End Of An Era...

[GA Gyro]

Be sure to add auto parts stores to what's becoming extinct. Back in the day there were family owned shops that had guys that knew about parts. Now we have chain stores that hire pimple faced kids who only know how to look for a part on a computer.

In my area... they hire attractive young ladies... who try repeatedly to 'sell up'...
Would you like this also?

Truly SAD... the art of building a business based on customer service... seems to have died in favor of watching the profit charts... by the minute.

Oh well... those that fight progress... will be run over by it.

 

[Navy Chief]

I still have one good parts store near my office where you can go in and the counter guys know what they are doing, nice to go in with random parts from projects and have them know what it is and what would be a good replacement. Last time I needed some u joints for a friends mowing deck, took the mangled piece in and they knew how to measure it to cross reference a replacement, try that at autozone....

 

[Downwindtracker2]

Here in Canada,Radio Shack never had much. I was in Arizona and needed a set of shocks for my truck, at AutoZone , I had to take over the computer from the cute young thing.

 

[GA Gyro]

Here in Canada,Radio Shack never had much. I was in Arizona and needed a set of shocks for my truck, at AutoZone , I had to take over the computer from the cute young thing.

Yeah...

At the local auto parts stores (AutoZone, AdvanceAuto, O'Rileys)... the computer screen is sideways so both the counter person and the customer can see it. I generally let them lead and just suggest when they get stumped. I find when I get to leading too much... they get nervous and screw up worse.
SAD the counter folks are both non-knowledgeable... and insecure. Not a good combination for customer service... however some of them are cute... LOL

 

[Ulma Doctor]

i mess with the "knowledgeable" staff at the box car parts depots all the time, just for fun.
i had a gal looking for a few minutes for a muffler bearing before she asked a co-worker how to find it.
the manager was an older guy at the time, it made his day. he got the biggest laugh from the stunt!
i was getting other stuff so he didn't get too sore for me messin with the help.

 

[brino]

I agree with Franko....Radio Shack was dead to me over a decade ago.

They used to have parts and books that were useful.
(Remember the battery club? When I was a kid, often that was the only real reason I had to go to the mall.)

Then they started following the fads. They sold CD players, but could not explain anything about them.
Meanwhile the parts selection kept shrinking and shrinking.....

I remember one old stamp collector that was returning one of their magnifiers because the provided image was upside-down.
The guy behind the counter actually reversed the batteries that powered the little light bulb to see if that would fix it.
I was young at the time, but even I knew:
1) it was cheap and only used simple lenses -the batteries had nothing to do with it
2) even if it did have a camera and display then reversing the batteries would only kill it!

I lost any remaining respect for them that day.

 

[Mark in Indiana]

Wow. The battery club. I was a member also. Thanks for the memory.

 

[GA Gyro]

I was in Fry's earlier today... it seems they have done to electronics, what HD and Lowes have done to the local hardware store.

Was looking for specific capacitors, diodes and resistors.... they had lots of them. Each was individually wrapped and hanging on racks... for anywhere from $0.79 to $3.99.

Interesting how the big box store model has taken over the local store.

 

[jim18655]

Remember the 5 cell flashlight they gave away? I'm sure they counted on you buying their batteries to fill it. I can't tell you how many I had around the house.

 

[juiceclone]

I remember Olson electronics, Heathkits , Knight, and a few others that RS ran mostly out of business . Ironic now they are the only one left to go to locally and they don't behave like the old "ham" stores.....You're right ...can't find what you want, only what they want to sell you... They will "order" most things, but you can do that yourself..eBay etc..