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They used to be real useful.
It was the same for building any kind of electronical gewgaws, and not just for show folk -- they were the one place you'd be sure to find the adapter to go between the whozymawhatsis and that freaky interface on the bit of foofaraw that only one OEM used for a while in 1985, that you just happened to have sitting in the back of the closet and you didn't want to have to replace it with a new one.
But the last few years, they've turned into a low-rent cell phone store with a few random dusty computers.
I think this is where I pull out that Onion article: [link]
Ha! My fav from that article is:
"I know one thing," Day continued. "If Sony and JVC start including gold-tipped cable cords with their products, we're screwed."
I'm trying to remember the last thing I bought at Radio Shack. I think it was some kind of cable. There was definitely a time in my life when it was fun to go in there. I may have been 10.
I'm guessing 90% of the time they don't have what we need.
I'm guessing two years since we've been in one and walked out with something. It might be more like 5 years though.
I think that I went in there looking for a battery, and as I recall, the guy pissed me off so badly that I left without buying anything.
I bought a massively overpriced power cord for my laptop there this year, only because it was New Year's Eve when the old one crapped out on my and I couldn't go the entire weekend with no internets.
They're abandoning their core market of ham radio enthusiasts.
They lost that market years and years and years ago. You'd have a hard time getting the parts for a crystal radio there, let alone a ham set.
There was definitely a time in my life when it was fun to go in there. I may have been 10.
I still have fun in a Radio Shack.
Okay, maybe "fun" is overselling it a bit, but I have cause to go into Radio Shacks all the time. I cannot count the number of times we've needed some particular part for a show and the nearest Radio Shack was the closest available place to go.
And I have no problems blowing off obsequious RS staff.
Yeah, we go to Radio Shack a lot, still, generally for overpriced cable adapters.
But I do remember when it was a destination, full of nifty bits of things you could plug into other things.
And also, that I always got followed around in there, just like my Navajo buddies. Dude! I'm not going to steal your pseudo autonomous robot dinosaur! What am I going to do, stick it up my shirt?
