Tour of 2 Radio Shacks (1987)

This was footage as an employee for before footage as these Radio Shacks were about to go into a renovation.
This was in Garden Grove, California.

[@zorinlynx]

When I was ten, right around this time, and my mom would take me along to the mall, Radio Shack was my favorite stop. Thank you so much for this awesome flood of nostalgia. :)

[@holeeshietpyro4072]

wow what a gem! the music in the 2nd store, the glowing screens in a darker atmosphere. radioshack was my fav store in the 80s as a kid, and early 90s. electronic lab kits, free batteries, anything you needed to build an early 80s, early electronics era device or invention.

[@Raptor50aus]

I worked at Tandy Australia store from 1983 to 1987, was great times as a teenager. The store looked similar to this.

[@Matucks]

@08:28 when Madonna hit the air waves I felt a surge of emotions, took me right back to when I was 7 browsing stores in America

[@maxvideodrome4215]

I adored the parts sections. I miss the 80's 90's Radio Shack.

[@Lostforwords12345]

Love hifi buys

[@TheReaperHunter]

God. Never thought I'd see the day I'm giddy watching someone walking through a store. Note all the stuff just out in the open. More civilized time when everything didn't need to be bolted to the floor behind locked glass.

[@robwebnoid5763]

Yes, these were the days long gone. I am a Radio Shack fan since 1980, when I was about 13, so by 1987 I was 20. Every time our family went to the huge malls in the early 1980's, I would take that long walk to the Shack as my first priority. I normally would only buy electronic tools & electronic parts. I still have a lot of those parts & tools today, sometimes including the packaging. Still have my soldering tools from them & also a multimeter bought in the early 1990s, which I still use today. I was there at my local Shack in town for their final big national liquidation in Spring 2017, when everything was up to 90% off & I bought all these clearance items which I would have never bought at regular price. Today, the Shack is still in business but not the way they used to be, although it is hard to say how much longer they will survive. But at least they already made their century mark as a business, 1921 - 2021, which many other businesses usually never get to. 04/18/24

[@saucierdavid8109]

At the age of 13, I would ride my bicycle 13 miles round trip just to buy a few circuit boards, LEDs, resistors and ICs to build different circuits from the Mims books. Times have changed. Thanks for sharing the video!

[@lockedin60]

I do not miss inventories, remodels, plan-o-gram changes or that blasted door beep. I was a Shacker for 29+ years.

[@poppynokc1977]

Geeze, brings back so many great memories. I've always loved electronics and RS was my favorite place to go as a kid and young adult. Thank you so very much for this. And can't leave here without mentioning Janet Jackson playing on the stereo. ❤

[@icollided]

It's all been downhill from this moment. This was the peak of humanity. It's over.

[@afridgetoofar1818]

Radio Shacks always had a certain smell to them that I can still remember.

[@morning1500]

This video was posted to a large and growing Facebook Group, called Radio Shack Memories. I'm going to make sure that post is "pinned" to the top of the page! This brings back priceless memories!

[@ForestWhitakerTulpa]

This is my new favorite channel, just comfy footage back in time.

[@BackFocus11]

The good ol' days

[@smilingskull7827]

This exact inventory today would sold in seconds. And call the store retro shack.

[@kemonotaku]

Oh man look at all that rockin audio casette technology!!! Those tiny answering machine and big screen TVs!!!! RadioShack was heaven and the Tandy Corp was god!

[@brickcitybikeman3108]

Their keyboards were excellent for the time

[@paulsworkshop4179]

I love the ash trays all over the place. Radio Shack was always my stop around 1990 when out with my mom. It was great spot to hang out while she was clothes shopping in another store in the minimalls. For some reason they were always next to a Dunkin Donuts so the stores smelled like coffee.

[@jessejames586]

My favorite store of all time. A real shame they all vanished.

[@dellsolutionscenter2138]

Just one of the finer things of yesteryear. I miss whole time frame in my life. In 87 I was a senior at Valley Stream Central High School. Our RadioShack was very similar to the first one but it was a little bigger and had music. I think we all miss the simpler times.

