Seems all our local Radio Shack stores are closing and (rumor has it) all the western stores due to poor sales. I shall miss them dearly!
On a bright note, they're selling most everything in the store at 90% off!
Armed with my trusty Visa card, I went shopping this morning and scored:
A Bluetooth module, couple of gyro's, an Emic2, every color of EL wire and tape plus power supplies, 2-speech recording modules, a couple of project enclosures, 2-Dual Relay Board kits, several circuit boards, a 500 pack of resistors and every IC socket they had left.
Total damage was $30.88. Savings of over $250!
I may head back tomorrow... the component drawers still have stuff them. :-)
A house near me in San Jose (close to Xilinx) with 1500 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, one car garage, 8k lot just went on the market for $1,048,800 had one open house, and it's already sale pending. No idea how much it sold for. Minimal upgrades - built in 1948 and still has original cabinetry and wooden flooring. As you go north the prices go higher and higher. (The latest tax assessment was $53k ;-)
I have a great job offer in Pleasanton CA, which I'm told is one of the most expensive places to live (housing-wise). Hard to think about leaving my paid-off house here in Torrance, 2 miles from the beach.
MOST. DEPRESSING. DAY. EVER. I just visited two Shacks near me. How sad, huge STORE CLOSING banners inside and out. Both stores look terrible, all the Sprint phone displays have literally been ripped out, half the store is blank white gutted displays. Each store was staffed by exactly one very disenfranchised employee who claims to have no idea when the end will come, days, weeks or months. Big signs display various discounts from 20%-60%, but the "original prices" are so bloated that the final prices are about average for what you'd pay elsewhere. None of the smokin' deals Amanda mentioned anywhere to be found. Most hobbyist/robotics stuff was 30% off, the only Parallax item I saw was an accelerometer, $30-30%.
I didn't buy anything. I've seen better prices at previous Shack sales. The only thing that tempted me was this Hexbug robot kit, $50 down to $30. But after watching this video, the legs move kinda weird and appear to drag more than lift. Pass.
Also $30 after discount is this huge VEX robot arm kit. But per this girl's cute video, no motors are included! Purely manual operation by twisting knobs. No thanky.
The closest RadioShack to my house is closing in a week. Almost everything is 70% off, and some things are 90% off, such as the items in the parts drawers. Most of the good stuff is gone. I'll probably go by in the next couple of days to see if there's anything that I might need.
My store was 70-90% off. They are closing Friday. Parts bins were empty except for empty packages, ( a lot of pilfering). The lone sales person had a "I don't care" attitude. There was not even a Sprint sales person in the store.
At least the sale girl told me she had a job starting on Saturday. I wished her luck.
Some poor fellow came in during my brief visit and tried to return something he bought just the day before.The clerk reminded him of the "all sales final/no refunds or returns" sign on the wall.
Right now, the stores are closing in a series of tiers. 1st tier closes by the end of the month. 2nd tier sometime in April. whether any stores survive will be determined by the BR Judge in Delaware.
Thanks for the good wishes
Jim
40 miles south, Silicon Valley -- Yesterday morning I suddenly realized we were out of an exotic op-amp needed to complete a job that has to be shipped today. I placed a will-call order with Linear Tech and drove to Milpitas to pick it up. Past the Tesla plant in Fremont, off at the SR237 exit where there used to be the ranch land and fields of strawberries. Past the huge Cisco complex and the Sandisk facility. Linear Tech distribution warehouse is a tucked into a quiet techno side boulevard with Analog Devices across the street, IXYS Semi next door and a host of a other techies. Out in back and in through a plastic curtain stands a towering chainlink cage with anti static warnings and staff in lab coats. Down the corridor past the break room, stop at a gate and choose a doorbell button to press for for your choice of e-commerce or samples pick-up. Very friendly, very efficient, but not your mom and pop store.
Mucho envy!
And that's about all I miss in CA now; and places like weird stuff an the like. An old standby for me was Quement Electronics on Bascom Ave until I discovered Anchor electronics and some others. Anchor was always my number one go to. Years before frys sold more than groceries... Can't stand the traffic and screwball politics, can't afford the live there.
May stop at an RS to see what deals there may be but we have a couple frys here if same day need for run of the mill parts. Even these are sad compared to the original on the Lawrence expwy.
An old standby for me was Quement Electronics on Bascom Ave until I discovered Anchor electronics and some others. Anchor was always my number one go to. Years before frys sold more than groceries... Can't stand the traffic and screwball politics, can't afford the live there.
May stop at an RS to see what deals there may be but we have a couple frys here if same day need for run of the mill parts. Even these are sad compared to the original on the Lawrence expwy.
