I love this thread so much. It's hard to tell if any of the pictures posted are from stores I went to as a kid because a lot of them look alike, but it's nice to just to see them again.
Trj22487, do you have any photos of any stores from the Auburn/Worcester area? I see you're somewhat local to me so was just curious.
Yes, the store teardown was that disgusting. I stepped in some old laundry detergent that had been sitting for 20 years. Took weeks to wear it off my shoes. I did, however, find a pack of basketball cards from the 1990's that I proudly saved.
The potential of finding some old crap that was left in a storage bin or under an unmoved shelf for literally decades is one of my favorite possibilities when it comes to store closures. Unfortunately it's either never happened to me, or when I do find something legitimately old, the store scans it, says it's not in their system, and won't let me buy it.
Yeah, I was hoping that a bunch of sealed Micro Machines would rain down if I removed a ceiling tile to mess with the wiring in my one store that is an old K-B. Nope, they scoured it good, or at least the Mr. Bulky and rug store that came before got 'em.
Trj22487, do you have any photos of any stores from the Auburn/Worcester area? I see you're somewhat local to me so was just curious.
At the moment these are the only shots that really stick out in my mind
Originally posted by: Trj22487
I found a few shots of the Worchester, Massachusetts Ames before/after 2002
Oh wow, I used to go to that Ames all the time as a kid! It's in Webster Square, and as your other photos show it's now a Shaws Supermarket. Thanks for posting those.
When that Ames was closing, I did drop by there but don't remember any really nice pick ups. The only thing that I can remember was a Pirates (not Sid Meier) computer game, but I don't remember it being very good and I'm pretty sure it got thrown out. The store was probably picked clean by the time I got around to going there.
Got my NES Action Set from a Service Merchandise in Waukegan, IL. It was a glorious day; my big sister bought it and I specifically remember seeing the boxed console roll out of a mysterious portal (the back room) via conveyor belt to be rang up at the register (this was after we handed them the paper slip we nabbed from the game section of course). The building still stands but obviously Service Merchandise is long gone now. It was across from a giant booming mall that has since been leveled to make way for a Wal-Mart. The mall had all the good stuff: Aladdin's Castle, Software Etc, a different arcade called Cyber Station (two arcades total!), KB toys, a WORLD OF NINTENDO kiosk where you could test games and stuff, and across the street from the mall was a Child World toy store where I bought games from and also got down on a Playchoice-10 cabinet on the regular. That building also still stands to this day with the textbook aesthetic intact, but inside houses some kind of furniture storage if I remember correctly? Anyway, these photos you posted are a trip and fully appreciated by me. I wish I had pics of all my local spots growing up before they were lost to the annals of time. Anyone on this board from Chicago northern burbs growing up in the 80s/90s? Lakehurst Mall in Waukegan was truly a quintessential mall and an epicenter for most at the time.
Service Merchandise was trippy for sure. In their catalogs they had some ridiculous price next to the real price. The fake price was like 80% over the real one. It was like, "Now, elsewhere you could pay..."
Man that Ames brings back memories. I have lived In worcester my whole life. The stores for me and I do have pics but they are too big for my phone to download on here.
Of course
Zayre
Child world
Spags
Bradlees
CALDOR
But does anyone here from worcester remember capital toys on chandler st?
That is very early for a used game store. You pretty much had to have board games and D&D books to fill it out. There weren't stores selling used Atari games since most older Atari games were available sealed for $1-3 at many stores. You could sell the tough-to-get ones like Chase the Chuck Wagon.
that Last pic ^^^ game crazy there. Use to clean up at that place. Cheaply priced rares, startegy guides all $1.99 each, picked up several SNES ones there including a earthbound one. Use to get all kinds of good deals.
No mention of Venture stores anywhere in here? The old vertical stripes black/white logo. Some of my fond memories of playing on the table top SNES kiosk and picking up games there.
A thrift I go to has old hand carry baskets and carts from various old stores....was half tempted to ask to buy a few of the hand baskets, including a venture one.
At first I was going to say Toys R Us doesn't seem to belong here since it's still open, but... nevermind. Modern Toys R Us is a shadow of its former self, especially in the video game department.
