Support The 8-Bit Guy on Patreon: / 8bitguy1 Visit my website: www.the8bitguy.com/
Пікірлер: 10 000
@SalC13 жыл бұрын
MicroCenter is actually doing pretty well. The location near me almost always has a full parking lot. Probably because they innovated with their product selection and their large focus on PC components.
@JoeUrbanYYC3 жыл бұрын
Agreed, the only electronics stores that remain here are Best Buy and a small indie chain that specializes in computer parts and accessories.
@nithpro13853 жыл бұрын
lol salc1 I didn't expect u here :)
@person7493 жыл бұрын
There also aren't many of them. One hour drive for me!
@ToonShader3 жыл бұрын
oh hi salC1 i didnt know that you watched this
@djfitz35763 жыл бұрын
As an arcade tech, I'm super grateful Micro still exists even with their weird and diverse product selection. Some of the games I work on still use VGA or serial connections and communications, and when I have a game go down, I need it back up ASAP. Being able to send someone to dip over there and buy the cable/connector/component we need, or have them pick it up on their way in to work instead of waiting and having a machine offline for 2-5 days for shipping is a godsend.
@bertoche3 жыл бұрын
8-bit guy in the 80s: Alright, I'm gonna film these stores so I can use it in my youtube videos 30+ years later.
@Tetodash3 жыл бұрын
He’s so resourceful
@trekzilladmc3 жыл бұрын
Actually, I'd say that's not a bad idea when you think about it. One example would be movie theaters. With the way things are going these days, they may not eventually be around, so having documented footage of theater interiors will be the stories you can pass on and say how we would all go and watch shows on a 40 foot screen. I'm 38 and when the time comes when I eventually have grandkids, I'll bet they'll look at me and say, "You actually carried around phones?"
@givolettorulez3 жыл бұрын
@@trekzilladmc A tram and bus company had the habit to photograph the places where works on bus stop and tram line were done, for documentation and liability protection. They stored all the photos, some going back to the horse drawn carriages. So places that were completely destroyed and old bus and trams were accidentally photographed and nowadays those technical photos become a really interesting time capsule
@grandetaco44163 жыл бұрын
Makes me wish I had risked getting escorted out to get pictures of these. You never think at the time that something like that would have value years later.
@louistournas1203 жыл бұрын
@@retrolinkx I'm sure that the store owners have a photo. I remember that there was this club in Montreal, on the north shore, by the river. It had a large territory, a large parking lot. I think everybody knew about it. It was called the Octogon. I was too young to go but I did bike by it often. There is a bike trail going by it. It was destroyed maybe 20 y ago and they built apartments. There are maybe 5 photos of it online. The Octogon appeared in a movie called Cruising Bar.
@srenchin Жыл бұрын
8:20 Nailed it! This is why so many shopping malls are dying, if your not interested in shopping for clothes or jewellery there just isn't much to see or do at these places anymore. A few malls could be saved by introducing new vendors that appeal to different interests, but the rent for retail space in most malls is cost prohibitive for most small businesses. This is why you will rarely if ever see a comic book store, hobby shop, yarn shop, art supply store, etc etc in a mall.
@KenKen-ui4ny Жыл бұрын
This is also why nowadays you typically find more of a variety of stores, that have nothing to do with clothing and jewellery in the strip mall complexes across the street. Since the rent there is probably a little more cheaper, then in the actual mall building.
@fairwaywoods11 ай бұрын
My local mall is succeeding largely on restaurants. BTW-love the guidelines.
@206beastman11 ай бұрын
Why go to the mall when amazon will put it on your porch
@Johnmukket7 ай бұрын
There’s a mall down the hill from me that I’ve been revising for around 30 years. There used to be used cd stores, independent video game stores, Arcades, electronic stores all sorts of stuff. I went there a few months ago and other than a pretty good comic book store it’s all just clothing and jewelry stores and phone repair shops and The food court sucks. Hardly anyone there it’s almost spooky.
@dreamyrhodes6 ай бұрын
@@206beastman Idk it's still something different when you can hold that thing you want to buy in your hand and like actually look at it, its build quality etc.
@HighMojo Жыл бұрын
Don't forget the social aspect. With physical stores, you get to meet other nerds face to face, now you mostly have digital friends on chat.
@persnunoun3 жыл бұрын
School teachers back In the day, "You think your always going to carry a calculator In your pocket".
@corieg13 жыл бұрын
The other lie, "learn to use the dewey decimal system, you will use it for most of your life"
@natedunn513 жыл бұрын
I got that in 2012, when people already had calculators in their pockets all the time.
@eng3d3 жыл бұрын
Back then in my University, they said to me the same crap. I studied computer engineering so it was nonsense.
@rwdplz13 жыл бұрын
I still wish I could go find each of the teachers that said this and show them the calculator app.
@TheCoolDave3 жыл бұрын
Yep, I remember that...LOL
@litigioussociety42493 жыл бұрын
The thing I miss about classic Radio Shack was the small parts section. They used to carry almost every wire, cable, adapter, switch, capacitor, led, etc. that a person would need to build electronic devices. It was the place to go for kids to get the stuff they needed for things like Science Fairs.
@Thirsty_Fox3 жыл бұрын
Back when there was an interest and culture of repairing and even making things yourself. Welcome to disposable everything 2021.
@revengenerd13 жыл бұрын
Here in the UK our version was called Tandy, a company that sold mostly Radio Shack branded prodcuts and you could buy individual things like RF connectors, there was a gap for a few years after they went under until Ebay became the main place to buy from, well Ebay was around and you could buy cables but rather than 50p for a connector you needed the entire cable which inc postage may of been £3-£5, wasn't until years later that buying a few connectors/wires in buik worked out literal pennies.
@wdolgae3 жыл бұрын
Agreed, used to be able to go there and get the component you needed to fix something. That went away years before they closed. I remember going there looking for parts and leaving disgusted because they didn't have anything even remotely close. And the staff there used to be knowledgeable in nearly everything electronic, but that went the way of the dodo too.
@godslayer14153 жыл бұрын
In Houston (better than Dallas all day every day) we had EPO - Electronic Parts Outlet - where you could buy new components and older assemblies - Did I mention WAY better than Far Southern Oklahoma (Dallas).
@ebinrock3 жыл бұрын
In Texas at least, Altex is the 80's Radio Shack of today, with all those things you mentioned, on a lot more floor space (but still small compared to Fry's, for example). Friendly, non-pushy staff, too.
@nicholasbielik715611 ай бұрын
It’s worth noting that KB Toys, Toys R Us, and even Sears died due to Wall Street pillaging them. It isn’t like kids stopped wanting toys. They decided that it was better to squeeze a retail chain until it was dead so they could make a little more money rather than try to run a store where people want to come and has things they want to buy.
@kma569910 ай бұрын
Similar tactics playing out now with Bed Bath and Beyond and Gamestop, and AMC theatres.
@ReneStover-jq5gk5 ай бұрын
That is what the Investment Management Corporations like Black Rock, State Street, and others are doing today, that is why prices are so high on everything, and I mean everything!
@mirzaahmed658923 күн бұрын
That makes no sense. They made a little more money for a few years, and then the businesses were gone forever? No one in their right mind kills a golden goose. Most of those retailers failed due to their own problems, mainly high prices compared to online retail.
@jmorv88662 жыл бұрын
Microcenter seems to be the only electronics retailer with staying power now, as long as you live near one, you have the option to visit it, or deal with them online. The one near where i used to live was always a lifesaver if I needed something pronto. Frys was my go to place about 10 years ago and it's sad to see their demise. I think the last time I was at my local location, their stock was severely depleted and their "soup to nuts" stock was getting a tad bit ridiculous. Despite their shortcomings prior to their demise, it was one of those geeky lifesavers if you needed something immediately. Thanks for the trip in the wayback machine!
@tbirdracefan11 ай бұрын
One time I went there and they had multiple isles of cases of bottled water. Also noticed a lot of cheap luggage. they had to be losing a boat load of money keeping the stores open as long as they did.
@06racing3 жыл бұрын
My take away: electronics museums should be laid out like old electronics stores.
@CaptainPanick3 жыл бұрын
That is actually a good idea!
@paulocuento99493 жыл бұрын
that would be nice. and maybe have it in an old mall. then have all the fastfood chains in there be looking like 80's and 90's interior design. with some tv screens playing 80's and 90's shows and NBA stuff. that would be a blast from the past
@zacarianz12093 жыл бұрын
I agree so much
@StodaraHodan3 жыл бұрын
and the exhibition pieces are just like the demo units back then
@Fighter_Builder3 жыл бұрын
@@paulocuento9949 that sounds amazing!
@hgbugalou3 жыл бұрын
Going to the mall was magical in the 90s, now its depressing.
@whaaaa8693 жыл бұрын
probably because you were a kid in the 90s. For adults in the 90s, going to malls was almost as soul crushing as it is today.
@TheVanillatech3 жыл бұрын
@@whaaaa869 No. Because in the 90's the shelves were full, every store was occupied, people could afford to go out and buy things with their higher disposable income. Now it's all FUCKED. Empty stores everywhere, entire shelves void of items in 90% of stores and people can barely afford those few remaining items anyways. Cheers.
