8mm Forum


  
my profile | my password | search | faq | register | forum home
  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» 8mm Forum   » General Yak   » So Long Radio Shack! (Page 1)

 - UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!  
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2 
 
Author Topic: So Long Radio Shack!
Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted March 08, 2015 04:46 PM      Profile for Steve Klare   Email Steve Klare   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
They’ve closed our Radio Shack!

(-and a lot of the rest of them too…)

 -

I’ll have to admit, as personal tragedies go, this is pretty light-duty stuff, but it does mean something to me. I’ve been messing around in electronics pretty steadily since I was in elementary school. It was just batteries and bulbs at first. As I got older I got technical instruction in high school, then engineering college then years out in industry. I started out as a hobbyist, but later it was just my job. These past few years I’ve started to build circuitry at home for myself again: a lot of it because of collecting film.

It’s a strange kind of loss when somebody closes your parts store: Nobody understands! I say to my wife “What am I supposed to do if I need an op-amp or a transistor?” She says “……what?”

(Full disclosure: I don’t understand her stuff either! “Exfoliant? Don’t you need your ‘foliants’?”)

There’s a bigger meaning here too. A big part of what’s up here is a decline of hobbies in general. There was a time when people built things in their spare time just for the satisfaction. That guy drilling your molar went to dental school (You certainly hope he did…), but when he got home he be might be building a model ship after dinner (Dentists have the best small tools!). Your accountant might be halfway through a Heathkit ham radio: in a year he’d have his antenna on the roof and be talking to somebody else’s accountant an ocean away. People had dark rooms and wood shops, sewing machines and engine hoists: all for the joy of it.

This is healthy stuff: something that you can accomplish that comes with the burst of endorphins we all need when things go right, yet without the deadlines and the stress the same things would have if they became jobs. (Why I stopped doing electronics at home for twenty years…)

Hobbies aren’t dead: there are still basements with trains in them. Oils are still being applied to canvasses in parks. I even know a couple of people running little movie theaters in their homes.

-They just aren’t as big as they once were.

It's as if we are leading such a fast paced, 24 hour a day lifestyle It’s really hard for somebody to slow down and take the time to carve a wooden bird or learn to make stained glass.

-to me that’s a shame!

P.S. Don’t be too concerned about me getting my wires, switches , resistors, plugs, jacks and more exotic stuff…there’s still internet!

 -

--------------------
All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

 |  IP: Logged

Andrew Woodcock
Film God

Posts: 7477
From: Manchester Uk
Registered: Aug 2012


 - posted March 08, 2015 04:50 PM      Profile for Andrew Woodcock         Edit/Delete Post 
Tandy as they were called here in the UK Steve, all closed down many many years ago sadly. This is very sad news indeed in your home town Steve. I don't believe people play around fixing things these days Steve in the manner we did as kids and indeed are still doing to this very day.

It has become a very dumb down throw away world sadly.
If I ever try to teach anybody aged 19 to 25 be it at home or even in work how things actually work....they just appear totally uninterested and I don't believe myself to be that bad a person to learn from where all things engineering are concerned.

I truly connect with your every sentiment on this Steve,I was totally fascinated visiting Tandy's as a kid.
Anything that "works" all by itself has always caught my imagination and you are so so correct about today's pace of life, it is simply relentless and doesn't give anything to a person's creativity while ever we have to compete with the speed of a computer and the energies of a robot!

Maybe we created our own downfall as mere human beings!

--------------------
"C'mon Baggy..Get with the beat"

 |  IP: Logged

Brian Fretwell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1785
From: London, UK
Registered: Jun 2014


 - posted March 08, 2015 04:56 PM      Profile for Brian Fretwell   Email Brian Fretwell   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Yes, we still have Maplin in the UK, but they are much more general nowadays and push finished goods.
Mind you they sell A1/259 lamps at a reasonable price.

 |  IP: Logged

Clay Smith
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 144
From: El Cerrito, CA, USA
Registered: Jan 2014


 - posted March 08, 2015 05:50 PM      Profile for Clay Smith   Email Clay Smith   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
A couple of weeks ago I asked the manager of our local Radio Shack in Albany (CA) if they were part of the downsizing and he emphatically said no. But I fear that may not be the case for long. Very well said Steve.

 |  IP: Logged

Guy Taylor, Jr.
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 606
From: Galveston, Texas, U.S.A.
Registered: Mar 2007


 - posted March 08, 2015 07:34 PM      Profile for Guy Taylor, Jr.     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I hate to see this. I love Radio Shack. I will always be a "brick and mortar" supporter when it comes to retail.

