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RadioShack CEO Resigns
xzvf writes to tell us Forbes is reporting that RadioShack CEO David J. Edmondson has resigned. Reeling from a 62% drop in fourth quarter net income the company has announced a sweeping restructuring plan. From the article: "Edmondson said in a separate statement Monday that new leadership was needed so the company's turnaround plan would have the best possible chance to succeed. The revamp announced Friday prompted mixed responses from analysts, who indicated the plan might be successful but, at that time, they doubted Edmondson's ability to pull it off after it became clear he had lied about his education."
"became clear he had lied about his education"
It seems like you hear about this more and more in the business world. Don't they even bother to check people out?
NINJA SPIRIT - The Ancient Art of Insanity
"You have questions...we have cellphone plans."
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Its been news for the last few days that he never gradudated college let alone had the two degrees he claimed. I'm suprised the article writeup only touched on this in italics in the bottom. One of the degrees he claimed wasn't even offered by the university that he claimed awarded it to him.
If religous zealots don't believe in Evolution, then why are they so worried about bird flu?
Example: In this month's Make Magazine...there's an article on how to receive free (not illegal) satellite channels by using inexpensive materials. Radio Shack should be the source for this material for those who don't want to scrounge!
I know this has been a huge plug for Make Magazine...but for goodness sake, when I used to need some obscure part, I knew it could be had cheaply at the Shack...now you have to order a lot of parts.
You have questions, we have Blank Stares
According to CNN's article on this topic, Edmundson "originally said he had received a Bachelor of Science degree, but now says he believes -- but cannot document -- that he received a ThG diploma, awarded for completing a three-year degree in theology."
Call it academic theology: "I believe that I got the degree, but cannot document it." Intelligent design, anyone?
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
Let me guess as to why Radio Shack is losing money.
Hmmmm... how about it's because they are selling VERY EXPENSIVE electronics? Yeah, I think that's it!
For years now I've associated Radio Shaq with overpriced items... I only go there if they have something I can't get somewhere else and by that I mean something I need right this minute. That's like 3 times in six years for me.
Plus, what few things they have are all across the board. I always wondered what they held in common, now I see that it was profit margin. A slim range of digital cameras, handheld radios (do people still use these?), stereo wire and connectors and radio control cars (like its a place you bring your kids to?). For each of these if that's what I'm looking for there are other places that come to mind first. Even audio connectors I'll go to some local contractor electronics supplier who can make a custom cable if I need it...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
People buy their electronics from big box stores now, and with the end of the electronics hobbyist RadioShack has been existing on borrowed time for ages. They simply cannot compete in the internet age.
that he needed to be Realistic and not an Optimus.
they doubted Edmondson's ability to pull it off after it became clear he had lied about his education
What was the problem?
Was he hiding the fact that he had an MBA or something?
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
new leadership was needed so the company's turnaround plan would have the best possible chance to succeed
Sounds like a Realistic(tm) plan to me.
Anybody want a peanut?
Big box consumer electronics retailers have usurped the role of the neighborhood consumer electronics store. Remember that not long ago, this was Tandy Leather Company. Although the company has changed over the years, each of their markets has big competition:
- Cell phones and 2-way phones are in the big box retailers
- Fry's and others have edged the electronic components and tech tool offerings
- TVs, computers, stereos, and others are the domain of Best Buy, Circuit City, etc...
- Tech toys have also been gnawed on by a slew of retailers
So it's no fun to be Radio Snack, as my uncle calls them. Closing 700 stores is only the first step on a long journey back to health for these guys, as they try to find identity and appeal in the major and tiny markets they once did well in.
Getting smeared because of their ex-CEO's dubious credentials is just another nail in the coffin if they're not careful.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Now that RadioShack is going down the tubes the only store left will be GNC. I don't get it. Zero foot traffic at all the local malls and these two hang on like Yoko Ono to dead beatles!
when they ban enctryption only criminals wi$21*J *#JF$%!@#$':
I personally find little reason to go to RadioShack much anyways, they no longer have as much as the stuff I really wanted. Things like Audio and Video Adapters and cables are getting more and more slim, There IC selection is becoming non-existance. I can't find things like a basic Cable Tuner, Null Modem adapters and other adapters. When you walk in there are TVs Surround sound systems, Cell Phones, as their primary which I could get a better choices at a Circuit City, Best Buy, Rex, etc... stuff heck I had to hunt around until I could find a basic calculator. People go to radio shack for hand made electronics and custom configuration of their technology. I should be able to go in there and easily find a Stereo Splitter. So my old 5 speaker Surround sound system for my computer will work on my normal Stereo TV with all the speaker for 4 speaker Stereo. Or If I need a Cable Tuner to get an Old TiVo working like new again they should have some in stock. That use to be Radioshack value add. People may stop in once in a while to get Computers, Cellphones, or TVs for the bulk to their profit but the small stuff keeps many of the more technical people coming back and get the low end stuff and perhaps they will get an other High Margin product in the future.
Also customer service has went to crap. While they are friendly and everything, when it comes to ask about stuff in the far corner like Is there any RJ45 Connectors aka Cat 5 connectors, I will get a Blank Stare. In the old days the people were far more knowable about all the products then just the top sellers.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
A buyout by a Best Buy or whatever and a web presence for transistors and electronic kits.
Let's face it even their name is dated.
It's over.
This
Does anyone know what he is walking away with after driving his company into the ground? The article doesn't say and google isn't being much help either.
quis custodiet ipsos custodes
It's interesting and more than a little depressing to see just how greatly Radio Shack has changed in the past ten years. In 1995 I got my amateur radio license. Everyone knew that Radio Shack's license exam preparation materials, done by one Gordon West, were rubbish that taught people how to pass a test without understanding any of the concepts between it. That's why I ordered the ARRL's dependable guide Now You're Talking from another store (check the book out if you are looking for an interesting hobby, it's also in many libraries). But Radio Shack was incredibly helpful for providing all the parts one needed to build little projects. Whenever I found an interesting project in the ham magazine QST, such as an audio amplifier or a QRP kit, I knew Radio Shack would provide the materials.
But now, things have changed, there's hardly more than a couple of soldering irons for sale in the back of a Radio Shack today. The hobby of tinkering with electronics is no longer profitable for a retail store, possibly due to the decline of amateur radio. Hams today order what they need from the Internet or the catalogues that a few specialty stores like to spam technophiles with. Instead, Radio Shack has decided to entirely focus on consumer electronics. But it can't win there either, larger stores like Best Buy or Circuit City will always have a better selection. I can't really see any way for this company to survive.
My friend worked for RadioShack and he said the whole business model of RadioShack is crap and is obsolete. When before they were _the_ specialty electronics store, now they make most of their money off of overpriced batteries and cell phone plans. The savy geeks who would have gone there before to buy electronic parts, now get them cheaper from the Web, and the average consumers just go to places like Best Buy, CircuitCity and others where they have a larger selection of equipment. The last time I went to RS was 6 years ago to get some thermal paste for my heatsinks, and the idiot saleman didn't even know what it was, I had to go through the shelves and find it myself (I suspected they had it somewhere). That's the last time I bought anything from them. I am sure other "electronically inclined" geeks here probably have a similar story...
what is this radioshack thing? is shaquille o'neal taking over it?
Are you nuts? People are too busy being at the mall or watching TV to do anything by themselves. Tinkering has become the pastime of penny pinchers and weirdos who can't or don't want to do what a good citizen does: CONSUME!
Let's face it. Making stuff yourself gets out of fashion. Remember, kids, only commies make stuff themselves, a good consumer buys it!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
...that I have to take the "Bikini Inspector (1993-1998)" entry off of my resume? But its such a conversation starter!
Who did what now?
You must not work much with technology in a tactile fashion. Radio Shack is irreplacable in most mid-sized to small towns wherein it is the only place you can walk in and purchase certain eletronic parts to complete projects. Where else can you view and select from a wide choice of project boxes in a store front? Sure, there are tv repair shops and the like, but they do not special in the retail sales of these parts, and even if they do have it you'll pay an arm and a leg. This says nothing of such things as batteries for watches and the like. Walmart, Office Depot, Staples ... they will carry only the most popularly used battery watches. You'll most likely have to order online or from the company for the rest. But you can walk into a radio shack and get the same thing right away without waiting or paying for shipping.
/., but I doubt you're much of a geek beyond that....
You may read and post on
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
As usual, the /. article is very low on relevant links. Here is the article about this fucktard admiting lying.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11388447/
He is paid >1.4M$ per year, and will probably get that as its package.
Bastard.
In the type of business Radio Shack is/was running then the internet was bound to hurt it. Buying components from a store is beset with problems of supply and demand - people want exactly what they need and they want it now. From a stock control standpoint this is incredibly difficult to do on a store by store level.
When people had no choice before the internet people had to make do and wait for parts to come into stock. Now it's easier to source most of the parts online and usually cheaper. The company's web site is also a pain in the neck to use.
It's a pity in a way because a lot of my friends considered Radio Shack an essential part of growing up and developing their knowledge of technology. But in this free market world it's adapt or die.
you know, just the other day I was browsing Linux Today and somehow i found myself reading the ever useful "get the facts" ad (right-hand corner). one of success stories was "RadioShack Saves Millions of Dollars by Choosing Windows Over Linux". and now there's a 62% drop in fourth quarter net income. yet another company "helped" by microsoft, methinks... :-D
The reason why they probably never checked his education is because It was not not the most important part of his Resume. In real life Education is only a minor factor, especially when you get more experience. When you are staring out Education is a major factor because you don't have much to go on. But when you go further it becomes less important, unless you plan to switch paths, like say you have a BS and you want to get into management so you get an MBA. That way you can show the hirers that you are not just a Tech Egg Head and you have some business knowledge as well. But If you were able to work your way up in a company with a GED and proved yourself valuable (Bill Gates never graduated from college) then you could be work more then a person with degrees up to the kazoo. Sometimes I see people who may Flash their PHD in Engineering at me to show how smart they are, except they call me to fix the problem with their primary program when windows is putting up a little bubble on the screen saying you have loss network connection. So I tell them the program doesn't work without a network connection, then they just flash their degrees at me.
