#RADIO SHACK

[foone]

Does anyone remember what happened to Radio Shack?

They started out selling niche electronics supplies. Capacitors and transformers and shit. This was never the most popular thing, but they had an audience, one that they had a real lock on. No one else was doing that, so all the electronics geeks had to go to them, back in the days before online ordering. They branched out into other electronics too, but kept doing the electronic components.

Eventually they realize that they are making more money selling cell phones and remote control cars than they were with those electronic components. After all, everyone needs a cellphone and some electronic toys, but how many people need a multimeter and some resistors?

So they pivoted, and started only selling that stuff. All cellphones, all remote control cars, stop wasting store space on this niche shit.

And then Walmart and Target and Circuit City and Best Buy ate their lunch. Those companies were already running big stores that sold cellphones and remote control cars, and they had more leverage to get lower prices and selling more stuff meant they had more reasons to go in there, and they couldn't compete. Without the niche electronics stuff that had been their core brand, there was no reason to go to their stores. Everything they sold, you could get elsewhere, and almost always for cheaper, and probably you could buy 5 other things you needed while you were there, stuff Radio Shack didn't sell.

And Radio Shack is gone now. They had a small but loyal customer base that they were never going to lose, but they decided to switch to a bigger but more fickle customer base, one that would go somewhere else for convenience or a bargain. Rather than stick with what they were great at (and only they could do), they switched to something they were only okay at... putting them in a bigger pond with a lot of bigger fish who promptly out-competed them.

If Radio Shack had stayed with their core audience, who knows what would have happened? Maybe they wouldn't have made a billion dollars, but maybe they would still be around, still serving that community, still getting by. They may have had a small audience, but they had basically no competition for that audience. But yeah, we only know for sure what would happen if they decided to attempt to go more mainstream: They fail and die. We know for sure because that's what they did.

I don't know why I keep thinking about the story of what happened to Radio Shack. It just keeps feeling relevant for some reason.

[yodaprod]

Radio Shack, Garden Grove CA (1987)

Source: Youtube/Prancing Skiltaire

[kasperl-ruprecht]

GENTLEMEN

BEHOLD

AN OPERATIONAL RADIO SHACK

IN THE YEAR 2023

Found in Monroe Wisconsin.

[oldguydoesstuff]

Old Radio-Shack-shaped radio from Radio Shack (go figure). From 1979, apparently mine and found by my dad recently but no memory of it.

AM only but put batteries in and it works great!

[unbfacts]

[humanoidhistory]

Radio Shack's TRS-80 computer, released in 1977.

[thegikitiki]

The Biggest Name in Little Computers...

[technician-the]

Radio Shack Mini Amplfier - Speaker

I use this little speaker with my synth setup, it runs on a 9 volt, and is a nice little throw in for my cable box. Its not a great speaker, but its very portable.

Apparently I forgot to post this?

[found-in-retro-game-mags]

TRS-80 Color Computer

"Practical Advice from Isaac Asimov" (Video Games #1, Aug. 1982)

[fuzzyghost]

[stone-cold-groove]

A Guide to Cellular Telephones. Radio Shack catalog circa 1986.

[atomic-chronoscaph]

TSR-80 Microcomputer (1982)

[yodaprod]

1973

[retrocgads]

USA 1993

[warpedwings]

Misha Collins and Jensen Ackles through the years before Supernatural.

1987/1989

Misha in school play (1987).

Jensen in Radio Shack commercial (1989).

2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1992 1991 1990 1985 1982 1978

[lonelyrollingstar]

Next we have this Lobo LX80, a third party expansion interface for the Tandy TRS-80. Nothing super cool, but they did misspell “BUS” on the side