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February 17, 2015
Inside RadioShack's Slow-Motion Collapse
None of them thought that RadioShack’s ruin was inevitable. When asked to pinpoint when everything went wrong, they fell into two main groups: those who argue that it happened right after they left, and those who say the damage had already been done when they arrived. - Bloomberg Business
Posted by gerardvanderleun at February 17, 2015 7:48 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
It was always puzzling to me how they stayed open. They were annoying to shop with, rarely had what I wanted, never seemed to have many customers, and the prices weren't great.
I guess people who knew nothing about electronics needed a place to go.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://americandigest.org/sidelines/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 17, 2015 9:05 AM
From the article: "The few customers who did show up tended to be annoyed. Hill says a sizable portion were sullen hardware enthusiasts who blamed salesclerks like him for the emptiness of the stores. Others had reached an impasse in their technological lives. “They come in with a problem that Best Buy can’t solve,” says Hill. “They’re on their last straw.”"
Posted by: Van der Leun at February 17, 2015 9:18 AM
In the sixties they sold radio/electronic parts. In the eighties they offered toys and junk.
Being an electronics engineering student in the sixties I would purchase items such as, resistors, capacitors, circuit boards and the like for school projects. When they went into the toy business they lost me as a customer.
Posted by: Terry at February 17, 2015 9:40 AM
I went in there the last time about 2 years ago to get a switch for a device I was fixing and again I left empty handed and disappointed like the 10 times prior. I almost lived in those places when I was a kid and now they have been mostly replaced by the web. They used to be unique but they evolved into nothingness. Good riddance.
Anybody remember the Lafayette stores of the 60's and 70's? They were like a Radio Shack but even more so, very technical.
Posted by: ghostsniper at February 17, 2015 9:59 AM
We used to have two stores in our smallish southern city that far exceeded RS in electronics parts, tools etc. inventory. Both are now long gone. One closed in the late '70s, the other in the late 80s or early 90s. Our local owners had sense enough to see the writing on the wall and cashed out before letting the market bankrupt them.
Posted by: BillH at February 17, 2015 2:14 PM
Radio Shack's demise is a product of the times. Everything today is made to be tossed. Printed circuits, actually chips that are embedded. One cannot repair them as if today's school wizards could. (some can)
Posted by: Vermont Woodchuck at February 17, 2015 4:24 PM
Radio Shack peaked with the " build a television in your own home for a fraction of the cost" projects. Nowadays I doubt if I could gather the parts necessary to put a timer together.
Posted by: chasmatic at February 18, 2015 7:15 AM