I used to buy components from RadioShack for my projects and solder them together. But the days of thru-hole are gone and I take the time to order a custom surface-mount board now. I think that surface-mount was really the end of RadioShack, not cell phones. Cell phones were more a child of surface-mount components.
Lol. Yes, they were called that around here, too. One of my friends had one, and even at the time it was considered crap and we always made fun of it.
But, yes, I miss the old Shack too. It’s too bad there’s never been anything like it as a replacement. Maybe the business model just doesn’t make sense anymore.
Personally, I don’t think the old Radio Shack could survive in today’s world. While there may have been some poor management, the fact is, if there was a market for it, someone else would bring it about. We used to go there a lot, more for car stuff than anything else. Switches, fuses, wiring, harnesses and the like that you could only find there. But things were manufactured in a way back then in which lots of people doing lots of different things could benefit from a place like Radio Shack.
That’s not the world we live in now. Small logic boards, soldered joints almost everywhere. Most things, including expensive items like cell phones, appliances, etc., are considered by most to be ‘disposable’ once they no longer work. The vast majority of the population has no notion of ‘keeping things working as long as you can.’ For most it’s continually upgrade to the biggest and best. I grew up with my dad teaching me how to solder and fix things. Now I have teenagers of my own and the fact is, while one of them knows how to solder, the others have no interest, and there’s not that many things that are nearly as “fixable” as they were in years past.
Add to that the online world of ordering and now things like Amazon Prime and cheap options from China, and couple that with a change in warehousing and storage to Just-in-Time stocking, and suddenly there’s simply no market for a place that carried virtually everything electronic you could want.
It takes real dedicated hobbyists and aficionados to be able to continue those skills today, and that’s a dwindling # in my opinion.
I still have my Silver Minimus 7’s around here somewhere. Just the other day I came across them boxed up. Just looked again and can’t find them. They are awesome speakers, take a lot of power to run them as they are acoustic suspension type (Sealed enclosure)
Takes a lot of power to move the cone as it has to compress the air inside. That negative feedback reduces distortion at the expense of efficiency. That’s one reason they sound so good.
I miss Radio Shack too, but NOT the stuff they sold just before their demise. Example: Small flashlight and tripod.
They tried to sell these for $19.97, at the end they were 90% off, 2 bucks
Not even worth that.
Radio Shack always got a good buck for their stuff. Way back when, that worked because their stuff couldn’t be found anywhere else. CB radios, shortwave radios, TV antennas, electronic tools and components and batteries.
But then as the geeky stuff went mainstream and other stores started carrying it, they lost their way.
Lol, I didn’t expect a trip down memory lane when I posted this, though it has been fun reading. I really just wanted some Solder Wick. 
Heath!!! I made a lot of their stuff! All the way up to a color TV.
In 1974 I ordered a Heathkit digital clock that ran off of 12V. I installed in the area reserved for the in dash clock in by brand new 1974 Chevy Van. I used a Polaroid filter in front of the Amber Florescent display. It was sweet.
One day as I was pumping gas, a passerby asked me for the time. I looked into the cab and then told him it was “twelve forty seven”
He looked at me kinda funny, and I realized, that back then, NOBODY had digital clocks, and NOBODY would have said the time was “twelve forty seven”
I felt very PROUD 
Here in Australia we had a chain store called Tandy that sold Radio Shack and Realistic goods.
Remember the TRS-80 computer ?
Then we had a guy called Dick Smith who launched even better stores. After he sold out they went downhill too.
Today we are fortunate to have “Jaycar” stores and a few specialists like Cutter electronics.
Jaycar vary in quality, but there’s a good one a few kilometres from me. Very like the old Tandy/Radio Shack.
Trays of resistors, coils of various wire, strangely alluring geeky kits to kill flies or track satellites or something obscure. etc. etc.
Suncoaster, around here there is still a Tandy Leather Company.
America’s tech cities still have Fry’s huge stores although maybe not for long.
