Not jealous... I worked at a Radio Shack as a clerk. The training program was something else. It took weeks of studying books and taking tests to get "certified."
I could diagnose and prescribe for any TV or media combination. 300 ohm wire, 75 ohm cable, or mix and match for fun. Need RCA cord? No problem, let me show you these gold-plated patch cords (back before digital audio, when that made a difference). You're going to need two splitters and this switch here...
And then there was the day where I spent two hours selling that Tandy 1000. It was going to be my biggest commission ever! Just as I was about to ring it up, my boss rolls over and says, "Don't worry. I've got this."
Fairly soon after that I chose to not be an employee of Radio Shack.
My family's first computer was a Tandy 386 sx/33 with a screaming 4mb of ram and an 80mb hd.
The system's inability to play doom was the downfall of my childhood, lol, but I got to play Zork and Enchanter and a bunch of other infocom games as well as having my first forays into cyberspace thanks to a $1 600 baud flea market modem.
Uber elite hacker mode engaged calling my local bbs at 2 in the morning after everyone was asleep style playing Usurper and Legend of the Red Dragon while reading bootleg and highly questionable copies of the anarchists cookbook were some of the highlights of my pre-highschool life.
I worked at both around 94-95. IIRC, RS's commission started paying if you could sell more than an avg $75/hr for a pay period and a bonus rate if you hit $115/hr.
BB made you hit a minimum of like $2000/day if you were in the computer dept.
Edit: the RS I worked at was across the street from a mall that had an RS in it. I very rarely made commission.
Yep. And the giant plastic flashlight giveaways that took like 6 D batteries, and those round doughnut magnets that were fun to buy and sneak into school. Still have them. Fun days.