I remember buying my Genesis from there, along with Sonic 2 (because they didn't have Sonic 1). It's also where I picked up Mario Bros 3 and Yoshi. God only knows what else was on those shelves, I was only 4 or 5 and I didn't care about anything that didn't have Mario near it. There were just so many games, even though there were only two major players - they had to have had three rows of shelves + a wall of games. Yeah, the games now take up less space, but it still feels like there's way less. Maybe it's because they kept stock for both the SNES and NES?
At first I was going to say Toys R Us doesn't seem to belong here since it's still open, but... nevermind. Modern Toys R Us is a shadow of its former self, especially in the video game department.
The toy industry we knew in the '80s and '90s has been totally wrecked by Wal-Mart, tablets and video games. It's all about Early Childhood, plush and "wearables"/role play. Basically stuff that screens can't replace.
At first I was going to say Toys R Us doesn't seem to belong here since it's still open, but... nevermind. Modern Toys R Us is a shadow of its former self, especially in the video game department.
There are just so many things in the modern day that have limped to where we are, things that used to be such vital parts of Americana, yes some that still exist, that was somehow just sucked dry 15-20 years ago. It's hard to even get younger generations to believe that there used to be a genuine excitement in driving around a mountain and seeing that giant K-Mart sign or McDonalds arches off in the distance, seeing that updated 'hamburgers sold' number, or the stripes of a Toys R Us building. Maybe it's just because everything was newer, more original back then, things weren't quite as regurgitated and stripped as they are now. But there was genuinely something special to those simple occurances. I'm starting to feel pretty old when I say that I can genuinely remember when K-Mart stores actually had Grand Openings, and when you'd walk past a K-Mart cafe and the entire area would be packed with laughing, rowdy teenagers. I actually used to beg my Dad to specifically take me there for the nachos every Friday night. Were my standards just lower back then?.....no.....it was genuinely just better back then. How have Toys R Us and K-Mart existed for a decade without selling any videogames? When I was young, those stores just went hand-in-hand with checking out the best releases and the most selection. It all feels like it was a long time ago, but in reality, so much has changed in just a blink. With all of the quality of life changes we've had, I still feel sadness for the younger generation, because I truly believe in my heart that I was luckier than they are to have been born in the best time there ever was in USA. I go in a Toys R Us these days to check it out and it's almost like going to Old Navy.
Man, I remember when KMart had nachos... or a food court in general, even. I only had those nachos once, but goddamn if they weren't some of the greatest nachos I have ever had. Top notch stuff.
Also, are there actually Toys R Us stores that don't carry games? I've been into several across the country and every one I've ever set foot in still sells video games. KMart I know doesn't carry them anymore (at least, not my local one), but it seems unfathomable for Toys R Us.
A lot of stores have dropped their video game sections since the margin on new games and systems has become truly miserable. They have to dedicate that space and cash to products with actual margin.
Remember shame-free McDonald's? With the McDonaldland characters and the playground. Now mostly senior citizens eat there and parents just looking to get feeding the kids out of the way for once.
Remember shame-free McDonald's? With the McDonaldland characters and the playground. Now mostly senior citizens eat there and parents just looking to get feeding the kids out of the way for once.
Yep, I always felt like the luckiest kid in the world when one of my friends would have a birthday party there.
I miss when McDonalds had pure honey as a sauce option, that was always what I chose, of course they got rid of it...
Gettyimages actually had some pretty cool vintage shots of McDonalds
This was the oldest surviving McDonalds location in 1986, built in 1953 in Los Angeles, not some newer store made to look "retro"
This picture is actually local to me, this was the Manchester, New Hampshire McDonalds sometime in the 1980s
Here is a McDonalds in Harlem in the late 1980s
These are funny to think about these days, in 2000, Florida Burger King offers 20 minutes of internet use with purchase of meal.
Damn, you must have had to live in a hell of a city to have a Burger King netcafe. Ours were and still are some of the most outdated seeming restaurants - even after being "updated". For whatever reason though, it seemed to be the place of choice for kids to have birthday parties... I went to several and my parents had mine there at least twice because the manager was family. I ended up winning a raffle for the entire set of those Pokemon cards they had, "uncut" (but still perforated). Kind of wonder what those would be worth if I had kept them "uncut". I've never been able to resist the urge to tear along the dotted line.
... I wish I could still get a Double Cheeseburger for 99 cents. I really doubt they'd be losing money to sell them at that price, but people let them get away with the prices we have now, and they'll ride that train as long as we let them.
