Radioshack
The people who work at Radioshack aren’t the brightest bulbs on the tree. They fulfill a purpose I suppose, providing America with cheap radio controlled cars and overpriced televisions. There have been times that what I need can really only be obtained locally from them without going to a specialty electronics shop which would be even more expensive.
One time I was trying to make a special cable to connect my computer in one room to my stereo in another room. Nowadays you can buy wireless technology for that, but this was about a year ago and the wireless was cost prohibitive. I thought about running a 50′ headphone extensions cable down into the floor, across the house, and then up to my stereo. A quick call to my electronic guru father told me that if I were to hook such a thing up, the RF that the 50′ cable picked up would be so great that the static would be unbearable. He suggested I make a stereo audio line out of coaxial cable (standard cable TV type of cable with a center heavy wire with ground surrounding it) I had a 5′ headphone extension cable and I cut, spliced 50′ of coaxial cable to it, then a set of RCA audio plugs on the ends. It worked great.
When I went to Radioshack, the 20-something punk behind the counter asked me what I was building after I gave him my shopping list. After I explained to him my cool idea, he promptly said ‘That won’t work’. “Really?’ I said ‘Why not? My father seems to think it will work great’. This prick then proceeded to tell me that he has a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Spring Arbor University. He actually gave me that tidbit of his resume. I decided to let him have it. ‘Wow, that’s impressive. My father is an electrical engineering degree from the University of Wisconsin and about 40 years of actual experience. It probably counts for a little but more than your degree from a crappy school.’ Besides, you are working at RADISHACK, ya putz.
So it turns out his store was missing one essential piece of equipment I needed to finish the job. I decided to trip on over to the other Radioshack in town. A nice lady greeted me there and was very helpful. I gave her the short version of what happened at the other store and she was taken aback. I kindly asked her to notify the regional supervisor about the incident and that the employee would probably be talked to. She agreed with my assessment and said she would do just that after she apologized for the moron.
About 3 months after I install the audio line, I got cable internet installed in my house. I was not home when the technician came, but my wife was. Here is the jist of the conversation…
Technician: “What are these two cable going into the floor here?
My Wife: “That’s the audio line my husband put in that attaches the computer to the stereo in the other room”
Technician: “But that won’t work”
At this point my wife just smiled and said ‘Yes it does” and laughed, remembering the whole Radioshack moron story.
The world seems to have all kinds…..