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Who doesn't love a good deal?
If you do, it's time to head on over to your local RadioShack. The iconic retailer is now selling the last of its remaining office supplies as part of a liquidation process brought by a bankruptcy filed in March, and everything must go.
RadioShack is peddling pretty much everything it still owns, including some very questionable items like these waterlogged clipboards (for only 50 cents!) and a giant 50 gallon trash can that frankly has no business being anywhere except for a suburban mall. Still, it's super cheap, so why not pick one up if you have the space for it?
Source: Gizmodo
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RadioShack in Liquidation Process is Selling Musty Old Clipboards for Only 50 Cents
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
It's not reality that's important, but how you perceive things.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday May 28 2017, @12:55AM (17 children)
Will people be content with online only electronic components shopping or will there be a new business opportunity for some entrepreneur to sell those over the counter?
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Sunday May 28 2017, @01:17AM (9 children)
All today's consumer wants is a phone, phone case, and phone charger.
You could get those at Radioshack (up until its demise). Or at the Sprint store. Or Verizon etc.
But if you already have the phone you can get the case and charger at Ross Dress for Less. Throw in a set of steak knives and glassware. That's a better experience than Radioshack.
If you're nerdy enough to need electronic components, you'll figure out how to find them on Alibaba or wherever. All Radioshat could do for you is add employees trying to direct you to overpriced garbage.
Interesting experiment: Walk into Best Buy [cbsnews.com] and find the most obscure shit they have. Or try to test the knowledge of the employees.
Dangerous experiment: Invest in Circuit City [cnbc.com].
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 28 2017, @02:16AM (5 children)
1970 vs 2010 and beyond?
Radio Shack was where I went to learn about stuff. It was the only place to find stuff. Need a radio tube, so you go down to Radio Shack, if the clerk wasn't busy, he would direct you to your specific tube - otherwise, you wandered the aisles. Either way, you wandered about on the way from the bin with your tube, back toward checkout. "Ooooh, what is THIS doo-hickey?" "Gotta have that book!" "Ahh-HA - the hardware store doesn't have these screws, I need four of them!"
Walking into Radio Shack was always educational. Often times, you met another customer who would explain something, or introduce you to his own interests.
I suppose the internet itself has replaced that aspect of Radio Shack. Today, I'm exposed to more in a day on the internet, than I was in a year's time at Radio Shack.
Long story short, it's a different world today. I have fond memories of Radio Shack, but I also remember that everything was overpriced. Once Amazon and Ebay came along, I was able to find anything and everything cheaper online.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28 2017, @02:30AM (4 children)
Educational for its time, but only a fool would learn anything about electronics today. Everything is made in China, so unless you want to go to China and get a job in China, you're wasting your time and money in electronics, and anything you do will be at most a hobby. Substitute "China" with "India" and "electronics" with "software" and the everything is still true. Only a fool would learn anything about software today. Unless you want that volunteer coder job for ShitstainFakeNews and sleep in a ditch and eat out of dumpster, better get that MBA and suck cock to the top, kiddies!
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday May 28 2017, @02:56AM
> Everything is made in China, so [...]
Apple have done rather well for themselves by hiring contract manufacturers in China for electronic items that are designed elsewhere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28 2017, @09:02AM (2 children)
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday May 28 2017, @09:17AM (1 child)
One reason: Our hearts are in it.
Same reason some people like to paint, while others make music. Some like Sudoku. We are all different and all of us seem to come pre-wired to enjoy certain things. One man's cup of tea in another man's glass of swill.
These passions are not pursued for monetary gain. Pursuing it makes us happy.
To do this kind of stuff expecting to gainfully employed? Don't fool yourself. Others will have you up to your neck in debt for "training".
Amidst a sea of us who do this for fun.
If you need income for , say , supporting a family , better go with something business will pay for. MBA, Law, Finance, Insurance, Real Estate. Suit and Tie, Handshake jobs. Jobs where you are "paid like a gentleman" for telling someone else to do the work. There is big money in finding the lowest cost provider of whatever the business needs. The providers themselves are in a mad race to the bottom. You do not want to be there.
You know there is a real shortage of technical professionals when you see businesses sponsoring kids through school in order to secure their services after training.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday May 28 2017, @01:24PM
True!
(Score: 2) by Some call me Tim on Sunday May 28 2017, @04:02AM (1 child)
I went to a Home Depot looking for a "squirrel cage" type fan. I asked the guy that worked the HVAC department if they carried them and he said I'd probably have to go to a farm supply store for something like that. I just shook my head and walked away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX-GodOlUuU [youtube.com]
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28 2017, @04:23AM
Your mistake was talking to the regular joe-blow workers. If you know what you need, always go to the "trade," "pro," or "contractors" desk. They'll run an inventory check for you, order if necessary and will usually give you a discount for having to wait for the special order.
(Score: 2) by deadstick on Sunday May 28 2017, @02:09PM
Eewww...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28 2017, @01:31AM (1 child)
Their selection was shit though. I need SMD parts and replacement capacitors with actually common values.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28 2017, @09:12AM
If you need SMD parts, you buy them by the tape. If something built using smd parts breaks, you throw it away.
Equipment meant to be repairable, is built using through hole components.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28 2017, @02:03AM
Ebay or Amazon has components.
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Sunday May 28 2017, @12:52PM (3 children)
Here in the UK, RadioShack (trading as Tandy) used to have a significant "high-street presence" but they were bought out by a mobile phone dealer in 1999 (probably because their high street locations were more valuable than the electronics biz). Maplin, originally a mail-order outfit with only a handful of showrooms (their catalogue was essential hardcore nerd porn in the 1980s and was a hobbyist-friendly version of the big commercial component catalogues) expanded somewhat into the void - not as big a network as RadioShack had, but most major cities now have a branch. The downside of that is that, in the process, they "evolved" into something a lot more more like ~1990s Tandy than the original Maplin. Still, yeah, there's somewhere in most decent-sized towns where you can go to buy a NE555, a 150k Ohm resistor, 3m of coax and a BNC connector over the counter...
Whether that would have happened if Tandy had gone titsup in 2016 rather than 1999 I don't know: online makes so much sense as a way of selling electronic components vs. trying to keep stock in lots of local stores.
Plus, I confess, its a long, long time since I needed a NE555 and a 150k Ohm resistor...
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday May 28 2017, @01:26PM (1 child)
What is the Tandy business model or focus?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28 2017, @02:22PM
Bankruptcy :P They were like Radio Shack but worse. They used to bag up single components (single LED's and IC's) and sell them for massive markups, which they could do in the '80s when there was no other high street retailer. They'd also sell rebranded imported electronics; games, stereos and computers. Maplin sprung up to replace them and impressively had the parts I asked for last time I was in there (about 4 years back). Businesses who need a component 'now' use RS Components (started as Radio Spares -- nothing to do with Radio Shack) who have a decent catalogue and trade counters around the UK.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28 2017, @02:32PM
Me too... the difference being that I do electronic repairs as a hobbyist and have 100s of each in stock. Tandy just wasn't going to compete. [ebay.co.uk]