In Business degrees and education usually says the person was able to stick it out for at least 2,4,6,8 years and get a degree and they have the building blocks to learn to do the job. But when you start getting experience then that counts for so much more.
As for Lying about your education what that does is makes it easy to fire you for lying on your Resume if they don't want you. But they are not going to take the effort and check it unless they need a good reason.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
...especially today, coming on the heels of their big announcement. ~jeff
I have never been a big fan of Radio Shack, (especially of their individually packaged resisitors). But since having moved to the US I have seen no other shops that actually sell electornic parts. So my question is: Where do you people buy electornic parts from?
I used to enjoy wandering around an electronics shop just checking things out. Heck, even a Radio Spares catalog is better than nothing, even if they were also overpriced. But I don't know who the best players are in the US.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
-- ac at work
If Radioshack goes under, you'll still be able to get all sorts of weird parts at relatively short notice (albeit not immediately).
He was the CEO. What is the ratio of CEO salary to worker salary (50:1?)? He was a highly-paid corporate executive who should be setting an example (think Enron here...). This also sends a message about the honesty of CEOs (yea, right). Did he get a "golden parachute"?
BTW, when is slashdot adding a spel cheker?
Seems it's not the only thing he lied about, the Microsoft "Linux Reference Center" advert says he saved millions by choosing Windows over Linux, but we already knew that was a falsehood.
they joined microsofts propaganda get the facts campagn and now down the tubes
Radio Shack had a major divorce from its Canadian division. The result is that the Canadian stores are now called "The Source". The Canadian operation had major disagreements with the US operation about what should and should not be carried in the stores. The Canadian stores seem to have known what they were doing. The stores are full of merchandise and there are lots of customers.
That is some of the best sarcasm I heard in ages. To bad they don't have that stuff anymore. I had to hunt for a Basic $2 Calculator.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
"You've got questions, we've got unverified answers!"
or my personal favorite:
"You've got money, we've got pockets!"
Read any good sonnets lately?
I tried to get some parts for an oscillator once and the guy just looked at me like I was crazy. I thought in the back of my mind, "This is Radio Shack right....??"
EvilCON - Made Famous by
That, combined with the trend in consumer electronics to go from expensive but repairable to cheap but unfixable (can't get parts, can't get service manuals), means that where I live we've gone from two competing "parts houses" (where service technicians used to get tubes and transistors and such) to none.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
His problem is not the lack of qulifications he just dont have enough cash. Lying about qualifications didnt seem to hurt Richard Li http://www.forbes.com/2001/03/30/0330facesli.html
Which just confirms it's not what you know, but who you know - or who you're related to.
PS: Appologies for the Anonymous Coward posting: Ricky is three or four pointy haired heads away from being my boss...
PPS: Qualifications arent everything, we had a CCIE apply for a position in our team that didn't know shit about BGP. We checked him out he truely was a CCIE.
Which, if it were that profitable, RS wouldn't be shrinking their components business down so much. Every year, those drawers in the back get smaller and smaller. And some parts seem to be perpetually on back order. Geese!
Maybe now I can go buy some batteries without having to give them my full address, phone, business phone, zip code and passport identification number with accompanying retina scan.
"Say you love us like i know you will and that our deaths won't be in vain or in the name of gasoline"
It's ethics. I know too many genious "unqualified" persons to hold that against someone. The problem is the ethics or lack thereof. Not to mention RadioShack's only focus in business now is to sell cellphones. They made so much off of them in the early 00's and it took the focus off the rest of their business. Try getting radio parts, kits or electronics parts now, they're almost noexistent along with the knowledge to sell them.
That explains why they had that 30% off EVERYTHING on-line sale last week of December.
(trying to make their numbers look better)
Dell does the same thing every quarter.
This is hilarious to me because I know David Edmunson's son Josh. He resigned because he got caught cheating on his wife with an employee and his wife is pissed about it. I'm sure it will come out eventually. It might have something to do with him lying about his education but that is not what started the ball rolling.
DankLogic - There is a system to everything.
Anyone wanna bet he still gets handsomely rewarded for life from Radio Shack when he quits?
This isn't the first person to be exposed for lying about academic credentials and it probably won't be the last. Nonetheless, after so many have been keelhauled for doing this, I'm surprised that people still lie in writing about their academinc credentials and surprised that there are still companies not checking for this, particularly for executive candidates. No doubt some of the Radio Shack board have egg on their faces as well, especially in light of the drastic cuts that ananlysts suggest are needed.
Academic credentials are about the easiest qualification to check for. Just call the school. Either the candidate has the degree they claim to have or they do not. There's no shade of gray. That's why it's so stupid to lie about this. It's easy to check and there's no wiggle room. Why then do so many do it? Why then are there companies that don't check for this?
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
If you want to turn around profits, then stop selling the house-brand crappy electronics that are made in China that you can buy at a Dollar Store for a buck (but RadioShack sells for $20). People recognize quality when they see it, and RadioShack doesn't represent quality.
Even the name brands they sell tend to be the low end economy models that Sony, Panasonic, etc will sell at Walmart or grocery stores, of course for a far cheaper price then RadioShack.
There may have been a time when you can pass off a cheap Chinese boom box for $100, and that is when RadioShack raked in the money, but these days people are a little more discriminating in the quality of electronics they buy, and RadioShack hasn't offered those better quality products. They still insist on selling that cheap Chinese boom boxes for $100.
RadioShack should simply refocus on selling batteries and remote control cars, its about all they do well. Stop trying to sell cheap home theater and stereo equipment and televisions, drop computers period, and focus on smaller electronic gadgets that you can't find elsewhere. Either that, our start offering high end stuff you can't find anywhere else, open up a niche market that walmart, Best Buy and Target can't touch.
Just, don't go on as business as usual. It obviously isn't working, and those no-name brands you keep carrying and selling for the same price as name brands are not making you money.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
What's really sad is that a lot of people won't get that joke at all. Hopefully, you won't get too many "Offtopic" mods. Unfortunately, I don't have any mod points or I'd throw a +1 Funny your way.
For those not in the know, Realistic and Optimus are Radio Shack brand names.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
That USED to be the beauty of the place, a long time ago. Fry's has taken what little electronic hobbist store business there is, and the rest is all by catalog, sadly. I don't think there are enough electronic hobbists in the U.S. today to support a nationwide chain of stores catering to that. Someone or ones in Radio Shack management came to that conclusion back in the 80's after the PC market consolidated (remember the Trash-80?), and the chain has tried to remake itself into a mass market cheap electronic gadget distributor ala Best-Buy and P.C. Richard, replacing employees who knew how to fix and build things with the "You want fries with that?" crowd. It has to date failed rather miserably at this task, which relys on massive stores with room for both inventory and selection of "consumer electronics" and doesn't give a rat's ass about hobbists any more.
At least, that's my perception of them here in New England and in my frequent visits to Texas...
He had no answers...
Perhaps they should take these millions they saved and dig themselves out of their financial crisis.
"After an extensive evaluation in which RadioShack compared Windows® and Linux, the company selected Microsoft® Windows Server System(TM) and Windows XP Embedded."
Actually if they would just get out of the comodity market they got themselves into and start actually carrying cool shit again they might stand a chance.
Got Code?
It all started when they took out the vacuum tube testing machines from the stores...
Ever since RadioShack did that TCO study and decided to go with Micro$oft... well you know the rest...
In summary, they are a store with no real purpose. They clearly can't compete with big box stores like Best Buy and Circuit City, and their hobbyist section grows smaller and smaller as they try to "reinvent" themselves. News flash radio shack - unless you decide to return to their roots you're dead in the water! Nice knowing you...
Yet there's a legacy about what made them viable in the first place: small, low-rent, distributed strip mall and small town shops that were convenient and supplied things you needed. The concept of a radio shack grew out of the ham radio, and CB days, when a solder jockey could build something as basic a crystal radio kit and then graduate beyond. Digikey now sells zillions of dollars of components in all conceivable varieties and types, and others like MCM supply the consumer electronic tech repair trade with replacement parts like magnetrons for blown microwave ovens, Cat 6 cable, and so on.
Heathkit, then Heath/Zenith also had trouble staying relevant and their locations died a slow and profit-less death. Radio Shack is in the same danger.
And amusingly, I too go to Tandy leather to get items to fix items I own. They're going well in my area... while the Radio Shack down the street is likely to fold shortly.
Pity.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Small Towns? You mean like NYC? TRY to find electronic parts in NYC - I've had no luck. Sigh
73 de KG2V
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
...Radio Shack had parts and adaptors and other things that you just couldn't get anywhere. There were zillions of times I went to Radio Shack to get some bizarre audio adaptor - and not only would they have what I needed, they'd have three different types that would do the job.
Ever wired a commercial audio job at some remote site in East Belt Buckle [insert state here]? In the middle of the job, there was always some part needed, or something that would not work right - and even East Belt Buckle would have a Radio Shack - problem solved...
Spin the time machine to the present... the CEO isn't quite what was sold to the company... The product line is thin, cheap, and out of step with the times. The sales clerks demand your life's personal information if you want to buy a $.25 resistor or some wire, or if your wife just went there to buy an odd-size battery. They are not in the consciousness of the public (along the lines of CompUSA, Best Buy, Circuit City, et. al.). Their prices are not anything to write home about. Their hours are generally not as flexible as the Huge Mart stores against which they compete. And to top it all off, the cool little DIY parts are getting so thin that you can't go to RS and dream up a little cool electronic thing any more.
Earth to Radio Shack: Do more than get rid of one or two brass... Figure out what America is after and then adapt to that. I don't like to nay-say the health of a company, but even I can see that Radio Shack has become the Kodak(TM) Instant Film and the 8-Track superstore that no-one needs it to be.
