Electronic Stores No Longer Around!

39 thoughts on “Electronic Stores No Longer Around!”

1. 1:05 that Incredible Universe location pictured eventually became a Fry's Electronics; I recognize the front of the store. Sadly, Fry's also went under a few years ago in like 2019.

2. I have shopped at RadioShack, The Wiz, Crazy Eddie, The Good Guys, Tweeter, Circuit City, and Fry's.

3. I vaguely remember Radio Shack, Circuit City, and H H Gregg – whixh were acrually in the same spot

   Crazy Eddie's was menioned in the season 2 Christmas episode of Growing Pains as the electronics store having a holiday "blow out sale" on Christmas Eve and Mike really wants a CD player for Christmas, which i dont know if he fot it or not when the kids learn an important lesson about material possessions when Ben brings home a girl living on the street for the holiday.

4. Incredible Universe was the best, they burned so bright and died too soon.

5. I forgot about J & R. They us3d to have a hug3 store with a large brochure.

6. In my New York/ New Jersey area we had circuit city, crazy Eddie, compusa, the wiz, topsy, 6th Avenue electronics, harvey, fry’s. Now inky have Best Buy and PC Richard’s

7. Radio shack was great for getting kids interested in science and electronics. They also had heath kits where you could build TV’s. My parents bought in early 70’s a doorbell you could program. So we had the theme from “ the Godfather.” The side door had four beats and the front one had 12 beats.

8. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😢😢😢😢😥😥😥😥😥😥😭😭😭😭😭😭

9. You claim Incredible Universe wsa owned by Tandy. I never heard of them. Radio Shack was owned by Tandy, the leather goods business. I know this because I worked at Radio Shack, but you failed to mention this fact.

10. Radio Shack was great for model railroaders. I think the last thing I bought at RS before our local store closed was a soldering iron on a Sunday afternoon. I was in the middle of a project and mine died. Fortunately, they still had one left. I also liked the little bottles of Archer super glue. I used to joke that my railroad was held together with RS solder and super glue and wired with their telephone line. I also bought a few relays, but I quickly found other sources (like All Electronics Corp) where I could get enough of them to actually build something without completely breaking the bank. I just buy everything online now, but I miss Radio Shack.

11. I miss Radio Shack. It was the only local store where you could go and pick up a resistor or capacitor in an emergency or for a project. I built a lot of custom speakers, back in the day, using "Realistic" (actually made by Fisher Electronics) drivers. Radio Shack was a great electronics hobbyist store at its peak. We had 2 Radio Shacks in town. One on the mall, and one down town. You could see the demise of Radio Shack coming when all they started carrying was cell phones and remote control cars. They also started hiring people that new nothing about electronics. I also remeber getting those "free" batteries at Radio Shack after purchasing a set amount of batteries over time. Good times! 😊

12. I saw a Crazy Eddie ad on WOR that I received in Montgomery, AL. I ordered a new JVC 5.1 surround sound stereo. I paid 247.00 and that included shipping. I went to circuit city and asked them if they had this model and they said no but when it comes in, it will cost 560.00. I purchased speaker wire and when I was checking out. The sales man asked me why I asked about the JVC model. I told him, I received it yesterday and am now hooking it up and I told him what I paid. He was surprised.

13. Seriously, he mentions that Olson had more stores than Radio Shack. It must have been in the early days because Olson had only 95 stores when they were sold.

14. Hands down, TRS was "the" electronics store. At one point there were nearly as many Radio Shack stores as there were McDonalds. Things went south when they tried to compete with big box stores. They should have stuck with their base and doubled down on catering to the hobbyist market. They would not be as large, but they'd probably still be around.

15. oh your smart just figured that out?

16. What about Federated Electronics?

17. We have Good Guys in Australia still

18. …then there was the ill-advised crossover:
    "Nobody beats off the Wiz like Crazy Eddie."

