the internet

[NIN]

And now you know why RadioShack is basically out of business

[etodd]

And now you know why RadioShack is basically out of business

Their heyday, a few decades ago was when electronics were still discrete components. And the tinkerers like me could actually get an amplifier , radio, etc. working again by replacing a transistor or two, resistor, cap, etc.  Could build things from scratch, using discrete components so you could actually see how it all worked. Now electronics are disposable.  Nothing but chips on boards, no fun.

The section of the store that carried component level stuff was large back then, but slowly dwindled over time, to nothing.

[Holding Pattern]

And now you know why RadioShack is basically out of business

Bad management and attempting to be a cellphone store while forgetting to cater to the base that built them until they were in their last 2 years of life, at which point it was too late to bring back?

Then again, take solace, they have zombified again!

Some private equity group threw a laughable $15 million dollar bid at them and won a few years back at auction, and now they live once more!

https://www.radioshack.com/

[Eclipse]

As both a customer, and for awhile a part-time employee, the writing was on the wall back to the late 90's -
RS was the Apple of its time, first to market with a lot of things, PCs, especially, but often proprietary and
too expensive.  Boutique experiences are not free.

We'd get people who came in and wasted our time with detailed questions, then go next door
to Monkey Wards (Electric Avenue), or across the lot to CompUSA, and while a Tandy 1000TX was my first PC,
RS was never able to keep up with the fast-paced changes of that era.

Christmas would bring a flood of low-dollar junk toys, and too many part-timers eating the spiffs, etc.

As to the component people, the rehtoric on that was that "parts keep this business alive".  Sounded good at the monthly all-hands,
but I never really saw it, and those who were still buying, either died with the store, or now get it all from the Mothership, next day,
and without getting hassled for their phone number (because the Mothership already knows it, and lots more). 

I remember their last-ditch was 3d Printing and how they were going to to be the center of that. 

[NIN]

And now you know why RadioShack is basically out of business

Their heyday, a few decades ago was when electronics were still discrete components. And the tinkerers like me could actually get an amplifier , radio, etc. working again by replacing a transistor or two, resistor, cap, etc.  Could build things from scratch, using discrete components so you could actually see how it all worked. Now electronics are disposable.  Nothing but chips on boards, no fun.

The section of the store that carried component level stuff was large back then, but slowly dwindled over time, to nothing.

When I moved to New England, a buddy turned me on to this place: http://www.youdoitelectronics.com/

Even though its > 1 hr from my house, its worth the trip.  Its like Radio Shack & Heathkit's big football playing brother.

[Slim]

I loved RS back in the day, I was in the local store so much that the clerks all knew my name.  My first PC was a Tandy 386 with monitor and dot matrix printer, $1000 out the door.  I had several Realistic scanners and CB radios, one of my first radios for CAP was their failed foray into the amateur market, and they were my go to for adapters, wiring and connectors, antennas, you name it.  In fact, I think I bought my first cell phone (Tandy bag phone) from them too in the mid 90s.  Rarely was I in there just to browse around, the staff knew if I walked through door, I was there for something specific. 

But, as time went on, and their focus changed, I found myself avoiding them and their cell phone pitch.  The newer staff was less and less knowledgeable about the products and inventory, and only focused on one thing.  The last time my shadow darkened a RS door, I was going in to get a 12 volt Y adapter to power my Garmin GPS and cell phone charger.  I said to my then girlfriend as we walked in "Wanna bet that they ask me about my cell phone?"  Sure enough, went in, got what I was after, and as I'm checking out, the clerk asked me if I was happy with my cell phone provider.

"Radio Shack:  you've got questions?  We got cell phones."

My go to for that stuff lately has been Amazon and/or eBay.

[abdsp51]

My first computer at home was a Tandy Color Computer 2 hooked up to an old B&W TV.  I used to love going to radio shack as a kid especially when I got into CB's they had everything needed to get started.  Sadly they went downhill and wasn't the same over the years.  I had an ex girlfriend who used to work there for a couple of years.  I think the last time I was in one was in 2013 or maybe 2014 when I installed a CB in my Jeep needed an SWR meter and bought the last one. 

[Eclipse]

"Wanna bet that they ask me about my cell phone?"  Sure enough, went in, got what I was after, and as I'm checking out, the clerk asked me if I was happy with my cell phone provider.

That echoes my last experience as well.  I have no idea why anyone would buy a cell phone or service from Radio Shack,
or for that matter anywhere but direct from the carrier, either online or at a corporate store (vs. kiosk).

The other night #2 son dragged me to Apple to get a watch, and I realized I literally could not remember the last time I'd
even been >in< that mall.

Some of you watching at home may have seen the story of the guy who drove into Woodfield through a Sears store last week:
https://abc7chicago.com/suspect-in-schaumburg-mall-crash-taken-to-mental-health-facility-police/5557562/

I was like "Oh man, THAT'S INCREDIBLE!"

"That somebody would drive into a mall like that?"

"No, that there's still a Sears store in Woodfield!"

[NIN]

Our local mall is trying to reinvent itself and failing.

Bet a CAP squadron could meet there for a song. Wide hallways for drill, an empty food court for formation, plenty of storage space and places to park the van in a wide open parking lot.

That open atrium in the center might be tall enough for AE projects like fizzy rockets.

[baronet68]

Our local mall is trying to reinvent itself and failing.

And yet, I'll bet there's a GNC store and a Bath & Body Works in that mall... those stores seem to be in EVERY dead mall in America.   

[NIN]

Our local mall is trying to reinvent itself and failing.

And yet, I'll bet there's a GNC store and a Bath & Body Works in that mall... those stores seem to be in EVERY dead mall in America.   

I refer to it as the "dirt mall." (bonus points if you get the reference)

Sears & JC Penny are just hanging on (both locally and nationally).  The Circuit City and BonTon closed years ago, becoming, recently a trampoline park and charter school respectively. A dinner theater joint opened in the old Coldwater Creek store. The Old Navy closed up and its an indoor inflatables place you can rent for a birthday party.  The last of the food court, the local "sandwich shoppe that nobody has heard of before" finally closed, joining Sbarro, Burger King, the ice cream/pretzel joint and the "separate establishment for mid-mall snacking" Dunkin' Donuts. FYE, Olympia Sports, Radio Shack, Ritz Camera, Game Stop, Yankee Candle, Ambercrombie & Fitch, Lane Bryant, and pretty much everybody of national importance has closed up. Hot Topic had a "store closing" sale when I was there last.  There is a Footlocker & Verizon Store, Spencers, aprobably a half-dozen "local stores" like Nepalese clothing or vape shops, beauty salons (ie. if you need some threading done, its your place), and the "screen protector kiosk" actually moved into a real storefront because the rent was probably exactly the same.

And you're right: GNC and Bath & Body Works.  They're like the nuclear cockroaches of the post-apocalyptic mall landscape.

[Slim]

I refer to it as the "dirt mall." (bonus points if you get the reference)

Wouldn't any "Second suitor"?

[NIN]

Say, would you like a chocolate covered pretzel?