[PaQSO] Radio Shack Closing Many Stores

[Mark K3MSB]

Not really any surprise.   

RS Has lost their niche market, that of providing goods for 
experimenters, for two basic reasons.  First,  there are not many 
experimenters around anymore.  Second, they're in business to make 
money, and they make more money selling cell phones than capacitors.

RS now sells cell phones and other consumer electronics and has to go 
head to head with Wallmart, Circuit City etc, and that's not easy.

I used to hit RS for resistors etc, but now I'll go out of my way at 
lunch to the local electronics store for those parts (better quality).  
Between the local place and Mouser,  I can get pretty much what I want.  
Granted I have to wait for Mouser, but that's usually not a problem.

It's always fun when one of the sales persons comes up to you when 
you're looking for a part:

Them:  Can I help you?
Me:  Yeah.  Have any 0.047uF 200V orange drops?
Them: Sir, we don't sell candy here.
Me:  Thanks.  An orange drop is a capacitor.
Them:  What do you need it for?
Me:  I'm recapping my Hallicrafters SX-101A.
Them:  A what?
Me: A radio. you know, a thing with tubes in it?
Them: Tubes?
Me Yeah, those glass thingys that light up when you plug 'em in?
Them:  Hey Jack (Yelling to his boss) do we have tubes?
Boss: Tubes?
Them: This guy needs a capacitor for his tube.
Me: No, I need a capacitor for a radio that uses tubes.
Boss:  Sir, do you need a cell phone?

73 Mark K3MSB

TwelveVDC at aol.com wrote:

>>From CNN.com  
>
>"DALLAS - Electronics retailer RadioShack Corp. on Friday said fourth- 
>quarter earnings dropped 62 percent and disclosed it plans to close 400 to 700 
>stores and two distribution centers as part of a plan to improve its financial 
>performance."
>
>Maybe no surprise to many... 
>        -de NL7XM
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