• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Tandy... when did they go wrong?

I used to love Radio Shack, or Tandy (as it was known in the UK). Back in the days of the TRS-80, the local Tandy store was alive. People playing on the computers (staff as well as customers), people talking about the computers. All that was great, I could spend hours in there. But the main reason I loved Tandy was the staff, they knew things... lots of things... about electronics and computers. If you had a question, about anything electrical, they could either help you directly or they would point you in the right direction, going so far as to phone a competitor shop to find out if they had the answer to your needs. They were great.

Time passes and things change. I now live in Australia, where I believe Dick Smith took over Tandy/Radio Shack. I needed a lapel mic some time ago, so went straight to the local Dick Smith's. The first sales person I asked had absolutely no idea what a lapel mic was. It took three members of staff to finally work out that what I wanted was a microphone that clipped on to your lapel, three members of staff and half an hour!
 
The ones near me seem to specialize in selling cheap kids toys, cell phone plans, iPods and cheap stereo equipment. There's still some parts on the wall racks, but not like there used to be years ago. You can still order a lot of things, but that does you no good when you have something disassembled on your work bench and don't want it to be sitting there until RS gets their next delivery.
 
I used to work at Tandy/Radio Shack in Footscray, Victoria, Australia in the very early 80's (part time work experience whilst at school).

I don't believe they went wrong as such, or do even today, the problem is that their key markets of; amateur radio, CB radios, car hifi, microcomputers, scanners or electronics in general etc are not what they were up until the early to mid nineties.

People now spend their time on the Net using appliance like computer you don't have to build yourself. The also communicate on the Net instead of via amateur or CB radio (generally speaking).

Radio Shack is trying to become the place for cell phones, however it's probably too little too late.

Perhaps they should have done a deal with their historical rival Apple at some point and made their stores into Apple dealers?

Perhaps they should bring out a TRS-80 range running Android? Perhaps with Model I,II,III,IV and CoCo emulators included?

Either a Model I look alike or a modern notebook etc like the new Google Chrome OS machine recently launched.

Tandy pulled out of Australia a few years ago, however I still always hit "the shack" when I'm stateside. I can highly recommend the store at the The Ala Moana mall in Honolulu.

http://www.alamoanacenter.com/Stores/Radio-Shack
 
I can remember when Radio Shack's big competition were places like Olson Electronics, Burstein-Applebee, Lafayette--even Allied ran a retail store on N. Western Ave. in Chicago. Well, Olson, BA, Lafayette are gone; Allied is strictly a wholesale distributor, like another of the oldies, Newark--and Radio Shack is still around, selling retail.

That's pretty remakable in and of itself. Right now, I'm listening to BBC World Service on my Realistic "Voice of the World" multiband radio that I bought maybe 20 years ago. But not on SW--rather it serves as a plain old FM radio now--picking up the signal from an FM transmitter on my mail server.
 
Ahhh my fond memories of radio shack. I actually worked for them in the late 90s for a few years, when they were going towards a more audio/video/cell phone market. For the time they paid pretty well, and had tests that would unlock upper levels of pay. So say you took 12 of the tests and passed, you get somewhere round 3 dollars more an hr, on top of commissions on phones. =)

I remember sitting at the terminal on slow nights, going through old catalogs and looking up sku's for clearance items, and snatching up all kinds of stuff cheap. Once an item was clearance, the price each month would drop till it was like 20% tops of its original value. I would hoarde items I wanted in the stock room till it hit a price I felt comfortable with. Of the many things I purchased, one purchase sticks out most, it was the IBM Aptiva ViaVoice Activehome kit, which I loved because the modules were compatible with old radio shack plug and power interfaces, like one on my CoCo. :)

I think i still have my Scotty radio shack batteries shirt. LOL! More Power Scotty!

Ahhh fond memories of "the shack"
 
Surprisingly the Radio Shack near me offers an alright selection of parts. I was especially surprised when I saw that they have DB-25 connectors in stock. Although I have to say that it is a shadow of its former self even compared to a handful of years ago.

One thing that always annoyed me about Radio Shack was when the sales people would insist on helping you even if you knew what part you needed and where it was at.
 
I havn't visited them in a while, but they do come in handy for connectors, cables, heat sink goo, CRT adjustement tools etc. Stuff you need in a hurry or can't find anywhere else quickly.
 
Interestingly they started selling microcontrollers, parallax and arduino stuff too. Small selection but neat that you can find it locally.
 
There is a great Radio Shack in downtown Pittsburgh that has a really good supply of various parts and is ramping up on their maker stuff (mostly arduino and the like right now, but still..)

I never knew until reading this that Optimus was a Tandy / Radio Shack made brand...I had an Optimus amp in my car when I was 16 (in '94 rocking the lady gettin 1984 Shit Brown Pontiac 1000....). Good little amp back then..

Anyway, we still have a bunch of RS that I can get to fairly quickly for those "need it now" parts. But internet prices just kill retail and in this economic age, most of us end up being forced into finding the "deal". I know I am, with an at-home wife and a 2 year old boy!
 
These days, alas, Radio Shack's motto seems to be "You have questions, we have blank stares" :(
 
Back
Top