A Passionate Independent Musician
Ya know, if you had any wonder that a half-wit can't be elected, found out to be a fraud, and then re-elected, just look at the current regime in the US. NUKE-yuh-luhr?
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
doesn't anyone use the internet to shop for these items? There must be a reliable site that will sell you resistors and the like.
I'm still using my CueCat:) and sold three or four of them on ebay!! Thanks Shadio Rack!
Some people are like slinkys. They're useless, but it puts a smile on your face to push them down the stairs.
Good post. I tend to agree. It's like techtv, a treasure to geeks, useless to everyone else....
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
I haven't used my battery-of-the-month club card in years!
meh
The other day I went to Radio Shack to buy a 1 ampere AC/DC converter. The clerk told me that they didn't have converters with such low voltages and to prove his point he showed me a 1000 milliampere converter.
I miss the old days when radio shack employees knew about the stuff they were selling or at least about high school physics.
Cheers,
Adolfo
They just can't have a store in every shopping mall.
If they would consolidate their stores and put one or two in each metro area, focusing on the hobbyist by providing the integrated circuits, connectors, switches, project boxes, breadboards, and so forth, they would be in good shape. How much would you pay for a handfull of 10k resistors if you needed 3 for a project? Talk about profit margin! They won't make money on cell phone plans, TV sets, cordless phones, or Tandy computers. They have a reputation for selling junk. But for parts, it's the place to go (except that they quit selling the cool parts...)
Heck, they used to have some cool project books. They could send people project ideas by e-mail and put them up on a web site. They could milk it for all it's worth...
Oh, but I forget! We don't care about science (and to some extent, engineering) in this country. It's all about short-term gains, next quarter's profit, and so forth... Grumble, grumble.
So yes, they could be cool if they wanted. I don't think they really want to earn my business.
I hate call waitin`~+~~~
NO CARRIER
I agree that the academic fraud he pulled off is the most off putting thing, but let's be honest.....how can even a educated CEO save Radio Shack? All of thier competition has them beat on price and in alot of cases, selection. I mean I went there to look for something I thought they may carry...bluetooth headphones (no not a stupid headset for my cellphone) and they only had one model and it didn't even come with the adapter to plug into a 3.5 mm port! Stupid. They did make my son happy this Christmas though with a big honking radio controlled Camaro!
Gorkman
As I mentioned, walking into a store front.... If mail order is the option then the world's your oyster. There are times when you want to walk in, browse, pick up, hold, buy, go home and continue. Waiting for a shipment is a mild form of hell for most -- at times anyhow. And I live in a small enough town that radio shack is about all there is for these parts. I DO NOT want to wait days for my $3 battery to arrive for my watch when it dies. I want to walk in at lunch, buy it, and walk out. I had to use the radio shack here in town recently to do this. Walmart and Staples did not carry the specific battery my watch needed. They had tons of others for more popular watches I suppose, but now we get back to the whole shabang about demographics, marketing research, supply/demand, etc., and the fact that they shouldn't carry my watch battery as most people would own the other watches for the batteries they do carry anyhow....
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
There very very few hobbyists now...
I laught everytime I see that infomercial on the cordless soldering iron. They show a guy soldering electronic stuff with it... 99.9% of the US is never even going to think about it. The only people who might do some soldering are some audiophiles who will solder a little wire to their speakers.
Look at the way the general public is inept at maintaining their own computer. Soon, people will call electricians to change lightbulbs...
who'd have thunk it?
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
It never ceases to amaze me when a person gets fired for faking a degree. It's a very common practice. When I worked in higher education, the HR people were militant about getting offical transcripts sent straight from the college in question. There was no fooling these people; about 5% of all finalist candidates had degree claims that could not be substantiated.
But I got in, no degree required. As a part-time temp, doing a mainframe operations job that nobody wanted. Thirteen years and six promotions later, I was the Director of Technical Services. Still no degree. On six occasions, the Board of Trustees had to vote on an exemption so that I could be promoted. Today, I work in private industry. I have a senior management position in IT, still no degree. I never lie about it because I don't have to. I have 20+ uninterrupted years of IT experience -- take it or leave it.
If you read the job ads very closely, you find all kinds of weasel-words that actually chinks in the degree requirement armor. Things like "MSCS preferred, or equivalent experience". Even when the ad says "BSCS required", it's negotiatble. I know of several non-degree people who managed to get hired despite some really strict wording of the degree requirement. Even companies who portray a degree-only image are often much different behind the scenes. My personal policy is to pass on the ads where they use keywords like "essential", "must have", "successful candidate will have", etc.
That said, there is no substitute for having the same skills that degreed people have and doing the job. In the long run, we are all evaluated against the same criteria.
That's why Radio Shack is in trouble. You can't make a pun out of "Nexxtech" and "Centrios" ^__^
He's also been to court twice for DWIs and will be showing up for a third in April!
"The more you know, the less sure you are." - Voltaire
You don't know the half of it, amigo...
I'm not allowed to work at a corporate-managed RadioShack ever again (I quit without notice).
Radio Shack pretends to care about its customers. It's evident from the way every meeting goes, all the way down to the store manager with his employees. The entire focus is on SELLING BIG-TICKET THINGS. If you're in here for batteries, I should offer you a cellular plan. Why? Because deep down, you want one, and you're just waiting for me to offer it to you. Their strategy for floor salesmen was "give them what they came in for, and then add as much as you can onto it." It doesn't matter if they need cellular service, if they have good enough credit to support it, whatever... sell it to them anyway!
Now, they're changing their pay scale as part of this revamping process, and making it so even less of the money goes to the people who sell things. Their new commission system is designed to screw the salesman 4 ways from Friday. I'm so glad I got out of there... I hated that job. Ugh.
Now, I don't even shop there. I'll find some little independent electronics retailer, or I'll find it online. Radio Shack isn't nearly what it used to be. They hire salespeople and try to make them knowledgeable instead of hiring knowledgeable people and making them into salesmen.
Everyone, do the world a favor... Take your money elsewhere.
Windows isn't the answer... it's the question. NO is the answer!
If this CEO was meeting his profit objectives, the degree issue would never be an issue. RS is in big trouble, and the CEO must go. If he had a degree, he would still be gone. Having worked for RS in high school (back in the 1980's), I am surprised only that the company lasted this long. In my opinion, they are the Dilbert PHBs of retail (and that is NOT an easy prize to win!).
As a child (12-14 yrs old) I used to go to Radio Shack all the time and leaf through those giant hinged doors covered in little bags of electronic parts. Soon after I got my VIC-20 I opened it up and began doing small projects (anyone rememer Steve Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar?).
... well, I don't know what you'd call them.
I went in there a few weeks ago to pick up some component video cables, hoping for a little nostalgia, and guess what? Gone were the $1.49 RCA cables; now they only have $59.99 super fancy-shmancy cables. Even if their gold-plated goodness does deliver some kind of audiovisual miracle (which I doubt), I definitely felt out of my element - this was no longer a store for hobbyists, but for
Anyway, I headed over to Home Depot, and picked up a beautiful component video component cables (RGB + LR) for $3.49.
...err make that the WoodShack!
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Everyone is posting how Radio Shack has "lost it's roots" and has become a consumer electronics place for cell phones and stuff. Well duh! Electronics just aren't geeky anymore, they are practical. I won't fault Radio Shack for appealing to the masses.
Radio Shack's problem is that they don't even do the mainstream stuff well. Even my mom goes to the geeky local electronics store rather than Radio Shack because she says the people there are much more helpful.
Just last week I had a salesperson at Radio Shack sell me the wrong cables (I knew full well what I needed, but the saleswoman jumped in my face and got the cable for me and I paid before I even looked). I went back not even 5 minutes later and they wanted a $10 restocking fee on an $8 cable! Then they actually didn't have what I needed (a common RCA cable extender. They weren't sure if they were out of stock or if they didn't carry it). Fed-up, I called the local store and they had the right cable for less money.
If you are in Baltimore, Baynesville Electronics is awesome
I then called my local shop and they had the item, the right one, for less money. And just as a test they told me how to properly use an ammeter.
I was looking for one a few months back here where I live in Canada, and saw that all Radio Shack stores in the malls are now 'The Source by Circuit City." Exact same store though, just with a different sign.
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
Let's not forget reality -- it's who you know, not what you know, that matters. Always has been and likely always will be.
That cases like this are uncovered more often lately is maybe a good sign, but certainly not a sign things are really changing.
(In fact, what you know can be ignored or forged. Among the plentiful examples illustrating this, one of the more prominent would be The President Of The United States and "Brownie" of FEMA infamy. This practice is widespread, not even isolated and rare.)
Could you give an example? There are a handful of really high quality, well educated albeit aging independent electronic parts retailers in NYC. Although you have to go off to Queens or Brooklyn they exist for now.
I think they pushed him out and used education as an excuse to void his contract. I mean the quarter was bad, and Radio Shack has a tendancy of knee jerk reaction to almost anything. There are many CEOs who barely finished high school, and are performing very well.
Intelligent Design
Where? I have not been able to find them - all the ones I knew of in Queens are long gone - Even Electronics City (Just over the city line in Nassau) has gone out of business.
Please - feel free to list'm here, and/or email me them direct - there are more than a few NYC based guys I know who would LOVE to know of them - I'll put a list up on my web site, and forward them to the hams around here
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
Here in Canada (Toronto specifically), they changed their bloody name to (wait for it) 'The Source'. That's right - toss all name/brand recognition (not that this amounted to much lately) out the window and choose the most generic ho-hum store name you can think of. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
Roll forward 25 years. I was in RS this weekend and the place looks like a mini Circuit City. All they want to do is sell you a stereo, cell phone, a remote controlled car, or a set of Monster Cables. The sales people don't have a clue about how electronics work and they abandon customers looking for anything technical so that they can focus their efforts on the next goober looking to buy a cell phone (they are easily identified by the lack of a pocket protector).
