Last week I had an interesting conversation with a man who was the manager of a Tandy branch near here, back in the 1990s We had a few reminiscences about their Free Battery Club and the equipment they sold. In the UK Tandy disappeared in 1999, not because they were making a loss, but because Carphone Warehouse, anticipating the need for a Mobile Phone shop in every town decided the quickest way to acquire them was to buy out Tandy UK and convert the majority of their shops. I often joked that UK retailer Maplin turned into Tandy being full of over-priced components and Radio Control Cars but they did go bankrupt a year of two ago. Mentioning my converstaion to friend he sent me the following link https://www.tandyonline.com/catalogues Loads of electronic goodies in there, although I would take the catalogue prices with a pinch of salt. The Tandy shop manager agreed that the were famous for large reductions (sometimes as much as 50%) in their monthly newsletter. Even when Tandy was around it was fun to play "Spot the Manufacturer". Although everything had their own brand names, many things like the TRS80 pocket computer are obviously a Sharp with a different name. At the other end of the TRS80 range the department I worked in in 1981 had a top of the range system with all the add-ons like Disc Drives and a printer. The purchase cost was similar to a car, although cheap compared to IBM or DEC. They used it for keeping their quality records on. With such a huge investment they employed a man as "The computer programmer / operator". The fact that the 1980 catalogue includes several pages of CBs marked "Not available in the UK" shows what a popular subject that was back then. On 2nd November 1981 we could finally legally have CBs here (on UK specific channels) and Tandy were a major retailer of them. For people in the USA where Tandy was called Radio Shack their catalogues are also available on a differnt site. http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/ Did anyone make any major purchases in either store back in the day? Mine were my first Multimeter, some HiFi(ish) speakers, and some of the grey plastic 5 D cell torches that were really cheap if you bought a set of batteries to go in them.
I still keep my first tester, bought around 1997: And just last week I bought absolutely Minty Radio Shack re-branded Toshiba XR-9421, Realistic CD-3250: Big plan was to scavenge its laser mechanism for my Toshiba XR-9458 but, unfortunately, in this later 9421 model Toshiba switched to Sony's KSS220A laser the page from Radio Shack 1991 catalog shows that not much is changing in the ad industry; it forgot to mention that for extra $40 you could get not a piece of plastic, but full-metal CD-3350!
Around 1989-1990, when living in Chicago I do not remember seeing Zenith at my fav place United Audio Centers. Saw Zenith flashy logo in small one-room stores, along with RCA, Sony, JVC. At least one such Zenith + RCA shop, at Belmont and Broadway, did not sell any Japanese toys and by 1997-98 it faded away. I believe they also sold Optimus or Realistic brands (at that time I did not realize that those are actually Radio Shack), but that was a lifetime ago and my memory is getting iffy
Yeah Realistic was just a brand made up by RadioShack. But Zenith appears to have been its own company, so I guess any retailer could have sold their stuff.
Radio Shack was great for parts and test equipment, they had the big Lista Cabinets full of transistors, diodes, rotary switches, LEDs, etc. They also had a Sunday Flier and it always had around three loss-leaders, items with a huge discount that just got you in the store. They hooked us as kids at the mall with the free battery every month card but in a world of electronic gadgets it was a fun, although small, store to look at stuff. Some were independantly owned and usually by a hard-core radio guy, they would have more obscure stuff like ham radios and multi-band radios. Reli to answer your question, there used to be a ton of "TV and Appliance" shops, before mega-stores like Best Buy and Circuit City took over retail dominance. They would only have a few brands, companies like Zenith, Admiral, Quaser, Sylvania would stock these stores and be the "calling card." They needed to have a full range of electronics so the customer wouldn't go to another store.
I loved Tandy . There was one in mill field in Peterborough as well as in the town centre and it had some yaesu ham radios in as well as scanners and other stuff. I think that one might have been some sort of franchise as the one in the town had a more corporate look. I loved all their communications receivers used to have the dx302 and had quite a few of their scanners. My friend had 3 hi fi components that were actually pioneer guts inside . They had some cool stuff
There are still a few shops like that in the UK but they are getting few and far between. This one near my Mums immediately sprung to mind. https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4336163,-2.7565019,3a,44.2y,354.65h,83.52t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1scGNFVB63aARwBzyGNtrt3Q!2e0!6s//geo2.ggpht.com/cbk?panoid=cGNFVB63aARwBzyGNtrt3Q&output=thumbnail&cb_client=maps_sv.tactile.gps&thumb=2&w=203&h=100&yaw=223.52654&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i13312!8i6656 The sort of shop that will charge you £5 for a new belt for your vacuum cleaner, and might even fit it for another £10. In contrast the big stores like Currys will just try to sell you a new vacuum cleaner. p.s About two minutes walk from the shop I showed there used to be a more upmarket one in a 1970s built precinct, who in the late 1970s / early 80s would have a tasty display of Hitachi and Toshiba equipment including boomboxes in their large window. That disappeared about ten years ago and is now a bike shop. https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4339179,-2.7591489,3a,75y,248.75h,104.59t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipM2nieZgKXOvGan2CKc4lQxW5gL3PKm0lzvZlaB!2e10!3e11!6shttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipM2nieZgKXOvGan2CKc4lQxW5gL3PKm0lzvZlaB=w203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya186.73473-ro-0-fo100!7i13312!8i6656
Our guys couldn't compete, initially the big appliance manufacturers only gave the box stores the budget models, it didn't help, the little guys with the better equipment and service couldn't touch the big guy's prices. While Radio Shack was more a parts store for me, I do have their little Minimus Speakers and one of the big recievers that I bought at the thrifts. Our stores were fairly small so we never saw the high-end stuff but I do remember they had a huge display of speaker drivers, either for replacement or build your own.
Those catalogues have made my day ,especially the 1981 one as that’s when I started living in Peterborough near t Christmas and avidly listened to all sorts on vhf etc and the Lincoln road store at mill field had all sorts of great gadgets. There was also a great one in Arnold in Nottingham with all the scanners running . I particularly liked them when they had the LED readout instead of the newer lcd .
Shame about those shops , the one I’m talking about also had disco lights decks etc . There is still an independent electrical store in Devon where I live but like you;said it’s more where old folks go to buy stuff so that the owner can tell them how it works,fit belts ,tune the tele etc. They are usually eurosonics dealers selling brands like wharfdale and bush that are a cheap shadow of what their names used to represent
I can remember laskys having an apricot luggable computer and also the portable SX 64 Commodore 64 variant
QUOTE="Paul Jef Leppard, post: 39788, member: 2728"]Do you remember Lasky’s they were great. Computers , stereos television etc[/QUOTE] I certainly remember Lasky's. My first cassette recorder bought in 1976 came from there. I don't remember them selling computers. I do remember the HiFi separates area having dim lighting to show off all the equipment Lights and LEDs. I always admired the futuristic looking Akai equipment with front panels full of lights and buttons. I am not sure how good Lasky's customer service was. When the speed on the Amerex started playing up I took it back there to get a quote for a repair. About a month later they admitted they hadn't looked at it, so I took it back. A funnier story was when my Father and sister came back from town to say they had seen some guys staging a protest outside Lasky's; marching around a dead amplifier on the pavement carrying placards saying "Don't buy from Lousy Lasky's" While we are on the subject of shops that have disappeared (in the UK), in Bristol Lasky's was opposite Beatties, a Toy/Model shop that had all the Tamiya RC cars kits etc that at the time we could only drool over (they were expensive), and loads of things I could afford. I bought a Nintendo Game and Watch there when they were the latest and greatest gadget. Just along the road was C&As. About fifteen years ago the entire road was demolished to build a posh new shopping centre with upmarket retailers like House of Fraser. I bet that is working out well Paul. Since you are new to the forum you might not have seen https://www.americanradiohistory.com/ It includes some UK magazines like Practical electronics. If you look through the 1970s ones you will probably find some Lasky's adverts from back when they were more like Tandys. Two minutes searching found this:
Wow that’s great ,thanks ,going to check that link out. I remember about 1979 mum and dad getting an ITT television from a shop called valances don’t know if it was nationwid or a local independent
I just found this re vallances. Looks like it was a South Yorkshire /humberside /Lincolnshire based business http://www.britishrecordshoparchive.org/vallances.html
Real nice (and a bit sad!) 'flash-back' thread we got here! Just wish more Dudes from the 'wrong side of the Pond' would chip-in... When I ponder all the bad choices of my own life, I remind myself of the guy who sold his BestBuy shares a few months before it became The "Best Buy" and since then worked as a TT setup pro at Music Direct. I must have met him because when in Chicago their hangar was just 5-min away from my house and to save on shipping I would pick up my goodies there. On the subject of prices, I still remember that frequenting United Audio Centers at Clark and Diversey in Chicago around 1990, I was afraid to walk into NAD store across the street! Can you believe that!?! It looked too expensive to my means then, so Never even once I went inside!!!... A few years later it was my wife who nudged me into a store labelled 'Linn Hi Fi' further North on Clark where I must have lost my faith in CDs... a few blocks up, there was/still is Chicago Pro Musica: the place where I were 'converted' from Panny/Sony/JVC/Denon dude into an 'audiophile'! Definition of an 'audiophile' as per my wife: an idiot who spends all his allowances on hi-end toys... It is me!!!
Here's some early entries from the 1972 Radio Shack Catalog, the little CTR-18 and the 8-track PortiPlay-8. I'd love to see the sales numbers for both, the PortiPlay has those monster speakers for big fun anywhere.
