RadioShack To Rebrand As "The Shack"?

Harry writes "Rumor has it that RadioShack is planning to re-brand itself as The Shack later this year, after eighty-eight years under the old name (most of them with a space in between 'Radio' and 'Shack'). I hope it's not true, because I don't think the move would do a thing to make the retailer a better, more successful business." Where will we go to buy soldering irons and those RCA to headphone jack adapters now?

Comments

Beware of namechanges

[Duds]

It's very dangerous to rebrand because of how much you lose vs how much you gain. IBM makes bugger all money from "International Business Machines" these days but they wouldn't want to lose a brand everyone knows. Same for "Carphone Warehouse" in the UK, they don't want to lose the recognition despite the fact no-one has called a cell/mobile phone a car phone in 2 decades.

And Microsoft's stuff certainly isn't small. (*sidesteps hook*)

So despite the lack of "Radio" as their main business, they should REALLY look and see if the number of people who say "I don't need a radio I won't go there" might be outnumbered by the people who will end up saying "What the f is "The Shack"?". It sounds like somewhere you'd buy a very dodgy Hawaiian style shirt.

Re:Beware of namechanges

[e4g4]

they should REALLY look and see if the number of people who say "I don't need a radio I won't go there" might be outnumbered by the people who will end up saying "What the f is "The Shack"?"

They should really look and see if the marketing company, to whom they undoubtedly gave millions of dollars for this rebranding idea, is worth their salt. On the other hand - name changes aren't always bad - Verizon seems to be managing just fine.

Re:Beware of namechanges

[badasscat]

Radio Shack in Canada has pretty much always sucked. It's nothing like the American chain.

Your gripes are exactly my gripes about the American chain, so it's probably not much different. I have a RS within walking distance of my house, so I went to buy a four-pack of rechargeable AA batteries there a while ago - something that costs $9.99 at Target and pretty much anywhere else - and they wanted to charge me $21.99 for it. When I pointed out how ridiculous this price was, they looked shocked and asked me where I saw it for less. I said "everywhere" literally as I was walking out the door.

Radio Shack's problem for the last 15 years or so has been that they don't understand their place in the world. They have delusions of being the next Best Buy, but a) their prices suck, b) their stores are too small, c) their salespeople are even bigger idiots than BB's, and d) as Circuit City proved, we don't want another Best Buy.

I don't understand what the shame is in having a relatively small chain of stores that sells tools, supplies, wiring, antennas, etc. that we all need but don't really know where else to get. There are a lot of online stores these days that thrive selling nothing but things like LCD/plasma TV mounts and HDMI cables for reasonable prices. That could have been Radio Shack. But nobody thinks of them for that stuff anymore because they have decided their core business is instead things like poorly-made RC cars, game consoles and cell phones - all things that specialty retailers and discount chains do better and/or sell for lower prices. Meanwhile, the cables and whatnot that they *do* still have are all overpriced too, because they have decided to "gold plate" everything in an effort to make their stuff seem more "premium" than it is.

I suspect rebranding as "The Shack" is an attempt to put them further down that road that they shouldn't be on, and going the wrong way.

Re:Beware of namechanges

[twistedsymphony]

I've referred to it as "The Shitty Shack" or "RatShack" for nearly a decade already... I lost complete faith in them when they started putting more emphasis in selling mobile phones than any other product in the store.... where the F else are you going to pickup that last little electrical component you need for your project instead of paying Digikey $12 to ship a 5 cent part?... though it pisses me off when there is only one clerk in the store helping some old lady decide on a cell phone while I stand at the register for 10 minutes waiting to buy a fresh roll of solder.

I miss the college days... there was an electronics shop down the street from the school that was what you'd imagine if mouser opened a retail outlet.... it's a shame how few places like that still exist. It's an even bigger shame how not only is most of society not interested in learning about and working with electronics but actually FEAR peole who do... I miss the cold-war era sci-fi culture where it was actually cool to and respected if you got into the technical side of things. /rant

Re:Beware of namechanges

[CastrTroy]

How many 5 cent parts do they have to sell in a day to pay that $7 an hour employee. How many cell phones do they have to sell to pay that employee. Truth is, they could probably sell 1 phone a day for an employees entire day of wages. While they would have to serve more than 1 customer every minute selling 5 cent parts. And that's just the employee. Never mind all the overhead of the store. I think a much better way of selling those little parts you need would be to have a bunch of warehouses and you order them over the internet. After which they are mailed out in the cheapest way possible. Sure you wouldn't get them very quickly, but do you have any idea how much retail space costs in this day and age. I'm surprised they carry these little electronics parts at all.

Re:Beware of namechanges

[sumdumass]

Bing and millions after millions of dollars in advertising.

However, they may be padding those numbers. I recently had to track down an error in a windows 2003 server box. Sending the error by clicking the support link in the eventvwr and expecting the help and support function to list probable causes and KB articles relating to it ended up automatically redirecting me to a bing search. of course the search string it used was broken and didn't show any results.

Problem

[DoofusOfDeath]

The main problem is that a "shack" usually connotes a cheap, run down house. Not really the image they should try to project.

(I know "clam shack", "radio shack", etc. don't really have such a connotation. I'm just talking about the word "shack" when it's used all by itself.)

Cheap electronic parts

[crumbz]

"Where will we go to buy soldering irons and those RCA to headphone jack adapters now?"

Digikey?

Not to be an old grumpy man, but RS has missed out on the electronics maker revolution of the past decade. They could have been on the ball, like NewEgg, for the PC modding market but failed to adapt to the market. The RS of today is but a poor imitation of the RS of the '70s and '80s. Full of crap, obsoleted models and cheap junk. /Now get off my lawn.

