Most people wouldn’t be able to identify the failed part shown in the photograph above.
Fewer still could have singled it out as culprit that brought all functioning of the computer in which it was housed to dead stop. With a simple Pop! sound, followed by thick, pungent billow of smoke, it gave away its contribution to the malefunction for anyone familiar with the smell. That would be when some from within that yet smaller group could have gone to work with further diagnosis and repair.
Forty years ago, securing a replacement item would have meant a trip to Radio Shack. And it wasn’t that many years ago that this area had several honest to goodness, brick-and-mortar stores from which to choose. Some components were merchandised on cardboard backings, hanging from wire hooks on pegboard displays. Others, in large pull-out drawers — the electronics version on single-screw boxes at Junga’s ACE Hardware. [1,2]
Anyone who today thinks that Radio Shack is no more has reason to be forgiven. As Brian Rashid wrote last year in Forbes, “I’m not going to lie to you: When I first read about Radio Shack filing bankruptcy again, my first thought was ‘They’re still in business?'” Indeed they are. In fact, one of its franchise locations is right here in Saline, in Riverside Plaza. [3,4]
And it’s thriving.
Four years ago, long-time local business Alpha Wireless stepped into the mix on May 30, 2014. To partner Ray Gammo, it made “perfect sense” to move into this business as the corporate parent was in decline. Citing his experience in having been successful with Sprint wireless where others had failed, he emphasized that this was a market where “clientelle still needs an outlet.” [5,6]
“There’s no other market for electronics, small capacitors, buzzers,” he told Saline Journal. “The challenge was in trying to get product when the Radio Shack (corporate) distribution center went down.” In the beginning, Alpha Wireless was able to keep somewhere between a year and eighteen months ahead with inventory by purchasing inventory from other franchisees who were looking to get out of this business.
Radio Shack Saline attracted their customers as well. With less than a handful of physical stores within a 200-mile radius, there’s a following that continues to make the trip to Riverside Plaza for electronic components.
Mr Gammo estimated that an impressive thirty percent of his sales come from these products (the balance consists of wireless). “That’s because the =thinking doesn’t exist like it used to: People are taught to throw things away even though they could be repaired.”
The prescience of Ray Gammo and his brothers is about pay off on a larger scale as Radio Shack corporate now emerges from bankruptcy. To months ago, the company announced a partnership that would install “Radio Shack Express” stores inside one hundred Hobby Town locations. “That will bring the component distribution systems back online,” Mr Gammo explained. [7,8]
One of the best known successes from the “store within a store” concept is, of course, Apple. A little over two decades ago, the first dedicated Apple products retail space opened within CompUSA. For many years, the Ann Arbor CompUSA competed toe-to-toe with Best Buy on Lohr Road in Pittsfield Township. [9,10]
And like the Apple Stores of today, Radio Shack at Riverside Plaza has sought to set itself apart based on establishing a problem-solving orientation with its customers. In electronics, this means recognizing the unique mindset of those who walk though the door here looking not just for parts, but often advice and alternatives. “If we don’t have it,” Mr Gammo said, “we like to know where it can be gotten, and how we can get it here quickly.” [11]
The capacitor shown in the photograph above burned out in the spring of 1987. The computer in which it served has long since been retired — although the part which replaced it within hours of seeming catastrophe never failed thereafter. [12]
Not surprisingly, it was sourced from one of our other then-local Radio Shack stores.
References
- Radio Shack (home page).
- Junga’s Ace Hardware (STIHL Dealer Page).
- “The Complications That Led To Radio Shack Declaring Bankruptcy For A Second Time In Two Years” Brian Rashid (April 8, 2017) Forbes.
- Radio Shack of Saline (home page).
- “New concept RadioShack franchise opening in place of Alpha Wireless in Saline” Jeremy Allen (May 26, 2014) mLive.
- Sprint (home page).
- “In comeback bid, RadioShack partners with HobbyTown to sell electronics in 100 US stores” Amelia Lucas (July 26, 2018) CNBC.
- Hobby Town (home page).
- “Today in Apple history: Apple begins retail venture inside CompUSA” Luke Dormehl (November 4, 2017) Cult of Mac.
- CompUSA (home page).
- “How the Apple store took over the world” Ana Swanson (July 21, 2015) The Washington Post.
- “Heathkit / Zenith H-89” Old-Computers.
