I have a bit of a problem: I need to run 250ft of video cable all over the roller rink. I was able to buy 500ft of RG-6 coaxial cable at Home Depot for $40, but I still needed ends. (e:ih8gates) was awesome enough to lend me his crimper and seven BNC connectors, but I needed one more, and some BNC-to-RCA adapters. I went to no less than five Radio Shacks through Hell and high water and could find only one BNC connector between them. It should be mentioned at this point that BNC connectors multiply in drawers the way coat hangers multiply in closets
. Last night we discovered that the one connector that was provided by the combined efforts of a half-dozen Radio Shack outlets - had a short.At some point I decided it would be a perfect business model to run a chain of stores exactly like Radio Shack, except where Radio Shack was terrible, these stores would be the opposite of that. This is no longer necessary. There is a place you can go where they know what you are talking about, they have what you need, and it is not gold plated for maximum markup. There is a weird little building down by GM Powertrain with a sign that says 'Radio Equipment Corporation - Public Welcome.' The public does not feel welcome - the parking lot is around back, there are no windows, and the door does not say 'Entrance.' One gets a sense from the Radio Equipment Corporation that buying BNC connectors is akin to buying weapons-grade enriched plutonium, and thus should be carried out hush-hush. But when you get inside, it nearly looks like a store, with rows of cardboard boxes full of stuff you could never possibly need, because you never know. The weird dude behind the counter assumes you know what you're talking about, because he does too. I get the feeling that if you didn't know what you were talking about, he could still help you. I told him if I ever have to go to Radio Shack again I'd murder someone. He understood.
Radio Equipment Corporation
- 196 Vulcan St - 874-2690- Z
we have a B&H photo video store about 20 minutes away from me down here in the hudson valley... luckily for me i can usually get everything i need there. but when i can't make that trip.... oh man i know what you mean...
ps i have about a dozen BNC's in my desk drawer i'd send you but it probably would be too late... :)
i hate radio shack too. all of the stuff they sell with the radio shack label is shit. never again!
A few insights from a former Radio Shack employee.
Until you have worked at Radio Shack, you have no idea of the kind of pain the can inflict.
You think the BNC shit is bad? Back when I worked there in '99, they were still running an old Xenix system of an old tandy with a floppy tape for backup. None of the fucking machines that had set up as the registers could fucking read CD-ROMS. So guess what--customer asks you some kind of question about an obscure part, we had to get the manager to find the key to the display cabinets for the computers we sold (we displayed shells of computers, the actually ones were in a cabinet below), log out of the demo flash program (which was the only thing a prospective buyer could actually play with), and stick the CD-ROM in the display machine and then look up their question. Even more dumb, when we finally were transitioning to a windows system, we replaced the old tandy computers running Xenix terminals with blazing fast pentium 75's. Yup, that's right, the company was so incredibly fucking stupid that they actually bought the machines that would run the software at the time they were first drawing up the requirements for the software itself. By the time they had written the first alpha, the machines were already obsolete. And in regards to the software, we weren't allowed to use the word 'bugs'; we to use the term 'issues'. My experiences at radio shack taught me that one important thing: that there is no "The Man". Corporations really aren't evil, just unbelievably stupid. To damn stupid for anyone's own damn good.
As for the lack of knowlegable staff, it's always a catch-22. A really knowledgable staff person, if they were really knowlegable enough to answer hard questions, would probably work for people who would pay much more than the almost-minimum wage Radio Shack. does. What are you really going to expect for $7.00/hr?
I got lots of stuff at that placeon Vulcan. For a while I was obsessed and bought stuff I didn't know what to do with in hopes of figuring it out - now it all live box somewhere with my soldering iron.
When I was a kid (1970s) there was a Radio Shack within bicycle distance of my house. The staff there was knowledgable and tolerated all the silly and I'm certain stupid questions that I asked. I reckon those days are gone. Radio Shack was one of the places that I learned what little I know about computers and electronics.