RS has turned away from it's original niche and joined the fray of consumer electronics. In Darwinian terms, they have evolved into a very short giraffe that is competing with normal size giraffes, elephants, and other leaf eating animals. They will soon be extinct.
It's hard for me to fathom that someone actually wasted a mod point on that comment....
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
I can honestly say, it is no surprise. I worked for RS for 2-3 years while I was in college, and I can honestly say that my store manager was the only reason I stayed. He was a great, intelligent, and fun guy. The rest of the company is a joke, and absolute joke. This isn't coming from a disgruntled employee, but one of their top salesmen for my entire time with them.
They have no focus, they have no plan, and they have no chance in hell of staying in business. First it was all about attaching accessories (batteries, etc.) then they switched to Cell phones and Sattelite TV being the big buzz, then they went back to accessories being #1, and on and on. They cut back on how much the employee earns on a particular product, and then make it the #1 push... gee, I wonder why they have trouble. In close to 3 years I had been put through more acronyms for selling the "right" way than I can count. I would be told to sell batteries, so batteries I would sell, and be far and away the #1 in sales of batteries for the entire district only to be reprimanded at the next meeting for not selling cell phones. By the time of the meeting the "corporate vision" had changed and my sales numbers were worthless in their eyes. You couldn't win.
I was the rare person who actually understood EVERYTHING RS sold, and had an EE/hardware hacking background as well. Instead of utilizing me to train others, they stated that parts were useless in their eyes. However, I would get phone calls at home from helpless associates when someone was there and needed something. Sure, they may not be profit leaders, but having people at least slightly knowledgable would make the store look a lot better.
They force cell phones and plans down your throat, but they change so often that it is impossible to be educated on them. They also try to do too much. Example: We sold at one time Verizon, Verizon Pre-pay, Sprint, Sprint business, Tracfone, Virgin, and T-Mobile. That is over a hundred different plans and phones. The average worker there is lucky to tie his shoes and remember to wear a belt.
They have tried all of these stop-gap measures. Toys, Christmas, Videogames, Sattellite TV, Cell phones, home theatre, and digital cameras. They jump in half-assed, fail, and give up within three months. How can any business survive like that? Their big deal was the Xbox. They ended up offering the Xbox at Christmas a couple years back, and promoted it like crazy, in this massive bundle that was MORE expensive than buying each piece seperatly at any store. Their response to me bringing this fact up: Discontinue the product line and give up on videogames. Sticking each store with over 40 of the large third-party Xbox controllers which continued to get marked down until they were $2.97 and still not sold.
They have no vision. They have no goal. They just throw as much spaghetti at the wall and hope something will stick... y'know like Zip Zaps and Xmods... oh, wait they flopped too.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Maybe if Radioshack started selling electrical components/semiconductors again then they could keep some customers. Instead they are focusing on crappy cell phones and sub-par consumer electronics. I'm lucky if I can find an LED in a radioshack anymore, much less something like a 555/556 timer that would have been commonplace there a few years ago.
Big ones, small ones, some as big as yer 'ead!
Give 'em a twist, a flick o' the wrist...
If if you're lying on your resum - for your entire career - wtf else are you lying about? They should of fired the ahole long ago - you better believe if he was some lacky he would have been gone long ago.
For everyone in this thread who is biatching about RS asking for names and addresses- they havn't asked for names and addresses for OVER TWO YEARS now- unless you are buying something that requires delivery, or is a service-based product. Even when they DID ask for names and addresses, it was so they could look up your receipt if/when you lost it, so they could like... help you.
Gasp.
Radioshack Canada:
RadioShack Canada has been owned for years by Circuit City, who bought it way back in the 70s along with the remainders of RadioShack's attempt at a big-box store. Recently, Circuit City sold the chain to Best Buy, who attempted to retain the RadioShack name despite the fact that the original agreement prohibited that. They lost that court case, hence the change in store names.
Parts:
For all of you complaining about the lack of parts in stores- if there are no parts in the stores anymore, it's YOUR fault. Where did you go when you needed parts? RadioShack? bet not, unless it was a pinch case. No company is dumb enough to keep carrying things that do not sell anymore. The same thing happened with high-end stereo stuff, car stereos, less common ICs, and radio gear. No one came in to buy it, so they stopped carrying it.
Besides, other a few stores in malls, most stores still carry an almost complete line of common parts- resisters, capaciters, common ICs, connectors, solder, pencils and irons, light bulbs, batteries, and cables.
RadioShack has been, and continues to be, the biggest seller of mobile phones in the country. They typically outsell even the company stores for the carriers they have.
Profit Issues:
Despite what any news articles are telling you, there is a very real reason why RadioShack's profits sucked in the fourth quarter- product supply. The mainly promoted products were iPod, MP3 players, Sirius Sattelite Radio, mobile phones, and digital cameras. All of these are really low-margin items, but the corperate structure was unable to supply stores with the accessories and parts required to actually turn a profit. Pretty simple issue, in theory.
Now, all of this is publicly available information, but just so you know, yes I DO work for RadioShack, and have worked for them for almost 5 years. I too am frustrated by the fact that we don't carry amature radio gear (had my ticket for 7 years or so now) but I understand why we don't. The selection of product has changed, and changes, because the market has changed. People go to extremely large stores like Best Buy and Wal-mart to buy a lot of their more expensive gear because it's cheaper- due mostly to the fact that those stores either short-shift on their service, use questionable managing methodology, or both. RadioShack is trying to be the guys that you go to because you want an answer for your question, or because you have a need but no idea how to fill it. They'll never be able to compete in price- because other companies can't compete in service.
Oh yeah, the new website? It IS competetive in pricing, and carries much that they can't afford to carry in stores. Still has good service, too.
I'm not saying that they've done it perfectly- far from it. There is vast room for improvement. I've been to some stores where the avarage IQ of an employee is lower then the temperature outside. Most stores aren't like that, however. In general, I think that RadioShack has done all right, competing in a world that currently values lower prices over better service.
I need to inform you that you really need to go and visit www.jameco.com.
90,000 more parts much higher quality (and nothing that has been sititng on shelves or in surplus for decades, last time I bought an octal buffer at ratshac the date code was from 1985) plus it allows you to enter the 20th century and start building surface mount.
Yes surface mount is as easy as DIP you simply need to get used to it. I find DIP to be a horrible pain compared to surface mount now and I only spent $200.00 on a set of hot tweesers and a very tiny soldering station (both in jameco's catalog) in order to do surface mount really easy.
Nothing sold in radio shack's small parts bins have been really useful to anyone for decades.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I stopped going to RadioShack very often when it became a cellphone store.
You would go into the store, and the one or two people working there would be on the phone busy trying to get someone's cellphone service working. You would wait for 20 minutes to check out. They didn't care if you were buying $10 of stuff, since they were in the process of selling $100 cellphones plus the monthly service.
The ironic thing is that despite leaving the chip selling business, RadioShack is one of the few places you can drop by and pick up a wire wrap tool and wire wrap wire. But I need to do that once or twice a year.
R/S has no differentiator now. If you want a cellphone, the carriers have their own stores that are better staffed and more familiar with the products. If you want home electronics, it is hard to beat Best Buy, and for that matter the low-end stuff is at Target as well. The one differentiator of R/S in the past was the electronics parts, which have been gutted.
They'd have to move a LOT of transistors in order to pay wages, rent, utilities, etc. Even at an insanely overinflated price of $1.01 each ($1 profit per part), they'd still need to sell about 15 or 20 of those per hour, every hour, per person in the shop, to break even. Somehow I doubt there are enough tinkerers out there to provide radio shack with enough business to make money considering all the locations they have. I doubt this because I rarely run into people buying electronic parts at radio shack, and in order to have these kinds of numbers there would have to be a number of them in there most of the time (and you'd see huge crowds on the weekends). Most people buying these parts only use radio shack for something they need immediately, and mail order the rest. People don't spend $50 or $100 on components there when they can buy it elsewhere for $10 or $20. Compare that to a cel phone which can pay costs for several hours with a single sale which may take a sales rep 10 or 20 minutes.
imho, their real problem is that their overpriced electronic accessories such as headphones, video cables, etc. can now be bought elsewhere for lower prices. Best Buy and Circuit City have been showing up in more and more places, and offer items that traditionally could be purchased at Radio Shack, but not at typical appliance stores which were never big on the accessories.
I worked for Radio Shack for about 2 months, and it is no suprise to me that it is losing market share and closing a lot of stores, I am mildly educated when it comes to electronics, so I expected to come in and recieve if not a large amount of training, useful hints and such from the staff.
What I got was 5 flash based tutorials on how to sell cell phones and sirius radio systems, suffice to say I quit asap, I dont like feeling the fool when a man comes in asking for something and my company has not given me any training on how to do my job.
Radio Shack still cells things for tinkerers, but it moved from the entire back wall to a small chest... Things like transistors, buzzers, etc... They used to sell manuals, kits, and the parts, now just the parts... Sure the Internet made stuff available, but my dad and I did the kits together, and bread-boarded a few fun projects... they could sell projects...
Those are high margin products, have you ever bought a little item there, it is something like $4-$5... a small do-it-yourself crystal radio would cost $40-$50 in parts... that's not low margin, it's low volume.
Instead they went into mediocre markets... They either should have withdrawn from malls to focus on projects, or focused on things that would sell in malls... Computer games, RC cars, etc., all should sell in a mall. Satellite systems and cel phones? I guess cell phones, but the kiosk in the hallway competes with you!
Also, being a Sprint store was stupid once Sprint entered the market, they used to be THE store for Sprint, then Sprint opened their own stores. Radio Shack SHOULD be the neutral providers, but only carrying Sprint (and now Sprint/Cingular) and only carrying Dish (instead of DirecTV/Dish) they aren't the "we got answers" people...
If they carried all providers and were open about the minor differences, they'd have a niche... but they don't.
