The Last RadioShack In Maryland Is Closing Its Doors (marylandmatters.org)
- Reference: 0177045771
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/04/16/1952250/the-last-radioshack-in-maryland-is-closing-its-doors
- Source link: https://marylandmatters.org/2025/04/14/end-of-an-era-the-last-radioshack-in-maryland-is-closing-its-doors/
> Henning told WTOP she's going to miss it dearly. She's worked there for three decades. "We would have a lot of fun. That was half of our day was to have fun with people and show them how electronics work," Henning said. It was owned and operated by longtime local resident Michael King, who passed away at the end of January at the age of 79. His son Edward has taken over as owner. "It's the end of an era," he said.
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> King said his grandfather owned a TV repair shop in the '50s and then his dad worked with him. They started carrying RadioShack products and grew to franchise three stores in Maryland. The RadioShack franchise first declared bankruptcy in 2015. King said they used the RadioShack name, but they don't have a warehouse in the U.S., so they were buying product from other wholesalers and selling it. "It was fun while it lasted, but it's not the same anymore," King said. "I know my dad realized that." The store's last day is Saturday, April 26.
[1] https://marylandmatters.org/2025/04/14/end-of-an-era-the-last-radioshack-in-maryland-is-closing-its-doors/
I don't know (Score:2)
I don't know whether to be sad. It was my favorite store when I was a child, but I fear their real goal was to sell cheap disposable batteries. They really had no competitors until online shopping happened. Maybe they could have focused on building hobbyist community, but...profit. Over time (and especially towards the end), it became more like a Best Buy or something. It's sad that there were not enough technology hobbyists to keep the original model in business.
Re: I don't know (Score:2)
Wherever I went with my dad, it was to get A/V equipment, RCA cables, connector for 1/8" audio jacks, that sort of thing. I think Best Buy, Circuit City et al took that business, which didn't leave much to actually keep the lights on. After that I feel like it was all RC cars, and later cell phones (which ny then you could find anywhere).
Re: (Score:2)
Circuit City fell apart before Radio Shack, though. Best Buy is almost certainly Circuit City's spiritual successor. Circuit City and Radio Shack both started focusing on selling cellphones before they fell apart. I may have the causal relationship backward, but it seems like making a deal to front for a wireless carrier just kills electronics retails.
The Best Buy in my town had a great location across the street from Walmart, right next to Lowe's. It came time to re-negotiate their lease, and couldn't come
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Worth pointing out that one of the major reasons CC went under is that their locations sucked.
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Technology hobbyist meant something different 40 years on. Yeah, it used to be breadboards and designing circuits, but later it meant MP3 players, and later still it meant being the first to have an Apple Watch. If you're still selling breadboards, at most you can really upgrade to selling Arduinos and Raspberry Pi's, but it's going to be more "niche" than "cutting edge" at that point. It's going to be tough to keep the lights on with that.
#oldman (Score:2)
I preferred going to Arcade Electronics for most things.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
There is zero reason to mention the orange being for this story. As a penalty, I'm having you disappeared to an undisclosed El Salvador prison. And that teddy-bear tattoo on your ass looks gang-y.
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Nah, just a casual response to another shitpost.
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Why are you looking at his ass?
A long, long time ago... TRS-80s (Score:4, Informative)
My first computer was a TRS-80, Model I, Level II, starting out with all of 16K RAM and a cassette player for storage. I would follow the latest Radio Shack catalogs with wide eyes.
They started losing my interest when their first floppy drives only had 35 tracks, instead of a normal 40, and somehow still cost much more. At that, I think my aftermarket floppy drive and operating system ran around $500 anyway. But, you know, fast random-access storage! Maybe 160k of it! And you didn't have to keep fiddling with the volume control to get your programs to load!
It was spectacular, at the time. The expansion unit allowed a full 48K of RAM and room to install a serial port card, so I could add a 300-bps modem.
