6 ms·

I'm sad to see Radio Shack so far from the "builders" market. I had to run to RS this weekend to try to find a part, only to find 3 salespeople who had no idea

I'm sad to see Radio Shack so far from the "builders" market. I had to run to RS this weekend to try to find a part, only to find 3 salespeople who had no idea of how components or soldering worked. They seemed amazed that I would actually design my own circuits, while I look at what I am doing and consider it to be a bit amateurish. :(

jey 10y ago
You could move to Berkeley, where we still have Al Lasher's Electronics right in downtown with knowledgeable staff.
- coreyp_1 10y ago
  I'm @ Notre Dame. I have to use Amazon and eBay. :)
- StavrosK 10y ago
  The main problem is that, if the staff know about how to design circuits, why are they working at an electronics store?
  - nitrogen 10y ago
    Commission? Or maybe it's just a hobby?
    - michaelt 10y ago
      I can't imagine there's much commission to be made selling a Raspberry Pi :)
  - im_down_w_otp 10y ago
    There are lots and lots of knowledgeable people who are also very, very bad at the self-promotion that's necessary to get high-paying jobs in "industry".
- milesokeefe 10y ago
  Unfortunately that's the only component shop in town. IIRC I couldn't even find one in SF to my amazement. Kudos to Al Lasher's though, there's few places like that still around.
drzaiusapelord 10y ago
I think the remaining ones are just cell phone and battery kiosks that happen to be full sized stores. Up until a couple years ago, the two near me had full sections dedicated to discrete components, arduinos, etc. The old school Radio Shacks had all that stuff for decades until the internet killed them. Now its just a retail junk store. > They seemed amazed that I would actually design my own circuits Well, you're dealing with people with retail jobs. They probably aren't meeting a lot of engineers or makers. They spend their days arguing with housewives and children over cell phone contracts and fees.
- jmspring 10y ago
  Standard General bought Radio Shack and it's assets and has been working with moving Sprint into some of the stores (like the one here in Santa Cruz). http://www.businessinsider.com/standard-general-buys-radioshack-for-262-million-2015-5?r=UK&IR=T http://www.businessinsider.com/standard-general-buys-radiosh... At least locally, we have Santa Cruz Electronics which has a decent assortment of components. It is no Quement's, etc. though from back in the day.
- ayuvar 10y ago
  In Canada, Bell purchased Radio Shack and rebranded it. It has pretty aggressive cell phone upselling, and we missed out on the arduino/makerspace stuff that the US Radio Shack was embarking on a few years ago.
mikestew 10y ago
They seemed amazed that I would actually design my own circuits That shouldn't surprise you, RS employees have never had electronics knowledge. I forget the details, but as one example I remember a conversation while trying to get a replacement battery for a cordless phone for a friend of my girlfriend at the time (who is now my wife, meaning it was well over 20 years ago). Again, forget the details, but employee argued that it couldn't be the battery because "blah blah blah". It holds a charge for 34.6 seconds after charging it overnight and then has about 0.2V, what do you think the problem might be, oh Electronics Wizard? Back when employees would at least try to pretend to be knowledgable, they'd argue with you if you made the mistake of letting them know what you're building. "You're building a FooBar? No, no, you need a WhatsaHoosit." You mean this article from a guy who forgets more about electronics than you and I will ever know is wrong? EDIT: that said, when I went to buy some resistors a few weeks ago to fake a display on our headless Mac OS build server, a couple of bucks got me a card of five of them. So I don't know what is missing from supplying the "builders" market.
- phil21 10y ago
  > So I don't know what is missing from supplying the "builders" market. It's an extremely small selection, compared to what it was in the early 90's (that I remember - and I remember older folks complaining about how far it had gone down hill even then). There just is no store I can wander around these days (or series of stores) where I can visualize exactly what I need to build some project. For example I needed recently to put some electronics in a waterproof outdoor box, and cable it up nice with proper waterproof conduit. For someone who has done that sort of thing 500 times for work, you know exactly what to order and what everything is called and how it will fit. For someone who never has I really miss just being able to go to a hobby/electronics store and actually see the components I'd need to put something together - usually modifying my plans in the process as I see what is available I never knew existed before. This makes "making things" really hard for the beginner and removes a ton of spontaneous "lets just figure it out and get it done" type of projects - at least for me. There is no store to run back to to swap out that $1.50 component I bought the wrong part number of. Minutes/hours of latency to days at best.
  - 10y ago
jcurbo 10y ago
I find it interesting that you still thought of RS as a choice. Has there been a RS you could go to for components or soldering stuff any time recently? I haven't seen one that wasn't more than just an electronics store like Best Buy in over a decade if not more.
- slewis 10y ago
  There was one on Mission St in San Francisco until last year. Expensive but worked in a pinch for basics (through-hole capacitor kits for example).

