Some knew it as Allied Radio back in the day – I knew it after their name change as Radio Shack. I knew the store well, just down from the pinball machines at the mall in Mitchell. At the end of the corridor was the giant cabinet containing “Pong”.
When all our quarters were spent my best friend Todd and I would spend hours in “Rat Shack” imagining all the things we could build and playing with a real, working display model of a TRS-80 computer complete with expansion interface and cassette tape drive. Of course, they had great stereo equipment, and my first radio – it was an AM radio I built from a kit – was from there. Many others would follow.
And who could forget the “Battery of the Month” club? A big deal for a kid my age – no money and always running out of ‘juice’.
South Dakota has 9 stores that will begin closing February 17th, they’ll all be gone by the end of March.
Empire Mall – Sioux Falls
Rushmore Mall – Rapid City
Split Rock Center – Aberdeen
One Yankton Place - Yankton
Pierre Mall - Pierre
6TH St. - Brookings
9TH Ave. SE - Watertown
Mountain View – Rapid City
S Western Ave. – Sioux Falls
I’ve got some great memories inside the sliding glass doors of the Mitchell Mall … if you have a story you’d like to share… a favorite memory, or a great piece of gear you still have – let me know!
Here’s a great link that will take you back a few years… http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/
We reminisced a bit on the demise of Radio Shack on the last Tech Radio: