RadioShack

This place use to have great service and a friendly staff. Not sure what the hell happened but the «employee» that «helped» me out today was a prick. I asked for a microphone windscreen, and the guy just pointed as some vague area… Didn’t even bother walking me over to the spot or making eye contact with me.
Maybe its cause I didn’t speak Cuban.
And before anybody fly’s off the handle here, I speak fluent Spanish and English. So if you found that Cuban remark offensive you can kiss my grits coño!

I came to this Radio Shack because I’d read that their stores were offering the iPhone 5s for free with the trade in of a working iPhone 4s. One of the first things I noticed when I arrived is that both employees were wearing cheap quality faded out grey «Radio Shack» T-​shirts. I guess the days of having your employees look presentable in a dress shirt or maybe even a polo are over?
I will say that the assistant manager here (Elwin I believe his name was) greeted me when I entered even though he was with another customer, and apologized a few times that he had 2 other customers ahead of me, one of whom was having problems with his credit card being accepted and was signing up for a new cell phone contract, and thus took a while to wait on. This assistant manger even offered me a chair or a bottle of water once I’d waited more than 30 minutes and had already browsed around the store a few times (I’d have left and come back later, but I’d already completely erased and reset my iPhone 4s before coming to this store and I couldn’t leave without a working phone!).
That being said, I find it frustrating and unacceptable, really, that I entered this store at about 6:15 p.m. and according to my receipt I wasn’t checked out until 7:40 and probably didn’t get to leave for another 5 minutes after that due to the fact that they had to unbox my new phone and activate it. In other words, for a simple cell phone purchase, keeping the same carrier and the same plan, it took me 1 ½ hours to accomplish that, and they had 2 employees working at the time.
This phone upgrade, which was my only reason for visiting this store (I did end up purchasing a few other items as well), was no better than a 2 star experience, but I’ve raised the rating here to 3 stars just because of the friendliness and kindness of the guy who waited on me. Again, he was even considerate enough to offer me a chair at one point once he saw that I’d been waiting a while. One normally doesn’t experience customer service like that, especially in this city!

Do you know that late night shop that has beer for a party or milk for your crying child? Do you remember how that shop has half a gallon of milk for $ 10 or a case of beer for $ 20? …and how you hate to pay it but you know you need it. Radio Shack has this type of flavor, except they are not open late night.
I only seem to find myself going to Radioshack when I have very unique electronic purchases. What do you do when you need a 940SW battery or a 1 amp resistor? Radioshack. I never have a bad experience, but there is nothing noteworthy of any visit. Clerks are usually very helpful. Once in a while, you’ll find an engineering student that needs a discount on parts working behind the counter… and they know their stuff very well. Problem is, everything is WAY overpriced. This model of brick and mortar store is dying very quickly and there is nothing that they can do to help it. I can see Radioshacks getting turned into Radiokiosks then later Radiovendingmachines. The coup-​de-​gras will be when this type of store turns into WhatTheHeckIsARadio Shack; but, I am pretty sure it will be iPodShack before that.
As for my interaction with this store, I was in and out in less than five minutes. I went in for a watch battery I needed. Online, I could have gotten ten of the batteries for under $ 3, but I needed it sooner than later, so I paid $ 5 for ONE battery. Oh well. The clerk was helpful but I can tell he really hated charging me this. What can you do when you need it urgently?
Bottom Line: One or two generations down the line won’t even justify understand the name of this company. Radioshack is fated to join Sharper Image in the great beyond, but only time will tell.