jey 10y ago

You could move to Berkeley, where we still have Al Lasher's Electronics right in downtown with knowledgeable staff.

coreyp_1 10y ago
I'm @ Notre Dame. I have to use Amazon and eBay. :)
StavrosK 10y ago
The main problem is that, if the staff know about how to design circuits, why are they working at an electronics store?
- nitrogen 10y ago
  Commission? Or maybe it's just a hobby?
  - michaelt 10y ago
    I can't imagine there's much commission to be made selling a Raspberry Pi :)
- im_down_w_otp 10y ago
  There are lots and lots of knowledgeable people who are also very, very bad at the self-promotion that's necessary to get high-paying jobs in "industry".
milesokeefe 10y ago
Unfortunately that's the only component shop in town. IIRC I couldn't even find one in SF to my amazement. Kudos to Al Lasher's though, there's few places like that still around.

drzaiusapelord 10y ago

I think the remaining ones are just cell phone and battery kiosks that happen to be full sized stores. Up until a couple years ago, the two near me had full sections dedicated to discrete components, arduinos, etc. The old school Radio Shacks had all that stuff for decades until the internet killed them. Now its just a retail junk store. > They seemed amazed that I would actually design my own circuits Well, you're dealing with people with retail jobs. They probably aren't meeting a lot of engineers or makers. They spend their days arguing with housewives and children over cell phone contracts and fees.

jmspring 10y ago
Standard General bought Radio Shack and it's assets and has been working with moving Sprint into some of the stores (like the one here in Santa Cruz). http://www.businessinsider.com/standard-general-buys-radioshack-for-262-million-2015-5?r=UK&IR=T http://www.businessinsider.com/standard-general-buys-radiosh... At least locally, we have Santa Cruz Electronics which has a decent assortment of components. It is no Quement's, etc. though from back in the day.
ayuvar 10y ago
In Canada, Bell purchased Radio Shack and rebranded it. It has pretty aggressive cell phone upselling, and we missed out on the arduino/makerspace stuff that the US Radio Shack was embarking on a few years ago.

mikestew 10y ago

They seemed amazed that I would actually design my own circuits That shouldn't surprise you, RS employees have never had electronics knowledge. I forget the details, but as one example I remember a conversation while trying to get a replacement battery for a cordless phone for a friend of my girlfriend at the time (who is now my wife, meaning it was well over 20 years ago). Again, forget the details, but employee argued that it couldn't be the battery because "blah blah blah". It holds a charge for 34.6 seconds after charging it overnight and then has about 0.2V, what do you think the problem might be, oh Electronics Wizard? Back when employees would at least try to pretend to be knowledgable, they'd argue with you if you made the mistake of letting them know what you're building. "You're building a FooBar? No, no, you need a WhatsaHoosit." You mean this article from a guy who forgets more about electronics than you and I will ever know is wrong? EDIT: that said, when I went to buy some resistors a few weeks ago to fake a display on our headless Mac OS build server, a couple of bucks got me a card of five of them. So I don't know what is missing from supplying the "builders" market.

phil21 10y ago
> So I don't know what is missing from supplying the "builders" market. It's an extremely small selection, compared to what it was in the early 90's (that I remember - and I remember older folks complaining about how far it had gone down hill even then). There just is no store I can wander around these days (or series of stores) where I can visualize exactly what I need to build some project. For example I needed recently to put some electronics in a waterproof outdoor box, and cable it up nice with proper waterproof conduit. For someone who has done that sort of thing 500 times for work, you know exactly what to order and what everything is called and how it will fit. For someone who never has I really miss just being able to go to a hobby/electronics store and actually see the components I'd need to put something together - usually modifying my plans in the process as I see what is available I never knew existed before. This makes "making things" really hard for the beginner and removes a ton of spontaneous "lets just figure it out and get it done" type of projects - at least for me. There is no store to run back to to swap out that $1.50 component I bought the wrong part number of. Minutes/hours of latency to days at best.
- 10y ago

jcurbo 10y ago

I find it interesting that you still thought of RS as a choice. Has there been a RS you could go to for components or soldering stuff any time recently? I haven't seen one that wasn't more than just an electronics store like Best Buy in over a decade if not more.

slewis 10y ago
There was one on Mission St in San Francisco until last year. Expensive but worked in a pinch for basics (through-hole capacitor kits for example).