I forgot all about Quement, and don't remember when the store on Bascom closed. I think that there used to be a Jameco on Bascom as well right? Whatever it was I bought some parts there at one point. There's still an Anchor Electronics on Walsh right across from Nvidia. I remember when Fry's was half grocery store and half electronics over on Lakeshore drive, before the Lawrence store opened. The Computer Literacy bookstore has been gone for a while, but one of the last technical bookstores "Digital Guru" is on Lawrence Expressway not too far from where Computer Literacy was located.
I was at the Sunnyvale Frys a few weeks ago and it was really disappointing.
Halted Electronics moved, but is supposedly still around. I haven't bothered to go to the new location.
Sunnyvale just lost their HRO (Ham Radio Outlet.) The Electronics swap meet which used to be located at Foothill College is now held at De Anza College.
Central Computer now carries some "maker" stuff, but it's a pretty small selection.
Yep, saw the Jameco when home on a leave. My brother worked there for a while. The Computer literacy was quite the store, not to mention irc it's proximity to a Togos.
Hit two RadioShack for about $130 total. Got their digital soldering iron and a cr@pload of parts. Mostly the more odd ones like relays etc. Wish I knew sooner. Got a kick out of the "discount" which totaled out to about $900.00. Still pretty well picked over. Couple of parallax parts in the mix, two joysticks, a servo, anda 2axis accelerometer . Probably won't get to them soon, so maybe send 'em back to Parallax?
I have a great job offer in Pleasanton CA, which I'm told is one of the most expensive places to live (housing-wise). Hard to think about leaving my paid-off house here in Torrance, 2 miles from the beach.
There are lots of less expensive homes within a short commute of Pleasanton. Pleasanton does have the top public schools, and is probably the pricier city in the Tri Valley, but there are options within just a few miles that are more affordable. The beach may be a bit far, but Yosemite, the Sierras and Parallax are just a few hours away :-)
Oh, my local Radio Shack in Livermore is not closing, but is taking in inventory from closing stores and selling it at 20-30% off... Not many Parallax products left though.
The Store I work for is in that limbo category. Don't know when I wont have a job!
Jim
Ran into a "loaner" from another local store stated to be last to close, good outlook, hoped he can get a couple good deals. Erco shouId have had the price checked to get true price. I picked up their solder station for under $30, two parallax accelerometers for about $3 each, and a scrap load of parts.
Another sad "gone but not forgotten" tale: the Heathkit store. There were 36 retail stores, 7 in California. I visited the Los Angeles store on Flower Street several times in the mid-1980s to drool over the HERO 2000 robot that never moved. I always asked for a demo and they didn't know much about it. I offered to work there part-time and program it to do stuff, they declined. ~1987 Heathkit slashed the price on HERO Jr to where I could afford one, which I picked up from that same store. Around 1989 the stores closed. I visited another one in Anaheim and ended up coming home with a HERO 2000 for $1000. Pretty good day.
I miss Heathkit! I got my first learn-to-solder kit from there! It was PCB with an R2D2-like silkscreen and a couple blinking LEDs. My father managed the store in Virginia Beach. I vaguely recall that he wrote little productivity programs to help sell their computer. When Heathkit folded, he just kept on writing software for other systems.
The good news is that Digikey, Mouser etc are quite good.
Recently I ordered from Digikey.ca at around 5:30pm. FedEx dropped off my order the next day around 1pm, free shipping too (>$200 of parts)
Mouser was also good, about 36 hours from order to delivery.
I'm green with envy. Mouser, Digikey, even Jameco now, are in practice unavailable to me due to insane shipping costs. You need an oscillator? That'll be $1 plus $50 shipping, thank you very much. (As it happens, I need three.. and that's exactly what only Digikey & co. can provide. Not ebay.)
Off to local RS to scoop up some last chance deals. May be the last time I'm ever in an RS (tears). Isn't there a saying, The early bird catches the hobbyists. Opens at 10:00am, half the day is gone. That might of had something to do with their downfall.
I miss Heathkit! I got my first learn-to-solder kit from there! It was PCB with an R2D2-like silkscreen and a couple blinking LEDs. My father managed the store in Virginia Beach. I vaguely recall that he wrote little productivity programs to help sell their computer. When Heathkit folded, he just kept on writing software for other systems.
Yes, Heathkit had some good stuff, my HZ100 with 10Mb hdd is a long gone memory, it took almost 30 years to kill my DMM (lcd finally failed), and I still use my triple voltage power supply for my current bench to work on prop and other projects... Guess people have lost interest in building something themselves. May be part of why RS has finally come to the end of the road.
