The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home | Hacker News Reader

The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

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99 pointspg52 comments

http://www.sparkfun.com/ - Best place on the web IMO. Great resources and support. They are incredible. The founder started the company right out of college (CU Boulder). He gave a talk in a kick-ass embedded design course I was taking in CU. I think they've been around for 6-8 years and had been growing at 100% every 6 months for a while. Don't know how it they are doing right now (pretty well I'm sure). The web site is always chock full of nicely organized articles and videos.

Agreed. Their CEO Nathan Seidle gave a talk in one of my classes at CU and seems like a great guy. We also took a tour of Sparkfun and their facility is really amazing. They have a great selection of parts/gadgets available for "hardware hackers".

The internet and Digi-Key replaced RadioShack for me a long time ago.

Digi-Key sells everything, and will let you buy in onesies and twosies without screwing you on the price. Maybe Monoprice for cables, but that's rare.

The one time I needed a DB-9 gender changer in a hurry and paid freaking $20 for it was the day I decided I was done with RadioShack. You served a great purpose, dear friend, but times have changed. I still have my Pocket PC-1 for the memories.

It's not the same as walking into a physical store. You get an awful lot of ideas by looking at what's available, kind of improvisation engineering.

I am very happy to live within walking distance from São Paulo's "electronics district" (it's called Santa Efigênia, for the name of one of the streets around which lots of electronics (some of very uncertain origin), component and junkyards abound. Many items carry heavy import taxes and counterfeit items are sold on the street. I tend to go to the adjacent streets where the least mainstream stores are located. Those are far more interesting.

Walking there is always an expedition to a strange land. I usually get the stuff I planned to get, but often with lots of stuff I didn't knew I needed when I left home.

I know physical stores cannot compete with the internet and its zero-friction-commerce, but those places will be missed when they go.

I think emerging economies in the world would take much stronger to the original concept of Radio Shack. Since we've grown a "throw away instead of fix" economy, the U.S. doesn't create nearly as much demand anymore... But there are plenty of places that would.

Sadly, "trow away instead of fix" is becoming the norm for any electronic device. Working with SMDs by hand is doeable, but whoever can do it should go to med school and become a brain surgeon.

"throw" "doeable"... Sorry, folks. That's what I get from typing on an iPod before I wake up.

In addition to Digikey, Mouser and Newark similarly have diverse catalogs and allow single-unit orders of most parts. I've never ordered from Newark, but I do order from Digikey and Mouser, depending on who has the best price and availability on whatever it is I'm buying.

http://www.mouser.com/ http://www.newark.com/ (and a clickable link for Digi-key: http://www.digikey.com/)

You might like http://octopart.com, which searches all those sites.

I will definitely support a YC company and use Octopart next time I need to compare prices, and tell my EE friends about it. However, it seems to lack a few features that I'd need to use it to discover new components (such as the ability to compare ADCs by word size and sample rate or other category-specific attributes), and the TOS prohibition against deep linking seems overly restrictive considering there's an API (what if I want to link to an Octopart category from a parts list on an open project's web site?). I look forward to seeing what Octopart becomes, and what others do with the API.

Thanks for the feedback - you're right, the TOS prohibition was overly restrictive, we've removed the deep-linking clause. As far as attribute comparison, we are constantly trying to add more attribute data into our system, but we're still lacking in that department. We do have some data on sample rates for adcs though: http://octopart.com/partbrowser#search/requestData&start...

(this link is to our new partbrowser interface - we've been working on designing a new interface specifically with engineers in mind)

If you have any other suggestions or ideas, definitely let us know.

I'm impressed by the quick response. I did find the part browser through a link from your blog, but somehow missed the sample rate attribute in the Add Column list (I guess I assumed it would be an Integer attribute). This is some very nice work. I wish you the best of luck and hope to use Octopart in my own quest for entrepreneurial success.

Don't forget the Yellow Bible! http://www.mcmaster.com/

“You walk into a regular RadioShack and it’s become like a neurosis,” Cohen says. “‘Sir, can I sell you a cell phone today? How old is your cell phone? What about your family, do they have cell phones?’”

Depressingly true. Of course they have to worry about the bottom line, but I really doubt the long-term future viability of becoming a mini Best Buy - if all they sell is mid-priced consumer goods, I have no incentive to buy there rather than on eBay for.

Where they are really useful to me are for speedy supply of things like batteries, media, and accessories (eg specialist cables) which I might need at short notice and in unusual quantities or configurations (compared to consumers). I have a feeling that that won't last, though.

I've mostly solved the cable problem using monoprice.com. They are about 25% the price of a radioshack or other intown store. So when I place an order I buy 3 of everything I might need and keep them in a box, including a couple really long examples of each cable. It's cheaper for me to keep inventory than to buy local. I use the long ones temporarily if I run out of "right length" and swap when the next order comes in.