[@ImaFattyCat]

Closest thing to a time machine, cool footage.

[@allancohen]

I remember my mom bringing me to the Tandy Leather company and the other 1/2 of the store were electronics. That was when they were changing from a crafts store to an electronics store. This wass around 1968 ish

[@jacobdemwa868]

Fond memories of our local variant of the Radio Shack store - it was in Zaandam, the Netherlands and they used the Tandy name. Blue carpet tiles on the floor, white metal racks and white pegboard and just gear everywhere. That smell.. ^_^ Thank you for sharing this

[@lockedin60]

Brings back a lot of memories. I had the pleasure working in strip stores and malls. The mall stores you had a better chance of increasing commission. Your more loyal customers were in strip stores. I worked when one person would cover the whole store for hours at a time. Heck in 16 months at a store in Clinton SC in 1981-1982 I would work 11-hour days by myself and months at a time.

[@MarkSchaub]

It's like I made a wish in present time and someone heard me in 1987 and recorded this just so that I could see this video on March 24, 2023.

[@reynardkitsune1]

Yeah damn...in Germany, our Radio Shack was Conrad, but the concept was the same. I do remember spending hours in the local shop at the end of the 80s and trying to get the best deals on home and car hifi for the money I could afford to spend on this - most times it worked, sometimes you drew a dud. Oh, and of course some tools and gadgetry. Fond memories. Conrad still exists, but as of 2022, the physical shops will be closed and only the Internet shop will remain. But this is at least for me not a big loss since the once rather priceworthy shop had become quite expensive.

[@Trance88]

OH my GAWD. I'm so glad you recorded this! This is like pure retro Radio Shack gold! I wish I was alive during this era. I wasn't born until EXACTLY year and half later, TO THE DAY!

[@azmrblack]

Wow. I was only 4 when this was made, but alot of Radioshacks stayed this way up until the late 90's, I see in the 2nd video they still had protoboard so you could do your own "Arduino" type stuff! They still carried components and bulk cable so you always knew if you needed a common component you could just jet right up to your corner RS and get it. A gem for sure as a window into the past. Thanks for uploading!

[@thewanderer777]

Wow! How awesome is this video. Timeless, and in a capsule. Not a cellphone anywhere. And the push button phones on the display. I miss digging through the little bins looking for all that odd stuff you would never find now.

[@billdwhite]

I love this! The guy at 13:40 sitting at the computer with the collar on his Izod turned up is so perfect for that decade!! This is also really nostalgic for me since my father (now passed) owned 2 franchise stores in Texas and I grew up there throughout the 80's! Thanks so much for posting this.

[@PrancingSkiltaire]

That person also ran an influential BBS back in the 80s called The Tigers Den.

[@TheRetroNobody]

this is fantastic to see. Thanks for uploading it!

[@DangerousLabs]

This reminds me of my childhood. I made frequent visits to the Radio Shack at the Ward Parkway Mall in Kansas City. I remember seeing the Color Computers on display there. Thanks for making this available!

[@Hubjeep]

Thank you! I was 7 in 1987, but by 1993 when I was going to my local Radio Shack, many of those same products were there! I recall those partition walls with various parts/wire, and the huge CB and Scanner selection. I still use my handheld I got in 1995, just for FD, police in now encrypted.

[@xtraflo]

"Color Antenna" lol !!! Like it matters - haha

[@sharky-mn3tv]

I'm so glad this wasn't recorded in the six hour tape speed. Thank you so much for this time capsule and sharing it. I always wanted to see something like this on video. :D

[@PrancingSkiltaire]

It came off of Video 8 so no real choice in quality reduction. This was digitized at 720P in a deck that was upscaling internally so to preserve all the resolution that is there.

