Subway may be leaving Parkside Plaza, but a Radio Shack franchise just moved in. On a May morning, owner Ray Gammo and manager Ralph Paige were busy stocking new Radio Shack merchandise; Gammo, a gregarious man with a big build, an easy smile, and witty one-liners, darted back and forth between the two businesses holding the store phone in one hand and a cell phone in the other.
Paige, who for close to four years managed the Alpha Wireless store next door, says he knows everything there is to know about wireless phones but admits to still getting up to speed on all the new Radio Shack products. “We went to a one-week training at the Radio Shack headquarters in Fort Worth,” said Paige as he highlighted the DIY Tech Center section of the store. Tucked in the back, it includes both a wall of techie hardware and a tall cabinet of pristine white easy-slide and labeled drawers offering items like buzzers and motors and potentiometers and knobs. Evidently potentiometers are like a resistor, and have something to do with controlling audio equipment. That led Paige right to the speaker wall and an array of Bluetooth speaker systems, including Beats by Dre, the Beat Box Portable, and the Beats Pill.
Radio Shack, 733 W. Michigan (Parkside Plaza), 429-0001. Mon.-Sat. 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.-7 p.m. radioshack.com and alpha4g.com
