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 ?? ;-)
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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