@squirlmy3 жыл бұрын
@@TheVanillatech half right. I was a teen in the 80s, so I was also a 90s adult. Overall, shops and restaurants in malls still had a high turnover, its just that they'd get replaced quicker. The individual stores, however, were being killed by Walmart and Target and "big box" and "warehouse" stores. Sears tried to join in with "low everyday prices" by eliminating sales, which did make prices cheaper, overall. But the loyal Sears customers were brought in by "sales-driven" marketing, and people who were looking for low prices but not sales had already become loyal to those newer stores, so it was a disaster, Sears soon went back to sales. Don't forget the growing influence of internet sales and "Cyber Monday". These weren't damaging brick and mortar's until the late 90s , but everyone was paying attention and buying by 1999. But the malls in the communities surrounding Worcester, in the 90s, for example, had already totally devastated downtown Worcester. There was no need to pay for, or struggle to find, a parking space, people stopped going downtown. Even the porn theater went out of business. I traveled across the country a few times when re-locating, among other reasons, I know what you're talking about. What bothers me is that you're pretending to be an authority on the subject and putting your problems either typifying every place as all the same, or your issues as the worst. They aren't.
@DMalenfant13 жыл бұрын
@@TheVanillatech It is much more soul crushing today because of architecture as well. I am not kidding, the way buildings look will drive your soul down as well, attract gangs and it is done on purpose. The beauty of how buildings look has the same psychological effect as a well landscaped area vs a run down unfriendly area does. If you look at every fast food joint today, none have a roof, they all have a simple straight up pattern, no imagination city block buildings as to up until 2010 they all had a roof, looked comfy to go in, welcoming village type building.
@TheVanillatech3 жыл бұрын
@@DMalenfant1 Of course it's done on purpose. The beautiful and highly diverse architecture of the last 300 years and numbers of "movements" were created by highly trained, highly paid master tradesmen (which don't exist in that regard anymore) and designed and paid for by a plethora of individual construction gangs employed by a plethora of individual entities. Money was abdundant, profit was not the be all and end all, sometimes it wasn't even an issue. Today you have a handful of massive construction conglomerates in a world where 1% of the population own 75% of the land and wealth. Things are done as cheaply as possible, using inferior resources and employing inferior, lower paid tradesmen and the projects are not under supervision of artistic / creative architects (unless its a house in Aspen, of course). The new buildings here in the UK, both residental and commercial, have for decades ignored the thousand year history back catalogue of national and international designs that we have aquired and that can been seen up and down the Country in the old town areas, infavour of the Wallmart / Modular style of bang it up fast and cheap and sell it high. These new houses look terrible and offer a scientifically pre-calculated amount of living space as to be JUST ACCEPTABLE to the average pleb.
@Beauc4652 Жыл бұрын
This really took me back. I loved Fry's electronics. I used to get all my computer parts there for my personal builds. We still have Microcenter in Richardson, which is actually where I bought my last gaming computer and a few upgrade pieces. I'm glad we have at least one store left where I can just go and be a nerd- but it's always PACKED. Makes me think they could use another electronics store.
@zebsolaria476311 ай бұрын
My Xmas radio shack catalog was given to me with a lot of the pages torn out and some pages with chunks torn out. I was later told my parents had not wanted to disappoint me. Parents, duh.
@embersworkshop2 жыл бұрын
I do love supporting local record stores. I'm surprised vinyl is romanticized enough for it to suddenly be profitable again. It seems like the music loving crowd is pretty fed up with online stuff and DRM, and buying CDs or even cheap casettes remains a reliable way to just reliably have access to music. It is a magical experience to browse through these record stores that have their own personality and have managed to stay afloat despite everything.
@Code7Unltd Жыл бұрын
>DRM But DRM hasn't been a thing with music for years now...
@sammycook89713 жыл бұрын
Amazon is like getting everything you ever wished for as a young nerd but finding out that it has robbed you of the sense of wonder that shopping in a store had in the 80's.
@jeremymacdonald55843 жыл бұрын
Doesn't seem to be worth the tradeoff now that we have it
@joefish60913 жыл бұрын
Amazon and Ebay has pros and cons, lots of fun stuff, some good prices, lots of scams and house shenanigans, magical $100 rebuy taxes for the too lazy to check being one obvious one, and Ebay seems to game its users to promote blood in the water feeding frenzy. Ebay is not an honest auction site.
@DocNo273 жыл бұрын
Computer Shopper. Large, paper version of Google for computer parts in the 90s. How I wish I would have kept a few of those - for the luls today if nothing else!
@MrRwk3143 жыл бұрын
Yeah...I use Amazon for the convenience like everyone else, but it's souless lol
@cryptidproductions31603 жыл бұрын
That's honestly the bet way to describe Online shopping seemed new and magical at first until we started realizing how it was slowly eroding the in-person shopping experience outside of basic department store goods out of existence.
@aWOLtrooper3 жыл бұрын
"I questioned the authority and got no good answer" Yeah, checks out man.
@cybercjh3 жыл бұрын
Oh man. The Best store. THAT took me back.
@billcarson6954 Жыл бұрын
Seeing the empty Fry’s shelves unexpectedly made me teary eyed. I remember going there with my dad. He taught himself computers in the late 80s and taught me at age 7. I thought we were playing, little did I know he was laying foundation for my future. He would commute to Los Angeles for work; and sometime in the 90s he told about this super big computer store with random decorations. We went to Fry’s and I was blown away. Dad got me some stuff and later on in college I took my roomates to the same store.
@legendaryTMNICO8 ай бұрын
I really miss seeing fry’s thrive. I miss the hot dog event at the manhattan beach location.
@caeserromero3013 Жыл бұрын
I grew up in the UK in the 80’s and most towns didn’t have US type malls. You often had what was known as a shopping precinct, which was a much smaller affair. Where I lived we had electrical stores like Dixon’s and Curry’s (which are now merged with PC world) and music shops like Our Price and HMV. Where I lived the electrical stores only really sold the hardware. The games were mostly sold through newsagents like WH Smith and John Menzies. You could also buy games and a limited range of hardware at Woolworth’s, who also sold music and videos. It wasn’t until the 90’s that we got dedicated gaming stores like EB, Game etc etc. Now we also have a proliferation of US style malls.
@bghoody56653 жыл бұрын
The nostalgia is strong with this one. Scrolling through ebay or amazon ads will never compare with spending a day wandering through the mall from electronics shop to music store. Great video, Dave.
@LiquidDIO3 жыл бұрын
Faaaaaaacts. I always had a specific mall route that started at EB/Kaybee/Babbages/whatever game store was in the mall, then Walden's, then Musicland/SamGoody, before I'd inevitably stop in Radio Shack on my way to the arcade FUN Family Amusement Center.
@jek__3 жыл бұрын
Virtual reality "physical" stores are a thing if you prefer to view things as displayed on shelves as opposed to in a big list
@natalieisagirlnow3 жыл бұрын
i lived it, it was ok, but i'd rather have the thing i want in 3 days than settle for what those places had that day
@ITGuy123 жыл бұрын
I wasn’t even around in the 80s and I can still feel the effects of online shopping & e-commerce! I 100% agree!
@jek__3 жыл бұрын
@@stoneofverbosity Yeah, virtual interfacing might be disappointing as a replacement for commonplace experiences. But when we use the same technology to allow us to simulate picking up and looking at rocks from planets in other galaxies, it becomes inspiring and wonderful. Products being sold online needing to have good ways for users to interface with and analyze them will put money into the development of the same technology that could expand our experience to places it has never been before
@thereare4lights1373 жыл бұрын
Whoa, that's quite the busy background!
@KingNothing223 жыл бұрын
it is quite loud
@thefixerofbrokenstuff3 жыл бұрын
Reminds me of Max Headroom.
@MikeDijital3 жыл бұрын
its awful and distracting.
@jimtaylor2013 жыл бұрын
Wow it's bold, it's difficult to focus on anything else. [Sort of painful]
@JimPlaysGames3 жыл бұрын
It is a migraine.
@NicholasStPeter-qr2ck Жыл бұрын
Just watched the video and your final statement rings so true. I'm 41 years old and I am always saying that I MISS the shopping experience. I used to love to wander all the stores looking at the newest games, electronics, gadgets, and computers. It's so depressing now and not fun to shop anymore.
@SkiBumMSP Жыл бұрын
I am 53, so I grew up through the 70's, 80's and 90's. Watching this video brought back so many memories. I remember one epic shopping trip I did right after I graduated college, moved out and got my own place in the early 90's. Going into Sears to buy brand-new 486DX2-66 MHz machine, then going into Babbages and getting a SoundBlaster 16 ASP, CD-rom drive, and another 4 Megs of RAM (Yes, Babbages, also sold computer components in addition to the consoles and games), as well as a couple of games, going into Montgomery Wards to get the monitor, and then hitting up the Musicland to buy a couple of albums. Oh yeah, I also bought a 22-inch Zenith TV and a SNES (both of which I still have) and a couple of games for that as well. Must've dropped nearly $5,000 (in 1993 dollars) on that trip and all in the same shopping mall (I guess what happens when you are a young 22 year-old at the time that just landed a nearly 6-digit income job as a software engineer and need to outfit a new apartment)! Could not do that anymore today at the mall as all of those places are now gone (yes, even the Sears and Montgomery Wards)! Along the same lines, anybody remember when Computer Shopper used to be this massive phone-book size tome of a magazine? It was my go-to if I needed something that I could not find locally for computer hardware and parts. Also, anybody remember the computer shows/fairs as well? Since there was no Fry's Electronics in my area (I am on the east coast), those computer shows were the place to go to find just damn near anything you needed when it came to computer hardware, and there was usually one somewhere in the general Washington, D.C. area nearly every weekend. Do they even have those anymore? With that, there is still a Micro Center up in Fairfax, which is not too terribly far from my place. I did live a couple years in Columbus, OH and do remember going into that big one they have there many times.
@jaronnut54257 ай бұрын
My brother in Christ your generation made Amazon the giant it is today you should’ve just went to the store
@leechjim80233 ай бұрын
@@SkiBumMSPYou were certainly one RICH dude!!!