Re:Cheap electronic parts

[schnikies79]

Most of the time when I got to radio shack for a component, I need it now. Not in two days.

For instance, movie night with my buds a few weeks ago. DVD player popped a cap (blah, that sounded ghetto. magic smoke instead). A trip the Radio Crack and 20 mins later, we were back in business.

So?

[kjs3]

Radio Shack has been an irrelevant vendor of cell phones and cheap 2nd tier consumer electronics for a decade. Long gone are the days when one ran down there to pick up a couple of capacitors and transistors to finish that weekend project.

Agreed ... bad move ....

[King_TJ]

In the last decade or so, Radio Shack seems to have been really pushing to become more of a "boutique electronics retailer", ditching their image as a "parts store" for hobbyists. I guess on one hand, I understand the desire - because there's not a lot of profit in individual sales when your customers want a package of resistors, a spool of wire, or some $10 pliers or cutter tool.

But I don't think their obvious alternative has worked out very well for them either. They're stuck trying to compete with much larger stores like Best Buy, and getting killed merely because Radio Shack doesn't have enough floor space in a store to carry the variety people expect when shopping for a new flat panel TV set or stereo, or computer.

Reminding people that their stores are small "EG. "The Shack" is emphasizing what may be their biggest negative in the market-space they're working in!

Re:Surveillance

[Kamokazi]

My local 'Shack' hasn't sold real electronics for years now. I've gone there 4 times over the past two years. Once they had something that kinda worked. The other two times I eneded up finding it at Wal-Mart. I'm really not sure why I bother, except that they are in the same minimall as Wal-Mart.

This line made me chuckle:

"Where will we go to buy soldering irons and those RCA to headphone jack adapters now?"

Mine doesn't carry soldering irons, and they might have a place on the shelf for the adapters, but I'd be shocked if they have any stock. It's really quite sad. They wonder why they are going out of business...it's because they've changed their competition from Ace Hardware to Best Buy. And competing with Best Buy is always a good idea, isn't that right Circuit City and CompUSA?

A year from now, I predict 'The Shack' will be liquidating assets under Chapter 11. Anyone wanna take that bet? It would be smarter than buying Radio Shack stock.

Re:How do they stay in business?

[i.r.id10t]

And when your paper, project, etc. is due Monday morning, and your CPU fan or PSU dies Friday night, you really have time for a online purchase...

There are some things that you just have to have *now* and even if it costs you $5-10 more than the online item, having it after a 30 min drive and short walk is worth it.

Re:Surveillance

[Volante3192]

A very unusual project at work required me to make a mono audio jack to RJ11 cable.

My first thought was 'Radio Shack.' I'm digging through the drawers of connectors and the salesman came over and asked if I needed any help. (I was the only one in the store, he was probably bored.) I explained the project and got a blank stare.

I eventually found bits that worked for my purposes (1/4" mono jack, screw down...no soldering iron at work, not that I'd want to risk it in the first place, I'm not that coordinated... and a 1/4" to 1/8" mono jack converter. Incidentally the converter was 3x as much...go fig.) Paid and left.

I couldn't help but think if this was 10, 15 years ago not only would I not have gotten a blank stare, if it was that slow they might have offered to even make it while i was there.

Changes needed

[WindBourne]

Quite honestly, they are trying to compete against established bigger companies that have gone out of businesses. By doing all made electronic gadgets, they are hurting themselves. OTH, they could go in a different direction. How about selling not just electronic parts, but items for building ideas? The reason that I suggest that, is that America used to have an infrastructure that made it possible to build a number of gadgets, ideas, etc. That is slowly going away. For example, radio shack no longer has the ability to build computers. And the capabilities to breadboard things is minimal. BUT, if they put together kits for learning from, and then made it possible to order on-line and simply pick up the parts in a couple of days at a local shack they would go far. Also, at the same time, they should consider targeting items such as adding speakers to a house. And why not offer innovative products. Heck, at this time, they would be wise to ask for new patentable ideas to be made by Americans (or at least in the west) and sold here.

Missing the point of the brand...

[tjstork]

It used to be that if you walked into a Radio Shack and saw a bunch of TRS-80 computers, a wall full of electronic parts, total geeks working behind the counter, you might get the impression that the TV's and Stereos that they carried were pretty good stuff, because the whole store screams geek.

By getting rid of the geeky electronics image, they've kinda undermined their consumer electronics brand... were I a consumer electronics retailer, I would carry a mix of hobbyist equipment and just let it sit on the shelves, and premium products, and I'd bet one could establish a brand.... I mean, if Home Depot can make 100B a year selling the idea that you build a deck yourself, why not have people put together their own PCs and LCD tvs...

Playing into American technical downfall

[RomulusNR]

Rad Hack's flaw was giving up on being THE store for electronic, A/V, and other technical components, cutting back on things like electronics kits in favor of pre-built robots, etc. Instead of maintaining a technical focus, they veered into a confusing mash of angles like prebuilt computers, TVs and video players, and cell phones.

I am one of few people that still go to RadHack for cables and rare items that would be marked up 200% at Best Buy or impossible to find. I don't know why anyone else goes there -- and I think that's their problem.

Other things I like about RS is that the staff usually only ask if you need help once, and aren't impossible to find when you DO need help finding something, and usually there is someone there who has a clue as to the arcane thing you are looking for.

Trying to be a miniature Best Buy, and leaving more than 75% of their small floors as open space, is their problem -- not branding. DIY is becoming vogue again, and they should try returning to their DIY roots.