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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."
My friend worked for RadioShack and he said the whole business model of RadioShack is crap and is obsolete.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...
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.
If Radioshack goes under, you'll still be able to get all sorts of weird parts at relatively short notice (albeit not immediately).
I've found Parts Express to be a great alternative to Radio Shack. It's great for me since I pass them on the way to work, but they are primarily an online order company anyway.
Most people don't even think inside the box.
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.
There's not really any national chains but it's not uncommon to find at least one really nice electronics surplus shop in most larger metropolitan areas. And by nice I mean they have a large range of components. But they rarely advertise and can be in off the beaten path locations, so it can be a challenge to find them. That and they are usually run by someone advancing in years who does it as much because they love it as to make money off it, and when they retire it's unlikely to continue as a going concern, so one by one these great places are winking out across the country. Unfortunate for people like us who love being able to physically browse all sorts quirky and hard to find electronic components, but in a changing world what are you going to do I guess.
This would make an excellent Ask Slashdot post I would imagine, to get a list going of all these out of the way shops as I'm sure there's a lot of slashdotters with favorite places they know about.
The closest to a national presence would probably be Fry's which has a pretty decent range of stuff if you live in a state where they operate (mostly west coast from what I understand).
Tandy Leather was sold many years ago. They are still around, but harder to find. I remember goign to Tandy alot when I was a kid. Back then, my dad did leather work to supplement his income. I still carry a wallet he made. He still does the stuff, but has to get the kits via mail most times.
Links:
Radio Shack History
Tandy Leather
Radio Shack still does sell alot of components, but just not as many as there used to be. I have not seen a ole 200 in 1 kit lately. Problem is how do you get kids intrested in component circuits? I would love to see Radio Shack start to carry computer components and mother boards. They have some things, but you can't really build a computer with parts from Radio Shack anymore(you coudl have back in the component days).
Gorkman
One of the primary duties of a CEO is lead stock salesman, it can be a tougher sell than some electronics goods, but Wall St and Madison Ave should intersect if the map reflected their operations.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
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*
I work at The Source (Read: Radio Shack in Canada) and haate doing that. I've never asked for anyones phone number and all that crap unless they are buying a high priced item, it just makes tracking their reciept down easier in the event that they've lost it and need warrenty/extended warrenty work done. If you're just buying a pack of freakin' batteries, I'm not going to go through all that crap.
I'm sorry to hear that your radio shack went in the shitter early, or was always there, but radio shack did indeed formerly carry conductive pens. I noticed them originally (as a pre-teen) because the idea was so neat, and I'd never heard of them before.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
People DO go to radioshack to buy cell phones. Internet service, not so much.
TV, audio all RCA, Magnavox, Sony, Samsung. Which brand isn't mainstream?
Computers are all Compaq.
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/