Another once-innovative retailer goes down because it couldn't innovate any more

[evensgrey]

Radio Shack has gone into Chapter 11, and about half of it's outlets are going to close in the US, with the rest becoming Sprint outlets instead.

dealbook.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/radio-shack-files-for-chapter-11-bankrutpcy/?_r=0

For those of us in Canada (and there seems to be a surprising number of us here) this won't make any difference, as Radio Shack stores in Canada were separated from the US corporation more than a decade ago (the exact date when Radio Shack in the US and the international holdings separated is a bit hard to find) and have been The Source for a decade.

Edit:  Never mind, Radio Shack in the US separated from the stores in Canada and Australia in 1986.  Despite having heard about this first on an Australian electronics vlog, it doesn't actually mean anything to that country or mine.  (And these days, everyone who wants to do any electronics buys their parts online anyway.  You can get almost anything, right back to 8080s and 6502s (OK, it's a 65c816, but it runs the code identically).)

[dallen68]

Even here in the US, to most consumers, it won't make that much of a difference. A lot of them have been de-facto Sprint stores for a while.

That said, I remember as a kid in Sask, the place to go for anything electronic was Radio Shack (in fact, in Swift Current it was literally the only place to go), here in the US, if you say you're going to pick something (other than a cell phone) up at Radio Shack, people look at you as if you'd done lost your mind.

Oh, please don't tell me co-op sells radios and TV's, that's not what I mean by electronics(in this specific case). In this case, I'm talking about picking up a wire, or a connector, or a hard drive, or something like that.

[evensgrey]

Even here in the US, to most consumers, it won't make that much of a difference. A lot of them have been de-facto Sprint stores for a while.

That said, I remember as a kid in Sask, the place to go for anything electronic was Radio Shack (in fact, in Swift Current it was literally the only place to go), here in the US, if you say you're going to pick something (other than a cell phone) up at Radio Shack, people look at you as if you'd done lost your mind.

Oh, please don't tell me co-op sells radios and TV's, that's not what I mean by electronics(in this specific case). In this case, I'm talking about picking up a wire, or a connector, or a hard drive, or something like that.

They were, so far as I can tell, the only chain selling components back in the day (and the first chain to sell computers, hence the initial market dominance of the TRS-80 series where Radio Shack operated, the first to sell portables, the first to sell cell phones, etc.).

But that sort of thing just doesn't cut it any more, even when they still tried to do it.  The components business is generally better served by online sales, which can have a bigger and wider inventory than any boutique shop could ever hope for.  There are better places to pick up TVs, Blu-ray players, media streamers, satellite systems, synthesizers, etc., many with both better selection and better prices.  While cell phones are a nice line, the market in North America is structured around carriers, not device vendors.  (The Canadian stores that were Radio Shack are now The Source, originally a chain of the now-defunct Circuit City, now owned by Bell, one of Canada's big cell carriers.)

Electronics just changed to where they were no longer meaningful at anything.

These days, I buy generic stuff like power supplies where they're convenient.  I buy stuff that doesn't take rough shipping well (like hard drives and monitors) in a bricks-and-mortar store (usually one specific place, actually, one of a regional chain of large stores), and I buy most of the rest online and get it shipped to my door.  In a day when you can read all you need to make a decision off a spec sheet, the space for boutique electronics stores (except as a place for a major company like Apple or Sony to show stuff off) is really small.

[dallen68]

They were, so far as I can tell, the only chain selling components back in the day (and the first chain to sell computers, hence the initial market dominance of the TRS-80 series where Radio Shack operated, the first to sell portables, the first to sell cell phones, etc.).

But that sort of thing just doesn't cut it any more, even when they still tried to do it.  The components business is generally better served by online sales, which can have a bigger and wider inventory than any boutique shop could ever hope for.  There are better places to pick up TVs, Blu-ray players, media streamers, satellite systems, synthesizers, etc., many with both better selection and better prices.  While cell phones are a nice line, the market in North America is structured around carriers, not device vendors.  (The Canadian stores that were Radio Shack are now The Source, originally a chain of the now-defunct Circuit City, now owned by Bell, one of Canada's big cell carriers.)

Electronics just changed to where they were no longer meaningful at anything.

These days, I buy generic stuff like power supplies where they're convenient.  I buy stuff that doesn't take rough shipping well (like hard drives and monitors) in a bricks-and-mortar store (usually one specific place, actually, one of a regional chain of large stores), and I buy most of the rest online and get it shipped to my door.  In a day when you can read all you need to make a decision off a spec sheet, the space for boutique electronics stores (except as a place for a major company like Apple or Sony to show stuff off) is really small.

They also sold Commodores back in the day - you could either get it as a "thing" or as a kit - We got our 64 and 128 as kits from RS, the Amiga we got as a preassembled "thing".  Just a bit of trivia.

Other than that, yes, as far as chain boutique stores go the market space isn't there. We have a Mom & Pop boutique in my area that does kinda okay... but they don't really "sell" that much. There primary focus is on "service".... Like if you have some kinda malware/virus that your auto-maintenance thing can't get rid of, you go there.

[evensgrey]

They also sold Commodores back in the day - you could either get it as a "thing" or as a kit - We got our 64 and 128 as kits from RS, the Amiga we got as a preassembled "thing".  Just a bit of trivia.

I would love to know what models you're talking about there, since Commodore didn't make computer kits.

[MrBogosity]

I'm surprised this hasn't happened by now! They lost their relevancy a long time ago.

[dallen68]

I would love to know what models you're talking about there, since Commodore didn't make computer kits.

I actually told you what models it was. The 64 and the 128.

I guess, by today's standards it wouldn't be considered a "kit".

So anyway, for example, the 64 was a keyboard (obviously a bit more than that, but not much) with a place to plug in your monitor (in most cases a television) and a cassette recorder and a bit later a 5.25 drive. The "kit" came with a monitor (since it did not receive TV signals, it was a marked improvement) and a cassette recorder (since it did not have a built in microphone, it was slightly better than plugging in your household one) and later on, the disk drive.

In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have used the word "kit", as the use in this instance is deceptive. I assure you this was unintentional.

[evensgrey]

I actually told you what models it was. The 64 and the 128.

I guess, by today's standards it wouldn't be considered a "kit".

So anyway, for example, the 64 was a keyboard (obviously a bit more than that, but not much) with a place to plug in your monitor (in most cases a television) and a cassette recorder and a bit later a 5.25 drive. The "kit" came with a monitor (since it did not receive TV signals, it was a marked improvement) and a cassette recorder (since it did not have a built in microphone, it was slightly better than plugging in your household one) and later on, the disk drive.

In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have used the word "kit", as the use in this instance is deceptive. I assure you this was unintentional.

Ah, I see.

There were computer kits, but the best result was the Altair 8800 (and they generally disappeared as anything but hobby systems little better than toys once the FCC regs came down on emissions).