I last shopped there in the early 80's (Score:2)
Back when it was the convenient place for a hobbyist to go for common electronic components. Needed a 555 timer, or a LM7805 voltage regulator, or maybe some random 1/4 watt resistor? That's where you went. About that time they also branched out into electronic toys, they kind you might have seen in the early 80's. Eventually they were just cell phones and batteries (remember the Radio Shack Battery Club cards?) Many years before that Radio Shack was owned by Tandy Leather, who sold, well, leather stuff
I didn't know there were any more RSs (Score:1)
In Maryland or anywhere else.
Re: (Score:3)
I put [1]RadioShack [google.com] into Google maps and I'm surprised how many there are just in my area.
[1] https://www.google.com/maps/search/RadioShack/@26.0536676,-80.5228056,11z?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDQxMy4wIKXMDSoJLDEwMjExNjM5SAFQAw%3D%3D
Re: (Score:1)
Most of those are marked "permanently closed". Maybe those that are not marked are simply not updated?
Re: (Score:1)
I'm surprised too, but I know that with these types of franchises there's an option for the individual owners to keep the store open at their own expense after the parent company of the chain goes out of business.
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Me either, I thought they were long gone. I loved going to RS as a kid, and browsing their catalog of gizmos and kits.
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Same. They were called Tandy over here, but they carried much the same stuff as in the US. A treasure trove for a kid discovering the world of electronics. Was a card-carrying member of the Free Battery Club.
A couple of years ago I visited a RS in the US, it wasn't at all the same. But then again, the hobby has changed as well.
Re: (Score:2)
I remember that their hobbyist angle gradually drifted away, starting roughly in the late 80's, instead selling semi-educational toys and cellphones.
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah. I remember the first time I went in and asked where the RCA cables were, and the associate didn't know what I was talking about.
Then I remember them being sort of on the cutting edge w/ PCs. (I also remember them being POSs.)
Re: (Score:2)
> I loved going to RS as a kid, and browsing their catalog of gizmos and kits.
Me too.
I stumbled on this link a few months ago:
[1]https://www.radioshackcatalogs... [radioshackcatalogs.com]
[1] https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/
Re: (Score:2)
> In Maryland or anywhere else.
Radio Shack stopped selling electronics components a very long time (40 years) ago. They moved on to consumer devices and toys. Then they turned into a cell phone store.
Around here, I mostly went to Arcade Electronics.
I lived down the street from that Annandale store.
Re: (Score:2)
> Radio Shack stopped selling electronics components a very long time (40 years) ago. They moved on to consumer devices and toys.
That's not entirely true. They were still selling electronics components 20 years ago. They were just in the back corner of the store hidden away in dozens of metal drawers. The employees knew nothing about any of that stuff by that point.
Basically the employees were glorified cell phone salesmen and the smile would fade from their face if you asked them where the resistors or capacitors were. The last time I was in a Rat Shack I remember the guy at the register asked me why I would even want that stuff
Re: (Score:2)
Back in its glory days, Radio Shack was really educational because even then they always had a really spotty inventory of resistors and caps.
You had to learn to quickly use the parallel and series formulas in your head to try to cobble together the values you needed from what was actually available on the pegboard in front of you.
I did eventually figure out that it was much cheaper to order huge bags of random components from those mail order surplus catalog outfits, and I could maintain a spotty inventory
Re: (Score:2)
I have specific memory of being surprised and fortunate to locate a surface mount resistor assortment at a Radio Shack in 1989. We were in a field test situation with scarce prototype equipment, where some boards had not been adequately tested before being shipped. I was able to repair the defective board, allowing the full intended configuration to be tested. The 1989 date is verified by record of a movie production that happened to be on location there at the same time.
Re: (Score:1)
Not true. I bought some resistors from RS not more than 5 years ago.
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Apparently, there are still over 500 locations open. [1]https://www.radioshack.com/loc... [radioshack.com] I'm just as shocked as you!
[1] https://www.radioshack.com/locations