@StubbsOTD Жыл бұрын
what you said about the culture is spot on. I miss this time more than anything and it absolutely sucks we can't get it back. I miss hanging out at the mall, checking out all the cool new stuff in stores. being able to see everything and inspect the quality in person is still important. thank god for microcenter!
@nunyabusiness86311 ай бұрын
You nailed it. Especially for me the part about seeing the product in person. There're so many products that look great in a tiny thumbnail and when it arrives, its disappointing junk. Its a frustrating experience.
@Blubatt3 жыл бұрын
With ruthless efficiency, he's back just over a month later. With a new studio
@brandi89073 жыл бұрын
Shows his dedication
@pandapolygon3 жыл бұрын
stfu
@C0mmentC0p3 жыл бұрын
@@pandapolygon who hurt you?
@BobWehadababyitsaboy693 жыл бұрын
@@pandapolygon Who hurt you?
@ethan.zammit3 жыл бұрын
@@pandapolygon who hurt you?
@JavisoGaming3 жыл бұрын
I’m 55 years old. This video made me a bit sad. I miss those stores and times. A great trip down memory lane. Thanks!
@Steveos3123 жыл бұрын
@Eugene Cam When I was growing up in the 1990s, corporate execs were "millionaires" (except for Bill Gates et al); corporations were valued in the low billions; corporate debt was low, and manageable. Our country's debt was bordering to a trillion (give or take depending on the year. Then I became of age when the Financial Crisis hit; and execs were billionaires, companies would become trillions in market cap and our debt was in the upper trillions. In fact "small businesses" owners tend to have millions on paper. But one thing that people don't talk enough is what got America (us) here. After the dot-com bust; we were running on low interest rates; this is what helped Amazon and Apple and the others get to those trillions on market cap. If we didn't learn how Japan declined in the late 80s, I don't know what other example to point out. Low interest rates is inherently a bad idea; and asking for trouble. I love to go to the malls where I live just on the NH side of Boston metro, retail ain't dead. Many still go to bricks. I think it depends by market. And the retailers should tap into what market works best, and how to improve the remaining customer base. I think that would be a positive place to start.
@MarkMcDaniel3 жыл бұрын
I'm 42, and I miss the days before the internet and cell phones too. Digitization has ruined much in this country.
@MrSonrayz3 жыл бұрын
Too many off brands, that were too expensive! It was like you had to be privileged to buy form some of these stores! That said, I still do miss having one. That’s why I try to support Best Buy & GameStop as much as I can, I also like to see the product that I’m going to buy in action, and I hate paying and waiting for something to be shipped (Especially when don’t know exactly what I’m getting!).
@the_kombinator3 жыл бұрын
@@MarkMcDaniel I miss it too, but not for going into malls. Malls suck now just as much as they sucked then. The arcade being an exception, and being able to smoke in doors. Playing outside and getting into trouble with your friends beat going to the mall where you had to park, walk, stand in line, try stuff on, walk forever to get anywhere, nah as soon as I scoped out the computer stores in my city (and ended up working for one under the table) I rode my bike around to them and spent my money and time among like minded people. Malls hold absolutely no allure to me - only reason I went to one routinely was because my postal outlet was in one. Don't miss malls much - maybe screwing around with my friends, but even then as soon as I got a car at 17, I almost never returned to the INSIDE of a mall - the parking lot was used extensively in the winter for drifting and making my own autocross course and spending good portions of cold winter evenings getting my Hyundai (yes, a RWD one) going sideways. Sometimes friends would join. Those are my memories of malls. Oh and making out with co-workers in the back of the food storage of the restaurant (even though I didn't work there ;) )
@omniyambot98763 жыл бұрын
Not American but I'm always having a good time reading thoughts of you guys above and the history of US.
@acrinsd Жыл бұрын
I really miss Fry's. When their electrical components were well-stocked, you could find just about anything for your projects.
@Morphling92 Жыл бұрын
What a legend. This man is all about tech and makes great videos. Has great history. Actually learns to fix items. And he was trolling block buster and filming it for us to laugh at today. 👍
@274pacific3 жыл бұрын
That 1985 catalogue was really revealing; literally the entire catalog was swallowed up by one device.
@krzysztofczarnecki82383 жыл бұрын
And the television as in the medium not the device is becoming gobbed up by the Internet as well recently. I just have less and less incentive to watch actual any television on my TV every day (it's more like a large monitor now), and I definitely am not the only one, at least in Poland. They just play reruns of reruns of old shows with bad dubbing that I can find in better quality online and have seen already or don't want to, films that are either boring enough to never watch them or I already have them on DVD, again with bad dubbing, and stupid reality shows that I have no idea at all who in the right mind might be watching so many of (and that's even on Discovery Channel: "Some guys looking for gold", "some guys looking for crabs" , "some guys looking for meteorites", "some guys auctioning garbage", "some guys driving a truck". That's really so much fun, ha ha. And takes up most of their schedule, and the rest is popular science programs that are >5 years old and I've seen them like 3 times, air in uncomfortable time slots, and aren't really up to date anymore). THAT's why I don't want a VCR anymore, or any more modern method of TV recording. I miss the days that there was anything worth recording, or even something remotely worth wearing out my eyeballs on the TV, and that is probably never coming back as well.
@mhoobag13 жыл бұрын
In the UK Radio Shack was called Tandy and guess what? Carphone Warehouse swallowed it up (Mobile phone shop!)
@Svperstarr3 жыл бұрын
@@krzysztofczarnecki8238 Back in 2008 as a cost cutting measure when I moved across the country I got rid of my TV and when I got to my new place I never got cable. Its been over 10 years now that TV has not been a part of my life and I don't miss it at all.
@nickfatsis96073 жыл бұрын
@@mhoobag1 In Australia it was called Tandy too.
@catfish5523 жыл бұрын
Including the catalogue itself!
@rustychrome3 жыл бұрын
I described to my kids how the electronics departments of some stores, like Kmart, all the TV's and hi-fi stuff was in a dark room. You walked in an it had a unique scent to it, like hot electronics and ozone. The glow of all the lighted dials, LED's, etc were just exciting.
@cjc3636363 жыл бұрын
@rustychrome: Oh, yeah, they did play up the Star Trek/disco light show in those rooms! My favorite had the sofas in front of the $$$$ rear-projection TVs (4x3 and SD, and IIRC, you could still see the scan lines. But it was cool at the time)
@computertutorials1286 Жыл бұрын
I remember Best Buy having a room like that in Cali back in 2007, it was the first place I would go whenever my grandma went there to buy something.
@cn82992 жыл бұрын
If I were Amazon, I would have bought all the Fry's locations and turned them into a Warehouse/Amazon shopping center where you could either have your items shipped there or pick it up from there or even just shop the items they have in stock there. It sounds counter-intuitive considering Amazon was one of the reasons Fry's is done and dusted but if they threw in the tech from their fancy grocery stores where you just pick whatever you want and the cameras and computer systems will automatically charge you, they'd cut down on human personel and help prevent porch pirates since people could just come and pick up their items there. Also, instant returns and refunds. The Fry's buildings are so large, they could even fit a small grocery section if they wanted to.
@pearhams22 жыл бұрын
I hadn't been to a mall in decades and everything you said is spot on. I decided to go to Fry's last year to see if they had any power supplies and it genuinely creeped me out how the place looked compared to the last time I was in it. The electronics section was only partially lit and mostly in the dark with empty shelves and a few sections of things here and there. The place was dilapidated and is probably torn down now. It made me sad and I couldn't stay in there very long.
@yellowblanka6058 Жыл бұрын
You haven't missed much, I have ventured into a mall a handful of times in the last decade, and it's always the same - the requisite few big chain home goods/clothing stores, smattering of specialty stores, Sharper Image, Gamestop and a shitload of dodgy kiosks.
@tomburley6572 жыл бұрын
I really miss Radio Shack (the old Radio Shack), it was so convenient to be able to just run into Radio Shack and buy a part/component instead of ordering it online and having to wait for shipping... plus it was always fun to just cruise around electronics stores and nerd out lol
@louistournas1202 жыл бұрын
Then it turned into a place to buy cellbones.
@jmal2 жыл бұрын
@@louistournas120 The smart bone's connected to the... cell bone!
@timprussell2 жыл бұрын
That catalog he had, I remember going though those like some loved the Sears Wishbook. I too love being able to online shop and I guess that makes me part of the problem. Good thing we still have Best Buy around me, cable modem took a crap and I was able to get one of the shelf. I now keep a spare. Also I am 5 min from Chicagoland's mighty Abt. Electronics. Still I shop online but can pick up my order rather than wait.
@blackbird12341002 жыл бұрын
I miss the rows and rows of components. Its exactly that. When you forgot a resistor, it was nice to have a store 20 minutes away to pick one up. Microcenter is about the best we get now
@jmal2 жыл бұрын
@@blackbird1234100 To anyone who is within reasonable driving distance (read: 5 miles) of a Micro Center, I wanna say... y'all are a bunch of lucky SOBs.
@Cruzer11573 жыл бұрын
You remember Radio Shack of the 80s as a place to buy electronics products (clocks, computers, calculators). I remember Radio Shack of the 60s as a place to buy parts for your actual radio shack (resistors, capacitors, vacuum tubes!). Think about that! P.S. Circuit City was founded in 1949!
@matts.83423 жыл бұрын
Even in the 90s when I was a kid you could still buy parts and tools there. At the end they were nothing more than a glorified cell phone store. The only other place we had locally was a one off store that sold electronic components and related tools. It was awesome, the store inside was a huge mess but if you needed a capacitor, mosfet, wire, etc they had it. Unfortunately the place burnt to the ground and never reopened.
@andrewt9023 жыл бұрын
I remember the "lifetime" guarantee tubes. Even made good on that guarantee a few times. *Sigh* No more.