We have Maplin in the UK. It is exactly what RS could have become. I’m not sure how long Maplin will last either. No idea if they are doing well or close to administration.
the trash-80 
I had a model 1
I’ve been to Fry’s numerous times, both in Phoenix and Indianapolis. They stay afloat with their appliances, computer tech, tv’s, etc.
IMO, Fry’s is nothing like the old Radio Shacks.
Same here! Here’s the only 2 pictures I took from a Heathkit ultrasonic cleaner I built from the mid 70’s. It still works!
Aah yes the Trash-80 !! Spent countless hours in the highschool computer lab debugging basic programs.
Anyone remember these god-awful things?… I cringe to think of the read write speeds we had to endure back then.
I still got my Model III, and last I checked, it still worked!
I swapped the battleship-gray case for the nice off-white one from their DT-1 terminal, plopped a 220V fan under the floppies to act as an air-mover (gentle breeze vs noisy wind, just enough to keep them cool without blowing dust up into the innards), and swapped in a medium-decay amber-phosphor CRT instead of the headache-inducing stock gray-phosphor CRT that came-with.
Gawd, I still remember Langley-St.Clair as the source of the CRT! Somewhere in Manhattan on the side-streets in the west 20s or so.
Oh, and let’s not forget the “hi-rez” graphics board!
Good times, good times… I was modding stuff even back then.
Was also nice to know the crowd who’d crack and pir8 every single TRS80 game that came out, too. :smiling_imp:
Tandy was great back in the 90’s… Lots of kits, components etc…
Used to ask parents to drive me there every weekend!
(Was it Chadstone SC back then? I forget…)
DSE was good too, until they opened up their power houses and started going down the Mobile/TV/HiFi/White goods path…
I was lucky, lived 5 min from RPG (Radio Parts Group) growing up, one of the better hobbyist geared stores out there.
Jaycar is OK, but as you mentioned, not what they were 5 years ago…
As sad as it is, I source most of my components these days from overseas.
European countries for high end audio crossover components, china for the rest.
Who knows what it will look like here in 10 years! 
Lot’s of memories of Radioshack and not much to add. My dad worked at Dorn’s TV & Radio Repair in the 1950’s as a mobile TV & radio repairman and for extra money repaired TV’s and radios at night.
He would take me with him when he went to our local Radioshack to buy his tubes and supplies. All the salesmen knew him by name and they were all really good guys and really nice to me. It was like going into a friendly store out of Andy Griffith’s Mayberry and everyone really knew their stuff.
Good memories but a rapidly changing world and mangement not being able to keep up and China eventually spelled doom.
I was going to mention this. Didn’t Tandy leathercraft buy them in the 1980’s or was it the other way around? I know that’s where the name Tandy on some of their products came from.
Lots of dreams there in the 60’s as a kid but their stuff in the 70’s became kind of a joke .I remember they tried to get into the stereo market and fail miserably .Lots of their speakers were junk . All they really had was exposure from their catalog. someone should have put them out of their misery 15 years ago . when they shifted towards cell phones it was all over ….solder they did have fresh solder …and solder wick 
When you run out of solder wick try old coax shield and some flux .
The second link in my post above explained it. Tandy Leather bought Radio Shack in 1963.
That Tandy Leather Company store in Berlin CT used to be a combination Tandy Leather - Radio Shack. When Radio Shack went belly up, the Leather store expanded into the rest of the store.
Radio Shack will always be a part of my childhood memories. We always called it Shi# Shack, for whatever reason. It was in all the malls growing up and a place to go to see and hear the latest electronics. Eventually I realized they were rebranding stereo equipment, but it was convenient for electrical parts. Then the internet! Now I can get my parts directly from China. Nonetheless, here’s one of my more memorable acquisitions (for free) from Radio Shack.
It’s a 5 D battery incandescent flashlight. I believe it was a ploy to buy batteries from them.