The best part is I don't have to listen to the nice young men try to upsell me to gold plated connectors. It has lower resistance! I swear I'll sprain my eyes if I have to keep rolling them like that.

Don't miss the iPhone sync cables at 1/12th Apple's list price. You know your family needs these.

Upvoted for how relevant this solution is to my own cable needs. I definitely don't miss the cashier trying to convince an electronics entrepreneur with engineering in the blood that 6' $80 HDMI cables have a noticeable quality difference. Still, I haven't found a good source for prototype project boxes in Radio Shack's price range.

Can anyone recommend a low-cost rapid-prototyping plastic case manufacturer?

http://www.budind.com/ http://www.boxenclosures.com/ http://www.polycase.com/

Polycase is carried by Allied (www.alliedelec.com) and has some inexpensive, decent quality plastic boxes for around $3-4. I thought of those immediately after reading your post.

I was reminded of why I don't go into Radio Shack when I had to go get a watch battery there the other day. They keep trying to foist a cell phone off on me. If I had wanted a cell phone I would have said "Hi, I would like to buy a cell phone." not, "Hi, I need a replacement for this battery." Do people actually buy phones because of this tactic? It's just plain rude to try to sell me a phone multiple times when I've already made it clear that all I want to do is buy a battery.

Edit: After rereading this, I think I've turned into a crotchety old man at 23. I'm half surprised I didn't wave a cane at the whippersnappers and tell them to get off my lawn.

> Do people actually buy phones because of this tactic?

Yes. While I worked at RadioShack almost 10 years ago, asking about cellphones would frequently net me a sale and a large cash bonus. At the time, I would get an extra bonus (in addition to the cellphone bonus) for selling cellphone accessories, too, so if the customer said "actually, my cellphone battery has been running pretty low..." or "the clip keeps falling apart!" I could usually sell my way into an extra $15-20 cash in my pocket.

I don't remember exactly how much I made, but asking these questions were both required by managers (I can guarantee there's a piece of paper printed weekly in the back room of every RadioShack with the handset count per employee) and lucrative enough to double the base pay.

Yeah. I don't mind one sales inquiry - they are salespeople, after all, and I do find most RS staff helpful and knowledgeable about the consumer goods - but it does cross the line into being pushy at times. It's a shame, because I've always liked RS for having competitive prices on some of the geekier things, and think it's a mistake to focus too much on the consumer goods.

For example, when I got into DJing back in my 20s I was grateful to find my first cheap mixer there, and I still make regular use of my Radio Shack decibel meter, which works just as well but is way cheaper than competitors' models (about $50 rather than $90 for the next cheapest, or ~$200 and up - way up - for other models).

I don't really understand their buying policy any more either. They offer a bunch of cheap bad camcorders, but the popular pocket camcorders like the Flip Mino line, for which they are a natural outlet, are only available via the website. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, given their current identity crisis, trying to brand themselves simultaneously as the reliable old Radio Shack you know and love, and 'The Shack', which causes me to flinch in anticipation of being hit by a basketball every time I hear it.

I quit going to Radio Shack for batteries when I discovered they didn't have anything any more exotic than what was at Wal-mart for a fraction of the cost. And Wal-mart has better hours.

Wal-mart is bad for my blood pressure. 15 checkout stands, only one of which is ever open, with a mile and a half long line, employees that are no where to be found, and when you can find one he/she doesn't know anything. I can't go in there anymore.

"But his shop is a lone outpost; in a single generation, the American who built, repaired, and tinkered with technology has evolved into an entirely new species: the American who prefers to slip that technology out of his pocket and show off its killer apps. Once, we were makers. Now most of us are users."

So humbling and true. Most people will throw out any given piece of technology rather than try and repair it. And speak of building something yourself, that's practically unheard of. Maybe it's only people around me who think and act this way, but I'm 22 and all these people aren't going anywhere.

So you're probably too young to remember Heathkit, then. That's what separated the men from the boys.

I really don't agree with this. Maybe we were able to fix simple electronics. Now, you really have to know what you are doing to mess with an iPhone (and willing to void the warranty). I don't see anything bad with the trend. Most people wouldn't have "made" anything before, and they won't now. There are just more users in general.

I doubt that is true. What would the ratio number_of_people_capable_to_repair_TV_set/number_of_people watching_TV compare to number_of_people_programming_for_smartphones/number_of_people_using_smarphones? My guess is that the latter is much bigger.

Maybe the trick is to think outside the mass consumer box.