19. I had a chuckle when The Good Guys came up. It may be gone from the US but we've had it in Australia for maybe about 20 years, same signage and all.

20. Of course RadioShack was the most fun to walk into I remember Highland electronic store on camp Bowie boulevard fort Worth. I also enjoyed going to McDuff's and Federated. Macduff was close to the old Carswell Air Force Base and so was Federated.

21. I miss Fry's electronics

22. I use to work at the Fry's electronics with the green storefront it was Alice in Wonderland themed.

23. 👍🏾 The Wiz Nobody Beet The Wiz…

24. Radio Shack in my city was a stand-alone store. That space is now a church. I know Circuit City by name but can’t remember ever going into one. I also remember Computer City and CompUSA where I bought my PCs… anyone else know these two?

25. goodguys lol! I remember them… the salesmen were a**holes.

26. The Good Guys is still going strong in Australia

27. Tassie still have the good guys

28. I worked for the franchise of Lafayette radio in Metro Detroit… but bailed during the bankruptcy like a rat from a sinking ship, I hung on as long as I could and was saddened by their demise caused by an FCC ruling involving retailers no longer able to sell 23 Channel CB just after the chain bought millions of dollars worth. (40 Channel or nothing and the chain couldn't recover) That franchise was operated by some really nice people, and the management team at corporate/regional were terrific . Moved to Fretter and did the same thing , along the way the company went public and15 years later when the kids and company execs realized the real estate was more valuable than running a company…they and their CEO killed the retailer and put lots of people out of work. . Lafayette was fun in the late 70's , lots of changes in the technology , Fretter was interesting in the 80's where it often snowed in the backrooms.

29. In SoCal, there was a chain called Fry's Electronics. They were huge stores and each had a theme (Space, Rome, etc) till the very end as many of the stores had closed and the remaining stores (bare of merchandise) were closing, the employees maintained they were staying open, and just awaiting shipments and re-supply. In Los Angeles (Downtown area) we also had a "Crazy" guy. He called himself Crazy Gideon. Most of his merch was refurb, but most remember the absolutley crazy outrageous late night TV commercials they had. Crazy Gideons is long gone.

30. Nothing was mentioned about the murder that happened at the Beloit Plaza in Beloit Wisc on February 2, 1981 where an employeed and the manager were both murdered by Raymond Lee Stewart. He was loose for awhile and latter found and arrested in Rockford Ill. He murdered a totatl of six people during a weeks time. I was living on Liberty Ave at the time just across the river and a few streets over when I saw while carrying one daughter and holding anothers hand, the police stop a vehicle and grab the occupants out, boy I grabbed the one daughters hand harder and zipped up the street and into my home a half a block away. Scary but that happening has never been forgotten.

31. Lafayette and Heathkit also had their own brands of electric guitars and amps which are very collectable now.

32. Lafayette was my favorite place growing up. They also had cool Electric guitars and amps there which are super collectable now.

33. I remember shopping RadioShack for electronic components in the early 90s.I also remember Dees electronics.

34. I used to get my music cassettes from Service Merchandise

35. Egghead Software and CompUSA were my go to places back in the mid 90’s and early 00’s. It seems like there is no such thing as a software/PC store anymore.

36. Growing up in New York in the 80s, it was all about Crazy Eddie and their omnipresent TV commercials. "Prices so low they're INSANE!!!"

37. Not just Radio Shack, but also Locally Owned Electronics Stores, that were more intense than Radio Shack. I miss Mark’s Electronics and another one that was a few miles away. I built switches that went inside the electrical box, on my outside lights. Could turn the lights on via my garage remote. Also had an electronic lock, that worked off of the remote. Repaired it several times with their help.

38. I watched a whole video about Crazy Eddies embezzling and stock fraud story recently, It’s literally crazy, and very interesting.

39. Montgomery Wards. Although not a dedicated electronic store, it was huge at one time. Would love to see a video including this mega store of its time.

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