my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film-Yak   » AKA, you suck! the Radio Shack floorstaff (Page 2)

This topic comprises 4 pages: 1  2  3  4

Author Topic: AKA, you suck! the Radio Shack floorstaff Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-01-2005 09:52 PM                     If I don't need the parts right away I order from Digi-Key. (Or Mouser or Allied.) If I need some parts right away, there is a relatively new store in my town called "Falconer Electronics". Pretty much a Mom-and-Pop shop but the people there: A) Know a damn sight more than Radio Shaft. B) When they don't know something they admit it and go look it up. C) If they don't have a part they will bring it in from another store in 24 hours. D) If the other store(s) don't have it they will order it for you. Normally, if a store doesn't have an item I will go home and order it myself from Mouser, et. al. However, I like the people at Falconer enough to let them order it for me. It's worth it to keep a store like that in business. There USED to be this great place in Cambridge, MA called Eli Hefferin. (Sp?) The guy was in the electroncs salvage business. He'd buy old copiers and computers and stuff and strip them for parts. There was row upon row of boxes on and under the tables. They had just about everything there! As a matter of fact, Eli's is where I bought my first Helium Neon laser. (Power supply sold seperately. ) Radio Shaft is usually my last resort unless it's an emergency and the other store doesn't have it I know they have (a high probability of having) the part I need. Even then, I walk in the door, head straight for the parts drawer and then straight to the register.  |  IP: Logged Chase Hanson Expert Film Handler Posts: 172 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Oct 2004 posted 09-01-2005 09:54 PM                     I too am knida bummed that Radio Shack went by the wayside. When I was a child, we had a radio shack in our little "Shopping Plaza" and it was THE COOLEST PLACE EVER. Then it turned into commercial crap like 5 years ago. I was lucky enough to find a small RS near the Community College that I attended in 02-03 that had somehow escaped the metamorphisis and retained its hobbist feel. I miss that place, . Anywho, now I rarely go there, the commercial goods that they do sell are of unimpresve quality/over priced, and their selection of hobby/DIY items just keeps shrinking and shrinking, its almost more worthwhile to fend off the savages ar Frys.  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 09-01-2005 10:05 PM                        I don't know why anyone is surprised that the staff at Radio Shack knows nothing. They make minimum wage or something close to it. Many are high school graduates at best. Expecting someone at Radio Shack to know anything about electronics would be like expecting the person working the grill at McDonald's to know about fine wines and nutrition. This is not just true at Radio Shack. It's pretty much the same at any other chain, like Circuit City. Stores like this used to hire salaried employees with benefits and gave them careers. These are no longer career jobs. But I don't blame Radio Shack for not carrying parts...there's simply no demand. There aren't any electronic hobbyists anymore. People don't even have hobbies anymore aside from BLOGs, video games, illegally downloading MP3s and porn. Even the geeks who collect things like Star Wars action figures buy them pre-assembled and pre-painted. Remember Allied and Lafayette Radio? I used to love to get their catalogs. I spent hours in their stores.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 09-02-2005 03:34 AM                     Yeppers. Remember LRE (Lafayette Radio and Electronics - the "LAFF" Store, we used to call it) had the greatest electronic stuff to find on a retail basis. Granted, there were those wholesale places, where an individual had to be of a organization or something, but LRE was the place to go.. Allied, Burnystn Applebee (sp), and others were strictly mail order for us... Then Tandy's RatShack came into town and shooed out LRE hands down and RATShack had some pretty good stuff back then. Okey, another story in which I tested the young clerk on this one: Remember when CDC (compact digital cassette) units came out back in the mid-80's, which flopped big time not too long after that? RatShack was one of the first stores to come with this device. OKey, I studied up on CDC units on how they work prior and was browing in a RatShack store to look for connectors and small junk for home projects and saw a CDC unit. Clerk came by to help me out and to ask him questions on the CDC stuff. I asked him on how does the CDC system works.....silence......<blank stare and his lower lip quivering..> .. then I told him how it works. He told me "if there is any more questions to come get me" and shuffled off quite quickly. Manager came to me and asked me if there was anything wrong with that one clerk since he was watching us. I simply told him that the clerks are going to need some education on their products if they're going to help out the customers to make a sale. Manager agreed...and I left with my parts purchase. THEN...wasn't a while ago that RatShack used to ask their customers what is their phone number for tracking purposes? Any buzz on this one? thx - Monte  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-02-2005 08:34 AM                     When asked for personal information at a register I answer: Name - Mr. Cash Phone # - 555-1212 Address - 123 Sesame St. ZIP Code - 99950 (Ketchican, Alaska... The highest ZIP code in the country. It really screws up their marketing databases! ) If I'm paying by credit card I'll let them look at my driver's license but not copy any information from it. I use a "Shopper's Club" card at the supermarket but I haven't lived at the address on that card for over 5 years. I only want the discounts and the free turkey at Thanksgiving. (When you spend enough money during the rest of the year.) I don't rent videos and I don't cash checks at the supermarket. If they press the issue any farther than that I'm not afraid to leave everything on the counter and simply walk out of the store. In fact, I have done it several times.