Radio Shack seems to clearly be on its final legs of existance. The one in my town finally closed this year, the store only had a total of THREE employees in 2017.
Just about everyone I know my age or older seems to remember one point in their life where they were at Radio Shack just about every week.
I was going back through my old photos, I still have so many that I never posted (they generally aren't that interesting or are of stores that still are around)
But here is a nice one of the Radio Shack in Forest Hills, NY in the late 90s
And here was the mall location in Lake Grove, NY
Here is a store in 2015 where when Sprint bought out the chain, they took down the current sign and found a retro logo underneath
Radio Shack seems to clearly be on its final legs of existance. The one in my town finally closed this year, the store only had a total of THREE employees in 2017.
Just about everyone I know my age or older seems to remember one point in their life where they were at Radio Shack just about every week.
I was going back through my old photos, I still have so many that I never posted (they generally aren't that interesting or are of stores that still are around)
Based on what I was reading yesterday, they're supposed to officially close all locations by the end of this month, 5/31/2017, in less than two weeks. This has hit me decently hard for several reasons, but not as hard as it would have had all of my local (within 200-miles) stores not closed during the first bankruptcy.
During my first "real" job (second job, but first one I really cared about), I worked across the hall from my local Radio Shack for ~4 years. Used to see those guys daily when they'd come over to buy lunch, shoot the breeze or I'd wander over in their direction to do the same. That store's the one that "saved" my first LCD TV--my Samsung had bad caps and I was going to either replace them that night or just buy a new set while everybody was running sales; Radio Shack had the parts in the drawer, totalling less than $4, saving me quite a bit over getting a new TV.
Once I got into electronics repair (and moreso once I was actually trained), they were my go-to spot for components and solder accessories. I still remember the shocked, blank look on an employee's face when I was out of town, my wife's car had blown a computer module, and after walking in, responded to the guy's innocent, well meaning "How can I help you" with a specific list of components and tools as long as my arm; he just pointed a shaky arm to the components in the back of the store while I zoomed off to get what I needed and my best friend's wife giggled and told him it was ok, I was like that.
Before that, I fondly remember stopping by every time I went to the mall. Even as a teenager, I'd wander through, alone or with friends, and check out all of the newest, neatest doodads and gizmos (super accurate scientific terms there, but Radio Shack afficianados will know what I'm talking about). Things definitely got more sugar coated as the years went by, with less and less of real interest showing up versus pre-packaged, ready to go items for the dumb masses. I remember being fascinated by all of the various electronics kits and "experiments," the bins of various sizes and strengths of ceramic magnets, the free comics meant to show kids what electronics was all about and how cool they could be. Remember the radiometers? The breadboard learning kits? The Armatron? The toys in those days, sometimes licensed, sometimes not, were equally awesome to me. They always had some sort of new handheld LCD game that was just as interesting and good as anything that Nintendo was putting out with the Game & Watch series. I also remember "Galactic Man," how much I played with him while my dad and brother shopped, and how my friends (back then) wouldn't believe that Radio Shack had "Shockwave" well before the Transformers ever did.
While the rest of the world was getting (back) into consoles, I remember the first real computer in our household (my brother's) coming from Radio Shack. A Tandy-1000, in all its glory. With my parents having plundered my fledgling college fund to buy a new washer & dryer they couldn't afford, my brother took note and spent his on a brand new computer, a 1MB memory/clock card (pushing it from 128k to 640k + a RAM drive!), a 300 baud modem and a handful of games, leaving less than a dollar in the account. My dad got kicked out of my brother's room and off of his computer pretty quickly (with Dad having the bad habit of playing games until the wee hours, keeping my brother up on school nights). However, even as adversarial as we were then, my brother always invited me in to watch, "help" (quotes appropriate for the earliest days) or play on the system. Thanks to that system (and the first of numerous copies of Pirates! we bought over the years), I learned to read a map, navigate via sun sight, and permanently recognize a large chunk of Florida, the Gulf region & Caribbean before most kids were willingly reading on their own.
