Radio Shack prices....OUCH!

[lonewolf454]

I remember always going into radio shack whenever we went to the mall, always had neat stuff to check out and it always seemed I needed a speaker, resistors, capacitor, solder, or something and would have to wait until I went to radio shack. I don't recall a tube tester at radio shack but do remember these at the old tv repair shops.

Radio shack was loaded with electronic components and kits, including kits for kids which I had several and gave me interest in electronics. They had their own brands of radios and computers (Archer,Optimus, Tandy). Man I miss those days.

Now I skip the shack when we occasionally make a mall trip, I don't need a sprint phone nor do I need a remote control toy.

I suspect their high prices for electronics components/devices are due to fact they are only import these in small quantities from China and thus pay a lot more to brand them with their name.

Digikey and mouser come to mind as good suppliers of electronic components and devices, a couple of others are parts express and allied electronics.

 

[pro96]

For me was always about Radio Scanners since 1989 .. always visited RS to see the new communication rigs.
Not anymore as newer models are mostly ONLINE ship to store kinda thing

 

[mikelib]

I remember always going into radio shack whenever we went to the mall, always had neat stuff to check out and it always seemed I needed a speaker, resistors, capacitor, solder, or something and would have to wait until I went to radio shack. I don't recall a tube tester at radio shack but do remember these at the old tv repair shops.

Radio shack was loaded with electronic components and kits, including kits for kids which I had several and gave me interest in electronics. They had their own brands of radios and computers (Archer,Optimus, Tandy). Man I miss those days.

Now I skip the shack when we occasionally make a mall trip, I don't need a sprint phone nor do I need a remote control toy.

I suspect their high prices for electronics components/devices are due to fact they are only import these in small quantities from China and thus pay a lot more to brand them with their name.

Digikey and mouser come to mind as good suppliers of electronic components and devices, a couple of others are parts express and allied electronics.

I dealt with this company for surplus electronic with VERY good results.

All Electronics | Electronic and Electro-Mechanical Parts and Supplies at Discount Prices

mikelib

 

[Dishman Dan]

...When that happens, you can clean up too, if you are on good terms with the manager. - :up
(I've known mine for 20 years!)

Back in the eighties, around my area, you might of saw the same employees at The Shack when you came in and they might of been there 5 years or so. Now when I go in it is never the same employees and most are lucky to be in their twenties!!!

No long term relationship possible here!

 

[Anole]

still a few good ones:

hey, that's funny.
My local manager is 35-39 or so.
Been the manager there for maybe 15 years.
He's got old customers who come in and ask for him by name.
I've even helped him deliver a number of TV's to (elderly) folks who had no way to get one home.

Some of those customer's kids grow up and come in on their own.

But you are right about his crew. Most are low 20's.
Luckily, he's trained them to know cables, batteries, video, and computer parts pretty well.
They're all cell phone messaging freaks, so they can help ya with that, too.

While we are trashing the workers, let me tell you some of the dumb-customer stories.
Lot of 'em come in and ask for "an adapter". Yea, they got some. What for?
People rarely express themselves clearly.
Not unlike newbies here on the FTA forum... ya gotta ask an intelligent question, to get an intelligent answer.

 

[Tron]

Tron
Are they VHF or UHF?

I bought an antenna just for a VHF HI station that is 72 miles away and works great. Thread on the subject
http://www.satelliteguys.us/digital-over-air-ota/212228-best-antenna-picking-up-1-distant.html

post 9 has the link for the antenna I got from SS

The two closest ones, WBRZ and WAFB, are VHF, and are right around 70 miles from my location (according to TV Fool)... The others are farther away and are UHF. I guess I probably have a good shot at the VHF channels at least...

 

[Mr Tony]

Back in the eighties, around my area, you might of saw the same employees at The Shack when you came in and they might of been there 5 years or so. Now when I go in it is never the same employees and most are lucky to be in their twenties!!!

No long term relationship possible here!

I know the 2 closest Radio Shack's to me are basically training stores for the managers.....My local store is like the Pittsburgh Pirates of Radio Shack. Just when you get to know the manager he's gone to a bigger store.

I know when I worked at the store from 93-96 we went through 5 managers...all got promoted to bigger stores

 

[Mr Tony]

The two closest ones, WBRZ and WAFB, are VHF, and are right around 70 miles from my location (according to TV Fool)... The others are farther away and are UHF. I guess I probably have a good shot at the VHF channels at least...

yeah the antenna Larry1 mentioned and the one I mentioned in my link would probably work...my distant CBS is about that far away too

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

Uh oh, they closed the local Radio Shack without my permission. I guess I'll have to have it shipped to me. Nearest one is 90 miles away.

This is embarrassing. Turns out that the local Radio Shack is open but that they got left out of the phone book. As for finding the local store at radioshack.com, their website is flaky - I found that only 1 time out of 4 that the local shack shows up. It was interesting that I got a different web page after a few searches for items also. I tried to call the 800 number and they had me jumping through so many hoops to get to a real person so I hung up. I did place an online order for an OTA antenna - let's hope it gets delivered to the right address and it's the item I ordered.

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

what does the tvfool report show? I trust that a little better than antennaweb

It seems to me that antennaweb is more accurate. tvfool says that I should be able to pick up a TV station that is 35 miles away with an indoor antenna. I did start out with an indoor antenna a few years ago but I couldn't pick up anything reliably.

 

[Mr Tony]

tvfool shows items that I may be able to pick up (like the distant VHF station)
Antennweb doesn't

 

[Anole]

Yea, I looked up some stations on TVfool that I didn't know.
They turned out to be Palm Springs.
They're 90° off my beam - no telling what I could get if actually aimed that way!
Don't think Antennaweb listed them ('cause I shouldn't get them).
So, for DXing, I think TVf might be the choice.