RadioShack

I’ll start with what happened to Radio Shacks in general, and then get on to what’s wrong with this particular Radio Shack.
Radio Shack started out as a supply-​and-​advice center for very serious electronic hobbyists. It could get you parts, and you could usually run into the local fanatic about small electrics and electronics behind the desk who would steer you towards the right solution to your technical problems. There were a lot of ham operators and early solid state enthusiasts among the dedicated clientele.
Gradually it became the place to go to get both the electrical part you needed AND advice about more mundane things, like how to swap out plugs or install your own TV antenna, and Radio Shack established its rep as the place for «regular» people, not just DIY/​hobbyist types, to go. You could get odd-​sized batteries and still get the excellent advice.
Then Radio Shack started moving into what I’d call low-​end retail electronics. You could buy a TV there, not just the parts to fix one (which you can’t do anymore). Then home computers, for a while. And a VCR. And so forth, as each new generation of equipment which first required extra help and explanations came along. And while they never grew to the Best Buy level, since the footprint of their typical «shack» was small, they continued to keep a reputation as the place you could go to for decent quick help with solving a particular problem with your electron-​powered device.
And then came the cell phone.
Now, Radio Shack has devolved to the point where they’re essentially a cell-​phone advice-​and-​sales place that still stocks a lot of other stuff. The employees get trained on how to swap out your number and get you up and running on your cell phone, and they seem to specialize in the clients who are accustomed to coming there and maybe not so much directly to a single-​carrier cell phone store. I know this because I’ve been waiting on getting help at several Radio Shack locations for years now, listening to Joe Rotaryphone have the cell phone explained to him by the staff, while I’m trying to find where they left the inverters and soldering wire.
And along the way, they’ve dropped training their employees about anything else. The local nerd patrol have found their skills are more marketable and appreciated elsewhere, so your friendly neighborhood smart-​electronics-​self-​trained-​geek no longer wants to work here. So you get run in the mill retail clerks who are well trained and versed on the cell phone thing but not about anything else.
Which brings me to this location. While I’ve noticed the above about many Radio Shack locations over the years, this one has been particularly bad with respect to the following.
* The clerks don’t know their own stock. It’s not just that they don’t know what it is I’m talking about when I come in and talk about some basic item (and I’m not even talking diodes, I’m talking digital thermometers and rheostats and the like), they don’t _​even know what’s in their store_​.
* On three of the past five occasions I’ve come to this location, they have had the item I wanted to buy _​mispriced_​on the shelf, and then refused to honor the «marked» price on the shelf. Their POS database is king, I suppose, but this is either sloppy or dishonest or a little bit of both.
* They DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE BASICS OF ELECTRICITY. I could go into detail here, but I’m sure you don’t care for the purposes of this review. But by way of a simple example, I recently had a clerk pull out a lithium and a nicad battery (they were low on stock on the former) and claim I could mix them in the same device. (Don’t try at home.) I had one who was utterly unclear about the basic concept behind surge protection. I had another who did _​not understand the difference between switched and unswitched_​.
So what’s the point of coming in here? I have to find everything myself, they don’t understand what they’ve got, and three quarters of the time they want to order something specific I want out of a catalog. YO, I CAN SURF THE WEB, DUDES, and buy on-​line myself.
I will say the staff here have always been friendly, prompt (barring the odd cellphone sale to Joe Rotaryphone), and willing to help (if utterly unable) but I’m at my end with the Shack. I will probably stop in occasionally for the item I have to have now that I can find and understand how to use myself, but I have no need for a cell phone and if I did I’d be smart enough to go to a cell phone carrier after researching it in advance.
I do not rant. It’s just a sad coda on a long, long relationship with the Shack and writing this review is part of my process. I have moved on to the fifth stage, acceptance, here, and that’s all good.