Around the time I stopped working at the mall, a new manager had taken over my local store and shared with me the new (at that time) CEO's plans to turn Radio Shack back into the hobbyist destination that it had been in years past, bringing back the parts bins, de-emphasizing big, cheap, generic electronics (TVs, VCRs, even consoles around Christmas). Unfortunately, as I heard, stockholders and the company's board disagreed with that idea and held the company to its fast track to oblivion. I doubt it will happen, but I cross my fingers that some place will arise (nationally--I know places like Fry's exist which are similar, but are regional/non-national) to take the place of the Radio Shack of old.
TRJ, those Best Buy pic brought back some memories, I worked there from Early 02-Summer 06. I worked the media dept. (Games, Computer Software, Music & Movies) and my store looked exactly like this for the time I worked there. Only real changes was dropping N64, PS1 and Gameboy Color as the new systems rolled in. We also updated our signage and displays changed to LCD around the launch of the Xbox 360.
Also as I side note, those middle 2 McDonalds pics are definitely dated wrong. The first in your hometown has a 92-94 Mercury Grand Marquis, and the Harlem one has a 92-97 crown vic taxi and a third gen Chevy Cavalier (tailights look like 93-94). My guess is mid 90s for both.
Radio Shack seems to clearly be on its final legs of existance. The one in my town finally closed this year, the store only had a total of THREE employees in 2017.
Just about everyone I know my age or older seems to remember one point in their life where they were at Radio Shack just about every week.
I was going back through my old photos, I still have so many that I never posted (they generally aren't that interesting or are of stores that still are around)
Based on what I was reading yesterday, they're supposed to officially close all locations by the end of this month, 5/31/2017, in less than two weeks. This has hit me decently hard for several reasons, but not as hard as it would have had all of my local (within 200-miles) stores not closed during the first bankruptcy.
During my first "real" job (second job, but first one I really cared about), I worked across the hall from my local Radio Shack for ~4 years. Used to see those guys daily when they'd come over to buy lunch, shoot the breeze or I'd wander over in their direction to do the same. That store's the one that "saved" my first LCD TV--my Samsung had bad caps and I was going to either replace them that night or just buy a new set while everybody was running sales; Radio Shack had the parts in the drawer, totalling less than $4, saving me quite a bit over getting a new TV.
Once I got into electronics repair (and moreso once I was actually trained), they were my go-to spot for components and solder accessories. I still remember the shocked, blank look on an employee's face when I was out of town, my wife's car had blown a computer module, and after walking in, responded to the guy's innocent, well meaning "How can I help you" with a specific list of components and tools as long as my arm; he just pointed a shaky arm to the components in the back of the store while I zoomed off to get what I needed and my best friend's wife giggled and told him it was ok, I was like that.
Before that, I fondly remember stopping by every time I went to the mall. Even as a teenager, I'd wander through, alone or with friends, and check out all of the newest, neatest doodads and gizmos (super accurate scientific terms there, but Radio Shack afficianados will know what I'm talking about). Things definitely got more sugar coated as the years went by, with less and less of real interest showing up versus pre-packaged, ready to go items for the dumb masses. I remember being fascinated by all of the various electronics kits and "experiments," the bins of various sizes and strengths of ceramic magnets, the free comics meant to show kids what electronics was all about and how cool they could be. Remember the radiometers? The breadboard learning kits? The Armatron? The toys in those days, sometimes licensed, sometimes not, were equally awesome to me. They always had some sort of new handheld LCD game that was just as interesting and good as anything that Nintendo was putting out with the Game & Watch series. I also remember "Galactic Man," how much I played with him while my dad and brother shopped, and how my friends (back then) wouldn't believe that Radio Shack had "Shockwave" well before the Transformers ever did.
While the rest of the world was getting (back) into consoles, I remember the first real computer in our household (my brother's) coming from Radio Shack. A Tandy-1000, in all its glory. With my parents having plundered my fledgling college fund to buy a new washer & dryer they couldn't afford, my brother took note and spent his on a brand new computer, a 1MB memory/clock card (pushing it from 128k to 640k + a RAM drive!), a 300 baud modem and a handful of games, leaving less than a dollar in the account. My dad got kicked out of my brother's room and off of his computer pretty quickly (with Dad having the bad habit of playing games until the wee hours, keeping my brother up on school nights). However, even as adversarial as we were then, my brother always invited me in to watch, "help" (quotes appropriate for the earliest days) or play on the system. Thanks to that system (and the first of numerous copies of Pirates! we bought over the years), I learned to read a map, navigate via sun sight, and permanently recognize a large chunk of Florida, the Gulf region & Caribbean before most kids were willingly reading on their own.