@sandmanbub3 жыл бұрын
Built my first 11 meter amp with components purchased at RadioShack. The only thing I had to order was some toroids for matching transformers. They were the only electronic supply store that kept Teflon coated wire in stock. Sandman 10/7...
@MrMark850443 жыл бұрын
how about the battery of the month club at Radio Shack?
@NetworkXIII3 жыл бұрын
The parts and tools sections of the stores kept getting smaller and smaller, so sad.
@Asytra2 жыл бұрын
I have very fond memories of going to Incredible Universe with my grandfather in the 90s. It's one of the reasons I became such a PC enthusiast. I was, and still am sad when that store closed down. Fry's recaptured a little of it, and I absolutely loved their component and DIY section. Such a loss that one is now gone too.
@DrWho453 Жыл бұрын
Thank you for the video. It brought back a lot memories. I had forgotten about EB and Babbages until you brought them up again and then a whole flood of memories came back. I also remember Camelot Music and Ritz camera store. KB Toys. We also had a Sam Goodie's music store and a Montgomery Wards. My first cell phone was a bag phone from Radio Shack. It is really sad that no one will be able to have these experiences like we did.
@SkiBumMSP Жыл бұрын
I used to work at Babbages at the mall part time during Christmas as "Jobby" just to make some extra cash on the side, plus taking advantage of the employee discount on games. I was really good friends with the manager so he hired me on the spot when I asked if he did not mind some extra help around Christmas. The mall across the highway from my place not only had a Babbages, but it also had an EB, as well as THREE record stores (Camelot, Musicland, and Sam Goody), and a fairly sizable video game arcade. None of that exists anymore, although there is a Game Stop still in that mall. However, at least just down the highway from the mall, there is a "retrocade" that opened up fairly recently. I've been in there numerous times and that place is always hopping, so at least I can still go to an old-school 80's style arcade like I did when I was a kid!
@thomaskisner86763 жыл бұрын
When I worked for Target in the 90's they 100% sent us with paper and pen to Walmart to write down their prices
@Jayce_Alexander3 жыл бұрын
Yeah, that was common practice. And there was nothing the security guards were able to do about it. "What are you writing, sir?" "Just making a shopping list."
@EgoShredder3 жыл бұрын
When I worked at a petrol station at a supermarket in 1994, I had to jump in one of their company cars and drive around writing down the prices of competitor stations.
@WAncouvOR3 жыл бұрын
And now today you can walk around with a 4K camera No one knows you're recording. 😂
@flyingfree3873 жыл бұрын
@@Jayce_Alexander unless THEY, the hierarchy enslaving you, tries to cancel/ban writing next. god always wins.
@renishii68343 жыл бұрын
@@EgoShredder I did that thing with gasoline pumps too, not with the prices though but with the amount of fuel sold as indicated in that very inconspicuous analog counter ( to know if competing with them is sustainable)
@AvantleFox2 жыл бұрын
I'm only 26 but man, this hit hard. I went to a big mall recently, and it's exactly like you said. Nothing but clothing stores, ugh... I wish I was able to experience the golden age of nerd shopping.
@arasb32582 жыл бұрын
I love the phrase "The Golden Age of Nerd Shopping"! There's a movie title there.
@AvantleFox2 жыл бұрын
I'd love to see a movie that centers around tech from the 80's till early 2000's. I think that'd be really neat.
@ThoinFrostaxe2 жыл бұрын
I'm 31, and my childhood mall is in it's death throws. They annouced they can't pay the mortgage after this year. The only store that consistantly has people in it is the mall ninja store - incense, swords, throwing kives, and in the back, MTG gaming. Seeing the empty sears building hurts, I spent a lot of time there as a kid. Even the empty storefronts from Holilster, A&F, and American Eagle, which I went to as a teen, are empty shells, devoid of product but filled with memories.
@AvantleFox2 жыл бұрын
Man, I feel that. There's a mall near me I used to go to, almost all the stores are now gone. Literally all that's left now are a few clothing stores, one department store and a Hobby Lobby. You can still see Radio Shack's name vaguely. As nice as online shopping is, you'll never replace the charm of walking around stores to see what's new IMO.
@robwebnoid57632 жыл бұрын
"... empty shells, devoid of product but filled with memories.". -- That makes for a great quote & summarizes all our feelings. My best times browsing stores for technology were in the 1980's & 1990's. Radio Shack, Blockbuster, Sears, Incredible Universe & the final nail, Fry's. All gone. I did take a couple photos inside the local Radio Shack during liquidation in mid 2017. Bought lots of stuff at 40 to 90% off before saying goodbye.
@davefox894810 ай бұрын
Thanks for the walk down memory lane. We came up in a golden era that I sorely miss. Especially Fry’s Electronics of the 80’s and 90’s. By the late 2000’s, Fry’s had been ruined by mismanagement.
@johncarync Жыл бұрын
With regard to "why wouldn't the store let me take pictures inside the store?"...stores are protective of the WAY things are displayed in their stores. There can be a lot of science, research, and design that goes into how a store is laid out. For example, what kind of shelves are used, what products are displayed at the end of an aisle, etc.
@ReneStover-jq5gk5 ай бұрын
I just can't buy it, I think it was just a case of the lack of knowledge and thought going into everything, after all, I had pocket cameras in the 1960s that allowed me to snap pictures without anyone becoming aware it was happening, and the electronic stores sold them, so they knew what they were used for.
@rager19693 жыл бұрын
You: 'couldn't they just write down the prices or take a catalog?" Guard: 'Oh, a wise guy. How'd you like spending some time in the mall jail?"
@SupremeNerd3 жыл бұрын
I just heard that voice in my head too LOL
@Jayce_Alexander3 жыл бұрын
😂
@ccateni283 жыл бұрын
You: "Why don't I sue you?" Guard: "What?" News: Guard being sued for harassment during escorting.
@ZacharyBittner3 жыл бұрын
In reality, we don't like people recording and taking pictures because we don't want evidence of everything we are doing wrong to get back to corporate
@samcostanza3 жыл бұрын
Ah, settle down, Paul Blart.
@edwardburkard3 жыл бұрын
Man, this video struck me right in the feels. I was a kid when all these stores started dying out and closing, only to get replaced by stupid clothing stores. I really miss going into these stores...
@bradryan80713 жыл бұрын
Could not agree with you more.
@wendyokoopa70483 жыл бұрын
I wish I could have experienced the fry's and best stores in their prime.
@telengardforever77833 жыл бұрын
I learned MS-DOS on computers in Fred Meyer's back when they sold computers. I would just literally stand at the computer and learn about commands and the file system. I had free reign on the computers in stores back then.
@AltimaNEO3 жыл бұрын
@@telengardforever7783 crazy for much Fred Meyer downsized. They even used to sell lumber!
@curhob3 жыл бұрын
There is something to what you're saying, but I think the "stuff us nerds just don't care about" is kind of a hot take. Especially coming from a man. I mean couldn't he just say that he doesn't care about it? I do think fast fashion is largely aimed more at women, but I don't think that helps to say that if what you have against yet more clothing stores existing is the materialism/consumerism.
@PetePuebla Жыл бұрын
I’m just glad I grew up in the 80’s. It’s a short lived cultural experience that will never be repeated.
@ReneStover-jq5gk5 ай бұрын
From the 1950s to the late 1990s was better times, and the further back you go to the 1950s, the better off America was, the more innovated people were, and the more freedom we had!
@JohnnyC1007195911 ай бұрын
I loved my VIC-20. It changed my career choice. I loved Radio Shack and when I moved to the San Fernando Valley (NW Los Angeles) and discover Fry's -well, it was heaven.
@SuperTekBoy13 жыл бұрын
I am just happy Microcenter is still hanging on.
@NCXitlali3 жыл бұрын
barely
@mkaufer053 жыл бұрын
Yes, Microcenter is probably the last of the last Brick n Mortar stores.
@urhotmom3 жыл бұрын
I just wish they had better locations, since frys shut down, I gotta drive 45 minutes to the nearest microcenter
@jordanranstead30163 жыл бұрын
urhotmom I'm lucky mine is only 1.5 hours away. Some people don't have them in their state haha
@Nemofishman3 жыл бұрын
@@jordanranstead3016 or have one in the state, but a long ways away (661 miles to the one in Tustin)
@BitchinSpectre3 жыл бұрын
THAT BACKGROUND! I close my eyes and I still see it.
@frankklinkers42093 жыл бұрын
It actually gave a me a headache... I love your work, but that background needs to be easier for your eyes....
@jason_a_smith_gb3 жыл бұрын
@@frankklinkers4209 I liked his plain background with his KZfaq Awards... :(. It looks smaller...
@achannelhasnoname51823 жыл бұрын
@@frankklinkers4209 omg same, how doesn't he see it?
@GinngerDogg3 жыл бұрын
It looked like a migraine to me.
@marred22773 жыл бұрын
It's pretty jarring
@darealestwon11 ай бұрын
I miss fry’s electronics. That’s where I really got my home theater dream started. I bought hundreds of blu rays, video games, got my x box one bundle bundle there, my first two home theater receivers, my speakers. They would jet you demo whole systems set up as real world living rooms. The ones in Plano and Addison actually had a cafe, so you could eat lunch there and then watch a movie on your favorite demo system. I surely miss fry’s
@RobertLewis85 Жыл бұрын
When I was in high school in 2001, I would drive to Fry's in Sacramento with my buddy and we'd buy RAM, graphics cards, cases, motherboards, magazines, etc. and Fry's was always the only place that had the huge selection of inventory for all types of computer components, and they were usually the cheapest price you could find virtually anywhere. Best Buy or some mom and pop store might have a few similar items, but they were usually way overpriced and only a select few choices, particularly for power supplies and RAM. Fry's was awesome and I have tons of good memories going there and upgrading my PC and checking out all the early 2000s awesomeness they had as a high schooler.
