freekin sweet

Radioshack’s big problem always was that they stocked big items (such as ultrasonic range finders and basic stamps) without any of the important supporting components. This is _absolutely not_ what you want in a retail outlet. People go retail when they need something right away — like if you need a shift register or 2n7000 in a pinch.
Two other big problems were outrageous pricing (bulk pricing should be available) and stocking tiny amounts of each part (try building a BLDC driver with only two IRF510!).

I just remember radio shack of the old, 1/5th of the store had beepers, and rc cards, the rest were just drawers of components. Now MAYBE 1/5th is componets and the rest is laptops and tv’s and stereos and gaming consoles and ugh.

I dont mind paying a little more for having the item i need day of, not having to wait for shipping and to support a local business. But if they dont carry it then im left with no choice.

@BiOzZ – “to impatient to wait for allelectronics.com”

Im so glad that place is 10 min away from my house ;D its my candy-store…

* Inconsistent parts selection between stores

* Poor overall parts selection

What should they carry? A good start would be to carry a lot of the component inventory their on-line competitors carry – I’m not talking about Mouser, or Digikey, but more like SparkFun, Adafruit, etc.

They obviously need to carry some microcontrollers, but I think the support components are much more important – as those are the things you’re most likely to need/want IMMEDIATELY when working on a partly completed project.

They do have some cool prototyping circuit boards, but I’d like to see some more still.

Lastly, we don’t need no fancy packaging if all it does is make the product more expensive.

The Radio Shack in my town has had Arduinos and a few “project” type things for a couple months now. They are kind of pricey and they are only sold in kits but it is a big step in the right direction

Our radio shack will not be stocking arduinos and they only stock mostly cell phone related items. I wouldn’t buy anything from RS unless it was a must have right now item. I’ll stick to online ordering, at least then I don’t get asked by the sales person “What does this do”.

@ James- I agree it’s not as if these components are manufactured in the building down the street. However I would shop there more often if they knew what “I” was talking about and, had a greater selection of parts and kits. I haven’t checked so please correct me if I’m wrong, but I would like to see RS ship free to their stores, as I said I haven’t ordered from them online so I don’t know if they do this, but it would make me more inclined to buy from them.

I recently compared costing at the end of a project write up,
If I buy resistors online, I can buy 100 for 68p

If I go to the uk’s radio shack equivellant they are 25p each, I’m not being an ass hole for not shopping locally, I’m being sane, reasonable and stocking my parts bin, if I need three resistors in a project then it’s cheaper to buy 100 online and possibly never use 97 of them.

I’m not the ass hole, the store and it’s 5,000% mark up are the ones being ass holes here.

That’s the only thing that they got wrong in my opinion.

(our uk version of rs (maplin) already stocks pic programmers and USB breakout boards, as well as lots of belle an kits. But the price is still the thing that stops people from going there).

“I feel Radioshack-brand Arduinos coming”

Tandino?

“Stronger sales force”? They already accost me at the door with “Can I help you find something?” instead of letting me look which is why I do a U-turn and leave.

I like to do my own thinking or I can’t be happy and they only bother me.

I don’t know that they need a stronger sales force (I too can’t get more than five feet in the store before I’m attacked by people asking how they can help), but rather a smarter force. My last trip there I just needed some contact cleaner/lubricant. When I asked about it, explaining that I needed to free a seized rotary switch on a B&K 707, I thought drool was going to come out of agape mouth. After explaining it was a 25-position rotary switch with several amps capacity on each terminal, and that they don’t have anything close to what I’d need to replace it, and that I don’t want to replace it anyways, he led me to the shelf with the contact cleaner I was already looking at and informed me he had never used any of it so he didn’t have any suggestions.

Also, they should start carrying more potentiometers. Their selection around here is a couple weird value trimmers, and a couple long-shaft 1/4w linear pots. Forget logarithmic ones all together.

When I was a young kid I got a “Build it Yourself” Motion detector from the Shack. It came with a naked PCB , Manual with Instructions, Schematic and tips, and a few bags filled with the needed components.