Good luck, you were a terrific company, I loved the 150-in-one and 200-in-one kits. My cousin worked for you for 15 years... I hope the company finds its roots and grows profitability.
Alex
i also really think Radioshack has let themselves go downhill.. for example, selling $60 Monster cables instead having the generic versions for like $5.00.. they have some of the cheap ones, but not all.. and also, what happened to all the cool breadboard shit they used to have?? capacitors, chips, boards, all that cool shit?? wish they would of kept up with that kind of shit.. release newer things.. Its pretty simple really.. They took the geek factor out of RadioShack.. once the average geek can no longer ride his bike down to his nearest radioshack for a computer part, the radioshack starts doing poor business.. stop trying to sell crappy computers and monster cables!! bring the breadboards back too! haha
*plays the Apogee theme song music*
This guy's contributions seem to consist of mostly getting all the store employees to nag customers for the last four digits of their phone number. This has come to epitomise the arrogance of corporate directives worldwide. It has probably driven more people away from Radio Shack than anything else.
For me as a techno-geek, I used to be drawn into a Radio Shack like a magnet. Now I'm repelled from the place in the same manner. They used to have a great selection of just the right parts. In fact, the IC's sold at Radio Shack in the 1980s (like the SN94281 sound generator) are the only chips in the world that have actually gone up in value from that period. I bought my first computer at Radio Shack, a CoCo MC-10. It's still supported on the web by a few die-hards. It was nearly impossible to get information from Radio Shack about the stuff that they would sell.
As for whether this guy's lack of sitting in boring and silly classes for five years had anything to do with Radio Shack's increasing irrelevance, I won't even guess. As for his lying, his big offense is lying to his fellow executives, not to the customers and shareholders. That is common business practice.
I am of the tinkering crowd and built a synthesizer at age 18 that was inspired by the Moog design. Radio Shack has nothing the serious tinkerer needs. They have a few components but nothing really useful. Your industrial radio shop or electronic component warehouse has more but those places are not convienent to get to when you don't have a car and get dropped off at the mall when you're 12 years old.
if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
>Two things to consider: educational background has little relevance to one's capabiltiy of doing many corporate jobs
Agreed. But in this competitative "holier than thou" world people wont tolerate lying, espcially in a mediocre company.
educational background has little relevance to one's capabiltiy of doing many corporate jobs.
The problem is not that the guy didn't have whatever degree he said he had.
The problem is that he lied to the company about it.
A long time ago, there was someone who had blogged about applying for some kind of very sensitive job at the FBI (or maybe it was the NSA) posting about the interview process. The point is that they asked all kinds of seemingly senseless questions, mixed with questions that he considered invasive and not relevant to the job. "Have you ever put a finger inside your anus for sexual pleasure" and things like that. Someone else said that they were familiar with the process and the interviewer didn't really care about the answers -- they just wanted to see whether when the person was under intense pressure, they'd start trying to lie. So a failing response to "have you ever had sex with a dog" would be "Err....heh...well, not as such" with the lie detector going off and a passing one "Hell, yes. I fucked a Chihuahua five years ago in Mexico City and it was *great*!"). If the interviewer's take is that the candidate is lying on any of the questions, they pass on them. I've no idea as to the accuracy of the posts; however, it certainly struck me as an interesting approach.
If someone starts lying to their employer when they think it's to their benefit to do so, the employer loses the ability to trust them. Better to have a slightly worse employee whose statements can be trusted than one who might do a good job but produces useless status information when backed into a corner. Because there *will* be times when people are scared to tell the truth "Is this project done?" "Are you going to make deadline?" etc but it really, really matters that the people above them get accurate information from them.
His lack of success as CEO can just as easily be explained by a) inheriting a mess, b) lack of board support, and c) not the right man for the job.
Or just that CEOs are used as scapegoats. They know about this when getting hired, and this is why the golden parachutes.
As long as the company does well, the CEO can interview with Fortune and so forth to build his reputation. However, if it goes downhill, the company *will* blame things on this one guy, fire him, hire another CEO, incur steep "one-time restructuring costs" to "implement the new guy's ideas", and with the costs they've shifted to that quarter, be able to report profitability immediately after getting the new CEO.
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Radio Shack recently get bought out by Circuit City anyway? I thought they were all called "The Source (By Circuit City)" now. Or is that just here in Canada?
No one has really touched on the REAL reason Radioshack has lost money and is just saying, well "we are restructuring". Restructuring usually means cutting back on full time employees, paying part timers less, cutting out at as little executive management as possible, and closing a few stores.
... they are like an Apple Store, a Circuit City, a Barnes and Noble, a Best Buy, and a Radioshack ... all under one roof. (Outpost.com is Fry's online storefront) They sell pretty much everything that Radioshack does ... they don't sell much if anything under their own brand name.
... so therefore they brand everything with the Radioshack logo. Only until recently (the last 5 years or so) has Radioshack started selling a lot of non branded electronics. A lot of items that Radioshack carries and has carried in the past ... have been rebrands of other products ... some with their supposedly prestigious name Optimus.
...
... in my area we have one every 10 miles or so. Do people need Radioshack like McDonald's?
... I know of few people who actually want to own Radioshack branded products ... in fact it bothers me that simple cables have the Radioshack name embossed on their connector ends ... I feel cheap just plugging it in. Radioshack's name is not a strong name brand ... of course nothing with the word "shack" in it when referring to high end consumer items is appealing.
... they sell things in their retail stores that kids simply do not want. The most recent example I can think of ... Cat In the Hat remote control cars ... from the Cat In The Hat live action movie ... this movie was out 2 years ago and some stores STILL have stock! Merchandise managers and purchasers are just plain clueless when it comes to what it's customers want.
... one thing the Apple Retail Stores excel at is cleanliness and focus on product ... eventhough each store has thousands of items for sale.
... kind of ties in to # 4
... Radioshack commercials are often idiotic featuring ignorant or whiney characters. Their Christmas holiday ads were ineffective.
... HP reps rarely visited Radioshack stores. This would be an opportune way for Radioshack to get true geeks in their store and get them a fan base that would visit and buy because of loyalty. It would also allow radioshack to carry a truly prestigious name in their stores. Maybe Apple would even share in some advertising and merchandising.
I don't know if any of you have ever been to a Fry's Electronics or not, but it is nothing short of a geek paradise
Tandy corporation, which owns Radioshack seems to think the Radioshack namebrand is a strong name
Here are the key areas Radioshack has truly failed and most likely can never recover
1) Too many store locations
2) Rebranding instead of carrying unique items
3) Radio Shack has the same problem as Toys R Us
4 Most Radioshack stores I have visited (even if newly renovated or newly opened) are crowded or messy
5) Competitors like Fry's are expanding and offering a greater selection
6) Their commercials are some of the worst in the advertising industry and almost solely focus on cellphones. Really
I have always thought that Radioshack's should try to sell Apple computers. The deal with HP was very awkward and from what I know
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
Do you *want* to manage?
It's a different job, and the fact that there is an organizational hierarchy (because, you know, you don't need one organizer for every bottom-tier worker) doesn't mean that those people are "better" than you. Okay, maybe at the low-level management positions, senior workers generally wind up being team leads. But there's a big difference between low-level management and middle management.
Granted C** positions probably are given somewhat more than they should get, given that they have a lot of input into their own salary. Michael Eisner infamously made $1M salary + $7.25M bonus in 2004. Is he really worth the many, many bottom-tier workers that cost the company? I doubt it. But, on the other hand, not that many CEOs make that much, Eisner got booted partly as a result of making this much.
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
Think about it, there must be a competitor that provides a significantly cheaper price point... being a distant 2nd place in a niche market is not a good thing.
When I'm breadboarding a hardware project, I order online. I know the local Radio Shack doesn't have parts.
... and the answer. Think: most other hobbyists/hardware geeks probably figured this out sooner, and cut out the middleman. RadioShack really didn't have much choice except to do what they did (keep selling the profitable parts at a higher margin + pimp out their locations to interested folks).
The same thing is happening in photography (take a look at your local photo/film shop... they're also pimping out their store to cell-phone vendors, etc) and other niche markets as well.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Alas poor Radio Shack, I knew thee well... I used to spend hours in the Radio Shack after school programming on the TRS-80 floor model (damn! i'm old!) and looking back, it was pretty cool of them to let me do that. So most of my Radio Shack memories are good ones, but as others have already said, RS doesn't really seem to have a place in today's market. I would hope that perhaps they would go back to their roots and court the hobbyist once more. They wouldn't need nearly as many stores to do that. But I don't think that is likely to happen and in this world of the Patriot Act and DMCA, it is unlikely they'd be able to carry the sort of things the hobbyist market is interested in.
As for the CEO's education, the real issue there is the fact that he lied and more importantly to Radio Shack, he f'd up! It may not be all of his fault, but as the CEO you get to take the blame. Honestly, I'm actually surprised that RS is still in business at all. If you have a car, there's no good reason to go there at all since the selection is relatively limited and the prices are not competitive with Best Buy, Circuit City, and internet sources. And these days you can buy cell phones and plans pretty much anywhere.
Anyway, good luck to them.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Well FYI. I do have a B.S. in Computer Science, and Minors In Mathmatics, and Music. I am the process of entering Grad School. I work as a W-2 (AKA Full Time) Sr. Consultant and I aid many of the worlds largest and or fastest growing companies in Software Archecture with specilization in human User Interface and gentle migration from older technologies to newer ones. I tend to make more then then many of the PDHs make. But what you are missing is that PHDs are very focused in one area and are not nessarly smarter then any one else, and I usually get fustrated when they flash their PHDs to make them feel like big men. Where they should stick to their area and leave me to my area. The reason why I often get pulled to do these low level tech jobs is because the guys with the PHD intimate people in thinking the problem is bigger then it should and they will need to talk to the top person about the problem, while "Lowly" Tech support could fix the problem themselves just as easilly, they feel that they are above simple Tech Support and if they have a problem it is only something that only the designer can fix. So they call me and explain the problem, having checked it on my end and find that it is working fine, I normally go to their work station and see how they did it, figuring they may have done something that I haven't tested before. Then to see that it was a simple network issue. Having wasted my client hundreds of dollars looing into the problem which could be placed elseware. A lot of people with PHDs are really cool, but there are the minority of people who think the PHD makes them supior to any non-phd, person really makes me sick. They have an example of that in the archives of User Friendly that gives an exadrated view of this.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
To me, it's never been worth it to shop at Radio Trash. They don't have what I want, but every clerk in the store will act like he's an engineer called by God to help ignorant slobs like you. There's nothing I hate more than being insulted by some moron salesman who thinks he knows more than me. Condescending bastards.
