"Radio Shack" as a brand name has been long since dead in Canada due to some legal obscurities. All of our Radio Shack stores have been known as "The Source" for years now. :P

They've been dead for a number of years now IMHO. The old Radio Shack that me and my father used to like is indeed long gone, and nothing can bring it back; the current owners might as well change the name and hope that it renews interest somehow 😐

They've been "circling the drain" for years now - every so often it makes it into the news that they're going to die this week, and thus far they haven't. I remember one journalist comparing them to a cockroach: no matter how bad it gets, they refuse to die. I'm not saying I entirely agree with that - I don't think physical retail mass-chain electronics dealers have a lot of a future, and eventually they're all going to go the way of CompUSA unless they can create a good reason for a customer to spend more for the same product vs buying it online or from mail-order.

Having said that, honestly I don't think anything of value would be lost if Radio Shack of today went out of business - the era of them selling unique products, having a wide range of products, etc was done years and years ago.

Amazon / eBay and so on have made traditional niche retail obsolete. Mass market retail will survive and even thrive: clothing / shoes / furniture.

Radio shack is no fun to go into anymore.
Its like a mini-BestBuy now with nothing good, and clerks\salesmen that won't leave you alone.

Went in today to look for a couple of these: they had no idea what I was talking about. 😀

Actually, the funny thing is that what was once Radio Shack here in Canada and is now "The Source" is not the same kind of store you guys have in the US. They're more like little mom-and-pop electronic stores, typically staffed by only one to three people at a time, carrying a small variety of everything along with basic electronics parts, repair parts, cables and such. Since they're not run by the Radio Shack corporation I imagine they'll survive this event.

Here in Australia, Radio Shack went by their original name Tandy, and the stores were named as such.

They were swallowed up by Woolworths along with Dick Smith Electronics, and slowly killed off. Pity.

We just have Jaycar now.

SquallStrife wrote:

Here in Australia, Radio Shack went by their original name Tandy, and the stores were named as such.

They were swallowed up by Woolworths along with Dick Smith Electronics, and slowly killed off. Pity.

We just have Jaycar now.

At my high school one of the computer instructors was also an employee of Radio Shack. Not the stores, the corporate offices. He trained other teachers to be able to teach what he did where the computers were concerned. Naturally, we had all TRS-80 model III and IV computers so that was my first major exposure to computing.

Proper Radio shack has been dead for at least 20 years.
There are a number of reasons. Outsourcing the electronics industry has taken away the appeal of the hobby as well as access to the physical parts. China subsidises their exports and the shipping costs. Most Western countries do not tax the imports due to free trade agreements, and finally Radioshack is greedy and prices their cables and small accessories 10 times what they cost online.

Gemini000 wrote:

"Radio Shack" as a brand name has been long since dead in Canada due to some legal obscurities. All of our Radio Shack stores have been known as "The Source" for years now. 😜

There are way, way too many of them and I am surprised there hasn't been a huge die-off yet. In the meantime it makes it easy to snag video games when they go on clearance.

Jorpho wrote:

Gemini000 wrote:

"Radio Shack" as a brand name has been long since dead in Canada due to some legal obscurities. All of our Radio Shack stores have been known as "The Source" for years now. 😜

There are way, way too many of them and I am surprised there hasn't been a huge die-off yet. In the meantime it makes it easy to snag video games when they go on clearance.

Since when has Radio Shack had video games? Last time I remember seeing any type of game (PC or console) was in the mid 80s.

Clearly "Radio Shack" in Canada has always been very different from what it is like where you are.

Jorpho wrote:

Clearly "Radio Shack" in Canada has always been very different from what it is like where you are.

I think it is safe to say that is an accurate assumption. Maybe I will take a
road trip across the border if I ever get sent to NYC for work.

Surprised this didn't work, must have sacred away the last of their liberal customers 😵

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Proper Radio shack has been dead for at least 20 years.
There are a number of reasons. Outsourcing the electronics industry has taken away the appeal of the hobby as well as access to the physical parts. China subsidises their exports and the shipping costs. Most Western countries do not tax the imports due to free trade agreements, and finally Radioshack is greedy and prices their cables and small accessories 10 times what they cost online.

Electronic items have become so cheap that it's not worth building your own or repairing them anymore. I remember RS (and Heathkit) used to sell kits to make just about everything electronic. When things like calculators and alarm clocks can be bought for just a few dollars, it's not saving you any money by building them yourself and since nobody bothers to repair them anymore, who needs parts?

Gemini000 wrote:

"Radio Shack" as a brand name has been long since dead in Canada due to some legal obscurities. All of our Radio Shack stores have been known as "The Source" for years now. 😜

Actually, Radio Shack has been officially dead in Canada for several years now and not just because of the name change. Tandy sold the Canadian business and was only licensing the name to the company that took it over. It was a dispute over the licensing agreement that forced the company that took it over to change the name after a judge revoked it, but the parent company of Radio Shack had pulled out of Canada long before then.

Yeah, the Radio Shack in my town has absolutely nothing in it anymore, there is one little dark and dust covered corner in the back where no employees dare venture and a tiny selection of components are kept. But other than that the whole thing is all taken over by baubels and mobile phone junk.

I went in there a few years ago looking for a specific DIN plug so that I could fabricate my own Commodore 64 power unit and the guy just looked at me blanky, after looking for a while in that a fore mentioned spot he could only come up with a midi cable.

So naturally I've relunctantly started buying components from the internet, I would always much rather buy things in person but no one seems to offer anything anyone actually needs anymore. 🙁

Target / Wallmart / Staples / Best Buy / Office Max / Micro Center and other stores have plenty of computers and parts on display. 😀

Computers have also become extremely standardized: you have Apple and PC: that covers 99% of computing. The same applies to components. There is very little room for stores that stock items that sell only a few times a year.

Tandy in the UK went the same way. Ironically the Tandy name in the UK was bought by a company which supplies mail-order components. http://www.tandyonline.co.uk/