> ...but more importantly available a few miles away within practically any city.

We're around the same age and likely have similar memories. I poured over Radio Shack catalogs and weekly ads when I was a kid. When my family went to the local mall I'd make a beeline for the Radio Shack and play w/ the various computers there until my parents pried me away.

When I started doing PC tech work (in rural Western Ohio in the late 90s) it was always an option, no matter how far out in "the sticks" you were working, to drive to a Radio Shack for emergency parts. They might not have exactly what you needed, and you'd probably pay a hefty price, but you could get the job done.

That ubiquity definitely left an impression on IT technicians of my generation. I was recently doing some work w/ a legacy system that called for some serial gender-bender/null modem cables. Not having any handy I had to improvise with some DE-9 to RJ-45 hoods and creative crimping to get what I needed. A cow-orker commented "We used to be able to just go to Radio Shack when we needed stuff like that in a hurry."

I flipped through my Forrest Mims Engineer's Mini-Notebooks so many times the pages almost fell out.

Radioshack catalog archive in case anybody missed it:

https://radioshackcatalogs.com/index.htm

They were always expensive, but you could go there on a Saturday afternoon and get something that will work - it might not be the right part, but it could be made to work. And expensive is relative - a $0.05 resister for $0.75 is very overpriced, and yet cheap. If you want to be in a hobby having that access close makes it a lot easier.

We spent hours at the local one. Picked up lots of parts and gear when I suppose they would have rather us bought their relabeled Realistic stuff. In junior high helped the 5th grade teacher with his network of CoCo 2s that used a CoCo 3 as a "file server" via a rotary dial to download courseware through the cassette interface. I wrote a fraction math trainer in BASIC for him to use with the students. He was still using it when I was in high school.

I was coming here to post my un fond memories of Radio Shack. But to be sure I loved their 150-in-1 Electronic Kits (etc.)—they were perhaps my favorite present as a kid—shaped white I am today…

But, yeah, I applied to work at a Radio Shack as a teen. The manager during the interview put a stapler on the desk between us and told me, "Sell the stapler to me."

He was apparently looking not merely for someone knowledgeable about electronics but rather someone who would push products—make sales.

After (I did not get the job), I did begin to notice the pushiness of the sales people, and found it more and more uncomfortable to be in the store.

For good memories, I like to scrape this site: https://radioshackcatalogs.com/index.htm

I have a really good DJ mixer that was Radio Shack branded. Three channels with two crossfaders and at least 5 input channels with some switchable into the main 3 with the full mix controls. I only use it once a year to have a bring your records party and have a couple of turntables a dvd-CD player, a vintage tape deck and a general headphone input for devices.

I bought an Armatron "robot arm" but I haven't been able to find a guide to computer-controlling it - any tips are welcome !

I think their cash registers ran SCO Xenix. I ran the free version on my desktop at work for a few months in the late 90s (I think that I still have the installation media).

They had the same virtual console behavior as we see in Linux.

I had a friend who worked in one of the stores, and I scared the daylights out of him by hitting Ctrl-Alt-F4 on his cash register to get a login. After switching back to F1, he learned the scary trick himself. I have no idea why all of the gettys were enabled in /etc/inittab.

Edit: I had no idea about Pier 1 (rest in peace), the 1959 proxy battle for the family takeover, Tandy's sale of Pier 1 in 1966, Tandy's purchase of a controlling interest in the failing Radio Shack for $300k, Tandy's abrasive management style, or his early demise at 60 from a heart attack.

Peir 1 folded just as we entered the COVID pandemic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pier_1_Imports

Huh, they asked for phone number here in SoCal. I may have given it the first time but afterward always said no or no thanks. Don’t remember them insisting but if they did I’d probably have given Jenny’s number.

> insisting they couldn't complete the sale without it

I worked there in the 80s. Early 80s was paper. Late 80s was terminal. Typing an R in the first name field bypassed this obligation IIRC.

Reason RS was so insistent is the company originally started via mail order and wanted this revenue stream to not dwindle....although it obviously did by the 80s.

PS: There's a business who still has their Tandy Leather sign out front in my city.

I recall getting asked for my mail address at a UK retail electronics store some time in the 2010 to 2015 time period. They wouldn't complete the transaction without it. I walked out and bought it from Amazon UK instead. I figured if I was giving my mail address away I might as well get the benefit of the cheaper sticker price.

I've not been very sympathetic to the demise of bricks & mortar retail since then.

Michael's still asks for your Zip Code at checkout

i learned how to write BASIC on a Tandy Color Computer 3 but that is not what I am most proud about. I was officially (statistically) the worst salesperson at Radio Shack in northern Ohio one summer in college. I looked like a dynamo of productivity, but in actuality I was mostly spending time talking to a Ham radio operator about diodes or a musician customer about King Crimson and Can. Take your name and address. Pffft, I would often make something up so nobody noticed. I sold a computer to a woman for her daughter going to college and felt dirty but there was no other way she was getting a computer. I hope she went on to become an astronaut, or principled House member

i just learned there are about 100 Tandy Leather stores out there if you want to pay tribute

There are so many mature and overly effective modern means to preserve wealth. Modern trusts, LLCs, corporations ad nauseum. It is embarrassing to make such a claim "(s)o much value is destroyed by this form of taxation" in 2026; So much concentrated and localized value was potentially diverted back then under such specialized and naive conditions, which is far from common now. And to the point, it merely could have happened and actually did not.

Only in cases of owners who fail to perform basic estate planning.

It destroys long term wealth buildup. Many stately homes in the English countryside are rotting due to this tax.

UK too. "Realistic" was their in-house brand btw.

Back in the day when both Tandy and Dick Smith actually sold components!

> As a kid, I loved going through the bins of electronic components, trying to figure out how they'd all work together in a circuit.

They sold a "1000-in-one" electronics kit that came with a book that would teach you all that you needed to know to get started with a lifelong addiction to electronics parts. My grandpa gave me one as a birthday gift one year, and thus began my early addiction to Radio Shack. ;)

I envied you young kids from my Model I with Level II Basic ROM w/ expansion bay and 4 floppy drives running LDOS. The chip upgrade to display lower case letters was a godsend.

Tandy 1000 RLX crew representing!

My Tandy 1000 still works.

lol Tandy color computer 3 for me