I grabbed my soldering iron and finished it in 2 days (reminded me of a Lego set). I was very happy when I put it in it’s enclosure, added batteries, and it rang it’s door bell chime.

My Point is, Kids are smarter then they seem. Vex robotics were a step in the right direction, and I’m sure most kids would rather build there R/C toy car from scratch then buy a “ready-to-roll” model. Didn’t they learn anything from there ZipZap craze. (More Vex, much cheaper please)

After abandoning the hobbyist for years and finally reducing the parts down to 4 square feet of floor space RS finally realizes they can’t compete with Best Buy, and WalMart much less the online sellers. Wait, Hobbyist, We love you, We want you back now! Never mind that you can pay a third of what we charge to get your stuff online. We know you still love us!
I’m glad I sold my stock last year.

North of Baltimore we have a local shop called Baynesville Elecronic where I go for all my last minute capacitors, resistors, fuses, connectors, etc. However, I recently wen there only to find someone had bought EVERY 100K pot in the store: Linear, Audio, Stepped, 1/4 watt, 1 watt, switched, whatever! With a bit of trepidation I stopped at the Radio Shack on my way home and wonder of wonders – they had two left! Of course damn near every other time I went there I got skunked…

I think that one of the biggest disappointments for me when it comes to Radio Shack is their lack USB connectors. They have every single connector that you can think of, but they don’t have a single USB female jack connector, or male plug connector. You’d think that with the popularity and usefulness of USB technology, then Radio Shack would support that more.

How the hell they tell that it is not proffitable to sell single microcontrollers? ATmega328P (Arduino) is 5$ in Digikey and when you get 100 of them they are only 2.70. You can charge 100% more and still be cheaper (shipping cost)!

I tried to get a job there when I was a 16 year old kid…they turned me down because they said I knew too much, and their sales staff should only know exactly what they were told to know.

I surprised them by being very calm and then buying several project boards and matching project boxes. As I left the store I mentioned that I had been buying about $50 worth of components a week for the last couple of years, and that this purchase was the last I would ever make there.

That was almost a lie, as I returned there several times over the next couple of years looking for components that I couldn’t wait to have shipped…thankfully for my conscience, they never had anything in stock.

If RadioShack wants to get me back, they are not going to do it by selling something that I can get online for less money (and without dealing with their moron sales staff). They need an in-house brand that really excels at something…something that would give me a reason to deal with them. They also need to stock the basic consumables…they don’t even sell Arctic Silver 5!!!

Fry’s has way more electronic components. I was actually surprised at them BECAUSE of my experiences with radioshack.

Microcenter at least has SOME stuff. RS only has a few harder to find a/v connectors and thermal paste. Face it, most specialized things HAVE to be ordered online, they’ll be cheaper too. Everything at all the stores is jacked up.

And I don’t know about the golden days of ratshack. They still didn’t know shit and always asked for your dox.

yamy local radio shack has allot of this stuff, some of the kits are priced ok, $10 – $13 for simple flashing led hearts, Christmas trees and just blinking led kits. the only other kit i saw was a build your own tv pong kit, but for $40 its a rip off considering you can just go to think geek and get what appears to be the same kit for $20

Bring back Armatron!!!!

Yah right..
and in this time of SMD electronics, they would stock only 1/4 Watt through hole resistors…
Bwahahahaha…

I’m kinda surprised they didn’t start selling beer, cigarettes, and lottery tickets. Helluva markup on that stuff, and a constant revenue stream in the economically-depressed areas.

Echoing many of you, I’ve had those experiences at RS where I wanted to scream, gouge my eyes out, and spit hot nails at the same time…but this is an opportunity for RS to at least get back toward the right direction. I kinda knew it was ‘the end’ of my love for RS back when I was about 12 or so (I’m guessing lol), and those goddamned gray cabinets for the discrete parts started showing up in their stores. Can’t recall whether I actually cried or not ;) but I do remember a distinct feeling of disappointment. Then the f$*king cell phone displays showed up….

