Personal Reflections on RadioShack

It was kind of sad this week hear that RadioShack would be closing. RadioShack was one of my favorite stores growing up… it had all kinds of cool electronics that I loved to stare at, and drool over. I can remember desperately wanting a RadioShack computer growing up, but they were just so expensive I couldn’t afford them. Then, later on, I ended up buying a RadioShack Color Computer with 4K of memory! Of course, I immediately maxed it out to 16 K! I learned to program in BASIC on that computer… and became a champion of the game called “Starfire” posting my high score to Color Computing magazine. Those were the days!

Now, it appears that RadioShack may sell half its stores to Sprint, and then close the rest. Apparently, competition from Walmart and other big box stores pushed it into bankruptcy. I can’t help but feel that an era is over with the demise of RadioShack.

The first “real” job that I ever had was working at RadioShack. The manager at the time begged me stay, after I’d taken a job at Christmas that was supposed to be part-time. I went on to work there for a year or two, eventually ending up at the Thomasville North Carolina store that used to be at Southgate Shopping Center.

Anyway, all of this just reminded me of times long ago when RadioShack was a big deal. So, we’ll miss you RadioShack!