OT: The Death of Radio Shack

[Dr Jefyll]

BillG wrote:

The four bus strips do not run the entire length.

Yeesh! Thanks for the tip. No, I didn't buy it -- I already have a breadboard. And indeed I already don't trust Radio Shack when it comes to hobbist/construction type stuff -- I suspect I've unknowingly bought some manufacturer's seconds from them.

But I have no beef with the assembled consumer goods they carry... uh, carried.

-- Jeff

[BillG]

There are some times when more shorter busses are better, but I have never seen the packaging and do not know whether this "feature" was documented. We only discovered this when someone taking a class I taught at a makerspace could not get his circuit working.

[Dr Jefyll]

BillG wrote:

There are some times when more shorter busses are better

Yes, agreed. It was an accident on my part to imply that this is an instance of substandard merchandise. But indeed the "feature" should be documented.

-- Jeff

[BillG]

Dr Jefyll wrote:

Yes, agreed. It was an accident on my part to imply that this is an instance of substandard merchandise. But indeed the "feature" should be documented.

I read your comment

Dr Jefyll wrote:

And indeed I already don't trust Radio Shack when it comes to hobbist/construction type stuff -- I suspect I've unknowingly bought some manufacturer's seconds from them.

as a reference to the belief that Radio Shack sometimes sold out of spec ICs which mostly worked except when a project was more "demanding" than usual.

We came to the conclusion that the breadboard was not defective, that it was designed that way due to markings molded into the plastic.

breadboard.png (63.16 KiB) Viewed 2068 times

I never saw the packaging; it may have been documented as being that way.

[BigEd]

I've seen breadboards with split rails, but printed with a black line and a red line to show the connectivity - the line breaks between the two parts. Perhaps in this case there's no printed line, because printing is an extra step, and someone somewhere thought it not necessary.

[GARTHWILSON]

video:
Radio Shack Still Exists!  I Visit a Store Still in Business
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4N3rgs_ZL4
(It's independently owned.)

[BigDumbDinosaur]

GARTHWILSON wrote:

video:
Radio Shack Still Exists! I Visit a Store Still in Business
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4N3rgs_ZL4
(It's independently owned.)

Will be interesting to see how long it stays open for business.

[GARTHWILSON]

It looks like it's not alone:
https://www.radioshack.com/pages/store-locator

Edit, too O.T. to make a separate post for it:
RadioShack Returns as a Crypto Company
https://www.pcmag.com/news/radioshack-r ... to-company
(dated 12/21/21)

[BigDumbDinosaur]

GARTHWILSON wrote:

It looks like it's not alone:
https://www.radioshack.com/pages/store-locator

The irony, at least for me, is just before the Radio Shacks in our area started to disappear, I had put in an order with Mouser for resistors, capacitors and some commonly-used (around here) chips so I'd not be lacking when the need arose on a late Sunday afternoon. When the two Radio Shacks in our area closed up I placed a much larger order with Mouser, especially of resistors and capacitors. The result is I now have sufficient parts stock to where I wouldn't need Radio Shack for much of anything if one did open up around here.

The one thing that Radio Shack had that I really liked was their line of plastic project boxes. I've made all sorts of things from those boxes over the years.

[GARTHWILSON]

Hackaday has an article about Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV)'s effort to bring back Radio Shack as an online-only business, but says it fell afoul of the SEC, with accusations of operating a Ponzi-like scheme.
https://hackaday.com/2025/09/25/radio-s ... ke-scheme/
It was posted last Thursday, and has 33 comments so far.

[BigDumbDinosaur]

GARTHWILSON wrote:

Hackaday has an article about Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV)'s effort to bring back Radio Shack as an online-only business, but says it fell afoul of the SEC, with accusations of operating a Ponzi-like scheme.

At this point in time, an online-only Radio Shack would be pointless, in my opinion.  There are already many sources for the stuff RS was selling.

[Martin_H]

I agree that an online Radio Shack isn't worth it, except perhaps for nostalgia. There are too many web only alternatives now.

In the late 70's through the 80's Radio Shack was godsend for electronics enthusiasts to buy parts they could get nowhere else. Well into the early 2000's it was useful when I forgot something in my Digikey order. I would go to Radio Shack and buy it at an inflated price. But the convince was worth it.

The Boston Area used to have You Do It Electronics which was great, but they've closed too. I would shop there before doing online orders because often they would have everything I needed. Now there's no brick-and-mortar place for this stuff.