Now that they’re finally realizing that they’ve gotten so far away from their core customers’ expectations, and at last listened to the public (how many retailers actually do that?!), I think I can give them another shot. If there’s something I need, RIGHT NOW, and they have it for a *respectable* price, I won’t have a problem buying it from RS. For that, they’ll need a much larger variety of parts, and more than one or two of each (economy of scale and availability, anyone?); seems they’ve addressed this, so kudos, and here’s to hoping it happens.

The men & women working at my local RS are good people, IMO; they’re just not as technically-minded as most of US believe they should be. To *some* extent, I’m all right with that. But they should sure as heck know someone who DOES know the answers, or at least have one or two people on staff with in-depth knowledge of electronics. I’m not expecting an EE professor (ugh…bad memories…), but not Lenny from “Of Mice and Men,” either.

Heck, if they’re looking for knowledgeable people, maybe I’ll walk on over (literally, as it’s less than 500m away) and see if I can’t land a part-time position, educating their current staff if nothing else!

I agree with Adam Outler here. Bring back Armatron. Update it, pack in an Arduino and make it a build it yourself kit. I’ve still got a early 80′s Armatron that still works. My 5 year old son now plays with it, using it to pick up all sorts of stuff.

Honestly, if I could get what I want at the store down the street, I’d just go get it. Sure, if it is $30 at RS and $3 online, I’ll get it online, but a $2 difference is going to be eaten by shipping anyway.

When I’m doing a project, it would be very comforting to know I can just go get a part if I need it, as opposed to ordering one and waiting for it to arrive.

Now…if only I could find a place locally that stocks Happ controls! :p

What happens if radio shack makes arduino a new lego?

I see them carrying a lot more components to support arduino in the future; but only if the demand is there. The RS near me was just redesigned, and about 1/2 of the store is dedicated to hobbyists, now.

Not shopping there anymore will not help as much as requesting parts they don’t have in stock. I work retail and if I get three customers in a month ask for something we don’t carry in store, I’m sending a ticket to corporate to let them know.

And keep in mind that you are allowed to tell associates “no thanks, I’m just browsing.” There are at most three associates at any given time in RS, so you will only have to take about 10 seconds total to be polite. I know it must feel unbearable to be that nice, but I think you will find it is not lethal.

And if they ask more than once, you could keep in mind that many customers actually think while they shop and may develop questions; the associate is likely only making sure you don’t have any. It is still okay to be polite and not snap at them.

Mr.Non-Descript has a good idea…

Imagine if Boyscouts had merit badges for Arduino or C programming or something…a whole lot more useful towards a high paying career than making knots, reading the book of Mormon, or attacking homosexuals.

Better yet, imagine if there was a youth organization targeted specifically towards geeks and nerds…it could even be open to people of all genders, races, and creeds…wouldn’t that be something?!

I loved Rad Shmack as a kid, and worked for them for 5 years, ending about a year ago.

Radio Shack would have a MUCH stronger sales force if every year they didn’t roll out another “exciting new pay plan” that doesn’t involve selling more stuff to make less money.

Oh wait, “just sell more phones”, right? LOL

It gets better. let me tell you the one about “unending sales gains”, it’s a HOOT!

A few years ago there used to be a Radio Shack (conveniently next to an ACE hardware) in the small shopping center I lived nearby. It was really convenient because I could just take a short bike ride and get what I need. Sadly, it closed, and the second closet one was 5 miles away…(the same fate for the ACE)

There is a real electronics store (and by real I mean walls of drawers and bins) but it’s 15 miles away…

When you’re a young teenager and ordering online is rarely possible for you, being able to bike or drive to some store where you can pick up a few parts for a project is the most useful thing you can ask for, and it’s worth the extra cost.

I just hope Radioshack remains for as long as possible, because of its convenience and availability. And although it would help to have a more knowledgeable work force, I don’t mind; I’ve been to the stores so many times I’ve practically memorized the store layout.

@Marvin – I’m right there with you, I was there from 10/86 to 1/97, so you can imagine the changes I saw…

When my RM said that there was no excuse for every sales person not selling either a computer, cellphone, or satilite dish every day, I knew he had a seperation from reality.

In too many stores, the motto seem to be: “You’ve got questions, we’ve got blank stares.”

I’d have to say, that when they whittled away the forcefeed section, it just went down hill fast.

