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Posted by jsw on July 7, 2008, 6:39 pm
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It seems like Radio Shack has always been the Rodney Dangerfield
of electronics shops. No respect !!
Radio Shark, Radio Shaft, Radio Schlock ... ad infinitum.
To tell the truth, it's not all undeserved. It's about the only
store I know where the average customer knows far more about the
products than the average employee !!
My only real gripe with RS, and I admit that this is picky, was
ca. 1970s when they INSISTED on a mailing address on the ticket
for each and every purchase. The clerks had all kinds of excuses
for it - LOL. I would often scribble in 'Richard Nixon, 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue' and eventually the manager at one shop
started saying 'Hello Mr. Nixon' when I walked in. ;-)
However (comma) if you needed a 4.7k resistor on a Sunday evening,
you could always find it there ... (Where was Fry's back then ??)
And then there was the Battery A Month Club !!
How many battery cards in how many names did you have ?? ;-)
I don't think I ever bought a battery at retail during that
promotion.
Lifetime guarantee tubes ?? Do they still honor that ?? ;-)
>There used to be a chain out of Long Island, Lafayette Radio. I
>believe they're gone.
They had their main store out in Syosset, IIRC, and branches
scattered about. The one I remember best was the one in midtown
Manhattan, roughly 45th. and 6th. IIRC. They had most of the
Lafayette house line, a fairly well stocked component counter,
and all kinds of specials and surplus things on tables out front.
RS didn't have the monopoly on disrespect. Lafayette was well
known as 'Laff-At-it'. ;-)
And then there was Olson ... and yes, Allied.
Anybody else remember Burstein-Applebee ??
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Posted by MC on July 8, 2008, 6:42 am
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> To tell the truth, it's not all undeserved. It's about the only
> store I know where the average customer knows far more about the
> products than the average employee !!
The root of that, of course, is that most towns do not have any real
electronics experts who will work for retail-store wages. So you take what
you can get.
I appreciate Radio Shack for making electronics known, and available, to a
much wider range of people than would otherwise be possible. In the
pre-Radio-Shack era, we could only get parts from the local TV repair parts
jobber, which was much less experimenter-friendly.
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Posted by MC on July 8, 2008, 6:42 am
If you were Registered and logged in, you could reply and use other advanced thread options > To tell the truth, it's not all undeserved. It's about the only
> store I know where the average customer knows far more about the
> products than the average employee !!
Of course, that's simple economics... Few electronics experts are willing to
work at retail-store wages. The expert salesmen work at the big industrial
electronics wholesalers where their expertise translates into big sales. At
Radio Shack, you take what you get -- and it's a lot better than not having
convenient stores in every town!
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Posted by Michael Grigoni on July 8, 2008, 6:43 am
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<snip>
> RS didn't have the monopoly on disrespect. Lafayette was well
> known as 'Laff-At-it'. ;-)
>
> And then there was Olson ... and yes, Allied.
>
> Anybody else remember Burstein-Applebee ??
>
I remember it as Burnstein-Applebee; and then there were dozens of
surplus outfits like (spelling) Herbach-Rademann, Fair Radio, and
J.J.Glass, the well-known L.A.-based surplus house that
had lots of military radar stuff. In 1975 or so I visited that store
and found that it was being run by the widow who was trying to
close out remaining inventory prior to closure. Of course all
around So. Cal. there were dozens of surplus yards full of
military, aerospace and computer surplus of the highest order
selling for very small prices.
FWIW, there was a tube collector and trader by the name of
Sy Spector in the L.A. area who had anything containing a vacuum
for a long time.
Michael
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Posted by AES on July 8, 2008, 6:43 am
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>
> To tell the truth, it's not all undeserved. It's about the only
> store I know where the average customer knows far more about the
> products than the average employee !!
>
I don't think you've ever been to Fry's!
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