If you ask me, I hope someone else steps into the void to provide consumer gear and parts. Any company with a clue doing so would immediately get my word-of-mouth recommendation.
Need a Linux consultant in New Orleans?
I stopped building electronics in 1980 when I could get my hands on a cheap computer.
Software satisfies my creative urges the same as electronics did.
Plus it's cheaper and I make a lot fewer trips to Radio Shack.
We will just go out of business!
... electronic
I mean really, how can a company like this stay in business so long?
The $#%! Shack has been shafting the US for years and now you can barely
find a store left that sells what their claim to fame was
components!
Radio Shack, please go away!
They ought to get back to their roots...providing components for tinkerers. I know there's not as much potential profit in this, but if they were to partner with the editors of Make Magazine, they could become the new hope for the home brew crowd.
I've been wondering for a while how Radio Shack keeps making money with that dusty component box in the back. I mean, I love it (I can get parts without waiting for mail order!), but they *can't* sell many components, even at the huge markup they ask, unless maybe they're situated in a town where HP has a big EE lab or something and everyone likes to tinker.
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
Walmart kills off the mom and pop niche markets. Anyone who is still in denial at that stop reading now.
Walmart is now killing off the smaller franchised niche markets. The *very* obscure stuff that can usually only be gotten at a Radio Shack is not enough to support an entire store, that market is just too small in most areas. Radio Shack came about as an outgrowth of consumers repairing their products, or building them, TVs, receivers and HAM gear, etc, something that is just about impossible now for most people, impossible or not even close to being cost and time practical. When the tiniest component breaks, devices become total junk and it's cheaper to just replace the entire device. (I've been in this since tube radios and floor cabinet sized with 9 inch black and white screen TVs, cut me slack on the generalized observations, they are true facts, and I have even stopped trying to repair most devices if they mess up, just isn't worth it) With the exception of a few weeks around Christmas, most radio shacks don't get the business they got even ten years ago. A handful of geeks and HAMS isn't enough to keep a store like that in business. Most geeks and HAMS shop online now, with the odd "rats, I need a whatever capacitor or LED" and if they are already driving by a RS they may stop and look to see if they have one. That just isn't enough for a viable business.
It won't matter who they put in for a CEO. Now if Kmart/Sears were to buy them out and move their operations inside those large department stores, ie, take over the electronics area with a lot of branded stuff, perhaps they could eek it out a few more years, but even then...walmart. Wall-handwriting. You just aren't going to compete in any large scale in brick and mortar with those folks. If there's ANY sort of reasonable local market that is worthwhile, walmart will find room on the shelf for it.
Everytime someone mentions that they went to Radio Shack to get ... I tell them to please go anywhere but there. Plenty of places sell what they used to and at better prices. Stop feeding this dissfunctional machine and let them go under.
Radio Shack will start hiring people with some real education for their salespeople- this would be a vast improvement for geeks everywhere who currently need a Radio Shack Part Number or a physical description to get the part they need, where you'd think just the name of the part should be enough. How damn hard is it to figure out what a .2 picofarad capacitor is?!?!?!?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
... that Microsoft is claiming saved millions of dollars by getting rid of their previous IT technology and standardizing on Microsoft's? Just think about how much money they would have saved had they stuck with their previous technology and not done a wholesale replacement. Why they could have spent that money toward making sure that the darned stores were sufficiently stocked with things to buy. I can't remember a time when I didn't go to a local Radio Shack with a list of items I needed only to find that half of them were out of stock. And then come in a week later to find that the same items were still out of stock.
Yeah, the only reason I have DIP stuff anymore is because it's easier to plug into breadboards when prototyping.
I've read some older fiction -- there were lots of books from forty or more years ago where the hero was an engineer. Tom Swift (and Tom Swift Jr.), Danny Dunn, and so forth.
The problem is, in the media that kids see today, in the video games and movies, how often is it an inventor or engineer that is a hero? In the content in the 80s, when I was a kid, "hero inventors" were already only in dusty books. Today, you get movies where you have the "action hero" as the main character, maybe with a sidekick "computer guy" who probably spends most of his time breaking into computers or doing other illegal stuff. There are no *positive* idols to provide kids with -- just the guy that shoots people in righteous anger and the hacker type.
Sigh.
Maybe Dexter's Lab, but there the wonders of technological advancement is not the point of the cartoon, but more of a backdrop.
Okay, maybe the earlier stuff was just propaganda to get kids excited about and interested in engineering...but, you know, it worked.
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
I wonder if the sale of the Canadian arm or Circuit City has anything to do with the loss of profits?
There really isn't any competition as far as electronics and accessorys here. Sure we have Best Buy and Future shop (wich is now owned by Best Buy) but they don't really sell the same "area" of electronics.
They keep all their manuals and technical information online on their website, and let you search for nearby stores *and* stock availability in those stores. I've found Radio Shack to have one of the better retailer websites out there.
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
It's gotten to where I walk into the place with a bad attitude from the start and seek to piss off as many employees as I can to send them the clear message to LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE. I finally got the staff at my local store to hate me enough that they I can finally just go buy something in peace. It's a pretty sad statement that I have to go to those lengths just to avoid their harassment.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Heck, maybe they should move Shaquille O'Neal over from his spokesman's job to CEO spot and really rename the company Radio-Shaq. He's more educated than this idiot Edmonson. He actually graduated from LSU with a bachelor's degree and he also got an MBA.
People rise to their own level of incompetence. Take a look at Jill Barad, former CEO of Mattel Toys. She was a boneheaded marketing flake who couldn't care less about any toy concept that wasn't 11.5 inches tall w/ blond hair (Jill's a brunette, go figure). She killed off most of the really creative toy concepts and they sank the company by spending a king's ransom on The Learning Company. As far as Radioshack is concerned, I only hope that they get back to their roots and stock more hobby electronics inventory and quit buying all those cheap made-in-China-by-the-supertanker-load toys. I pretty much cut my teeth in computers and electronics thanks to Radioshack in the late 70s. My first real summer job was writing commercial software for the TRS-80.
Went to RS, with all the parts, and asked the guy if they had a connector to mate A & B.
"No, I don't think we do"
(WTF?? This is Radio Shack. In here somewhere is a connector that will mate these)
He walked away..I found the part within about 5 minutes.
Idiots.
Still, if you're trying to turn a company around, you don't do it with someone who lies about their education or work record.
> Reeling from a 62% drop in fourth quarter net income
I've always wondered how much they hurt themselves by asking every customer for their name, phone number, etc. -- even those who pay cash for a $2 purchase.
Years ago, I vowed never again to visit a radio shack after realizing that it was universal policy for them to irritate me every damn time.
Is it possible that they pissed off enough people (like me), resulting in a permanent crippling of their brand name?
Ok, I live in Dallas and its all over the news here. Faked academic credentials. I have only seen vague comments before re this on /. So below are links to the actual stories. Pity about Forbes too. That story focuses on the business and not personalities. The WSJ in last Friday's RadioShack investor call did better by quoting the RS ethics statement - with no reply from RS.
g es/special_reports/13870480.htm
g es/special_reports/13877117.htm
d mondsons.html#comments
Resume is in question
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/special_packa
Pastor cannot verify RadioShack CEO's Account on Diploma
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/special_packa
This one is a different perspective on "don't need no diploma" but you do need ethics
http://blogs.dfw.com/schnurmanator/2006/02/dave_e
TUESDAY 02/14/05 WHEN ALL WAS REVEALED Oh the degree? It got burned in a fire....
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/13867927.htm
My dad bought our first PC from them (tandy tl/2) when I was in junior high. It came with 2 Seirra Online games (Conquest of Camelot and Hero's Quest: So You Want To Be A Hero). I immediately became obsessed with computers and wen't to college for comp sci (never finished though) and I'm now an IT Director/Architect for a DotCOM making a high salary.
:(
Thank god for The Shack. I still think they aren't long for this world though. I went into one about 2 months ago and it was like a Spencer Gifts for electronics. They had this little shelf of audio cables and no digital logic equipment in sight. I was really sad.
The time it would take to drive anywhere ans search/ask for the part it could have been found on the internet, ordered, and on it's way. Digikey has been great for this sort of thing as well as other places. Digikey is as reliable as they come great prices and customer service.
Who wants to buy high priced electronics from a shack. Radio Shack should seriously consider a major rebranding like Pick - n - Save did to become Big Lots!.
What will it take to bring Radio Shack out of the slump?
One idea is to go back to being a niche store like Fry's. What is the consumer doing now? They are buying digital this and that. They are buying the big ticket Plasma TVs and iPods.
But let's say we can tell the buying public that that TV will look better if you buy the TV tuning DVD, or better yet arrange for a radio shack employee to make a house call and tune the TV even better. iPod attachemnts that are off-brand? Yes. Did you read about that certain mod to the ipod on-line and you want the parts for that mod? Yes, we have them.
It is all about not having Radio Shack compete with the Circuit Cities and Best Buys with inferior goods. It is being that niche market supplier that could pull them out of the slump.
Now, I've never been a large company CEO but I've played one on TV. Now gimme that job...