I remember when Radio Shack (and Sears Roebuck) *did* sell amateur radio gear. The clue challenged sales staff would and did sell to anyone regardless of whether they had a license or not. It almost turned 2 meters into Citizens Band.

the local Shacks are actually filled with helpful sales folks, but they’re not typically stocked with what I need/want. They haven’t been for at least 15 years. Without all the DIY stuff, they’re not Radio Shack… they’re just another consumer electronics store with retail pricing.

If radio shack REALLY wants to get back on the good side of it’s old customers… they would be more like a local family electronics store that carries a shed ton of components and discrete parts, speaker repair parts, speaker components, etc.

I’m glad I don’t have to deal with Radio Shack any more… I go to Tanner Electronics.

I doubt they’ll ever be able to compete with e-shops or ebay sellers if they carry the same stuff at much higher price with a workforce as knowledgeable as a broomstick…

Sad but true, so I say let them die, besides it’s their own fault they got greedy and tried to shove into people’s throats stuff they never needed…

There are some Radioshack stores that are still decent. I remember my first trip to the Radioshack up here in State College PA (Penn State University)…I was freakin’ SHOCKED. The very front of the store and behind the counter are the standard batteries, cell phones, R/C toys, etc, but the entire back half was packed with tools and parts and all kinds of good stuff. Sure, they don’t nearly have everything, but it’s a small retail store. Far better than I expected.

We in the Hackaday community should put together an organized plan to make next Christmas “Arduino Christmas” on a massive scale, nationally, in partnership with Radio Shack. Odd as that may sound, its our country, our country is in serious trouble (because of the fall in scientific literacy) and the open source hardware and software revolution is the only thing that can turn this situation without a massive campaign to fund schools from the government, which we all know is never coming. So, the only option is free software and open-source hardware. We can do this. What our community should do is figure out a way to join all of the various “hacker” groups together to design a kick-ass core of projects that will each serve as an introduction to a key concept – perhaps also giving the builder a self-built tool they can use in the future on other projects. Bootstrapping.

We should apply the same kinds of thinking that has been used successfully to bring affordable learning/tools to the Third World because if we don’t, we will be part of the Third World soon.

I took my armatron apart years ago I used the gripper for a high school electronics project
back in the lat 90′s

but I agree armatron with a couple of dc motors rather than just one and a bunch of gears
not that all the mechanical gears wern’t cool
infact taking it apart as a kid gave me
a greater respect for the usefulness of mechanical
motion and transmission of that motion

but here in canada we have no radio shack
we have The source I worked at a Tandy canada
repair/warrenty depot when the canadian version was bought by circuit city and by then every franchise radio shack had been bought out or run out by corperate ones I remember the dieing days of the franchise here I was young and stupid I would complain that the other RS had stuff cheeper I understand our loss now

and I have no electronic stores near by RS was the only thing with in 50 miles I now have over a hours drive to a disappointment from a store that buys most of its stock from digikey anyways
and with next day delivery from digikey

but I got my job at the tandy repair depot due to a friend that got her entire electronic experience from working and running the local corporate RS.
for years she ran many of them around the valley here until she finally got tired of it and Quit.

I was fired for trying to give too good of service and follow up with customers to make sure that repairs that were done under warranty were still working well and that my work on their pc was to satisfactory and making sure people did not loose the precious files and photos they kept on their pc’s I was told I spend to much time with each case. the depot did not care if the computer came back again they got paid a abirtray amount for each competed repair so if a pc came back to get reformated 10 times they go paid 10 times.

rather than trying to make the customer happy the were trying to make a buck it is no wonder they failed the money came from the stores or from corperate if the place was ran as one company
not as seperate companies and everyone had one goal to make the customer happy by providing good service at a reasonable price

I could go on for hours about my sort time working there

I’ll tell you what RadioShack got wrong. After 2 1/2 years of being the only employee at my location to have any idea what we even sold, let alone how to use it and what it would work with, I was let go 2 weeks ago for not selling enough cellphones. I was the most requested and appreciated employee at my location by all of the store’s regular customers. I always gave exemplary service to everyone who entered the door regardless of what they came looking for, and if I didn’t have an answer for them, I would find it. I was the person that people wanted to see when they came in. Every complaint I read about what people hate about the service at RadioShack and how they think it should be seemed to be describing exactly how I already operate.