Around the time I stopped working at the mall, a new manager had taken over my local store and shared with me the new (at that time) CEO's plans to turn Radio Shack back into the hobbyist destination that it had been in years past, bringing back the parts bins, de-emphasizing big, cheap, generic electronics (TVs, VCRs, even consoles around Christmas). Unfortunately, as I heard, stockholders and the company's board disagreed with that idea and held the company to its fast track to oblivion. I doubt it will happen, but I cross my fingers that some place will arise (nationally--I know places like Fry's exist which are similar, but are regional/non-national) to take the place of the Radio Shack of old.
When I usee to DJ we would boost needles formthe turntables from radio shack, they had stanton 500 cartridges with a realistic brand label, miles of speaker wire also
Comments
Trj22487, do you have any photos of any stores from the Auburn/Worcester area? I see you're somewhat local to me so was just curious.
Yes, the store teardown was that disgusting. I stepped in some old laundry detergent that had been sitting for 20 years. Took weeks to wear it off my shoes. I did, however, find a pack of basketball cards from the 1990's that I proudly saved.
The potential of finding some old crap that was left in a storage bin or under an unmoved shelf for literally decades is one of my favorite possibilities when it comes to store closures. Unfortunately it's either never happened to me, or when I do find something legitimately old, the store scans it, says it's not in their system, and won't let me buy it.
Originally posted by: ZBomber
Trj22487, do you have any photos of any stores from the Auburn/Worcester area? I see you're somewhat local to me so was just curious.
At the moment these are the only shots that really stick out in my mind
Originally posted by: Trj22487
I found a few shots of the Worchester, Massachusetts Ames before/after 2002
These have been on eBay for a while now and need a good home
Originally posted by: Trj22487
Originally posted by: ZBomber
Trj22487, do you have any photos of any stores from the Auburn/Worcester area? I see you're somewhat local to me so was just curious.
At the moment these are the only shots that really stick out in my mind
Originally posted by: Trj22487
I found a few shots of the Worchester, Massachusetts Ames before/after 2002
Oh wow, I used to go to that Ames all the time as a kid! It's in Webster Square, and as your other photos show it's now a Shaws Supermarket. Thanks for posting those.
When that Ames was closing, I did drop by there but don't remember any really nice pick ups. The only thing that I can remember was a Pirates (not Sid Meier) computer game, but I don't remember it being very good and I'm pretty sure it got thrown out. The store was probably picked clean by the time I got around to going there.
1990 Toys R Us
1990 Lego Kids
1994 Jr Music World
1996 Kay Bee Toys
1996 'Blur' at a toy store
1996 FAO Schwarz
1997 Toys R Us
1999 Hollywood Video Melissa Joan Hart playing Sega Dreamcast kiosk
Toys R Us Times Square 2001
WWF New York 2001 The Rock & Bill Gates
FAO Schwarz New York City 2001
2001 Target 3-Way Kiosk
Toys R Us Times Square 2002 Tiger Woods
Of course
Zayre
Child world
Spags
Bradlees
CALDOR
But does anyone here from worcester remember capital toys on chandler st?
#TheFeels
1982 Arcade in Times Square New York City
1985 Arcade in Times Square New York City
1987 Teenagers hanging out in Chicago, Illinois Arcade
1989 Convenience Store Owner playing new NARC machine
1990 Man browsing television sets in electronics store
1992 Nintendo Demonstration in France
1993 FAO Schwarz New York City
1993 Radio Shack Mall Location
1993 Sega CD Kiosk in France
1994 Chinese Pirate Shop
1995 Truckers at Pennsylvania Rest Area
2000 Sega Dreamcast vs. Nintendo 64
2001 Sears Television Department
2001 November Best Buy Videogames Section (Xbox, Gamecube, Nintendo 64, PS1, PS2 in one photo)
2002 November Best Buy Holiday Season Approaching salesman stocking SEGA products
2004 Game Crazy location in Oregon (NES & SNES games in right side glass case)
No mention of Venture stores anywhere in here? The old vertical stripes black/white logo. Some of my fond memories of playing on the table top SNES kiosk and picking up games there.