--------------------
Guy Taylor

 |  IP: Logged

Joe Vannicola
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 108
From: Lincoln, DE, USA
Registered: Feb 2014


 - posted March 08, 2015 09:47 PM      Profile for Joe Vannicola   Email Joe Vannicola   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I liked Radio Shack when they sold Tandy products, before selling out to another company. In the seventies, I looked forward to getting the Radio Shack catalog and reading the President of the company's Flyerside Chats as they were called. It gave the company a face, so to speak, instead of being a faceless corporate entity.

--------------------
Joe

 |  IP: Logged

Graham Ritchie
Film God

Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006


 - posted March 09, 2015 02:08 AM      Profile for Graham Ritchie   Email Graham Ritchie   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I guess a lot of hobbies, are also in decline due to the older age group that support many of them are now simply dying off.

I agree we are moving way to quick, I remember when I came to NZ everything was shut in the weekends except a dairy. People had the weekends off, to enjoy time spent with there families, to go fishing, camping, all that kind of stuff. Now that's all gone, the shops are open every day, people working all hours just to pay the bills. Finding the time for hobbies is just not there anymore...the world has gone nuts.

 |  IP: Logged

Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007


 - posted March 09, 2015 03:22 AM      Profile for Maurice Leakey   Email Maurice Leakey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Further to Brian's comment about Maplins.
Note that their A1/259 lamps have a round end where the pins are, and as such, they do not fit in some projectors which have a slot-in lamp holder. These require lamps which have a rectangular end.

--------------------
Maurice

 |  IP: Logged

Andrew Woodcock
Film God

Posts: 7477
From: Manchester Uk
Registered: Aug 2012


 - posted March 09, 2015 03:32 AM      Profile for Andrew Woodcock         Edit/Delete Post 
Very valid point raised there Maurice.

I only ever buy Osram lamps so I have no experience with Maplins for lamps, though I have used them for other items occasionally.

--------------------
"C'mon Baggy..Get with the beat"

 |  IP: Logged

Dave Groves
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 508
From: Southend on Sea, Essex, UK
Registered: Feb 2015


 - posted March 09, 2015 04:54 AM      Profile for Dave Groves     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
It isn't only hobbies that are suffering. Fewer folk cook anything these days. When I tell folk my wife makes rice puddings and I make Yorkshire puddings every Sunday they want to come for lunch. It's all instant everything. We have little patience anymore and you can't build a boat without it.

--------------------
Dave

 |  IP: Logged

David Ollerearnshaw
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1373
From: Penistone Sheffield UK
Registered: Oct 2012


 - posted March 09, 2015 06:49 AM      Profile for David Ollerearnshaw   Author's Homepage   Email David Ollerearnshaw   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The MTV thing, everythings fast cut. I remember Tandy here in the UK. Also Maplins before they had shops were mail order, from I think Southend on Sea I could ring them on Monday and most times it came next day.

After my problems last year I try to chill out more. Hoping to get started with my 8 year old son the model railway setup.

--------------------
I love the smell of film in the morning.

http://www.thereelimage.co.uk/

 |  IP: Logged

Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted March 09, 2015 09:21 AM      Profile for Steve Klare   Email Steve Klare   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Carpe Dium, David!

My son is 12 and I've been saying that since he was about 5!

(I mean it every time I say it, too!)

We fight the thing with cooking in my house too. My wife makes an effort to have a really nice home cooked dinner every Sunday night. We turn all the screens and speakers off, we sit down at the table together, and we enjoy it.

I have this tiny coffee pot I use to heat water when we go hiking. It has the basket and stem in it, so just for laughs I tried using it to percolate coffee a couple of weeks ago. It's much more of a process than the Keurig, but the coffee is great!