@thecorruptedbit55853 жыл бұрын
The speed at which you rebounded from absolute crisis is amazing. It's great to have you back on youtube, dude
@boblangill62093 жыл бұрын
What I remember most about Radio Shack was the way you almost had to arm wrestle to get out of the store without giving your name and zip code even if all you bought was a AA battery.
@tomr34223 жыл бұрын
While I had the same problem getting out of the store, the guys knew there stuff on the electronics front and would be willing to endure it now if when you ask a employee a question you got more then a blank stare and that is only if you can chase them down to actually ask them something.
@natalieisagirlnow3 жыл бұрын
so give a fake one
@CamdenBloke3 жыл бұрын
I used to work at one. People would argue with us about addresses. I think that Radio Shack in its original form was a speciality boutique shop that only professionals and hobbyists would shop at, and it made sense to keep such information because it was more like a community. We would use addresses and such if we needed to contact people for some kind of follow up about their product, or mail them documentation they left behind or if they abandoned their credit card.
@briansturges26583 жыл бұрын
@@CamdenBloke That's certainly a more positive way to look at it. I never was the type to give clerks a hard time- but the questions every time were irritating. Especially when paying cash. I came in a lot when working on a project, and they would constantly ask me if I wanted to buy a cell phone too.
@shifty27553 жыл бұрын
Early form of spamming
@elsfane11 ай бұрын
I remember visiting Radio Shack in those days. When I attended DeVry, we referred to the TRS 80 as Trash 80s.
@ex-engineer665711 ай бұрын
As Ia child of the 50s, I was a pioneer nerd. I actually built stuff from components. Rummaging through my boxes looking for "some thing", I occaisionally find things like a Radio Shack packet of resistors, or a splitter from Kmart (price sticker .79). You young guys!😉
@Madchris88283 жыл бұрын
It blows my mind when you showed what smartphones got rid of. As a kid from the mid 90s still kinda blows my mind 😂
@anajay783 жыл бұрын
Same here
@AntiPseudo3 жыл бұрын
Yeah same, I was absolutely expecting Amazon to be top of the list when it came to things that killed electronics stores, but yeah he's right, 90+% of the stuff they sold is just redundant these days!
@nolan4123 жыл бұрын
The upgrade cycle was way more harsh / impressive.
@Sam-K3 жыл бұрын
@@AntiPseudo Well, there's an app for pretty much anything nowadays. Even my bum basic, hand-me-down Nokia 3220 which I used to carry back in late 2000s and early 2010s was capable of doing most of the stuff mentioned in the video. Even had a blurry VGA camera with picture quality on par with early consumer digital cameras.
@kjtroj3 жыл бұрын
Another aspect of this is what's called showrooming - someone will go into a brick and mortar store, tie up a sales person to help them figure out what they want, and then they go buy it online.
@DavidSmith-wr6vj3 жыл бұрын
Yep
@TimLucasdesign3 жыл бұрын
This is why Best Buy will match Amazon pricing.
@stilts1213 жыл бұрын
That didn't really exist in the 1980s, though. Back then, we just called it "shopping around."
@linkthehero12343 жыл бұрын
@@stilts121 idk maybe that’s bc ordering online wasn’t a thing in the 80s
@stilts1213 жыл бұрын
@@linkthehero1234 That's what I mean.
@tux9656 Жыл бұрын
The thing I really miss is flea market electronics vendors. There were big tables with electronics and computer parts 10+ years old that I had so much fun looking through and talking to the vendor about when I was a kid. Since it was all older/cheaper stuff, I could actually convince my parents to buy something for me every once in a while. On one trip to the flea market back in mid 90s, I spotted a complete IBM PS/2 system containing a blazing fast 286 CPU, a full megabyte of RAM, and a huge 170 MB hard drive and my mom actually bought it for me! It even had the original heavy-duty clicking keyboard and monochrome monitor. I had so much fun tinkering with it and learned so much about computers. If I didn’t have an older system to mess with like this when I was a kid, I doubt that today I’d have the same level of deep understanding of how computers work.
@alistairmcelwee7467 Жыл бұрын
I loved Fry’s so much. I used to drive down to the Fremont, CA, store, but sometimes I think there was a Concord, CA, store which was an alternative, or somewhere close, but there was never a bit more interesting and useful store. This was the place to get all the com-oneness to build your own computers. Cases, motherboards, power supplies, and everything else you needed. Can’t say how great Fry’s was, and truly, so much better than any other electronics and electrons component store. Also, terrific for electronic devices, and even ovens, refrigerators, stereos, ghettoblasters(!) and so much else. It seems to have been destroyed by Amazon.
@dorquemadagaming39382 жыл бұрын
"Couldn't they just walk in with a piece of paper and a pencil?" Yeah, I tried that in the 90's in Germany while trying to select an affordable PC for my friend who wasn't electronics-savvy. I went through the displayed hardware, recording specs and prices in a notebook, until the security showed up and escorted me out with pretty much the same reasoning. Obviously, the PC was later bought in a different, smaller store.
@nullpoint33462 жыл бұрын
Ah yes, smart business tactic of banishing price conscious customers. Instead of getting a little money, they get no money! Such a massive improvement!
@Not_Loading2 жыл бұрын
@@nullpoint3346 I mean it's understandable from a buisniess prospective, you may lose money from kicking some people out that are money savy but if a direct competitor can slightly undercut you you'd be losing way more, but yeah it definitely sucks glad it's much easier now with online shopping
@bigbabatunde12182 жыл бұрын
@@Not_Loading Most stores that are left will do a price match nowadays if you bring up a competitors name.
@peterbelanger40942 жыл бұрын
It's not about just the prices. It's about the layout and presentation. Retail is a cat & mouse psychology game. A competitor would video a store to study where and how products are arranged, how customers move around and react. Same reason they collect all that data online. It was tougher to hide a camera then, and data harvesting was in it's infancy. These days they just try to hack each others customer data.
@Gr8thxAlot Жыл бұрын
@@peterbelanger4094 Now companies just scrape competitor websites every day and then data mine it.
@GodzillaB2103 жыл бұрын
As a 50 year old Texan, thanks for the blast from the past. I fondly remember all those places. God, Radio Shack and Babbage's was the holy temple. Hope you are recovering well from the winter apocalypse. We fared pretty good here in Houston. Oh one toy store you didn't mention was Children's Palace, where I got my Magnavox Odyssey 2 games.
@lo1bo23 жыл бұрын
I remember Children's Palace, and have at least one childhood Transformers cardback with their price sticker. It's cool to have evidence of where various toys were bought.
@martinenglish664111 ай бұрын
When I was going to college in the early 1980's I would get a lab parts list to buy the needed components at Radio Shack. I could also order any vacuum tube I needed to repair old vacuum tube radios and TV's. I could also order picture tubes for TV's. Those were expensive as they were made per order and it was a month to 6 month turnaround to get one. More than half the store shelves were electronics components and build-it-your-self electronics kits. That all ended in the mid 80's to the early 90's. It got to where TV picture tubes were costing more than a new TV of the same specs. As far as vacuum tubes, good luck finding the rear old tubes used in high-end military transceivers used in WW 2 and Korea. And old tubes used in short-wave radios are hard to get now as well.
@bigtimelsu2 жыл бұрын
I use to operate a BBS in the Ft. Worth area for years back in the 90s. My parents spent thousands at these stores growing up. It's fun to reflect on them.
@brianoconnell64593 жыл бұрын
Someone needs to make a VR Mall Walker game, where you wander through the great malls of the US, visiting the old stores.
@AltimaNEO3 жыл бұрын
Maybe add it to Defunct Land?
@channel59803 жыл бұрын
@@AltimaNEO Exactly LMAO
@lostcat9lives3223 жыл бұрын
No they don't.
@paulocuento99493 жыл бұрын
i agree. and maybe have all the interior design of the mall and the shops look like they were in the 80s
@evolicious3 жыл бұрын
Need to photogrammetry a mall
@deckard5pegasus6733 жыл бұрын
...all those memories will be lost like tears in the rain
@thephoenixhasflown3 жыл бұрын
Oh great now I've got the triumph song stuck in my head. :-) but yeah I don't even want to know what this place is going to look like in 2045.
@RomeoG393 жыл бұрын
one of the greatest movie lines, and movie moments, from one of the greatest movies ever
@trickyrat4833 жыл бұрын
Electronics stores? You wouldn't believe the things I've seen.. :)
@deckard5pegasus6733 жыл бұрын
@@trickyrat483 exactly. When 8-bit guy was talking about the 80's nostalgia of going to the computers stores in the shopping malls, I was having a flood of vivid flashbacks. It was literally like yesterday
@SandsOfArrakis3 жыл бұрын
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Stores full of electronics and devices. I’ve seen shops full of discs able to reflect the sunlight. All those electronics will be lost in time. Like tears in the rain.
@bb111111611 ай бұрын
It’s well known that online shopping has killed off much of US retail. But I didn’t realize how many products were eliminated by the the smartphone combined with online shopping. Sad to see so many stores and malls disappear.
@JamieStuff11 ай бұрын
Fry's bought out Incredible Universe in the mid '90s (at least the few stores that were still open), and over time converted them to Fry's Electronics.
@MrPeterStevens3 жыл бұрын
There was no greater wonder as a kid than going to Toys 'R Us's video game section. Sensory overload every time.
@johnackerman55992 жыл бұрын
Don’t forget about the toys!