A thrift I go to has old hand carry baskets and carts from various old stores....was half tempted to ask to buy a few of the hand baskets, including a venture one.
I remember buying my Genesis from there, along with Sonic 2 (because they didn't have Sonic 1). It's also where I picked up Mario Bros 3 and Yoshi. God only knows what else was on those shelves, I was only 4 or 5 and I didn't care about anything that didn't have Mario near it. There were just so many games, even though there were only two major players - they had to have had three rows of shelves + a wall of games. Yeah, the games now take up less space, but it still feels like there's way less. Maybe it's because they kept stock for both the SNES and NES?
At first I was going to say Toys R Us doesn't seem to belong here since it's still open, but... nevermind. Modern Toys R Us is a shadow of its former self, especially in the video game department.
The toy industry we knew in the '80s and '90s has been totally wrecked by Wal-Mart, tablets and video games. It's all about Early Childhood, plush and "wearables"/role play. Basically stuff that screens can't replace.
1990 Man browsing television sets in electronics store
Ahh, Old Man Bush giving us the lowdown on Operation Desert Shield and setting the stage for decades of warfare.
Originally posted by: Allegro
At first I was going to say Toys R Us doesn't seem to belong here since it's still open, but... nevermind. Modern Toys R Us is a shadow of its former self, especially in the video game department.
There are just so many things in the modern day that have limped to where we are, things that used to be such vital parts of Americana, yes some that still exist, that was somehow just sucked dry 15-20 years ago. It's hard to even get younger generations to believe that there used to be a genuine excitement in driving around a mountain and seeing that giant K-Mart sign or McDonalds arches off in the distance, seeing that updated 'hamburgers sold' number, or the stripes of a Toys R Us building. Maybe it's just because everything was newer, more original back then, things weren't quite as regurgitated and stripped as they are now. But there was genuinely something special to those simple occurances. I'm starting to feel pretty old when I say that I can genuinely remember when K-Mart stores actually had Grand Openings, and when you'd walk past a K-Mart cafe and the entire area would be packed with laughing, rowdy teenagers. I actually used to beg my Dad to specifically take me there for the nachos every Friday night. Were my standards just lower back then?.....no.....it was genuinely just better back then. How have Toys R Us and K-Mart existed for a decade without selling any videogames? When I was young, those stores just went hand-in-hand with checking out the best releases and the most selection. It all feels like it was a long time ago, but in reality, so much has changed in just a blink. With all of the quality of life changes we've had, I still feel sadness for the younger generation, because I truly believe in my heart that I was luckier than they are to have been born in the best time there ever was in USA. I go in a Toys R Us these days to check it out and it's almost like going to Old Navy.
Also, are there actually Toys R Us stores that don't carry games? I've been into several across the country and every one I've ever set foot in still sells video games. KMart I know doesn't carry them anymore (at least, not my local one), but it seems unfathomable for Toys R Us.
Originally posted by: GCrites80s
Remember shame-free McDonald's? With the McDonaldland characters and the playground. Now mostly senior citizens eat there and parents just looking to get feeding the kids out of the way for once.
Yep, I always felt like the luckiest kid in the world when one of my friends would have a birthday party there.
I miss when McDonalds had pure honey as a sauce option, that was always what I chose, of course they got rid of it...
Gettyimages actually had some pretty cool vintage shots of McDonalds
This was the oldest surviving McDonalds location in 1986, built in 1953 in Los Angeles, not some newer store made to look "retro"
This picture is actually local to me, this was the Manchester, New Hampshire McDonalds sometime in the 1980s
Here is a McDonalds in Harlem in the late 1980s
These are funny to think about these days, in 2000, Florida Burger King offers 20 minutes of internet use with purchase of meal.
How greased up do you think those computers got?
... I wish I could still get a Double Cheeseburger for 99 cents. I really doubt they'd be losing money to sell them at that price, but people let them get away with the prices we have now, and they'll ride that train as long as we let them.
Just about everyone I know my age or older seems to remember one point in their life where they were at Radio Shack just about every week.
I was going back through my old photos, I still have so many that I never posted (they generally aren't that interesting or are of stores that still are around)
But here is a nice one of the Radio Shack in Forest Hills, NY in the late 90s
And here was the mall location in Lake Grove, NY
Here is a store in 2015 where when Sprint bought out the chain, they took down the current sign and found a retro logo underneath
Radio Shack seems to clearly be on its final legs of existance. The one in my town finally closed this year, the store only had a total of THREE employees in 2017.
