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My Time at Radio Shack

I almost worked for a Radio Shack Computer Center..

I went in for an interview at a Radio Shack in the mid 80's somewhere and while waiting for the store manager, the manager of the Computer Center part that just opened came up to me and took me to his office instead and interviewed me. He openly admitted he knew more about running a store then the computers and after talking to me decided he wanted me and hired me on the spot.. And here comes the almost part... I came down with the flu bad and could not start the job, after few days I finally called and said he may as well find somebody else because I had no idea how long I'd be down sick.
 
Interesting discussion, thanks all for sharing. My brother and a good friend worked for them for a while. I started out after high school at a local computer shop, the owners both once worked for RS too...one was even a regional manager as I recall, and at some point had hired the other guy to work at RS. I remember spending lots of time drooling over all the cool stuff in the store and in the catalog. All long gone now of course...and the local store has closed...

As for the 5000MC, it was definitely not a Compaq clone. I just recently finished reading the book "Open: How Compaq Ended IBM's PC Domination and Helped Invent Modern Computing"...a very interesting story of the history of Compaq and the "industry standard". Compaq, along with a little help from other clone manufacturers, created the EISA bus to compete against MCA, which was IBM's attempt to lock up the industry and make it proprietary again. Tandy and some others made MCA machines, but had to license the technology from IBM. Compaq went up against IBM and managed to win...thankfully.

Wesley
 
LOL Wesley..... I still remember my 1st day at the Shack, looking around at all the cool stuff, I remember exactly what I said just below my breath... I work here! I am sure of it, the Tandy collection I have is because of my years at RS. Its not just the computers, I have many other items from Radio shack. I need to go threw them all and add them to my museum. Cool Stuff like Robie sr. (The Robot), Robie Jr., Robie bank, other items to many to list like remote control cars & trucks, talking watches, etc. etc. etc.
 
I started working at Radio Shack in 1979, under the table at 14 years old.
It was at Yonge and bloor in Toronto. I cleaned displays, helped customers, and tried to fix toys.
I got a couple of Brocken T.E.A.M.M.A.T.E. COMPUTER toys to fix and got to keep one.

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It helped launch my interest in computers, from there I went to a home built cosmic elf.

I worked at radio shack a few more times, rexdale mall, as well as few others. One near Jane and Wilson I think, and one other in Etobicoke.
 
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