Adafruit now owns Radio shack!

https://Instagram.com/p/BZ7Km6uBy9y/

meh.

Hi,
I think she owns some RadioShack memorabilia.

Tom.. :slight_smile:

Well the comment from Colin to the picture is:-

radio shack's proud new owner

That patch panel [shudder].

msssltd:
That patch panel [shudder].

Yep. 'Wall of Shame' material.

Hi,

Henry_Best:
Yep. 'Wall of Shame' material.

Can someone Fritzing-ize that? :wink:

travis_farmer:
sorry, didn't read the Instagram, but does this mean we will be seeing some local/semi-local Adafruit retail stores? that would be particularly handy, when in need of some basic parts/modules/boards in a hurry.

~Travis

I think Radio Shack has already proven that not to be a terribly viable business model in most places now that the internet is a thing. I'm sure it works in a few large markets, but for the most part it has been dismal for them.

Of course I had a good feeling that Radio Shack wouldn't be with us much longer back in about 2004 when I went there to get a CB part and the guy looked at me like I had 3 heads and said, "We don't sell Radio stuff".

Radioshack didn't sell stuff for makers. They lost their identity. They started selling cell pones and headphones and gadgets. When times got tough they forgot who they were, that's what happened. They also had too many stores. Like, 10 per city in my area.

I dont even think they sold Arduino's in stores around here. I went there once to get a npn logic level mosfet and the dude looked at me crosseyed. The margins on electronic compoents are obscene when you get into small quantities.

Microcenter is a adafruit type store for makers, it seems to be doing OK.

Qdeathstar:
Microcenter is a adafruit type store for makers, it seems to be doing OK.

Oh I'm sure they do fine in the large markets. But you can't do that everywhere Radio Shack once was and expect to survive.

Radioshack didn't sell stuff for makers.

Well, they tried, briefly. By then, the only employees they had (and the only ones they knew how to hire) were cell phone salesmen :frowning:

does this mean we will be seeing some local/semi-local Adafruit retail stores?

We don't know what it means. It probably means that she managed to pick up a neat mounted plaque at the latest RS Bankruptcy auction (which made the press already for including various "company memorabilia" type things: 18 Fascinating Items From RadioShack's Corporate Memorabilia Auction)

I am excited by this! I was a big fan of Radioshack back in it's Tandy days, you could get all kinds of stuff there (and their catalog still lists a lot of it, even though you won't find any of it in the stores.) To celebrate, I put my 1974 Realistic speakers back into service:

Hi, Must dig my Realistic Pro31 scanner out.
s-l500.jpg

It travelled many miles with me when I was a travelling tech, had a cradle for it and extension speaker.
Made a 12V to 8V adapter to charge the Nicads.
Listened to many bushfires and the constabulary.

Tom.... :slight_smile:

s-l500.jpg

TomGeorge:
Hi, Must dig my Realistic Pro31 scanner out.
s-l500.jpg

It travelled many miles with me when I was a travelling tech, had a cradle for it and extension speaker.
Made a 12V to 8V adapter to charge the Nicads.
Listened to many bushfires and the constabulary.

Tom.... :slight_smile:

Right!?

I got nowhere as much use from mine as you did - it was my dad's, and he left it to me when he died. There weren't many analog channels left when I got it.

Hi,
We can still listen to the emergency services on good old VHF/UHF FM.
Yours has many more memory channels.

Tom... :slight_smile:

TomGeorge:
Hi,
We can still listen to the emergency services on good old VHF/UHF FM.
Yours has many more memory channels.

Tom... :slight_smile:

Yes, and forest fire crews as well as airport transit vehicles. I haven't used it for a few years, cause the cheap plastic of the battery door clasp broke, and I never superglued it back together. I have the pieces though!

I never really learned how to fully use it. I was more thrilled that my dad wanted me to have one of his most prized possessions.

But I also have lots of other stuff from Radioshack:


I still use both the above items, the Micronta meter is mostly replaced with a Fluke 75, and the literature is a teaching resource.

I'm really hopeful that Limor and Co. can bring Radioshack back to it's former glory. As for the business model no longer being viable, I don't know. Fry's electronics seems to do a brisk business with former Radioshack customers. And Adafruit is very well respected. I'm all for it!

Nice collection, over here they were called Tandy.

I still have the Mini Engineer books. Those were great read back in the 80s. I am not sure if I have complete set or close but I do have many

ChrisTenone:
Fry's electronics seems to do a brisk business with former Radioshack customers.

The issue with the business model wasn't the types of products. It was the size and number of stores serving those products. Fry's does good, but you don't see them in small towns. They're big stores in big markets. Hell, I've got to drive 6 hours to find the closest one. You have to have a critical mass of people who need electronics components. There were too many Radio Shack stores that served some small town where there were three or four people that actually built their own stuff. It worked back when people used to fix their own TV sets and stuff. But in this disposable society today it just can't survive. They tried to get things that more people wanted, ie cell phones, but they were already playing from behind and never really convinced people that's what they were now. And then the internet came along and the only time even a maker like me went to Radio Shack was when I absolutely positively had to have that part right now today.