Arduino At RadioShack...ITS ABOUT TIME

Well its finally here, RadioShack (not so much RadioCrap anymore) has made another big leap towards becoming hobbyist friendly. There prices are good too, I'm starting to like them again.

I drove over 20 miles to get to the nearest Radio Shack that is supposed to be stocking Arduino stuff. All they had was the "Getting Started with Arduino " book and one of the Arduino books from Make Magazine. No hardware. :frowning:

If you want Arduino hardware you might want to call ahead to see if they have anything.

I suggested Arduino to my local RadioShack but, I think the hobbiest part of the business is fading away. The owner was somewhat interested but, I don't think it went any farther.

Well the one(s) around here, at least the one I frequent about 2 months ago started selling kits to build simple things with and PICAXE (ugg), now the say there going to start carrying the UNO, the MEGA, SD shield, and Ethernet Shield. I just got the flyer in today, looks cool.

Note the manager and 2 of the staff are long time hobbyist, so they personally want RadioShack to become better than when it started.

I went to the Shack tonight and they not only had the Uno and Mega but PIR and Sonic Range Sensors, some motor control versions or shields. The prices were high but I am used to that with the Shack. The clerk seemed interested in the stuff but I wouldn't say hobbiest.

It was nice to see they game in with a nice selection, not just one arduino and buck each LEDs, but some actual shelf space.

I noticed this about two days after I bought my first ever Arduino. The shelf price I believe is $34.95 fo the R3 UNO. With the convenience of being able to walk into the store and get it, this is an awesome price.

My big hangup with the Shack is that they cell great proto boards and they cell some pretty good project enclosures but they don't mate up. This is ridiculous.

Mori:
Well its finally here, RadioShack (not so much RadioCrap anymore) has made another big leap towards becoming hobbyist friendly. There prices are good too, I'm starting to like them again.

I can get the Veleman kits cheaper online. The Arduino is more expensive and breadboards are more expensive.

When you go to Radio Shack, you are paying the rent for the store and whatever the cashier makes. The mall near us wants half of what the store makes.

The managers are intelligent but they're in their own world.

As I said in a different post but also about RadioShack selling Arduino, it's not about the price, it's about the exposure of arduino to people that never heard of it. You know arduino, move along, get a clone or something as your second arduino. But to those in the dark, arduinos at radioshack will bring them into the light, for some extra dollars, of course.

They got em here. If they move then I'll have to see if I can get the manager thinking about bootloading AVR's for sale, make some extra cash and if it spreads then there will be place to get a bootloaded AVR in a pinch. Just have to convince them that they should support their own products, for a price.

liudr:
As I said in a different post but also about RadioShack selling Arduino, it's not about the price, it's about the exposure of arduino to people that never heard of it. You know arduino, move along, get a clone or something as your second arduino. But to those in the dark, arduinos at radioshack will bring them into the light, for some extra dollars, of course.

The shame of it is that they are in the business to just be in the business whereas others support their product. I bought a soldering iron there that was too big to do through hole soldering. The prices there are an example of gouging. Their parts drawer has not been restocked at my local store for months. Mall stores don't carry a full line of parts because you have to go to a strip mall for that where they have 4X the number of part drawers. Most of their cashiers are clueless when it comes to doing anything with microcontrollers. They don't have a good answer for what Arduino is and it will be the day when they have a table with someone teaching Arduino in their stores.

I study prices and I can get the stuff cheaper online. The only way I would buy from a Radio Shack is if I was desperately needy for a part.