@Tahngarthor2 жыл бұрын
I remember the weird system they had where you couldn't just pick the games up off the shelf, they basically just had a wall with box shots and you had to take a ticket to the counter and they'd give you the game. It still seems bizzare where even today, the items might be in a glass case but they're right there you just need to ask someone to open it up and then you can just check out normally.
@MrPeterStevens2 жыл бұрын
@@Tahngarthor Yes! Sometimes the front and back were next to each other. Eventually as more consoles came out you could flip the box shot up to see the back. The ticket counter also blew my mind. ALL THOSE GAMES.
@WATCHINGTHEWATCHERS2 жыл бұрын
That's very true, I remember those times in the 90s and they sold Boglins which was My favorate toy besides Lego.
@jackson51162 жыл бұрын
@@Tahngarthor they did that to prevent theft, because $50 for a game was insane back in the 80's and 90's (we're talking like $100 for a single game today!). So, to try to curb theft, they locked up their games, so you'd have to pay for it first, then collect it later. They changed that when they remodeled into the R Zone, and started putting them into locked cases that had to be unlocked behind the counter.
@joe088673 жыл бұрын
I miss the old radio shack. You could literally build anything electronic with what they had in the store.
@francisdhomer59103 жыл бұрын
And if you had the right one the manager built models. Went in there a lot after I found that out as I was getting into lighting up my ships. Got a lot of good advice and ideas. Guy got screwed by them. They never said anything about closing and he had a lot of stock invested for retirement. He lost money on all of that.
@ethanpoole34433 жыл бұрын
@@francisdhomer5910 In fairness, the writing had been on the proverbial wall for over a decade (nearly two decades if paying close attention) that Radio Shack was ultimately going to implode and was a near foregone conclusion in the last several years of Radio Shack’s existence, so closure really was not a surprise to anyone paying any attention. Radio Shack went downhill tremendously once they closed their catalog business and shifted nearly everything over to cellular sales instead in the mid to late 90s... they got by on that for about 10-15 years so long as there were few other reputable nationwide chains selling cellular service and phones, but once everyone and their mother was selling cellular service plans and phones there was no longer a compelling reason for people to go to Radio Shack anymore and they had already killed off nearly everything that once made them a major hobbyist and novelty item destination for many. Your friend was effectively gambling big time on Radio Shack beating the,overwhelming odds and rebounding, thus a huge payoff, but their debt holder specifically forbid any significant changes to their business model that might have facilitated their survival nor any additional or outside cash infusions to keep them alive. Radio Shack in those final years was much like the GameStop of today, maybe a miracle happens and GameStop is bought up by an exceedingly generous angel who successfully saves the chain, but to anyone paying attention the death of GameStop is a near foregone conclusion as they are hemorrhaging money, customers, and outright ripping off customers (e.g. canceling paid preorders at closing stores and pocketing the customer’s money and making it very difficult for customers to recover their own money) and low level employees just to keep the lights on a little longer so the top execs can give themselves one final annual bonus for their epic incompetence (the classic Golden Parachute - could you imagine if the rest of us regularly received huge bonuses whenever our bosses fired us for gross incompetence or neglect?!)! I do believe they could have saved Radio Shack had their debt owner wanted to allow such by realigning and reinventing Radio Shack with the Maker movement in mind and partnering with Makerspaces, etc., - or even creating their own Makerspaces on a Nationwide level - providing folks with not only ready access to hobby related parts and services (both same day for stock items and free pickup mail order) as well as equipment sales and rental for Makers. The 2008 recession would have been a great time to have made that move as retail space and real estate prices were substantially depressed due to the many business closures in that recession, so creating Makerspaces would have been a much less costly experiment and Radio Shack still had significant cash on hand back then that could have been used to help finance the conversion and marketing blitzes not to mention a passionate Maker movement they could have allied with for additional free publicity and members/customers. However, by the final terminal years such would have required both bold vision and a significant outside cash infusion and their debt holder would not even authorize them to close and sell off their poorest performing locations, much less pursue a bold vision to save a much beloved institution amongst those of us who grew up with Radio Shack and their catalogs! It is pretty clear that their major debt holder WANTED Radio Shack to shutter for their own financial reasons given they did everything possible to ensure its demise by forbidding any real changes in a dead business model and now allowing them to close poor performing and redundant locations. The final closure and liquidating of Radio Shack was not only a very sad day for the electronics hobbyists that grew up with Radio Shack but also for the amateur (ham) radio community as that was where Radio Shack’s origin story begins, hence the name “radio shack”!
@francisdhomer59103 жыл бұрын
@@ethanpoole3443 Thanks for your reply. To be clear on my friend he worked for them for 20 years, almost always treated him right but his biggest problem was he was small town. It was hard for him to think of people trying to screw other people. The week before everything fell down he had been told things were going good and he had nothing to worry about. In other words he was too trust worthy. He has bounced back from all of this but no where near where he was. He was one of the few stores who was doing good due to what you mentioned, the HAM people in our area. He also tried to give personal service to everyone and tried to have his people do the same. (Sometimes he still had idiots that understood nothing nothing about like customer service) Radio Shack screwed themselves all over. Myself I felt Tandy was a good product. Still have an old Tandy computer somewhere and it works. They had interesting stuff that covered everything from a young child interested in electronics to the crazy guy down the street building his first Skywatch to take over the world. Then I first started looking into lighting my models and showed their choices my imagination ran wild. Not only could I build the Starship Enterprise but I could outfit a control panel making you feel like you could fly it. (Never did, cost) As a budding nerd I could spend hours wandering around. Near the end all I did was orbit around thinking Yep can buy that somewhere else and better. Another thing that killed it, things started feeling cheap. Now we have on line, which don't help the new people coming into anything. You have read me talking about models, if you got interested an wanted to learn what do you do? Talk to me? We may never chat again. Chat online with someone at these sites? Once more you don't know them you don't know if they know the hobby or are reading a script. And if you take time to think and come back later you may never see them again. Yes you can call me a Boomer. I miss the days where there were human interactions. But the good workers back them learned to read their customers, learned what they were not saying and was able to steer them towards what they wanted needed or in some cases what the company wanted them to think they needed. I won't go into Gamestop. That is a whole ten page chat to start. Thanks for your comments Have a good day. Frank
@sireuchre3 жыл бұрын
Believe it or not, up to at least the 2015 bankruptcy, corporate Radio Shacks still had a ton of the basic electronic parts needed to make a lot of stuff. It was just marginalized and relegated to the back of the store, and most stores the employees didn't know crap about any of it. But, would you like to upgrade your cell phone? Their addiction to wireless sales to subsidize their labor costs (SPIFFs and commissions added a LOT of fat to sales associates paychecks) is what most killed their future, and ability to even change. They got so dependent on it, just 1 month of even near zero wireless sales could tank the company, if their cash reserves went away. When Julian Day left as CEO, his successor Gooch literally doubled the number of VPs and other high level execs, and in 6 months dried up ALL of their cash reserves. The shrinking sales due to simple marketplace competition alone was enough to throw them into the red. They didn't know how to get their enthusiast customers back, and couldn't pivot to do so fast enough for it to save them.
@rexbentley83323 жыл бұрын
Heath Kit was another.
@bigdeagle1331 Жыл бұрын
Out of all your videos! This one hits home! I loved going to the mall on Saturday!
@cadewhittlef7185 Жыл бұрын
WOW! That was quite a rollercoaster of emotion watching this video. Thank you!
@choppergirl3 жыл бұрын
Short answer: They got dumbed down to selling cellphones and junk RC trucks, and we stopped coming. What little components they did carry were overpriced in little baggies in drawers, and when we rifled through them looking for what we wanted, we got funny looks from the store staff that was selling batteries and cell phone plans.
@Camel_Jockey3 жыл бұрын
Very accurate.
@bryede3 жыл бұрын
Yep, plus they stopped keeping up with the trends in the electronics hobby. We had to mail order anything made past 1983 anyway, so why bother. I worked at Radio Shack about the time John Roach abandoned the loyal hobbyist.
@choppergirl3 жыл бұрын
@@bryede I worked in a mall software store, opening and closing it, and by the end of it I had pirated the entire Macintosh section... no small feat. Every morning I would come in, and for an hour in the back re-shrinkwrap all the stuff I had taken home and copied lol. It was for my own personal use, and I never would of been able to afford any of it anyways on that minimum wage, so no big harm, but kind of funny. It was 10x better than today's Gamestop. If only it had paid 5x more. The manager made $15/hr, which was okay, but everybody else made nothing. Still, fun place to work at the time because we were all a bunch of characters and the customers that came in were fun. Where else could you play video games locally... at work. Just about all the sales were credit card sales. I miss places like Computer City and CompUSA tho... even though I never bought anything, it was fun to look. The further you go back in time, the more fun the computer stores were, and the more varied was the merchandice.
@stargazer76443 жыл бұрын
There at the end when RS started supporting the Maker community I thought they might be able to hang on. But, alas, no.
@bigbabatunde12182 жыл бұрын
I was looking for a can of electrical switch cleaner recently and had to shop around in what shops are left. The guys that work in some of these 10th rate excuses for businesses haven't even heard of switch cleaner. I live in the U.K and everything is near enough gone nowadays. Shops like Tandy, Maplin, Independent stores as well like small computer game stores. Even mainstream chains selling electrical items have largely scaled back or gave up selling a lot of products altogether. Most of the took for granted shop spaces with the exception of big chains are vacant or been turned into yet more hipster eateries or cheap fast fashion stores. It's an unspoken shame what the West has become under the banner of a "progressive" society. The U.S always had more shopping than the U.K would ever dream of having but it's fukin ridiculous what tech giants have done to the world and the West in particular.
@sdbelfort3 жыл бұрын
A new studio and a video just a month after your house was flooded? David’s a madlad!