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-02-2005 09:24 AM                        The canonical fake phone number is "311-555-2368," which was was printed on the number card in pretty much every AT&T/Bell System advertisement which showed a photograph of a telephone. RS finally stopped asking for phone numbers/addresses a few years ago, apparently due to public pressure. Unfortunately, their product selection sucks right now and they are no longer the most convenient place to go when one needs a diode or capacitor on short notice. The stores around here seem to be mostly filled with plastic junk electronics (DVD players, telephones, etc.), rather than useful electronic components, odds and ends, and doodads. I realize that one can't expect RS employees to be electrical engineers, but I'd like to think that they would at least have an interest in electronics (just as most theatre employees have an interest in movies).  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 09-02-2005 01:26 PM                        Whenever Radio Shack or Best Buy or whoever asks for my number at the register, I simply answer "No". Or if the girl is cute I answer "Can I get yours?". I don't know why people feel pressured to give them some kind of response either real or fake. "No" is quickest and easiest.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-02-2005 01:40 PM                        quote: Martin Brooks People don't even have hobbies anymore Us electric train afficionados would disagree with you there. Admittedly we're older and there aren't that many of us, but look at the World's Greatest Hobby website  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Jorgenson Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1002 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: Feb 2005 posted 09-02-2005 02:00 PM                        quote: Randy Stankey Phone # - 555-1212 quote: Joe Redifer I simply answer "No". I gave this number at a Best Buy last year, the girl typed it in & the computer shot back some answer to her & she said, "um... it says that's not a real number" and I said "I didn't really want to give Best Buy my number" and she said "when we ask, just say no" (she wasn't being rude or anything - I'm not sure if I'm making it sound that way)... anyway, since then, like Joe, I've just said "no" and it's never phased them.  |  IP: Logged Will Kutler Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1506 From: Tucson, AZ, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 09-02-2005 02:10 PM                     Hobbies, whether it be railroading, rc, general model building, etc, etc is very much alive and well. Unfortunately, many neighborhood hobby shops have gone by the wayside due to the increased popularity of mail order. When it comes to hobbies, there are a few types of people. Those who like to have their model train layouts or rc toys professionally built so that they can play with them, those that just like to set-up out of the box (rtr - ready to run) stuff, and then the die-hard scratch builders. For the die hard scratch builder, there are many resources. For example, if ya enjoy machining/scratch building model parts then something like Sherline Machine Tools www.sherline.com can be the answer (especially if space is limited). Most lapidary equipment supply stores sell smaller investment casting machines and other small metal working tools. Hardinge still sells parts for the old Atlas and Atlas/Craftsman lathes. Todays plastic model kits can be rather expensive. This is due to the expected level of detail, and how the plastic injection molds are made. Model kits from the 1950's-the early 1990's usually had rough detail and poor parting lines, because the molds were just engraved. This all changeded in the early 1990's. Todays molds are EDM'd, and the level of quality and detail really shows through! Not to mention the assortment of super detailing goodies (like chemically milled brass detail parts) from companies like Verlinden. In many cases, todays plastic model rtr locomotives and rolling stock are equaling the quality of imported brass models at the fraction of the cost. However, the companies producing these models could produce brass versions from the same plastic injection molds, if they chose to do so. It would be a matter of shooting the mold with investment wax, then taking those pattern models and investment casting them.  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 09-02-2005 03:00 PM                     I have a Tandy Name Brands sales-training laserdisc that I got from a VideoConcepts store when they went out of business, and it has some jaw-droppingly bad moments on it. My favorite is a scene that shows a couple going into a store to buy a new TV, and they mention that their next-door neighbor had a great sound system and they wanted to duplicate that. The salesman asks if the VCR they have is stereo and they say it isn't, and no further comments are made on that! So they end up buying a TV with Audio Out jacks to connect it to their stereo system, so they can amplify that wonderful lo-fi mono VHS audio! You'd think they would have used that opportunity to sell them a better VCR along with the new TV!  |  IP: Logged Jim Bedford Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 597 From: Telluride, CO, USA (733 mi. WNW of Rockwall, TX but it seems much, much longer) Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-02-2005 03:30 PM                        Complaining about Radio Shack floor staff is like complaining about the heat in Phoenix in the summer. It comes with the territory.  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 09-02-2005 05:16 PM                  Ooops! Wrong thread! Deleted by poster.  |  IP: Logged Floyd Justin Newton Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 559 From: Phoenix, Arizona, USA Registered: Jun 2002 posted 09-02-2005 05:26 PM                     Jim: Amen & Amen to THAT!  |  IP: Logged Bruce Hansen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 847 From: Stone Mountain, GA, USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 09-03-2005 12:00 PM                     A fun thing to do for those of us who like tinkering, is going to a local Hamfest. This is a big electronics flee market, with all kinds of used and new electronic stuff. Look on the web, or check your local Ham club to find one in your area. For those of us in the Atlanta, Georgia area, the Stone Mountain Hamfest (one of the largest in the area) is Nov 5 & 6 Stone Mount. Hamfest . You do not need to be a Ham to enjoy picking through all the goodies.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 4 pages: 1  2  3  4

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.