I went to my RS store yesterday in Atlanta and it had a giant banner out front they said store closing. I asked if all Atlanta stores were closing too he said none were it was just a sales trick to bring people in for the "closing sale". He said don't worry we will be here.
Radio Shack.com is having a serious sale. The merchandise disappeared pretty fast from my local store. I bet most of the high end products got sent back to the warehouse.
I typed in the zip code for Atlanta in the store finder at radioshack.com and got a list of 10 stores within 25 miles. 5 of them are listed as closing. Of the 5 stores that are closing, 3 locations will continue on as a Sprint store.
Comments
R.I.P. RadioShack
Still it would be nice to go to a ham fest or visit some of those old buildings with an electronic parts store that's been there forever.
I still know of a place like that, it's an hour and a half away.
I have a great job offer in Pleasanton CA, which I'm told is one of the most expensive places to live (housing-wise). Hard to think about leaving my paid-off house here in Torrance, 2 miles from the beach.
I didn't buy anything. I've seen better prices at previous Shack sales. The only thing that tempted me was this Hexbug robot kit, $50 down to $30. But after watching this video, the legs move kinda weird and appear to drag more than lift. Pass.
Also $30 after discount is this huge VEX robot arm kit. But per this girl's cute video, no motors are included! Purely manual operation by twisting knobs. No thanky.
At least the sale girl told me she had a job starting on Saturday. I wished her luck.
Jim
@RS_Jim: Sorry to hear, good vibes your way. Both clerks I talked to said all Shacks are closing, is that true across the board?
Thanks for the good wishes
Jim
And that's about all I miss in CA now; and places like weird stuff an the like. An old standby for me was Quement Electronics on Bascom Ave until I discovered Anchor electronics and some others. Anchor was always my number one go to. Years before frys sold more than groceries... Can't stand the traffic and screwball politics, can't afford the live there.
May stop at an RS to see what deals there may be but we have a couple frys here if same day need for run of the mill parts. Even these are sad compared to the original on the Lawrence expwy.
I forgot all about Quement, and don't remember when the store on Bascom closed. I think that there used to be a Jameco on Bascom as well right? Whatever it was I bought some parts there at one point. There's still an Anchor Electronics on Walsh right across from Nvidia. I remember when Fry's was half grocery store and half electronics over on Lakeshore drive, before the Lawrence store opened. The Computer Literacy bookstore has been gone for a while, but one of the last technical bookstores "Digital Guru" is on Lawrence Expressway not too far from where Computer Literacy was located.
I was at the Sunnyvale Frys a few weeks ago and it was really disappointing.
Halted Electronics moved, but is supposedly still around. I haven't bothered to go to the new location.
Sunnyvale just lost their HRO (Ham Radio Outlet.) The Electronics swap meet which used to be located at Foothill College is now held at De Anza College.
Central Computer now carries some "maker" stuff, but it's a pretty small selection.
Hit two RadioShack for about $130 total. Got their digital soldering iron and a cr@pload of parts. Mostly the more odd ones like relays etc. Wish I knew sooner. Got a kick out of the "discount" which totaled out to about $900.00. Still pretty well picked over. Couple of parallax parts in the mix, two joysticks, a servo, anda 2axis accelerometer . Probably won't get to them soon, so maybe send 'em back to Parallax?
There are lots of less expensive homes within a short commute of Pleasanton. Pleasanton does have the top public schools, and is probably the pricier city in the Tri Valley, but there are options within just a few miles that are more affordable. The beach may be a bit far, but Yosemite, the Sierras and Parallax are just a few hours away :-)
Oh, my local Radio Shack in Livermore is not closing, but is taking in inventory from closing stores and selling it at 20-30% off... Not many Parallax products left though.
dgately
Ran into a "loaner" from another local store stated to be last to close, good outlook, hoped he can get a couple good deals. Erco shouId have had the price checked to get true price. I picked up their solder station for under $30, two parallax accelerometers for about $3 each, and a scrap load of parts.
The good news is that Digikey, Mouser etc are quite good.
Recently I ordered from Digikey.ca at around 5:30pm. FedEx dropped off my order the next day around 1pm, free shipping too (>$200 of parts)
Mouser was also good, about 36 hours from order to delivery.
Yes, Heathkit had some good stuff, my HZ100 with 10Mb hdd is a long gone memory, it took almost 30 years to kill my DMM (lcd finally failed), and I still use my triple voltage power supply for my current bench to work on prop and other projects... Guess people have lost interest in building something themselves. May be part of why RS has finally come to the end of the road.
https://www.radioshack.com/
http://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-radioshack-stores-closing-2017-3