Just about everyone I know my age or older seems to remember one point in their life where they were at Radio Shack just about every week.
I was going back through my old photos, I still have so many that I never posted (they generally aren't that interesting or are of stores that still are around)
Based on what I was reading yesterday, they're supposed to officially close all locations by the end of this month, 5/31/2017, in less than two weeks. This has hit me decently hard for several reasons, but not as hard as it would have had all of my local (within 200-miles) stores not closed during the first bankruptcy.
During my first "real" job (second job, but first one I really cared about), I worked across the hall from my local Radio Shack for ~4 years. Used to see those guys daily when they'd come over to buy lunch, shoot the breeze or I'd wander over in their direction to do the same. That store's the one that "saved" my first LCD TV--my Samsung had bad caps and I was going to either replace them that night or just buy a new set while everybody was running sales; Radio Shack had the parts in the drawer, totalling less than $4, saving me quite a bit over getting a new TV.
Once I got into electronics repair (and moreso once I was actually trained), they were my go-to spot for components and solder accessories. I still remember the shocked, blank look on an employee's face when I was out of town, my wife's car had blown a computer module, and after walking in, responded to the guy's innocent, well meaning "How can I help you" with a specific list of components and tools as long as my arm; he just pointed a shaky arm to the components in the back of the store while I zoomed off to get what I needed and my best friend's wife giggled and told him it was ok, I was like that.
Before that, I fondly remember stopping by every time I went to the mall. Even as a teenager, I'd wander through, alone or with friends, and check out all of the newest, neatest doodads and gizmos (super accurate scientific terms there, but Radio Shack afficianados will know what I'm talking about). Things definitely got more sugar coated as the years went by, with less and less of real interest showing up versus pre-packaged, ready to go items for the dumb masses. I remember being fascinated by all of the various electronics kits and "experiments," the bins of various sizes and strengths of ceramic magnets, the free comics meant to show kids what electronics was all about and how cool they could be. Remember the radiometers? The breadboard learning kits? The Armatron? The toys in those days, sometimes licensed, sometimes not, were equally awesome to me. They always had some sort of new handheld LCD game that was just as interesting and good as anything that Nintendo was putting out with the Game & Watch series. I also remember "Galactic Man," how much I played with him while my dad and brother shopped, and how my friends (back then) wouldn't believe that Radio Shack had "Shockwave" well before the Transformers ever did.
While the rest of the world was getting (back) into consoles, I remember the first real computer in our household (my brother's) coming from Radio Shack. A Tandy-1000, in all its glory. With my parents having plundered my fledgling college fund to buy a new washer & dryer they couldn't afford, my brother took note and spent his on a brand new computer, a 1MB memory/clock card (pushing it from 128k to 640k + a RAM drive!), a 300 baud modem and a handful of games, leaving less than a dollar in the account. My dad got kicked out of my brother's room and off of his computer pretty quickly (with Dad having the bad habit of playing games until the wee hours, keeping my brother up on school nights). However, even as adversarial as we were then, my brother always invited me in to watch, "help" (quotes appropriate for the earliest days) or play on the system. Thanks to that system (and the first of numerous copies of Pirates! we bought over the years), I learned to read a map, navigate via sun sight, and permanently recognize a large chunk of Florida, the Gulf region & Caribbean before most kids were willingly reading on their own.
Around the time I stopped working at the mall, a new manager had taken over my local store and shared with me the new (at that time) CEO's plans to turn Radio Shack back into the hobbyist destination that it had been in years past, bringing back the parts bins, de-emphasizing big, cheap, generic electronics (TVs, VCRs, even consoles around Christmas). Unfortunately, as I heard, stockholders and the company's board disagreed with that idea and held the company to its fast track to oblivion. I doubt it will happen, but I cross my fingers that some place will arise (nationally--I know places like Fry's exist which are similar, but are regional/non-national) to take the place of the Radio Shack of old.
Also as I side note, those middle 2 McDonalds pics are definitely dated wrong. The first in your hometown has a 92-94 Mercury Grand Marquis, and the Harlem one has a 92-97 crown vic taxi and a third gen Chevy Cavalier (tailights look like 93-94). My guess is mid 90s for both.
