Radio Shack 50% off sale alert

[rickcr42]

Time to stock up on the purple Nichicons and maybe even the blue mylars plus a few more IRF610 mosfets.
All parts in the drawer , which are all small parts now available from radio shack are 50% off.Caps,resistors,semiconductors,etc

Don't know if that means they are getting out of the parts business or not but ,most likely seeing where they have gone the last few years.

 

[Fangmasterflex]

RS probably isnt getting out of the parts business quite yet, its one of their main selling points for the company. Tons of people go in there for those little parts, probably more than you think (take it from a former radioshack employee) But im def gona go back and score some parts, hopefully theyll still give me the discount

Thanks for the sale notice!

 

[rickcr42]

Quote:

RS probably isnt getting out of the parts business quite yet, its one of their main selling points for the company.

my wife works there man

and the sad truth is that radio shack has been backing away from electronics hobby suport in chunks for a while.What once was readily available is now a special order and what i miss the most was the instant availability for enclosures (they sell three in the stores now) and the DIY mini kits once offered like the analog audio delay using the SAD chips.

The purple Nichicon electrolytics are not half bad and depending on the application the blue metallised mylar caps work well also.Nice orange drop replacements for instrument amps or even vintage gear

If you ever considered buiding a version of the Szekeres headphone amp then the IRF510 is ideal.I am not sure if the "deluxe" TO-220 heat sinks are a drawer item or not but if so then now is the time to pick up a couple heat as is the mounting hardware kit.

Radio shack is not usually what i consider a bargain but it can be convenient and at half price a convenient bargain

I just wish the DMMs were also 50% off.My son needs one for school and i hate to part with $200 for something that will most likely end up in his locker until next june

 

[Megaptera]

They better not be getting out of the components parts business, there's noplace else around me to browse

I was quite annoyed to find the two Radioshacks around me cutting back from a four-drawer to two-drawer inventory, eliminating quite a few parts I needed two weeks ago. But I did find a third that still has the four-drawer system, so maybe there's a little hope. For some basic parts it works out cost-effective when you factor in shipping and the time involved in waiting for a web-order part to arrive. Well, time to stock up I guess.

 

[null]

Hey, at least you yankees still have RatShacks that sell capacitors and such. The most Canadian Ratshacks sell are some protoboard, leds, and cheap crappy soldering irons/solder...

 

[Megaptera]

Hey, no whining. You can still make a pretty decent... board that lights up.

 

[rickcr42]

four drawers to two is nothing.I remeber when there were isles of parts and raw speaker drivers.
Then there were actual mini kits.you would buy the chip and they would sell the pcb and instructions on how to build headphoner amps with the lm386,preamps using the tl072 (state of the audio art once

),digital clocks,digital multimeters,the analog delay mentioned which could be used as a surround sound system before dolby prologic or as an instrument effect,power supplies,mini musical instruments,cool stuff to play with and all the parts plus board AND cabinet right there

those days are long gone and will never return.I blame it on the lack of competition.Where once we had more than one electronics hobbyist/professional chain stores we had options(Lafayette was one i remember,calectro branded parts ).

now we have a phone store !

not only that but once upon a time radio shack was cutting edge in audio in some ways.they were one of the first to come out with a cd player,they had radio shack branded stax headphones,they actually had an electrostatic loudspeaker !

You know you are getting old when there are "the good old days"

 

[gaboo]

Is this sale online too or B&M only? Their online prices for parts don't seem discounted...

 

[rickcr42]

store only

 

[nleahcim]

Only problem is most of their stuff is about 5x more than at a place like mouser or digi key - so 50% is not really anything to write home about...

 

[rickcr42]

folks go to radio shack for the convenience not for savings .They never have been price competitive with mail order even before the internet existed.
The "I need it now" to finish my project thing and if it is a repair time is worth a couple of extra dollars.So if you are going to shop there anyway it does not hurt to save 50% off the retail price

I get the 50% plus another 30% so in the end

[size=medium]80%[/size]

 

[Fangmasterflex]

Haha I guess they are leaning away from components, and turning into a phone store. My manager used to care about nothing besides cell phone sales, and we usually disliked those component buyers because they usually buy in small amounts, and we had to keep above that certain dollar per reciept level or get fired..

 

[flecom]

well the metal film resistor assortment is great to get you out of a pinch

plus they have LM317's rated for 1.5A and some other random stuff...

meh, since i work for a school i can buy at some of the local electronics places that only sell to companies/schools so at least i have that

but man the local places are just as bad as radio shack as far as prices... sometimes its just better to go nuts on digi-key or mouser every now and again and stock some parts for those late night cravings

 

[rickcr42]

Quote:

and we usually disliked those component buyers because they usually buy in small amounts, and we had to keep above that certain dollar per reciept level or get fired..

Give that man a ceegar !

yup ! high pressure sales and it is even worse for the manager.My wife managed for a couple of years then said screw it and walked.80 hour weeks was no fun and the rest of the family had to look at a picture to remeber what she looked like !

"someone's at the door ! They are coming in ! OH NOOOO !"

"it's OK,just mom"

Plus most folks do not even know that radio shack sales persons get little as a base salary but depend on sales,the "per hour" average ,to make any kind of pay check

 

[Mr.Radar]

The last time I went to our local RadioShack to buy a cable splitter I noticed they'd removed their electronics component drawers. It's a really small store, but still. I guess they really are getting out of the electronics components business.