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Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

> It really saddens me to know that he'll likely have to drop the RadioShack name one day soon

Could he turn his shop into a for-profit hackerspace that has inventory for projects?

This is an idea I've toyed with for a while, I called it 'prototype electronics' where the 'store' part had inventory that was known to work together so that projects could be designed, built, and sourced out of the store parts. (this was true early in the RS era as well of course)

There are some annoying liability (ie expensive) issues with letting minors operate soldering irons on the premises or while using solder that has lead in it. But mostly people just don't go out. So when you look at the probability of having enough "customers" you find you need a really large population base while maintaining a very small foot print. New York comes to mind or London. Hard to scale it to more spread out places.

It's a shame really. I learned to use a soldering iron when I was about 10 years old. My dad used to buy home electronics from Heathkit and we would put them together. I took an electronics course in middle school and we would use soldering irons there also. Also a shop class where we used drill presses, sabre saws, all kinds of oil-based paints and stains, etc. (the table saw was one of the few tools that were "off limits" to the kids).

We're now so scared of liability that kids don't get a chance to learn how to work with their hands.

+1. I learnt to solder when I was 14 or so, and did hurt myself a couple of times too. But I lived in India, where there's not many liability issues.

I learned to solder at that age as well. I even had a side-job that included soldering :)

I had similar ideas too. I envisioned designing a PCB and then going to my nearest Rat Shack to pick it up like the one hour photo idea back in the day. I grew up in the 80s and have very fond memories going there and just browsing the electronic components. I think the hacker space is a great idea for kidspic but is probably not viable for the same reasons you mentioned.

http://www.metrixcreatespace.com/

It's such a small town that I doubt that would work. That said, he's the only place in town to get things like scanner radios, small electronic parts, certain tools, and a wide selection of batteries. He'll probably just revert back to the original company name before he became a franchisee, and source his small parts from Digi-key or Mouser.

Radio Shack always struck me as a store that could contain a Kickstarter section.

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