@that2dollarbill8633 жыл бұрын
huh
@NLSNMedia3 жыл бұрын
@@that2dollarbill863 His house got flooded
@feigningainelive59733 жыл бұрын
@@that2dollarbill863 his house got flooded
@brandonr66013 жыл бұрын
His house got flooded
@TenOfZero13 жыл бұрын
@@that2dollarbill863 His house got flooded, after the Texas snow storm and power outages, I believe a pipe burst
@truealchiemist7 ай бұрын
The Fry's on your title card was the one near me in Renton Washington. A lot of good memories there. Place was huge and had great prices. It was so huge it had its own cafe in the center of the store, and I mean it's own building inside, sort of.
@GWE4 Жыл бұрын
Great video. I did not know you were in my area. I live in Mansfield, 54 years old. Thanks for the memories. I very much miss the stores in the malls, such awesome memories.
@bk649cc3 жыл бұрын
Wow, what a psychedelic background in the new studio
@JasonOFlaherty3 жыл бұрын
It's pretty distracting in this state
@davebenhart46113 жыл бұрын
I'm sure once it's covered in shelves it will look great.
@MikeDijital3 жыл бұрын
its seizure inducing
@mrb52173 жыл бұрын
@@JasonOFlaherty It's distracting here in Pennsylvania too.
@JasonOFlaherty3 жыл бұрын
@@mrb5217 haha
@HankW3 жыл бұрын
"Unless you count GameStop which doesn't exactly have a bright future" Quiet, you'll wake up WallStreetBets!
@ericcooley94073 жыл бұрын
😆 GameStop is newer. Babbage, Software Etc., and one I cannot recall! Those were the childhood stores
@proCaylak3 жыл бұрын
doesn't matter even if WSB gets insomniac. what they did may not help gamestop in the long term.
@PHamster3 жыл бұрын
Stonks?
@celestian19983 жыл бұрын
@@ericcooley9407 Gamestop is Babbages and Software Etc. Those two merged in '94 and changed their name to Gamestop in 2000. Funco was also bought and combined with this set.
@nnnnnn36473 жыл бұрын
Paradoxically, the producer of store killers - Apple - has a lot of well-earning classic stores.
@GUNMETALGUYUSA2 жыл бұрын
Work, for now, at a dying mall here in DFW. A former CompUSA worker minion. This was great review & nostalgic trip. Thanks. 👍
@chrisanderson5046 Жыл бұрын
Wow, thanks for that - great video! What a nice trip down memory lane, in that you noted a lot of the experiences from back then. I was a teenager in the mid 80’s so I remember it very well. Roanoke, Va’s Valley Mall was very much like the one you described. Babbages was always one of my favorite stores, and that is where I bought a majority of the software for my Commodore 128. BEST was also a great place to shop.
@JamesPawson3 жыл бұрын
"This town sucks, all there is to do is hang out at the mall.." I'd always say as a teen.. Now the kids don't even have that. On the bright side, no more mall cops to deal with.
@Dr_Andracca3 жыл бұрын
Speaking of mall cops, if anyone saw that video a few years back of a cop making a kid do push ups instead of taking them in(I forget what for exactly) that was actually outside of the theatre attached to the Six Flags Mall. It is now a boring ass warehouse and it hurts my soul every time I drive by it.
@MARKE9113 жыл бұрын
The 2 malls left here are known as places of violence and drugs. It’s really sad.
@SecretOfMonkeyIsland7843 жыл бұрын
Yeah Paul Blart was always ragging on me for running in the aisles
@monteanthony10223 жыл бұрын
Ikr in my home town growing up adults would complain about the youth hanging out at the park then we got a game crazy and vandalism went waaaaaaaaaaay down and then the adults botched about the owner having a psudo internet Cafe we'd play cs condition zero at his shop, after he lost out to gamestop which was his fault we eventually found planet 8 ball and then kids in town had a place to go again until adults wound up getting mad that we would hang out in broad daylight on 3rd street so 8 ball got closed and everyone was old enough to buy heroin. 2/3 of my graduating class of 30 are addicts or recovering. Shit always broke my heart, one of my friends who fell prey to drugs once thier mom was completely fed up with thier computer usage. The dude was so fucking talented and I learned so much from him it sucks seeing how the drug affected his cognitive ability. He'll still send me a shell script to do random shit like translating my hdd spinning to raw audio.
@freewill11143 жыл бұрын
@@MARKE911 SO true. Many people I know, including my wife, are afraid to go to a mall, because of the criminality and just general disorder and rudeness. There is no longer anything of interest for me at a mall.
@ddud49663 жыл бұрын
You can still do that stuff if you visit Japan, they're kinda stuck in the 90s in some ways. There's a whole district of Tokyo that's almost entirely electronics stores and arcades.
@klaasj78083 жыл бұрын
well we are not allowed to travel, thats our future. corona shit fuck
@millerdp3 жыл бұрын
You’re speaking of Akihabara. Multi story electronic stores! I visited just before the pandemic and will return!
@ThetaReactor3 жыл бұрын
Lots of it in West Taiwan, too.
@shawbros3 жыл бұрын
That's a place I would like to live in, if it wasn't so expensive.
@GarryGri3 жыл бұрын
Are you talking about Akihabara district in Tokyo. It's also full of retro games shops that are stuffed full of... well everything! As well as still having multi-story Game Arcades. It's a place you will see nothing like in the west.
@brandonsytes83732 жыл бұрын
The Radio Shack in my area actually managed to stay in business until the chain itself closed.
@amramjose11 ай бұрын
I started in electronics in the late 70s. We had Lafayette Electronics, Radio Shack was everywhere, Dick Smith electronics which did not last long in the US, and myriad other electronics parts and components stores. Now, on-line is about the only place to get anything. I mourn their passing, specially Frys.
@itanasoaie3 жыл бұрын
The picture of David as a kid holding the camcorder is cute as hell. We kind of forget how big the cameras were in those days.
@EngineeringVignettes3 жыл бұрын
Or how small David was...
@stevethepocket3 жыл бұрын
_WHO NEEDS A CAMCORDER THAT FITS IN MY HAND_ _YOU KNOW I WANNA LOOK LIKE A NEWS CAMERAMAN_ - Rhett and Link
@lajya013 жыл бұрын
@@carbonstar9091 There was "smaller" VHS cameras but with a separate recorder wore to the belt.
@thelazymechanic013 жыл бұрын
The one thing I miss is actually being able to see what I'm buying before I buy it.
@woodywoodverchecker3 жыл бұрын
Also, the expectation of it to work properly have changed. There are just so many weird Chinese products that do work "sometimes".
@farmerfreakeasy95773 жыл бұрын
And if you had a faulty item or another problem you could return to the store for face to face help, and get a replacement item(or a refund). Plus seeing things up front, meant you could ascertain styling and size issues for your living room. There could be a time when we regret the closure of all these stores.
@jek__3 жыл бұрын
Virtual reality store shelves help to mitigate this problem. Or those 3d still image webapp things that you can rotate. Once lidar or an analogue is cheap and convenient enough for stores to scan their goods, we'll be able to get a better picture of them from home
@Delgen19513 жыл бұрын
@@farmerfreakeasy9577 Is now, the time?
@farmerfreakeasy95773 жыл бұрын
@@jek__ That's the 1st i've heard of these rotating 3D images. Nice thinking. In a few years we'll have phones that can project 3D images, just like in Star Wars. Help me Obi Wan. Help me. Maybe it's about time i bought a mobile phone; but i can't afford the phone calls.
@eldiablo379410 ай бұрын
I remember before we had gamestop, it was originally called Funcoland.. that and radioshack were my go to places for video games and electronics.
@otakubullfrog1665 Жыл бұрын
Part of the fun of electronic stores was coming in to make a simple purchase (like picking up a few blank tapes) and seeing everything else on display as you walked through the store to get to what you wanted. Even if you didn't end up buying anything else that day, seeing certain items got you excited for when you'd eventually come back after you started your summer job and got your first paycheck. Online shopping makes it very easy to search for exactly what you want and buy it without even checking out anything else.
@greggiggle2 жыл бұрын
I can also remember when I was younger walking into these electronics stores and even though a certain percentage of the employees were just there as part-time workers etc., a good amount were hobbyist or enthusiast and could answer questions. The past few times I’ve gone to some of the remaining electronics stores like Best Buy etc., not only do the staff seem completely uninformed about their products, nobody seems in the least bit interested in trying to answer any questions.
@jmal2 жыл бұрын
They are, however, interested in selling useless crap like extended warranties and overpriced HDMI cables.
@notthatdigusted74682 жыл бұрын
LOL
@bigbabatunde12182 жыл бұрын
Absolutely spot on. People now are just terribly boring to the point that you wouldn't want to get to know them. KPI obsessed clones.
@KenKen-ui4ny Жыл бұрын
@@maidenthe80sla We did had brick and motor stores for electronic parts at one time. Radio Shack was one of them. But that was probably in part of back in the day, when something electronic breaks or had something burn up inside of it. You where more inclined to get it repaired, then to throw it out and buy a new one.
@chechnya Жыл бұрын
For $8.00 an hour, do you blame them?
@paragraut35043 жыл бұрын
That background, my eyes 👀
@markusTegelane3 жыл бұрын
yeah, he should replace white with a color that is closer to the blue we see
@StevieCooper2 жыл бұрын
I remember being a kid in the 00’s and even then, these types of things were sold. I loved looking at all the items. I miss the period when the internet existed but only when I was at home (more or less) When I went out, I could only call or text. It meant I saw more people and had more real experiences. I once drew a shopping centre map purely from memory when I was a teen. That’s how much I was at the local shopping centre.
@johnwestby79132 жыл бұрын
Thank you Mr. Bit Guy. This is my favorite video to which you have posted and I've literally watched it a dozen times. My first computer was a C64 which I purchased in 1985 and used it until 1991. I have to admit I still whish I still had it and the the peripherals I bought for it. I loved the bitter sweet sentimental connection this video gave to all of us nerds that grew up in the 80's ogling at the latest technology and got to dream of owning something so fantastic as what we could look and and touch while browsing at the stores. I can still remember how amazed I was watching the Christmas Commodore 64 demo at the local software store way back in 1985. I think I must have watched it at least a dozen times before going home from my moms grocery shopping trip and fantasized how I could obtain one of these machines.
@MrZedblade3 жыл бұрын
8-Bit guy is back! I need to get used to that blue mosaic wall background, but.... 8-Bit Buy is back! Yes!
@gb77673 жыл бұрын
I think I can adjust to the blue mosaic ... it's the shelves behind his head I find horribly distracting
@teckyify3 жыл бұрын
Background pattern drives me nuts 😂
@unsettlr3 жыл бұрын
It super distracting for me. Hopefully I can get used to it haha
@dad2-d244 Жыл бұрын
Another great video! Absolutely loved it. Nostalgia galore! Miss those days of catalogs and radio shacks and ......
@Tomcatntbird11 ай бұрын
Yep, my old stomping grounds was crabtree valley mall in Raleigh, NC. My mom was the store manager of Stuart's fashions. I used to go to KB toys, electronic botique, Discovery channel store, sharper image, B. Dalton had a small computer area in the back that had IBM computers that had railroad tycoon, chuck yagers air combat, and stunt island installed. I usually sat there for a bit to play till the staff put passwords on execution files. The arcade upstairs was Tilt if i remember correctly. Ahhhhh, fun times. I went into the US Navy in 1996, stationed in Norfolk, VA, there was a Comp USA i used to build my first desktop. I really do miss those days.
@Icarusaresane3 жыл бұрын
"who needs that, who uses this anymore" ....I.....I do :(
@Darxide233 жыл бұрын
But the 80s were only 20 years ag...... oh. :(
@AltimaNEO3 жыл бұрын
We do! We do!
@xenos_n.3 жыл бұрын
@@Darxide23 20 years ago was the 2000's 😔
@EiffelVale3 жыл бұрын
The Smartphone is so smart that they combined every item in the Radio Shack catalog into one device
@franklinjames70303 жыл бұрын
@@carbonstar9091 I know. I remember when I was 5 years old (am 23 now) and cellular plans were charged by the minute and you maybe had a few kilobytes if not a few megabytes of data, and those plans were EXPENSIVE AS HECK! Now today you can get an unlimited plan along with a sometimes free smartphone for about $95-$150 per month. Oh how times have changed.
@DarthVader19773 жыл бұрын
every item*
@skenzyme813 жыл бұрын
@@franklinjames7030 My parents had a car phone installed in their 1990 Mercury Cougar when they bought it. There had to be an antenna installed on the rear window. It was so expensive it was basically for emergencies or calls of less than a minute.
@zusurs3 жыл бұрын
@@franklinjames7030 Just a quick side note - here in Europe unlimited calls + unlimited LTE data costs equivalent of 22$ a month. While an fibre optic 200Mbit/sec symmetric internet connection costs 16$ a month, and is available to over 70% of population (the rest has somewhat slower 30-50Mbit ADSL lines).
@disposablehero49113 жыл бұрын
That's horrible.
@TheKishinhunter Жыл бұрын
i spent a lot of time at radio shack around 2012 since it was the only local hobby electronics store in my town and even then it was tiny. that was where i was first introduced to arduino and i spent a lot of time in middle school and high school riding my bike down to the shack to pick up resistors, chips, leds, and battery and project boxes. even up until they closed, they still had one corner dedicated to hobby electronics. the multimeter i use all the time is from radio shack and still works fine.
@williamogilvie6909 Жыл бұрын
In Silicon Valley we had Fry's electronics. The first store, in Sunnyvale, was originally Fry's supermarket. I remember going in there in the mid '80s. The Sunnyvale store expanded twice into larger nearby premises. At its peak, there were Fry's Electronics stores up and down the West coast, as well as other East coast cities. Very sad that Fry's is no longer around. Almost all the other electronics stores have disappeared as well - Halted, Haltek, RA Enterprises, Active Electronics, and many others.
@SlavicCelery3 жыл бұрын
I'm not the oldest guy in the audience, but I was born in the 80's. You're absolutely correct that there's nothing out there like there was. RadioShack was one of the coolest places until about the mid 90's.
@curiousone97142 жыл бұрын
Good memories. I begged my parents for a Timex Sinclair computer for weeks. They had no idea what a home computer was. To shut me up they took me to Sears in Dallas and bought me one. I was fascinated by it. It was the beginning of a long and succesful engineering career.
@someguy2135 Жыл бұрын
That was my 1st computer! The 1000. I sold it and bought a Commodore VIC-20, which was eventually replaced by a C64, which I had quite a while.
@luiscunha6657 Жыл бұрын
I am from Portugal, and the Timex Sinclair 1000 was my first computer, and maybe the most important one to me
@kipb2078 Жыл бұрын
I worked at. Video Concepts in the mall. For those who don’t know we sold big screen TVs, stereo equipment, video cameras, VCRs, laserdisc, etc. but no car audio. We were owned by Tandy like Radio Shack and Incredible Universe. There was also a store called Smiths that sold similar things and home appliances. I also remember another store called Jafco that had electronics.
@slopsec235811 ай бұрын
Great video, brought back lots of memories. Thank you, I enjoyed it.
@BruceChastain3 жыл бұрын
interestingly in Switzerland there is a store called Conrad, when I went in there I felt like I went back in time to late 80s or early 90s radio shack. It was so amazing.
@yxcvbnmmnbvcxy5443 жыл бұрын
It's probably the last electronics store, unfortunately the next one's is over 100km away from me.
@Bstingnl3 жыл бұрын
There used to be a Conrad decades ago in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, but from what I understood they have always been a mail order company with a few store fronts as extra. Their niche wasn't that they sold consumer electronics, but they sold the actual electronics. So the components, instruments, tools and everything that had to do with electronics. My brother who studied electric engineering got a lot of stuff there for his projects.Conrad still exists as an online store.
@yxcvbnmmnbvcxy5443 жыл бұрын
@@Bstingnl That's the problem with most electronics stores, they just sell smartphones and consumer electronics but no components
@Haselui3 жыл бұрын
Yeah we have that in germany, too. Amazing! One store near my work in "Frankfurt am Main" and one where we have our meetings near "Essen"
@ez453 жыл бұрын
@@Haselui Why do you put place names in quotes?
@DethIndustries2 жыл бұрын
In the trailing years of Radio Shack's life, they actually turned into Cell Phone stores. Their main income was from selling cell phone plans for all the various companies. And if you tried to get a job there during this time, the most important aspect was whether you were a good salesman. They didn't care one bit about whether you knew electronics.
@bchristian85 Жыл бұрын
For probably the last decade of Radio Shack's existence, I never had a need to go there and when I did, since I didn't need a cell phone or accessories for my phone, it didn't have much to offer. The most recent fond memories of Radio Shack that I have are all the way back to the era when they had the "Internet center" at the center of the store and you could use the Internet on the computer. It was DirecWay Satellite, which sucks today but in 1999 compared with dial-up, it was amazing to use.
@walbanos Жыл бұрын
can confirm, worked at radioshack in early-mid 2000s in it's final "hay day" years before all the closings and inevitable bankruptcy in early 2010s. it could have survived as a cell phone store even as that's what mattered, the market for electronic components had dwindled and more viable online anyways. what was a killer is the structure of the company and they couldn't outlive internal lawsuits. They made a HUGE mistake in restructuring along with just typical treatment of employees like garbage. Policy was never to pay over minimum wage and encourage income through "spiffs" which was $5-15 for every cellphone sold. A busy store with some good skills could get you $5 bucks extra an hour for sure, not bad but on average pay would work out to maybe $6/hr over like $5.15. Then for managers, they were required to work Mon-Sat, 6 days a week, 48 hours minimum. BUT they restructured the business at some point in late 90s to a system that classified store managers as just assistants and regional managers as store manager, kind of like a "multi-store manager" in an attempt to lower pay offered to actual store managers saying "well our stores are small, you have staff of less than 5 people typically, sooo you're not really a true manager" They did not realize this also meant they were in a classification now that required overtime pay unlike most management roles. For probably half a decade they litigated and semi-successfully delayed court decisions with extra filings and such but what they did was just flat out illegal. Now to make matters worse they continued the practice all through these years just adding on millions of hours of overtime due ANNND the best part is they started to fire managers as soon as they found out they were signed onto these class action lawsuits creating hundreds of more lawsuits for wrongful termination. In the end the hundreds of millions owed in stolen wages and wrongful termination ended them as those very vocal and strong facing practices of "our employees dont matter" also meant they weren't selling anything and couldn't cover the loses and they went under.
@kenr470911 ай бұрын
I found this to be very interesting, I remember a lot of the places that you talked about because they were national chains. We had one called Ross Coe electronics, which was also an interesting place, as well as RadioShack. My first recording device was a small real to reel tape recorder, that was portable. But that was a little bit before your time. Thank you for your presentation. It was brought back memories of going through the stores, myself, fascinated by all the gadgets. Thank you! 14:59
@Tjoeb123 Жыл бұрын
I know it's over 2 years old, but man, you dusted a cobweb off of my brain when you brought up Montgomery Ward. I forgot that was even a thing.
@kenfrank273011 ай бұрын
My Montgomery Ward sold personal computers at one time.