One bourbon, one scotch, and one mav

I know this isn’t exactly breaking news. About two weeks back Radio Shack at Blue Lakes & Filer closed down. I really miss it already. For me, Radio Shack *always* was the Rat Shack at Filer & Blue Lakes. Everything else (especially that blasphemous mall Rat Shack) was a cheap imitation.

I bought my first SPST switch and spool of wire from there.

I bought my Armatron there.

I bought my first computer there.

I remember when their checkout system was as sophisticated as a reciept pad, a calculator and a drawer that doubled as a till. A time before they asked for every single piece of identifiable demographic information so they could send you tons of junk mail.

I remember when PC-LINK was a big deal.

I remember when they actually sold radios of all shapes and sizes.

I remember standing in RS, staring endlessly at The Mind’s Eye playing on one of their TV’s, and wondering if we would ever be able to do that sort of thing on our desktop PC’s someday.

I remember Lotus 1-2-3 for Deskmate.

I remember CGA.

Part of me is happy it’s gone. It’s really not possible to go back to the small electronics and computers store that they were. It’s just not practical, there’s no mass market anymore for a store that sells nothing but electronics parts and arcane phone/radio/AV accessories. The only way to pull it off is to do what Fry’s did, and basically add electronic bits as an add-on to an already successful Best Buy/CompUSA/Circuit City model. The era of the little electronics store is over, even if the era of the electronics hobbyist is starting a retro-style comeback. There’s just no way to make it work in the era of Wal-Mart.

Still, there was always something so comforting about walking in that door, hearing the PCM-generated piezo door chime ring, and having the manager behind the desk say “Hi Brian, what’re you up to this week?”