[@sharky-mn3tv]

Oh nice, it has very similar video quality and date stamp, of a 1987 Sears VHS camcorder. On later Video 8 models, they could record four hours in the long play speed. You have some of the cleanest footage, I absolutely love this video. 👍

[@robr7116]

I only remember the Memorex Video 8 cam at Radioshack that looked like a binoculars. The 1987 Realistic and RCA (and Sears) VHS Camcorders were almost identical and possibly a re-branded Hitachi 3150

[@TommyBoy-719-]

I remember going there as a kid, my brother and I would always play with the remote controlled cars 😁 What a time it was!! Gone are the days…

[@Raptor50aus]

The manager the Tandy Store I worked at in 1987 used to crank up Bruce Springsteen with the MACH 2 speakers. Would bring in the customers.

[@davcar72]

Oh the feels!!! I loved getting rid of the car stereo "box'. One of our employees took it and laid it in his hatchback. Filled the thing with disco'd speakers and a couple amps. Love to see the after footage.

[@TributetoCanada]

This is precious nostalgic and historic footage!

[@eugenemckinney8736]

I am so glad I was born into the 80s a Radio Shacker my father would take me into this place and everything was like electronic heaven from batteries, computers, phones, radio sound systems and TVs

[@posttopstreetlight1055]

This is so cool that you made this video

[@albear972]

Whoah man! This was absolutely awesome! Very, very cool footage there. And what a treat going into the backroom and to see all the mess. Inventory days there? I do have to admit, I used to hit up Radio Shack stores back in the 80's as an early teen and thought the stores were honestly just OK. But now seeing them now again as they were in the 80's I frankly now think they were mediocre. But yes, the footage is great!

[@tednothnagle5473]

I started working at RadioShack about 4 years after these videos were made. The first store is a "tech" store format, and the one in the video is so well maintained -- a 10 out of 10. The second one is a "brown" store, and it looks cluttered and out of date. By 1991 when I started, there were only a few "brown" stores left. I noticed the "tech" store didn't have carpeting. Shortly after I arrived all the stores got carpet squares. It was a bitch to mop them every night prior to that. I recognize a lot of fixtures. The standup ashtray was not on the sales floor anymore in 1991, but most managers had them next to their desks, filled with butts, as smoking in the backroom was commonplace until 1995 or so, when a mall in Connecticut caught fire due to smoking in RadioShack. I won't bore you with my memories, but one thing was the 4 foot wall of small packaged speakers. The boxes in the video must be empty, because the magnets would push each other apart, and they were impossible to keep straight. :)

[@StereoMike06]

I actually like the Brown store look and vibe more!

[@aaronmorris9352]

"Gonna dress you up in my love!" lol

[@jasonbrown467]

very cool. i didnt see any of the toys from either store. should have been some lcd games, electronic diy kits, rc cars. i bought the golden arrow rc buggy from there, maybe 1 or 2 years after this video was shot. that was the first time that i saved my money for anything, that car , 2 batteries and a fast charged set me back probably $250 as a 11 year old kid in the 80s was a lot of yards being mowed, pretty much a summers worth

[@jasonbrown467]

@@PrancingSkiltaire wait, what? that seems to be about people who like to dress up for halloween every day, not radio shack toys from the 80-s lol. you are a prankster

[@PrancingSkiltaire]

That was a comment to another comment on another video that ended up on this one. Sorry for the confusion.

[@jasonbrown467]

@@PrancingSkiltaire lol ok

[@videobymark]

I loved going into radio shack as a kid back then and looking at the rc cars, the golden and red arrows, 4x4 trucks and so on.

[@tednothnagle5473]

Toys were seasonal. I saw a Roby, Sr. robot in the first store ,but the golden arrow and other RC cars were brought out for the Golden Quarter (Christmas), and after deep clearance sales in January and February, anything left in March when this video was shot would be in the junk box out back.

[@zacktinayoutube]

Sweet!

[@leonardsalinas2002]

My dad bought his first Walkman at RadioShack back in 1984 on his 14th birthday

[@ColeGaskins]

Our store had that same creaky door

[@matty6598]

Nice!!!

