Local Texas Radio Shacks going out of business sale

A few weeks ago, it was announced that many of the small market Radio Shack stores in Texas would be closing. I live in a small town that has one, so I went over there today after my daughter said they had started marking merchandise down by 10%.

To cut to the chase, their flashlight selection is pretty anemic. A few Maglights, one or two Coasts, and some smaller generic LED keychains, etc. Also plenty of batteries, and a few of their own brand chargers for AA and AAA, although I've never used them.

Nothing to really get excited about if you ask me, but if they get to a 25-30% discount, it might be time to take another look. The manager said their timeline is an expected closing date around mid-July or so, so it's not exactly imminent, but worth watching.

Man, what a great business at one time that went right down hill. I use to go to radio shack like my classmates in school went to the record store. You could askthe guys who worked there anything and they could answer your question and find exactly what you are looking for on the shelves.

Then about mid 90s something changed. It seemed they fired the HAMS and other intelligent folks who worked there and hired folks with no experience what ever with electronics and it was up to you to use the catalog or wonder about to find what you want.

Then they made it ever worse a few years later by using the web to increase their inventory and it was pretty common for me to get referred to teh website for what ever I want and to order it from there.

Man.....

It would be very ironic if all the Radio Shacks in Texas went out of business considering their Corporate Headquarters are in Ft. Worth, Texas.

But i too have heard lots of them are going out of business.

Radio Shack sold all the Canadian stores to Circuit City last year. Hope they are not about to go broke again.
I missed the enthusastic types that used to populate the stores as well. Now it just feels like any other TV store in town.

Years ago I was hired by Radio Snack to train there employees basic electronics.
Not even one at first could even give the the definition of AC/DC!

I used to buy a lot of junk from them as a kid and experiment. Remember Archer Kit?

As far as decent electronics Radio Shack had a bad reputation. They were well stocked with bottom of the barrel components and had fairly high prices. Now when I walk into a "RS" I see so much has changed. I still make it a point never to buy anything branded with their name as I still associate it as junk.

The old Radio Shack/Optimus badged radios used to be pretty good, but they were all made by Sangean. Now with the exception of a few Grundig/Eton models that they're closing out, what they have looks like junk.

Geoff