RadioShack can make all the claims and promises they want, but the chain of command there is so disjointed its very unlikely any changes of real substance will make it to your local stores. Even if the changes do make it down to store level, do you really think that the store managers are going to all of a sudden decide they don’t care about getting their cellphone commission checks?

Everyone wants to come in and get free advice from an expert electrical engineer, but they aren’t going to get that for minimum wage. The closest you will see is a geek who’s obsession happens to land them employed at RadioShack until they can get a real job, and if the geek doesn’t like to be pushy and force phone contracts down people’s throats you really aren’t left with much.

There still are some quirky mom-and-pop electronics stores out there that are AWESOME. When I lived up there, I used to frequent Electronics Plus in San Rafael. Wonderful little store that still had a hint of warm solder flux perfuming the air, and a giant LED MICR-style font blinking “Electronics Plus” sign in the back.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/electronics-plus-san-rafael

reading through these comments makes me a little sad and a little sick. (sick to think that some of you guys consider yourselves the engineers or tomorrow, yet can’t work out your own component values.)

Why do you need knowledgeable people in the store?
Why do the staff have to have clue?
Why do you need them to help you design your product/project?
Why do you need staff to draw out circuits for class B amplifiers (as was listed above) or any other simple circuit?
What makes you think that the guys at any of these on-line stores are in anyway knowledgeable anyway? (some may be, not all will be, lots of times you can’t even contact them anyway.)

What you need to do is do your own research; design your own projects figure out your own component values, look in their catalogue and go to the parts desk with a list of catalogue numbers.

The staff need to be human pick and place machines, not experienced engineers put there to educate you for free.

And from the companies point of view, when you take up 1/2 an hours time of am employee earning $10 an hour, designing you a circuit so that you can buy $2 of parts, then the company has lost all its profit margins and more.

What you all need to do is get up of your own lazy behinds and learn to design/build/trouble shoot your own circuits.

The staff aren’t there to chat, and if you don’t already know all your component values with their and all your wire gauges etc needed then you aren’t ready to start ordering components anyway, you can’t order on-line without knowing your component values, what makes you think that you should be able to go into a shop without knowing such critical information.

To be fair, if you’re looking for a specific part and the staff don’t know where it is on the shelf/shop floor, then that is poor staff training.
Not knowing what it is, by the by is completely irrelevant, the fact that they can’t even direct you to a part is what matters.

When I walk into a supermarket, I might need to ask a sales assistant where the flour is, I don’t expect them to know how to bake, even though they are working in a food shop, their knowledge of food is irrelevant, the only thing I need them to know is the layout of the shop and where they and their co-workers have put things… I can help further by explaining that it’s a home baking item perhaps -but I don’t expect recipe advise of baking tips from shelf stockers.

Whether you read what was written on the 80 off comments above my last or not, the views expressed in my post were aimed entirely at those above that had been complaining that the staff couldn’t help them choose their component values, or the talk of the “good old days” when staff could draw out schematics and help choose values.

Dude I have been waiting for radio shack to move from those propeller kits to arduino’s. Alot of people give radio shack’s a hard time and while Alot of the employees don’t know squat in the diy parts and there are a lot of stores with little to nothing of use. I have been blessed with a store that stocks the hound out of its self with parts to buy. When I first went there they had a barely passing supply but after I bought boards project boxes,boards tools, “getting started with electronics” and alot of other stuff they now stock all of forrest m. III books, vellman kits, and every year there’s more and more that now new tools and parts sit on top of the parts draw cause theres no more space :D SO I SAY HELL YEAH only problem i just bought one online :P

@tk

I was thinkin’ more along the lines of Raduino?

Archduino maybe?

I think Radio Shack should carry a selection of Sparkfun branded kits and arduinos. Sparkfun has a support system of enthusiasts, so there is no need to train the minimum wagers at the R/S store. The value added by the Shack is the local access, not the technical expertise of the staff. Exciting catalogs/brochures should be available at the stores to educate beginners.
I fondly recall the Forrest Mimms project booklets which listed the R/S part numbers for the components. I too was saddened to see the focus shift to cell phones and consumer glitz. But.. it’s not too late for redemption.