--------------------
All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

 |  IP: Logged

Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005


 - posted March 09, 2015 12:13 PM      Profile for Osi Osgood   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I miss them too. I used to hang out in the store all the time when I was growing up, (I've ALWAYS been a tech geek, so to speak, understanding little, but admiring it, just the same).

It's kind of like what is happening with Sears and Montgomery Ward. That used to be the neat thing, ordering something especially for you from a catalog from all over the world.

Now you can do it with a click of the mouse over the internet.

Sigh, I just miss those earlier ... simpler days.

--------------------
"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

 |  IP: Logged

John Hourigan
Master Film Handler

Posts: 301
From: Colorado U.S.A.
Registered: Sep 2003


 - posted March 09, 2015 02:23 PM      Profile for John Hourigan   Email John Hourigan       Edit/Delete Post 
I used to eagerly await Radio Shack's new catalog each year during the 1970s. Radio Shack had a good run, dating back to its founding in 1921. But time marches on -- and thank goodness. While it's nice to occasionally (the operative word being "occasionally") look back on the days of yore, I wouldn't trade the convenience and vast selection available today that the Internet affords from the comfort of one's own home.

 |  IP: Logged

Alan Rik
Film God

Posts: 2211
From: New York City, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted March 09, 2015 03:11 PM      Profile for Alan Rik   Email Alan Rik   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I used to like the Radio Shack stores when they had knowledgeable people working them. I would go in and ask them for some LED's and they would ask what I was going to use them for. I would tell them to light up a model airplane or whatever and they pointed me in the right direction. The last time I went in I asked the salesperson if they had any heat sink paste for computer repair.
The salesperson pointed me to the back of the store and said, "Yo. If we have it, its back there."

 |  IP: Logged

Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted March 09, 2015 03:40 PM      Profile for Steve Klare   Email Steve Klare   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
You were lucky to find knowledgable people there.

I walked into a big 'shack one time and asked the manager if they stocked power transistors.

He said:

"No, but we got radio-control poodles."

The trouble I ran into is that things became more digital based even the more knowledgeable people knew cell phones and tablets, and had no clue about all the weird stuff with wires poking out in the drawers at the back of the store.

I brought in a DIN loudspeaker plug not too long after I got my first sound machine and asked if they had them. The guy behind the counter had never seen such a thing. This at a store that was all about audio at one time.

They were still useful: you just needed to be able to work the catalog and later the website.

Any Alumni of the Battery Club here? What a club: no meetings, no dues, just batteries!

--------------------
All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

 |  IP: Logged

Dominique De Bast
Film God

Posts: 4486
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jun 2013


 - posted March 09, 2015 04:51 PM      Profile for Dominique De Bast   Email Dominique De Bast   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Wa had also Tandy stores in Belgium until the American company decided in 1993 to leave Europe (except UK). You're Lucky in the US to have had Radio Shack until 2015.

--------------------
Dominique

 |  IP: Logged

Bryan Chernick
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 654
From: Bothell, WA, USA
Registered: Mar 2010


 - posted March 09, 2015 06:38 PM      Profile for Bryan Chernick   Email Bryan Chernick   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
Any Alumni of the Battery Club here? What a club: no meetings, no dues, just batteries!
I was in the battery club, we missed you at the meetings [Smile]

I think Radio Shack died when they diminished the electrical components to a few drawers in the back and started concentrating on "radio-control poodles" and cell phones. The internet is a much better market for electrical components, you just have to wait for it to be shipped. I wonder when they sold their last vacuum tube?

 |  IP: Logged

Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted March 09, 2015 09:04 PM      Profile for Steve Klare   Email Steve Klare   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I bet if I dig through the stuff I brought here when we got married I'd find the membership card!

I think Radio Shack found its moment during the citizen's band radio craze in the mid-late 1970s. You'd go there and they had all the stuff: mobile radios, base stations, cabling, antennas.

-Yet I bought a new car in 1988 and the thought of putting a CB in there never occurred.

My big supplier these days is Digikey. It's true: I order the stuff and it's here in just a few days. There's just certain things like project boxes you really need to see first hand because The drawings aren't detailed enough, and there's always some 1K resistor that becomes 4.7K after you've tested the thing you've built.