[@DJBSharpMusic]

I actually miss places like this. Not exactly financially feasible to have physical locations today, but they had a lot of cool stuff for sale in those stores, plus you could always find stuff if you were building your own PC

[@ColeGaskins]

That second store with all that back room stock though. Wow.

[@jeremysteele3098]

this is the future Francis Ford Coppola predicted in 1979

[@paulburrell7058]

No store was that well stocked.. i know

[@johnmitchell4769]

Radio Shack and the 80’s... nirvana 😎

[@TweezerBleezer123]

Wow

[@gregorycutrera8326]

This is awesome! I first remember going into a Radio Shack in 1988 when I was 8. Too bad they changed the retro logo and got rid of most of the good stuff during the 1990’s. Film quality is about as good as you could get back then. I wish they would have let you film a little longer but I’m sure they probably didn’t want you bothering or getting in the way of employees and customers too much. And what says 1987 more than Madonna and Janet Jackson?

[@0rl]

basically almost everything in the store got replaced by my iPhone

[@juunidesu12]

i'm 95% sure the desk that 1000EX is sitting on was the same one I had from the mid-80s until about 2013 when it was finally time to set it free.

[@nathanbush6781]

Does anyone know the precise locations of these two stores? Just curious which mall the second store was in…and I loved the cameo appearance by Software Etc.! GameStop should bring back that logo for fun, hehe…

[@PrancingSkiltaire]

One of them would be Radio Shack on Harbor blvd in Garden Grove CA. For the mall I'm not sure. The person that shot the video died last February so I can't ask him. At a guess on that it might be Westminster Mall.

[@heedfulnewt6625]

3:14 Bobby Lee waddup

[@MTLTV-eu4nv]

Was that a cigarette butt disposal urn at 10:17?

[@PrancingSkiltaire]

Yes, people smoked everywhere in the 70s and though good part of the 80s. In the 70s they sold this stuff if you were not a smoker: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sKK4n2B_p8uWm8U

[@scarr3ll]

*getting audited and one of the members is recording the store? LOL*

[@PrancingSkiltaire]

Actually, They were re-modling two stores and wanted before footage.

[@AlbertoGonzalez-hi1og]

At 8:28 you couldn't have made this up going full 80s playing dress you up by Madonna... I was 8 years old in 1987

[@videobymark]

I thought the same thing. I swear I closed my eyes when this came on and I felt for a second I had gone back in time and was standing in this store.

[@atsmithson]

Is it still there?

[@PrancingSkiltaire]

The Complex is but not the Radio Shack ... It would be roughly from here: www.google.com/maps/@33.7763969,-117.9169302,3a,75y,288.02h,88.65t/data=!3m9!1e1!3m7!1spIyFsCDVV552PRwwtPw6Og!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!9m2!1b1!2i34

[@atsmithson]

@@PrancingSkiltaire was this near to a chuck e cheese's pizza time theater?

[@PrancingSkiltaire]

Ok, There was a Radio Shack on harbor near a Chuck e cheese's on Harbor and Garden Grove and while I'm not positive if that CEC was there in the 80s. This Radio Shack is not that one and was one block north of there.

[@atsmithson]

@@PrancingSkiltaire it was called pizza time theater at the time

[@atsmithson]

@@PrancingSkiltairedid you visit buena park mall in 1987?

[@niteowl9733]

Speaking to the general culture of society back them... How did we back peddle so far? The 80s and 90s were definitely the hight of our country so far. We still had a good amount of fair paying jobs per cost of living and people were just cruising. Well, for the most part. Does anyone out there think they know the answer to why things have changed so much?

[@johnmitchell4769]

Agreed the 80’s were the absolute best 😎

[@stevegallant3395]

NAFTA... it's more of a global economy now... 30 years ago the United States didn't have much competition like it does now

[@macrossactual]

Ssssssssiiiiiiigggggghhhhhhhhhh.

[@danielsantana540]

I was a baby 👶 In 1987