Radio Shack — I haven’t done business with RS in about five years. The reason … I walked into the newly renovated local RS and asked ‘the help’, “Where are the LED’s located?”

She motioned me to follow her to the counter, where in a very sincere voice, she ask, “Sir, how do you spell that?”

With out missing a beat and with the straightest of faces, I replied, “L E D.”

Her head tilted about twenty degrees off center, she paused a couple of heart beats, and then said, “I don’t think we have those.” I turned, walked out, laughing to myself, knowing I wouldn’t be back. But, it looks like I may have to give them another try.

First simply ham will suffice, the term is not an acronym So HAM is not necessary.
I’m about to serve up some whine here as well too. The closest RS is a 50 mile round trip, any beyond that is a 180 mile round trip, so I never hopped in the car to go buy a single item because it was handy, weeks would go by before I would be in one of their stores, things had to wait. Here the towns that had a RS also had another parts store, they are long gone, Even they turned to selling consumer items to the public in an effort to be able to keep the doors open, Auto tape decks, CB, even before the CB fad of the ’70s.

I happy to see RS making the effort, and hope they succeed but I’m cynical, and see a failure. Mostly because what I read in this and other comment forum. No retailer can pleas all the people all the time. Complaints about how RS staff approach them after they walk in the door WTH? That’s the small stuff NOT to sweat. I would guess those same folks would complain how they had to hunt down a RS staffer for help if they had trouble locating what they where looking for. As a company that maintains brick & Mortar stores in cities that don’t break 20K in population, it’s highly unlikely RS will ever have enough sales in components to be able to match the prices the mail companies charge, much less beat them. Those who keep hammering away on that issue only show know little about business. I think Ill start calling Allied, Mouser uncompetitive because they don’t have stores down the street from RS :) I really doubt RS could move enough amateur radio gear or arduinos to make stocking them profitable. As I said I hope they can make it work, but I’m skeptical

Maybe it’s just me, but I live in a little hick town (Okeechobee, Fl) and while the Radio Shack here doesn’t stock development boards or nichrome wire, pretty much every other part I’ve stopped in for (battery enclosures, project boxes, resistors, voltage regulators, solder, etc.) has either been in stock, or stocked quickly, and the staff is fairly knowledgeable. Sure, I can get the parts cheaper online no doubt, but when i get a wild hair up my…hind parts to make or modify something, I want to do it NOW. I’ll pay the 10-15% more to have that ability.

My only beef is they aren’t 24 hours ^_^

after working for RS for a year and a half, and realizing that I knew more than the entire staff save one other nerd like me. now, I don’t know about all you out there, but our RS stores are usually extremely tiny, like 3 or 4 long aisles. when i worked there (around 2005 or so) they still pushed you to sell a cellphone, service plan, credit card, and all that, but it wasn’t demanded of you.

But, regardless, they need to start forcing people to take the tests I took, instead of just allowing the bare minimum to sell, which is basically, cellphone quiz, intro to selling, and blank stares 101 (always a customer favorite)

as to help out RS as a whole, I agree with a lot of these posts. Years upon years ago, i bought the intro to digital electronics book from RS, and it was a damn good primer and easy to understand for a 10 year old. restock those series, and update them to include new info kthx.

RS should stock parts, decent soldering equipment (wellers, hakkos, or even the somewhat inferior Aoyue), project kits, parts, and generally “fun” things, like lego mindstorms and erector sets to help bring in fledgling designers or even prototype builders.

even a “build your own computer” kit (like the apple 1 replica, the Replica 1) would be seriously cool.

@Vampyredh – I’ve seen them USDED in just about every household appliance you can think of, alarm clocks, home automation, etc, etc.

If you’re looking to rip something in your home apart to find one inside it, you won’t. Think of Arduino as a project platform, including a specific set of hardware and software put together to make building your own projects very easy.

That’s not to say there aren’t many variations and implementations though. :)