1990 Radio Shack catalog

Like most, I loved Radio Shack and found them indispensable for buying board level components for building projects well before the Internet was a "thing".

My first stereo was an "All-In-One" box with separate speakers. It had an 8-track player/recorder. LOL.

But yeah, I knew something was up in the 1990s when all the "real stuff" was relegated to a small area near the back, with lesser choices. My first shortwave was a Radio Shack too. Loved that thing before shortwave started dying about the same time the Internet was borne. Sadly there isn’t much on the airwaves anymore other than a few religious stations from other countries. The "good stuff" went silent long ago.

Oh, yeah, in the early 1980s, a college friend of mine had a TRS-80 running BASIC. We used the heck out of that thing to do our aerospace homework that required a lot of iterations. (Certain equations can’t be solved directly). Good times.

We not only had garbage from RS and Lafayette....but also Olson Electronics!

Most of Radio Shack's audio equipment was rebranded stereo stuff from other manufacturers (some you'd probably be surprised at). Honestly, it was stuff they could get on surplus and charge a large markup on (on a lot of it, they simply changed the color of the bulbs and put their own brand name on it).

Same with their car stereos.

I worked there during the early '90's and remember that catalog. It was a year old when I started, but we kept it around as a reference.

As an ex-employee, I will tell you the place quickly turned into a nightmare to work at, and I don't miss it at all. 

Some of you guys are romanticizing it. Trust me, it was a nightmare behind the scenes.

I still have and use a digital clock with a fairly large red display in my living room,

bought from RS in the late 80s or maybe early 90s, and I have a smaller version that sits atop the AVR in one of my AV systems. A pair of the nicer (made in Japan, wood cabinets) Minimus 7s are mounted on my bedroom wall and still sound good. The Shack had some good products that have withstood the test of time

I simply miss being able to go the local Shack for basic electrical components/parts.  And not just them, the three or four independent electronic parts businesses that used to operate in the Chicago area.