TheSource.ca Deal Details

Ordered 2 Rolls of RG-6

tks

Sorry to report that all 14 ga FT-4 is sold out. Stewart, a CSR at TSBCC just said (6pm EST) that for FT-4, only the 16 ga rolls are left. And, he also pointed out that tomorrow the retailer is being rebranded: this is the last day that the name will include “by Circuit City”. What made them ever put that useless appendage of words on in the first place?

Matty, it’s because of the history of Radio Shack Canada.  In short:

- Radio Shack/Tandy wants to open in Canada.  They did so under the corporate name “Intertan”.
- Intertan decided to piss off Radio Shack by selling itself to Circuit city
- Radio Shack sues to have the Radio Shack name stripped from Intertan stores.  It wins in the US, but the agreement in Canada (good ‘till 2010) stands as US law doesn’t apply here.
- Radio Shack sues in Canada stating that since CC only bought 80% of Intertan, they aren’t entitled to keep the name until 2010.
- A deal is reached whereby the Radio Shack name goes away in Canada.
- For some reason Circuit City is either not allowed to operate as “Circuit City” in Canada (what I remember) or simply doesn’t want to pollute the CC brand by claiming a tiny craptastic mall store is a full CC store.  But they want their brand to become known in Canada.  Hence “The Source” in big letters and “by circuit city” in smaller letters.
- CC USA goes bust, eventually decides to sell of Canadian operations to Bell Canada.
- Bell announces TSbyCC will be rebranded as “Bell” stores.

From here, I don’t know what will happen.  To be honest, I’ve stepped into a Radio Shack/Tandy/The Source about two times in my life since they stopped selling (overpriced) resistors.  Nothing in there excites me, especially at TSbyCC prices.

The Intertan thing, BTW, is why Canadian Radio Shacks had such different (and, IMHO, much POORER) stock than their US counterparts, and items that WERE the same still had different SKUs.  Also, it is the reason why some Radio Shack stores become “Genexxa” stores for a short while.  And it’s the reason I laughed my ass off when Johnny 5 in Short Circuit 2 was able to repair himself at Radio Shack.  The ones in Canada didn’t even have basic electronics components at that point (The US ones did and still do).

shepd, very interesting synopsis of the Radio Shack history.

I too remember how way back as a kid you could go to RS, even the one in my little Quebec town, for a cap or resistor or pot that you didn’t want to have to travel to the big city for. It was technical and fun, and there was usually at least one salesdude who actually knew electronics and could help you fix a radio. Not like it is now, with hundreds of crappy gadgets like a hammer that has a corkscrew (not kidding), 12 different travel clocks, and overpriced, overpackaged $30 rechargeable phone batteries. Not to mention the staff, who—I’m sure—couldn’t tell you how to calculate watts if you gave them V and A.

Someone, SOME national chain, needs to begin offering electronic components. Why not a small section in HD, or CT? That would be freaking fantastic. And I know I’d not be the only one happy about it! Actually, I’m going to write a letter to both this evening suggesting they do.

Anyone know a good source for the connectors needed for the COAX cable? The one available at TSCC seem overpriced and it’s kind of counter productive to pay the same price for 2 little connectors as you do for the 250ft of cable.

Thanks.

CONTROL ONE, when doing my basement media room this year, I went through the RG6 connector shopping process. I didn’t want to trek out to Active et al, so perhaps I overpaid a bit, but I bought Ideal (a professional brand) RG6 twist-ons, in 10 packs at HD. Get the twist-ons, so if you mess up a wire, at least you can reuse the connector. Also available in 50s i think.

Much appreciated Matty, I’ll check out HD this weekend.

Hopefully they have smaller packs than 50 though!