A (friendly) open letter to Radio Shack

Dear Radio Shack,

Many of us who remember the “good old days” of going to Radio Shack for electronics parts, 100-in-one electronics kits, Forrest Mims’ books and the like were deeply disappointed when Radio Shack transformed itself from an electronics hobbyist’s one-stop-shop into a generic, consumer-centric cell phone and camera store. Its re-branding as “The Shack” seemed to be the final nail in the coffin of good old Radio Shack, and I was half-expecting to see the already meager selection of electronics components phased out completely.

Recently, though, Radio Shack seems to be making a sincere effort to win back do-it-yourselfers. This is great news! Although these days I do most of my electronics business with SparkFun, DigiKey, Jameco, MPJA, and Mouser, having an actual local electronics store available would be very welcome indeed. (Radio Shack hasn’t really been that since the late 80s or early 90s, unfortunately.) Radio Shack’s stock among many electronics hobbyists certainly isn’t what it once was. As one of my friends commented, “Radio Shack: You’ve Got Questions, We’ve Got Blank Stares™.”

As the great Jim Croce once said, “It doesn’t have to be that way.”

The trend towards selling cell phones and cameras is understandable. After all, Radio Shack is a business, and needs to make money to survive. It’s nice to see you trying to return to your roots among the DIY community, though. By doing so, you have an opportunity to not only generate a lot of goodwill among electronics hobbyists (who tend to spend significant amounts of money on equipment and components), but to help spread the DIY spirit and give a needed boost to our economy and the community’s education.

The most recent issue of Radio Shack’s DIY e-newsletter (that such a newsletter exists is itself encouraging) asked for suggestions for three products that we wished Radio Shack stocked locally. That’s a start, but there’s so much more potential out there! Here is a list of some suggestions that I think would really help Radio Shack not only rebuild some major “street cred” among DIYers, but help out the DIY community in a big way and even make some money in the bargain.

• Get members of the DIY / hobbyist / geek / nerd community on board to provide advice. I’m sure Forrest Mims, Jeri Ellsworth, Chris Savage, Chris Gammell, Lady Ada, and many others would have plenty of good suggestions. If Radio Shack really wants to help out the DIY community, we’d love to help.
• Consult with local hackerspaces, and consider sponsoring projects and contests with in-kind donations in return for publicity.
• Expand the parts selection. Every DIYer will have different answers on what to focus on, but some things are universal. Here are some of the big ones that I would like to see…
  • 1k resistors (maybe a 100-pack for under $10)
  • 0.1uF or 1uF capacitors for decoupling
  • Larger packs of the reed relays (206-2478). These are great little parts!
  • DIP form factor PIC microcontrollers, especially the 12F683 / 16F88 / 16F887 / 18F4550 etc.
  • Arduinos. (If I saw one in Radio Shack for under $50, I’d buy it just to see what all the fuss was about. I bet others would, too.)
  • 830-pin solderless breadboards and wire kits
  • Better soldering irons (although this has improved, recently.)
  • Servo motors — at least something like the Futaba S3003
  • TTL oscillators (and lots of other DIP integrated circuits)
  • Lithium-Ion batteries (if the lawyers will let you carry them)
  • Better quality tools, especially small screwdrivers. Stock the cheap ones if you must, but have at least one or two decent sets (Xcelite, etc) on hand, too.
  • PC modding parts — power supplies, fans, etc.
  • Assorted small bolts, nuts, standoffs, etc.
  • A better selection of crimp connectors — maybe in bulk
  • A selection of higher-wattage (maybe 10W or 25W) resistors
• Partner with SparkFun to offer some of their parts and kits locally in Radio Shack stores. SparkFun is a great example of an electronics company that truly “gets it.” Unfortunately, they’re in Boulder, CO — and even FedEx overnight is only so fast. Sometimes you need an accelerometer or LCD display — right now. Radio Shack could help with this! SparkFun-branded parts would certainly get me to stop by Radio Shack more often.
• Bring back the “grab boxes” of mystery parts! Twenty years ago, one of the best parts of stopping by Radio Shack was the possibility that they would have one or two of these little boxes full of who-knows-what. One of these boxes, with capacitors, transformers, stepper motors, LEDs, resistors, and ICs could keep a hobbyist entertained for a week!
• Provide datasheets for the parts you stock, at least online — and make sure a pinout and minimal data are available on the package. (Get someone knowledgeable about electronics to help with this.)
• Designate at least one employee per store — and preferably one per shift, per store — as an electronics guru. He or she doesn’t have to know every detail about every part in stock, but should have a basic understanding of circuit theory and be able to recognize basic parts and read a datasheet etc. At a minimum, a hobbyist shouldn’t have to explain what an LED is.
• Provide open-source plans for electronics projects, and put together the parts for these projects as kits, with suggested skill level ratings. (SparkFun could help out with this.) Hobbyists could start out by building a LED mood light, then progress to building a clock, or learning about microcontrollers and FPGAs and designing their own devices. DIYers get help learning more about electronics, Radio Shack gets more revenue, and the economy gets a boost when these folks decide to pursue engineering as a career and/or design the next big thing. Everybody wins!
• Start a “Radio Shack University” to help people get started learning about electronics. Make video tutorials available free online, along with project plans, schematics, open source firmware, and parts lists (with Radio Shack part numbers helpfully provided as a subtle hint.) Start a forum for discussing these projects; DIYers are famous for helping each other out. Again, SparkFun is known for doing this sort of thing — it provides a service while creating a demand for components and equipment.
• Phase out “The Shack” marketing. If nothing else, this is a slap in the face to the Amateur Radio community — and for me, represents all that is disappointing about Radio Shack these days (dumbed-down, consumer-centric, lowest-common-denominator marketing).
• I see Radio Shack will be at Maker Faire. Great! Listen to what the Makers have to say. If Radio Shack is supportive of the Maker community, they will notice.
• Get social networking involved. Create “achievements” based on knowledge, project creation, interaction with the DIY / hobbyist community, etc. (Make it so that these have more to do with learning, creating, and/or helping others than purchasing, and they will be a lot more meaningful to us.)
• (This is kind of out-there but would be very cool if feasible) Consider offering in-store PC board prototyping services. If a laser-etch process could be developed, PC boards could be done locally, in-store, with a small equipment footprint. This would be a huge draw to the prototyping community!
• Offer pick-up service for components. Customers order parts through the Web, pay online, and pick up a custom package at their local store. (Allow customers to make custom kits and share these lists with others, if they choose.)
• Consider offering local delivery services for a fee, or partnering with local courier companies. This would be more for the professional community — but Radio Shack is in a great position to supply university research labs, small businesses, and the like with parts on a same-day basis.

I would love to see Radio Shack truly become a local electronics store once again. From the viewpoint of the hobbyist community, there is a huge need for such a store! Even in many large metropolitan areas (I live and work in Philadelphia), it’s difficult or impossible to find an actual electronics (parts) store locally — so hobbyists are forced to order parts online. This not only can cause big delays, but can deter purchases: why pay $6 shipping for a 50-cent part?

I bet that I would spend well upwards of $100 in a typical month in a good, local, open-source-friendly electronics store like Radio Shack could be — especially if enticed by interesting project ideas and ready-made parts lists. I know I’m not the only one, either.I used to love going to Radio Shack “back in the day,” and would love to have the good old Radio Shack back.

Let’s make it happen. (Please contact me if I can help with anything.)

Sincerely,

M. Eric Carr
Technologist, Computer Engineering grad student, and electronics tinkerer
eric@paleotechnologist.net