🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan2.214615.6951@wam.umd.edu> bladin@wam.umd.edu (Ilana J. Getz) writes:
>In article <1993Jan2.084526.1056@cmkrnl.com> jeh@cmkrnl.com writes:
>>In article <C05qz7.Mp7@cs.uiuc.edu>, gillies@cs.uiuc.edu (Don Gillies) writes:

>>> Radio Shack makes total garbage; most likely your problem is all Radio
>>> Shack's fault.  I would never buy a Radio Shack product.  

>>This is a trifle overstated.  RS's upper-end scanners, for example, are widely
>>considered to be among the best available, and they have a long history of
>>reliability.   ....


>I worked at good 'ol RS when I was in college, and I think I can provide
>some insight.

>Radio Shack manufactures about 50% of th stuff they sell, and the rest is
>farmed out to other suppliers. For example, when I worked there, they made
>all of the stereo receivers, but none of the VCR's. To make matters worse,
>the situation is not consistant within a product line. They made all of their
>low-end cassette decks, but none of their high end ones. The cheap ones were 
>crap, and the high end ones were pretty good. On top of all of this, the
>list of outside suppliers chages from year to year. One years models may be
>repackaged Sharp TVs & VCRs, the next may be a different model all together.

The inconsitancy from year to year is typical of many large volume
retailers who don't manufacture all of what they sell.  Sears Kenmore
line of home units are made by different manufacturers too.

>What's the bottom line? A total lack of consistancy. You simply cannot say
>that "all of the RS gear is bad," or even that all of one particular
>line of products is good or bad. They may all come from a different place.

And Tandy corporation also manufacturers for other companies and brands
for them.    At one time Tandy was making '386 based computers for
Panasonic and DEC (yup Digital Equipment Corp)

I remember being in one shop and a tech saw the Panasonic machine that
Tandy built.   Some really nice construction.

>I agree that it is best to avoid RS products in general, but not because
>they are all bad. Rather, there is no way to know which ones are bad.

That's the same way for virtually anything anymore - from automobiles
to appliances.   


-- 
Bill Vermillion - bill@bilver.oau.org  bill@bilver.uucp
                - ..!{peora|tous|tarpit}!bilver!bill