Flashback Friday Moment of The Week: 4/22/2022

by Just Juan
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I spent a few days this week in Paris. And while there, I did walk by the Eiffel Tower, enjoy an authentic croissant, and see The Louvre…though I didn’t get a chance to go in because it was closed. I also walked Champs-Élysées, where I ended up in an electronics store called Fnac in my quest to replace the PlayStation 5 that was stolen from me a couple of months ago. They didn’t have one in stock but I was definitely intrigued by the vibe of the store. It wasn’t Best Buy or even Circuit City. It was something a bit more compressed. That brings me to this week’s moment in the Flashback Friday series: RadioShack.

How I first came across this moment? My introduction to RadioShack came when I would ride out to the location across from the Western Hills Mall in Fairfield, Alabama. I was around maybe 7-8 years old. He usually went in there to get speaker stuff that he couldn’t get at Circuit City. Either that or he just didn’t want to drive on the complete opposite side of Jefferson County.

What it meant to me then? My early thoughts on RadioShack were that it was like a convenience store for electronics. The locations were small but they had some decent offerings as I remember it. RadioShack really took off with me in the Summer of 2002 but it wasn’t because of anything in the store. It was their slogan: “you’ve got questions, we’ve got answers”. That was a line I used in my first phone conversation with Valorie Drew on July 7, 2002. According to Triumphs & Tribulations II, she hit me with a “tell me about you” and I responded with “I’m like RadioShack…you got questions, I got answers”. It worked on her and it ended up being a go-to line during the Lost Decade of Dating.

What it means to me now? Today, RadioShack is unfortunately nonexistent to me. I haven’t seen one since my August 2014 vacation on the West Coast. I remember seeing one in Thousand Oaks on my way to Santa Barbara. I haven’t been in one since at least 2010 when I visited The Cocoa Goddess in Valdosta. Being in the Fnac in Paris definitely brought back memories of my casual walkthroughs in the miniature electronics store. If anything, it brought to my remembrance the go-to line that put me at ease in my dating life.

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