It couldn't be that they've effectively become miniature Circuit City stores, only with a fraction of the selection and higher prices
It couldn't be that they dropped the Archer, Realistic, Optimus, etc. brands and instead of their crap house brand they now offer crap brands like RCA
It couldn't possibly be that they dropped the catalog AND dropped their meat-and-potatoes market (electronic components for hobbyists, etc.) by drastically limiting their component selections?
Nah, it couldn't be that. Maybe illegal P2P networks are somehow to blame?
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
I can rememberthe local Radio Shack back in the early 80's. It was in the same shopping center as the local grocery store and I'd go in there while my mom was shopping. I'd stare into the glass counter and lust after the T-100 on the top shelf for forty-five minutes until she came by to drag me out of the store.
A few years later I can remember going there frequently to pick up electric motors, switches and etc. for projects I was working on at the time. They had just about everything you would need. There'd also be a lot of neat stuff that you didn't need but was fun to look through while shopping.
Fast forward to this past Christmas. I went into the local Radio Shack to have a look around and all that they have is a small selection of a few items. Want a cell phone? They have a shelf with a few of them. The store next door has dozens of models. Same goes for all of the other items that they carry. They have a few of each model of popular electronic item but don't specialize in anything.
I'm also glad I didn't need help. I guess they're getting what they pay for at minimum wage but the kids working the store looked like the customers were too much effort to help between the smoke breaks.
Thankfully there is still a local owned electronics distributor that has the good stuff and a knowledgeable staff. they are on the other side of town from where I live but it's well worth the trip.
-JM
..in the late '90s, with a chain of stores called http://www.techam.com/">"Tech America" I believe they had 5 of them in a few major cities. I know that there was one in Atlanta, and recall that they also had stores in Phoenix, Denver, and Dallas. They were kind of like a Frys Electronics minus the movie & video section... computer components, electronic parts, a decent semi-professional DJ equipment selection, etc. They even had a wide range of assemble-it-yourself kits from companies like Velleman. I suppose it wasn't profitable, as they closed the stores after just a few years. Just before they shut their doors they http://www.techam.com/">renamed the stores from "Tech America" to "Radioshack.Com"
Since the opportunity has arrived to bash Radio Shack, I will offer my two cents.
I don't really feel the need to bash the shack but its hey day has come and gone. I'm still a little bit disappointed that Radio Shack never sold the Commodore 64.
The case of what has happened to Radio Shack might be kind of sad. I really don't see it making a comeback. I won't say that I will never return but why should I? This point has been beaten to death by previous posts and "other options" are killing the need for a Radio Shack to even exist. I used to really like Radio Shack, but then they offered this box called the TRS-80 instead of the Commodore 64... and the shack has been going down hill ever since.
accurately define good according to a criteria and seek it out.
Kick butt online ordering system
Accurate order fills
Fast shipping
Lots of parts
It was even started by a geek. Digikey = ham radio keyers
If Radioshack were to sell a complete line of all the components for building your own computer, from cases, to mainboards, to every kind of add on card, with at least 3 manufacturers represented for each type of part, then I probably will go there, and probably even buy something. And this needs to include all the major manufacturers of hard disk drives (at least in IDE, SATA, and SCSI).
One problem is, at the rates they pay people, they would never be able to hire someone that actually knows what these products are, much less knows what they do or how to work with them.
Or would this just turn them into a scaled down version of Fry's?
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
I don't understand why more firms don't give programming tests for programming positions. The interview for my favorite job (so far) included a C++ fix-this-code quiz whose subtlety impressed me as much as it gave me the opportunity to impress them.
Second best was my time at NIH, where again there was a programming test. I was my staffing company's first placement there, and they asked me to review the test answers of subsequent applicants. Some of these people were just clueless, and the test was a cheap and easy way to expose that.
I've just been offered my first position on a team of Mac developers. Every engineer I interviewed with asked me to compose a function on the whiteboard, and each function was in someway relevant to their product.
My point is that any twit can lie or polish his résumé. It's really easy to screen them out, so why don't more employers do this? The test is not only an advantage for a good programmer without a degree, but a vital sign indicating a company's ability to hire good people and skip the bad ones. It's good news even if you do have a degree.
In general, it is safe and legal to kill your children. -- POSIX Programmer's Guide
You deserve to go out of business. And screw the apologists who counter with "but at least if you REALLY need xxxx you can at least go there". Their service sucks, they have employees who don't understand the cell phone contracts they push let along electronics, and every God dam thing they sell is fucking "Gold" plated and marked up 10,000%.
Customer: Hi, I need a 6ft USB cable.
Ratshack: Sure, we have this $39 Gold plated one, and then a $59 Double Gold plated version.
Customer: Your lucky they don't allow citizens to carry hang guns in this state.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
I've lived in my current house for 5 years. I do not get Radio Shack catalogs or advertisements -- obviously they don't have my address. Does this mean that I haven't shopped in a Radio Shack for at least as long? My teenage self -- the one who built a resistor network to get sound out his parallel port on his 286 -- couldn't imagine this situation.
My father went to Radio Shack a few weeks ago looking for a 47uF capacitor for a minor repair, only to find that Radio Shack no longer carries capacitors. At least Fry's was merely out of stock.
Neither is the world.
It used to be when something broke you repaired it. In ye olde days you whittled a new part, as technology moved forward you went to the village smythee, then in the industrial era went to the parts shop and got a new one. That's what RS was - a parts shop for the early electronics age.
But now all of our electronics are black boxes of surface mount components from far-away places. The days of replacing a tube, or even a 555, are past. Sure there's the odd capacitor that knowledgeable folks can replace but faced with a board of illegibly marked ASICS, no way.
So Radio Shack had to change.
They're everywhere. Something like 95% of US households are within 10 miles of a Radio Shack. 99% of all US household members wander through a Radio Shack every few years. That makes them closer then most big box stores, just the place to drop into for the odd watch battery, TV cable, or gadget gift.
Radio Shack has that to their advantage. So they went with it. No huge inventory of electronics parts taking up room that turned over every few years. Instead they can make more per square foot with bogus air ionizers, RC cars, and over-over-priced A/V & computer stuff.
But ya know what? They sell! $45 for a keyboard, the same one as Best Buy for $30 and $10 online, it pays the bills. S-Video cable, hit the local RS for 2x$ or go wandering the bowels of Circuit City, past the washing machines, with chirpy kids insisting to 'help' when they wouldn't know an S-Video cable if you flogged 'em with it (yes, thank you, I'm literate, I can read the labels on the store shelves for myself, no need to annoy me with your non-assistance.)
So RS stays in business. Heck, with cellphones they've even prospered. Sure I laughed out loud the day I read on the bottom of an email "Radio Shack: You've got questions - we've got blank stares. And cell phones!" but truth be told they're more convenient then a carrier's store and the staff is better then the kiosk monkeys.
Long term, I think they'll make it. Their stock is a bit better then the electronics section at the mega "grocery" store, closer then a real electronics supplier, and with smaller stores at least they know where things are more often then past-the-microwaves-and-ask-in-car-radios.
I do miss buying parts, and kits, there. And the battery club, and the fuzzy purple cat radios, and even getting the two pieces of leather, some cord, and an embossing tool for making a nifty decorative leather comb holster for a gift (what every stylin' teen needed no doubt.) But I also like $20 electronics from China.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
For those who hate upselling:
While making my yearly trip to Radio Shack for size 386 watch batteries (cyclocomputer), the creepy 55 year old grey-haired, fat, bearded, handlebar-mustachioed clerk asked, "Would you like a cell phone for a penny?"
"Cool! Gimme a thousand of 'em," I replied as I smacked a ten dollar bill on the counter.
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
I just recently (within the last 2 months) finally got off my butt and started to teach myself electronics. I've been meaning to do this for years, and so far I'm absolutely loving it!
The down side has been in finding components. I wasted an evening going to 3 different Radio Shacks looking for parts. At the 3rd store one of the employees informed me that they no longer carry components at mall stores. *sigh*
The next day I tracked down a non-mall store and stopped in. They do still carry components, and the manager was extremely friendly and helpful, but the selection was much more limited than I'd expected, and I still haven't been able to track down everything I need for the project I'm working on, which I'm afraid is killing the inertia of my new hobby.
-Cybrex
Boundless Expansion, Self-Transformation, Dynamic Optimism, Intelligent Technology, Spontaneous Order- BEST DO IT SO!
There's a H U G E market for cheap 8 bit microcontrollers now that you can get a little computer for the price of a latte', and you can do a lot of near things with them very easily. There's loads of related things like robotics that they missed out on too - how many people have any idea where to get a motion controller, or a servo motor?
Makes you think.
Then there's the whole embedded linux thing!
Radio Shack turned their back on hobbiests; I probably owe my EE degree to Forrest Mimms and his great books that radio shack distributed in the 80's. Now they sell cheap crap from China and Cell Phones.
..don't panic
When is the last time you actually walked into a RadioShack to get parts? I don't think my local store even has the parts to build a simple audio amp anymore, let alone something interesting. I know when I was building my QRP rig, I had to order my parts from DigiKey. RadioShack maybe had 10% of what I needed.
I currently work for radioshack at the corporate offices. My personal take: When Edmondson was hired, he probably didn't think in 11 years he would be CEO of the company. As years passed he probably forgot about the "discrepancies" on his resume. I can bet you that alot of employees at radioshack are trying to remember what their resume had on it, and supervisors as well for whome they have hired. Glad mines clean ( as i would hope majority are.)
I wouldn't be surprised if buying too many parts and Radi Sack will get you an FBI investigation...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
It worked for about a month before it crapped out and completely failed to keep a charge. So I tracked down a Sprint store, took a number, waited around for half an hour, and spoke to a Sprint rep. "What the hell is the matter with this phone?"
The guy took the phone from me, flipped it over in his hand, and said, "Well for starters, where did you get this nasty battery?"
"Radio Shack."
"It's totally nonstandard. Some kind of knock off." He shrugs, tosses it into a drawer. "Hold on." A minute later he returns with an official, Sprint-authorized replacement high capacity battery for my model phone. "There you go."