My small town (pop 30,000) has a electronics parts store (part of a regional chain of 5 in Tennessee) that seems to do well catering to contracters in electronic-related fields (security, A/V, electricians, medical, etc). So, when I shop there, there's a different feel and more paperwork than a consumer-level store like Rat Shack. (Also free popcorn.) But they still have shelves and shelves, and bins and bins of board-level parts. Just look at these pics. http://shieldselectronics.com/bpics.htm

Really? There isn't a link to http://www.octopart.com here?

Goddammit folks! Go find your parts on Octopart and help a YC company out.

Why isn't Digi-Key in the vendor list? That would help. Otherwise, very very nice site. Will use more often!

We'd love to get Digi-Key on the vendor list but they've chosen not to list with us yet. Please let them know you want to see them on Octopart: webmaster -at- digikey.us

oddly enough, there is a market for do-it-yourself still. I don't know how big, but interest in sparkfun, make magazine, makerbot, and arduino signifies it's anything but dead to me.

Limor Fried (founder of Adafruit) gave an ignite talk that was posted a few days ago. From the looks of it, most Open Source Hardware outfits are grossing around a million a year.

http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/05/03/million-dollar-baby-...

That's precisely where Radio Shack should be focusing its effort. They should outfit their stores with high-end 3d printers and fabrication machines and retool themselves as a sort of Hardware Kinko's. Someone's going to fill that niche Real Soon Now, regardless.

It's still too soon.

That said, when it is time, Radio Shack can always move into that space too. However, what's more likely is that fab machines will come down in price quickly enough that people can have their own.

Larger 3D printers are still a bit off. The mechanics get increasingly tricky when you move beyond a certain size.

That said, modern ink-jets would be marvels of precision mechanics when I was in college. Things change in a decade or so.

Sooner than you may think [1]. And we all have printers in our home, but even now go to specialty shops for our more exotic or higher volume jobs. Why would it be any different with 3D printing? And since, in this vision, they'll also be stocking all the electronics prototyping hardware, they'll be a one-stop shop for the emergent DIY robotics scene. Radio Shack should absolutely be planning for this now if they have aspirations in this direction.

[1] http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=3d+printer+cost+dro...

Here's a link to the non-paginated version: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/04/ff_radioshack/all/1

When I was in high school in the late '90s, I found an old discarded TRS-80 Model 4 that apparently still worked. I wanted to tinker with it, but it had no hard drive, and I had no software, so I walked into the local Radio Shack store, and asked the manager if they still supported the TRS-80.

The manager special ordered a copy of TRS-DOS on 5.25" floppies from the Tandy warehouse at no charge, gave me a catalog of the software and peripherals still available, and told me to come back whenever I needed support or information about the system.

It's a pity they're no longer like this. They can't really compete against Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, and all of the online consumer electronics stores, and now they no longer really serve the niche that was the basis of their original success. I'll miss Radio Shack.

It's a classic story of management by managers. You just can't hire any generic executive and expect it to work. If all the manager knows is management, all the manager will see are numbers. Some things are the soul of the company.

We don't expect a psychiatrist to be able to run a restaurant.

Fry's.

Period.

It's a west coast thing, but it should be a clue that the first one was in the heart of Silicon Valley. Aisle after aisle of computer components, electrical components, and truly random stuff (Mace next to hard drives, LED glowsticks next to cases, etc).

An electrophile's dream.

Fry's are not all the same. The only one that has a decent components section is in Palo Alto. Other stores, in San Jose, Mountain View etc do not have anything.

There is no Fry's in Mountain View. You probably mean the one in Sunnyvale. Which has a freaking original Varian Magnetron.

Really? It's fairly rare that I'm able to find anything I'm looking for at Fry's (in Palo Alto). I've had better luck at Jameco. Better yet? Online (if I'm not in a hurry).

Here's some nostalgia for all. Its all the Radio Shack catalogs from the wayback in a beautifully done from.

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/index.html

Anyone remember Heathkit? The real DIY shop?

There has to be room to fill this gap. Radioshack still has some cables I've needed, but it's missed some as well: ie- mini sata cables for slim optical drives.

I'll second the recommendation of SparkFun as heir apparent, and add Make magazine.

SparkFun is awesome, but sometimes I need to have that electronic piece right away so I can finish my project this weekend. It would be awesome if there was enough of a market to have electronics parts stores in most cities.

I highly recommend You-Do-It Electronics Center in Needham, MA for those in the Greater Boston metro area. It's better even than the golden years of Radio Shack. If you need parts, this is your store.

http://www.youdoitelectronics.com/

Edit: added link

Edit: moved comment from top-level to this thread; seemed more apropos

Until I went in, I had imagined You-Do-It as like a make-your-own pottery type of place, except with instructors and kits showing you how to make radios and toasters instead of pottery. This idea was very exciting to me...

I am currently employed at a retail startup in Seattle that could be described this way!

http://www.metrixcreatespace.com/

Wow, this looks amazing. I wish there was a Boston branch!

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