-It's nice to have a parts pusher 10 minutes away!

[ March 09, 2015, 10:34 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]

--------------------
All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

 |  IP: Logged

Michael De Angelis
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1261
From: USA
Registered: Jul 2003


 - posted March 10, 2015 12:01 AM      Profile for Michael De Angelis   Email Michael De Angelis   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote:
People had dark rooms and wood shops, sewing machines and engine hoists: all for the joy of it.
Very true. My sister bought fabric and patterns to make clothes. She made me a jacket, and a pair of pants, and I built her a Grandfather Clock as a gift.

--------------------
Isn't it great that we can all communicate about this great
hobby that we love!

 |  IP: Logged

Paul Adsett
Film God

Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted March 10, 2015 07:01 AM      Profile for Paul Adsett     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Just look around. Everywhere you go today, restaurants, movie theaters, shopping malls, airlines, ships, everybody are slaves to their smart phones. They are literally addicted to these devices to the extent that there is no space for anything else, such as hobbies, in their lives.
As Grahame says, the whole world has gone crazy.

--------------------
The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj

 |  IP: Logged

Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted March 10, 2015 08:07 AM      Profile for Steve Klare   Email Steve Klare   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The thing I see that young people are doing is that they still do creative things, but they do it within the boundaries of software. This is constrained creativity: they can't ever exceed the original intent of the software designers.

Even Lego comes with instructions these days!

Following a set of instructions is a critical skill, but the world also needs people that can think outside the box: create things that started between their own two ears and maybe think of ways of doing things that didn't exist before they showed up.

The world also needs people that can do something, fail miserably at it, learn from their mistakes and fix them, and be wiser next time. That's how progress is made.

That kid down the street that put a radio controlled plane through your picture window isn't just building model planes, but developing a mind capable of causing, and then solving problems.

It's better than the kid who builds the thing on a screen that can't self detonate, who is never stuck to take it apart and figure out what went wrong.

--------------------
All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

 |  IP: Logged

Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005


 - posted March 10, 2015 02:08 PM      Profile for Osi Osgood   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
" Radio Controlled Poodles "

I don't know why, but I find that hilarious!

I remember as a kid eagerly awaiting the Sears Christmas catalog, as a good one third of the catalog was just toys, and I would spend hours looking at all the stuff we couldn't afford, but it was fun to imagine!

--------------------
"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

 |  IP: Logged

Trevor Adams
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 763
From: Auckland,New Zealand
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted March 10, 2015 02:43 PM      Profile for Trevor Adams   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
We used to buy our "xmas hamper" from Sears-even when we lived on Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf.Example-A big box containing,a Daisy model 300 BB rifle,a toy sewing machine,a whole farmyard built into a suitcase,a new set of cutlery and a candy floss machine!!! Great catalogs,great days.Think I was always a mail order devotee-evidenced by my Cineflash and DUX toy projectors from the 1940s...........At one time,Johnson Smith would mail a Keystone hand-crank projector,in it's steel case,to New Zealand-no postal cost!Of course it took 3 months to get here on some tramp steamer! [Wink]

--------------------
Trevor

 |  IP: Logged

Graham Ritchie
Film God

Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006


 - posted March 10, 2015 05:31 PM      Profile for Graham Ritchie   Email Graham Ritchie   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I remember a small electrical business that was once across the road from the cinema, that guy could fix anything TVs, computer , stereos.... anything. However in todays world, so much stuff does not get repaired "its not worth it" but rather replaced. So where does that leave that skilled tech guy, who is trying to make a living out of it? Once upon a time his skills were highly sought after but not anymore....sad really.

In the end he could not afford the rent as his margin to make a profit was declining...so he closed. The same goes for a camera shop in the paper today, that after 36 years in the business is also closing, as most folk now take photos on the phones then onto there computer etc. So that seems to be another type of business that's in decline.
I agree with Paul, people are addicted to all this stuff, you do see it everywhere.
 -

 |  IP: Logged



All times are Central
This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2 
 
   Close Topic    Move Topic    Delete Topic    next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:

Visit www.film-tech.com for free equipment manual downloads. Copyright 2003-2019 Film-Tech Cinema Systems LLC

Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM 6.3.1.2