Radio Shack has up to 60% off

[MrDEB]

went to RS to purchase some perf bards and most everything is 60% off.
WHY they filed bankruptcy so only 100+ stores are closing but all the stores are required to sell off merchandise.
At least thats what the sales lady said.
going back Tuesday for more stuff.

 

[ronsimpson]

I want the cabinets the parts are in.

 

[audioguru]

Radio shack left Canada about 17 years ago. Some of their stores continued when taken over by Circuit City who also went bankrupt. Some stores are still open but are called The Source and owned by Bell Canada, the original telephone company.
When Radio Shack was open they would buy RCA connector-ended cables at The Dollar Store for $1.00 each in the same mall as their store then sell them for $17.00 each.

 

[tcmtech]

Ours packed up and left about 2 years ago. They got too spendy for the limited amount of low grade parts they had a long time ago.

Especially when I could get 2 - 3 of the same items from online places like Mouser of Digikey in 3 - 4 days or 10 - 100 times as many of whatever they had from china for the same price or not much more if I didn't mind waiting a few weeks for them to show up.

 

[ronsimpson]

Part of the problem with RS is; no one uses resistors. Who builds their HAM transmitters? Who repairs TVs? Yesterday I was at RS to see if they had good prices. The resistors were 15 years old. People were getting phones. Not parts.

 

[schmitt trigger]

If one was fortunate to live in a larger metropolitan area, there would be other independent electronic retailers to choose from.
But for people living in small towns, RS was the only option.

Sure, one could also order by mail from the retailers appearing on the back pages of hobby magazines.
But if you took the time for the check to arrive (via snail mail), the time for the payment to clear (out of town check) and the time for the components to actually arrive (again, snail mail), it would be 3 to 6 weeks wait time...heck, today one can get parts from China faster.

 

[JonSea]

Part of the problem with RS is; no one uses resistors. Who builds their HAM transmitters? Who repairs TVs? Yesterday I was at RS to see if they had good prices. The resistors were 15 years old. People were getting phones. Not parts.

One of the problems with RadioShack resistors and other parts.....sometimes you might NEED one or two resistors and be willing to pay a premium. But in general, it really doesn't make sense to buy resistors in a 2 pack or 6 pack at a price that should get you a hundred. A 2 pack of generic LEDs?

When you are willing to pay a premium and you need more than one or two packages, you're screwed anyway - they never have more than a few of most items.

 

[large_ghostman]

I got excited then!! I thought you meant the real RS.
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/

 

[JonSea]

General Wireless, the owners of the current RadioShack stores, has filed for bankruptcy.

This is probably it for the store many of us loved growing up. I still come across bags with a yellow hand-written receipt (with phone number!) for some long-forgotten project that didn't make it into existence.

 

[schmitt trigger]

........................ for some long-forgotten project that didn't make it into existence.

This is a contagious disease that every serious electronics hobbyist eventually acquires.
I don't know if it is acquired by the smell of solder flux coming off from an iron, or the thrill of actually powering the unit up and nothing blowing up.

There is no known cure.