Charles Tandy, the mastermind behind Radio Shack

geerlingguy

Many fond memories of Radio Shack. I bought some electronics kits, a mini DJ setup, and many, many components there as a kid. At one time, they had quite a catalog of Radio Shack branded items that were "good but not great"... but more importantly available a few miles away within practically any city. Almost every mall in St. Louis had one (usually near a hobby train store or an arcade).

intothemild

Oh wow, it only just dawned on me now that Tandys in Australia was radio shack.

Aboutplants

I have a fondness for businesses that served a distinct purpose for a specific amount of time. RadioShack was one of those.

mstudio

I wish the stores were still around. As a kid, I loved going through the bins of electronic components, trying to figure out how they'd all work together in a circuit. As an adult who just got his Ham Radio Technician license, I'd love to be able to drop by and grab a few parts instead of ordering online. Ham Radio Outlet is great, but they are few and far between.

hollywood_court

I knew one of on the Tandys. He was a super interesting fellow and you never would have known he came from a wealthy background. He sold 5 gallon water jugs out of a white van in St. Thomas.

stevetron

And never mentioned Jonathan T. Frye, who wrote a column iun the Radio Shack flyers about what was going on in the business. Like opening their own recording tape company. Or opening 1,000 stores in the USA. Or the milestone when they had 2,000 stores in the usa.

GlibMonkeyDeath

I miss having a local place where I can buy a discrete transistor or capacitor. But Radio Shack was also a pioneer in intrusive information gathering. They would always ask for your name and address at check-out, often practically insisting they couldn't complete the sale without it. I usually gave them "1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington DC" as my address. I hope Clinton and GWB liked those catalogs!

imzadi

My first home computer was a Tandy 2000, that's how old I am. It functioned for about 4 months.

bookofjoe

Just bought for $6.64 a used copy of the 1993 book "Tandy's Money Machine" mentioned in the posted article here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0916371123?psc=1&smid=A1QJ4UH6FW3U... Fascinating guy! HN rules.

delichon

> Since Tandy was a private company, his death would have forced a liquidation of the company in order to pay the inheritance taxes. So much value is destroyed by this form of taxation. It's inherent in having to liquidate much wealth in a short period of time. There should be a way to match the time scales better, as opposed to forcing a company to go public. Like putting non-voting shares into escrow and allowing them to be sold over years or decades. This would come with the loss of taxes as businesses go under, but at least some offsetting increase from successful businesses that are allowed to continue operating.

saalweachter

Oddly, there are now more Tandy Leather Company stores than stand-alone Radio Shacks in the US.

Fricken

Jessica Tandy, a supporting actress in the 1987 film "Batteries not Included", was also an early and avid member of Radio Shack's Battery of the month club up until her passing in 1994.

krapp

My dad used to work as an electrician at the Tandy Center in Forth Worth, ages ago. I barely remember the monorail/subway thing that went into the building. We had a TRS-80 Color Computer 2. I wish I had some story about how I was a brilliant kid who learned every program in the book but all we ever did with the kaleidescope program. And we didn't have a tape drive or anything so we just had to turn the computer off when we wanted to watch tv (for the kids - some computers back then used a tv as a monitor - you would attach an adapter to the back of the tv and turn it to (channel 3?) and you could use it. We also had the original grey Armatron. I don't have any particular memory of Radio Shack. I wasn't an electronics nerd, I was book nerd.

NDlurker

My first PC was a Tandy. Lots of good memories with that computer