And that was it. The Sprint guy gave me an authentic battery for free to replace the crappy gray market on I bought at Radio Shack.
Guess what lesson I learned about shopping for cell phones at Rad Shack?
Breakfast served all day!
The Circuit City puchase of InterTan took place well over a year ago and probably had minimal impact in the past year's performance of Radio Shack. I think it has just been the most recent chapter in a story of long, slow decline for Radio Shack.
Here is a bit of background:
in 1986, Tandy Corporation sold off all its assets and business interests outside the United States to a Canadian company called InterTAN. Although the name of the Canadian firm suggests it was a division of Tandy Corporation this was not the case; InterTAN was wholly independent from Tandy Corp in terms of ownership and corporate structure (The InterTAN name came from the fact that they WERE a division of Tandy until 1986--they were sold off but the name stayed). To maintain a presence outside the US, Tandy gave InterTAN a license to the "Radio Shack" name so that it could continue operating its international stores under that name (mostly in Canada but interTAN also owned and operated a few Radio Shack stores in Europe and even Australia IIRC). This license to the Radio Shack brand extended to the end of 2010.
Tandy later restructured/refocused and changed its name to Radio Shack corporation to match its store brand (in 2000), though InterTAN has retained its name to this day.
Things got complicated in 2004 when US electronics retailer "Circuit City" then bought the whole of InterTAN. Although Circuit City had little to no presence in Canada, Radio Shack found itself in the awkward position of having its biggest rival "own" its brand outside the US! A lawsuit ensued, although for over a year Circuit City's InterTAN division continued to operate its newly-acquired chain of electronics stores under the "Radio Shack" moniker. Since 1986 Canadian Radio Shacks had gradually started looking less and less like the US versions, and when Circuit City came into the picture Radio Shack cut off its supply of private label goods, so by 2005 Canadian Radio Shacks shared nothing in common with the US stores except the name. It seemed odd to me to go into a Radio Shack and see nothing sold with the Radio Shack or Realistic brands on it...
In Mid 2005 Radio Shack won its case against InterTAN and managed to break the licensing contract early, at which time InterTAN had to rename all its stores (they are now known as "The Source by Circuit City"). Interestingly enough, there were a handful of Canadian "independents" (mostly in small towns) that were able to keep the Radio Shack name above the door, because they weren't ever affiliated with InterTAN--they were "mom-and-pop" stores who independently acquired "partnership" agreements with the US company. A very small number of store operators also broke away from InterTAN upon the purchase of that company by Circuit City and also didn't change the name. Furthermore, Radio Shack has mande a noticeable effort to reintroduce its stores on its own--often in the same shopping centres as The Source. These new Radio Shack stores look and feel exactly the same as the US ones, which is to say they are different from anything Canadians have seen.
Interesting side note...although InterTAN originated as a division of Tandy/Radio Shack, after it became an independent corporation in 1986 it didn't stick to just running Radio Shack stores--it also licensed brands from other companies (like Rogers Communications) and operated several regional and national retail and service chains, including:
* Radio Shack (now "The Source")
* THS Studio ("talk hear see" - a "boutique" of electronic gadgets)
* Battery Plus (sells batteries of all kinds)
* Rogers Plus (sells Rogers cellular service and phones)
* IQ Crew (a service business consisting of computer geeks who do housecalls to fix your crufty Windows PC)
Most of these ventures were established before Circuit City bought InterTAN.
The larger surface mount parts are ok, but most of the latest stuff is
almost too small to see and pick up, let alone read the gd part number!
You need good eyes (or a powerfull magnifier with low distortion) and
steady hands to work with this stuff. Again, in the larger sm packages
this can be done by the average joe, but most of the real interresting
parts are now only available in the micro-mini size packages which
have to be handled by robots.
There were 3 or 4 RS employees -- in matching blue jacket and tie -- having a conversation near the counter. As I browsed for an audio cable adapter, I swear I overheard one of them say, "Sure, that was true for Marconi, but not for Tesla".
I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Maybe they were space aliens?
I would have to agree that once you get a job, the college degree on your resume isn't all that important compared to your real job experience.
:-(
But I also want to counter the "education doesn't matter" bullshit argument.
I work with several people who do not have degrees in Computer Science or Computer Engineering who do fairly well with their tech jobs. Until you get into something that deals with knowledge of how the computer works internally rather than experimental knowledge gained by trying things. For instance, once I got into an argument with someone once about the behavior of a system under load and he didn't understand the concept of context switching or semaphores. No clue, never heard of it, didn't even understand how multitasking was handled at the CPU level. Yet, he kept trying to argue that the behavior we were seeing was perfectly reasonable rather than a bug.
It depends. As long as you know the limits of your knowledge, then fine. But sometimes the less you know, the less likely you are to realize you know less.
Unfortunatly while the above is true, It's not what the company is focusing on anymore. While a great deal of the business in my store is in the parts, adapters and batteries department, management says that we need to be focusing on Wireless with every sale. If we're not making a wireless sale every 10 tickets, we get chewed on...hard. If we don't sell 4 packs of batteries when the customer only asks for one pack, only needs one pack, and completely refuses 4 packs, we still get chewed on.
Yeah, watch batteries, phone batteries, and parts are the actual focus of our business, but it's not what management thinks is our focus. They don't have but a couple of blurbs on parts in the training "certifications" that we need to take after being hired. The focus in training is on the "Revenue Drivers". That includes your Wireless Phones, your freakin' i*Pods, the 4-4-10 battery "deals", service plans that only extend out from the manufacturer's warranty, and now Radio Shack Credit Cards.
When the sales of these "Revenue Drivers" is down, you'd think that maybe management would step back and see that "Gee...maybe peope don't come here for that. We probably need to change our focus." No, these pompus asses are saying "You dumbass associates, force these people to get a Cell Phone! That's our focus, not the parts crap. We don't care what these people want. We'll tell them what they want, and it's your job to MAKE them THANK us for it."
I'm glad I'm out of retail in a month. I'm sick of being told to sell my integrity to the people for peanuts so some big unedumakated doofus at the top of the corporate chain can get a nice bonus. And I'm sure that the guy they're going to get to replace Edmonson isn't going to be much better. Just maybe have a piece of paper behind him to cover up his lack of real world intelligence.
I'd mod you funny if I could. I don't know why, either. But I laughed when I read your post.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
They tried. In the early-mid-1990's Radio Shack opened a technical arm called TechAmerica, including a few storefronts and a huge webpresence. I could walk into their store and say "I want a 7408" and the guy would say "do you really, or do you want a 74F08?" They even offered ADC's ... in different resolutions.
Guess what? It failed. Massively. Nobody wanted that kind of service. Those few of us who actually build stuff order it from Jameco, and everyone else wants cellphones and cheap plastic crap. TechAmerica was gone *before* the dotcom disaster, as I recall.
Too bad. I used to have three good electronics stores within 30 km. Now I have none.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
Their biggest asset is their name. Who here saw "Radio Shack" and didn't immediately know what the company was about (well, what it used to be about)? Who has never bought something from the Shack, or known someone who has? Among techies and hobbiests, the name is marketing gold. If they started selling quality components again, everyone and their dog would recommend them because hey, they're Radio Shack. Everyone knows the Shack.
http://www.radioshack.com/sm-circuitwriter-pen--pi -2104395.html
this store?
CircuitWriter Pen
Model: 64-4339 | Catalog #: 64-4339
See where you can get it:
Enter your zip code to find out which stores in your area have this product.
Store information
This product is available at the following locations near 95010.
Last updated on Feb 20, 2006.
CAPITOLA-CAPITOLA MALL
01-9013 | 0.00 miles*
See a map
831-475-8550
CAPITOLA MALL
1855 41ST AVE #F3
CAPITOLA, CA 95010
In stock
Go Cougars!
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
It'll be interesting to see how Claire Babrowski, the interim CEO, works out; she was at McDonald's for many years (I saw somewhere starting when she was 16 as crew.) She has history in McDonald's technology and equipment groups as well as being the "chief restaurant operations officer." I've heard that she's very sharp. She left McDonald's when Mike Roberts was promoted to President/COO - she was arguably better qualified.
The preferred solution is to not have a problem.
...and the markup on parts was from 300 to 500 percent. I kid you not. That IC marked $2.99 cost the store $0.89. Parts and pieces used to be the bread and butter of the store years ago.
I wonder if the decline in their parts secion over the years is a symptom of the decline of Do-It-Yourselfers, or they just didn't want to be bothered anymore with catering to this niche market.
When I was a kid, Radio Shack had incredible amounts of parts. I've watched that variety decline steadily over the years. One of the things I really miss are their kits. Today's kids should be encouraged to get into technology, and some of these kits were a good way to do that.
Radio Shack is more like Cell Phone Shack these days. At least they aren't trying to shove one down my throat, anymore, like they were for a while. I already have one, anyway.
The other sad thing is the lack of any kind of technical knowledge of the people working there. "You've got questions... would you like a cell phone with that?"
Willie...
Got my first real job at radioshack back during the CB craze. Made a ton of money installing radios on the side to truckers. For a little extra I would tweak the output stage to give them more than the legal 5 watts. Now RS is a joke but this week I needed to make a simple logic circuit board for work and they still had the parts on the wall.
In GOD we trust, all others we monitor.
One day a friend and I were doing a quick rebuild of another friends 'puter and we needed some heatsink paste so after lunch we stopped by the local RS. "We need some heatsink paste." said I. "What?" "Heatsink paste." "What's that?" I explained. "Don't have any of that." "Yes you do." "No we don't." "Yes you do. I'll look around... Here it is." "Oh, I didn't know what that was."
To be fair, they're not all ignorant but have you noticed that you never see the same employee twice? I never have. Either they rotate sales droids to a different store each day or they have have an endless supply in the back room and at the end of the day the current crop is laid off, fired or quits.
...they need someone who can pray.