Radio Shack seems to clearly be on its final legs of existance. The one in my town finally closed this year, the store only had a total of THREE employees in 2017.
Just about everyone I know my age or older seems to remember one point in their life where they were at Radio Shack just about every week.
I was going back through my old photos, I still have so many that I never posted (they generally aren't that interesting or are of stores that still are around)
Based on what I was reading yesterday, they're supposed to officially close all locations by the end of this month, 5/31/2017, in less than two weeks. This has hit me decently hard for several reasons, but not as hard as it would have had all of my local (within 200-miles) stores not closed during the first bankruptcy.
During my first "real" job (second job, but first one I really cared about), I worked across the hall from my local Radio Shack for ~4 years. Used to see those guys daily when they'd come over to buy lunch, shoot the breeze or I'd wander over in their direction to do the same. That store's the one that "saved" my first LCD TV--my Samsung had bad caps and I was going to either replace them that night or just buy a new set while everybody was running sales; Radio Shack had the parts in the drawer, totalling less than $4, saving me quite a bit over getting a new TV.
Once I got into electronics repair (and moreso once I was actually trained), they were my go-to spot for components and solder accessories. I still remember the shocked, blank look on an employee's face when I was out of town, my wife's car had blown a computer module, and after walking in, responded to the guy's innocent, well meaning "How can I help you" with a specific list of components and tools as long as my arm; he just pointed a shaky arm to the components in the back of the store while I zoomed off to get what I needed and my best friend's wife giggled and told him it was ok, I was like that.
Before that, I fondly remember stopping by every time I went to the mall. Even as a teenager, I'd wander through, alone or with friends, and check out all of the newest, neatest doodads and gizmos (super accurate scientific terms there, but Radio Shack afficianados will know what I'm talking about). Things definitely got more sugar coated as the years went by, with less and less of real interest showing up versus pre-packaged, ready to go items for the dumb masses. I remember being fascinated by all of the various electronics kits and "experiments," the bins of various sizes and strengths of ceramic magnets, the free comics meant to show kids what electronics was all about and how cool they could be. Remember the radiometers? The breadboard learning kits? The Armatron? The toys in those days, sometimes licensed, sometimes not, were equally awesome to me. They always had some sort of new handheld LCD game that was just as interesting and good as anything that Nintendo was putting out with the Game & Watch series. I also remember "Galactic Man," how much I played with him while my dad and brother shopped, and how my friends (back then) wouldn't believe that Radio Shack had "Shockwave" well before the Transformers ever did.
While the rest of the world was getting (back) into consoles, I remember the first real computer in our household (my brother's) coming from Radio Shack. A Tandy-1000, in all its glory. With my parents having plundered my fledgling college fund to buy a new washer & dryer they couldn't afford, my brother took note and spent his on a brand new computer, a 1MB memory/clock card (pushing it from 128k to 640k + a RAM drive!), a 300 baud modem and a handful of games, leaving less than a dollar in the account. My dad got kicked out of my brother's room and off of his computer pretty quickly (with Dad having the bad habit of playing games until the wee hours, keeping my brother up on school nights). However, even as adversarial as we were then, my brother always invited me in to watch, "help" (quotes appropriate for the earliest days) or play on the system. Thanks to that system (and the first of numerous copies of Pirates! we bought over the years), I learned to read a map, navigate via sun sight, and permanently recognize a large chunk of Florida, the Gulf region & Caribbean before most kids were willingly reading on their own.
Around the time I stopped working at the mall, a new manager had taken over my local store and shared with me the new (at that time) CEO's plans to turn Radio Shack back into the hobbyist destination that it had been in years past, bringing back the parts bins, de-emphasizing big, cheap, generic electronics (TVs, VCRs, even consoles around Christmas). Unfortunately, as I heard, stockholders and the company's board disagreed with that idea and held the company to its fast track to oblivion. I doubt it will happen, but I cross my fingers that some place will arise (nationally--I know places like Fry's exist which are similar, but are regional/non-national) to take the place of the Radio Shack of old.
When I usee to DJ we would boost needles formthe turntables from radio shack, they had stanton 500 cartridges with a realistic brand label, miles of speaker wire also