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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?
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.
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.)
They're just anticipating the coming legalization of pot. It will allow them to move into a generalized convenience store model, sort of a "smarter" quik-e-mart: soldering irons, robot toys, pot,and munchies.
davejenkins.com |
Radioshack has spent the last 20-30 years attempting to rebrand itself from a store that carries one-of-a-kind electrical components and equipment to a store that carries 2nd-rate, overpriced versions of the stuff everyone else carries (cellphones, computers, really awful audio equipment, non-educational toys, etc.). It's all part of their master plan to turn themselves into a store with no apparent reason to exist.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
"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.
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.
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!
I used to buy parts 'at the last minute' at the rat shack. now, I don't even bother looking anymore and instead just hit up the only valid mailorder places left: digikey, mouser, newark are the big 3.
their parts are cheap enough, they work, they web ordering works and the selection is world class (literally, many people across the world order parts FROM the US distributors and even pay VAT/customs to receive the pkg).
I go into a rat shack and I see candy, cellphones and an ever dwindling parts selection.
they don't even carry x10 powerline remote stuff anymore (that used to be a stable at the shack).
I might as well turn in my radio shack battery club card:
http://www.antiqueradios.com/gallery/v/temp/battofmonth2.jpg.html
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
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.
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I was actually thinking that if they were going to change one part of their name, calling the store a 'shack' is certainly more likely to turn away customers than implying that you sell radios... would you buy anything from the Computer Hovel? The Cell Phone Shanty? Meh... I won't be sad to see them go in any case, they have totally missed the opportunity to dominate the hobbyist market by making a half-assed attempt at edging into the mainstream.
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Indeed, I believe they are being too conservative in this renaming. For regular customers of Radio Shack, we know the new name is too high class. The only possible remedy for this situation is to name the chain "Electronics Shanty," because we all know that's what they are.
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I think they should change their name to "Hz So Good."
The term "radio shack" was coined in the early 20th Century, when shipping companies began to add radio to their vessels. Since the ships were already built, the extra room for the radio equipment had to be added -- there was typically no existing space with both access to the antenna (i.e., above deck) and the necessary electrical power from the ship's plant. (The audible noise from the spark equipment of the day also meant that the equipment, which was used largely at night, couldn't be placed near the officers' sleeping quarters.) Paid for out of operating expenses by the frugal shipowners, these added rooms were typically small and poorly constructed, often from wood, and the term "radio shack" quickly followed.
New ship construction, of course, included a purpose-built room for the radio equipment, still called the "radio shack." Even the Queen Elizabeth 2 has a radio shack. The term quickly moved ashore -- amateur radio stations are in shacks, for example -- and "radio shack" came to mean the place where all the equipment was. From there, commercial use soon followed.
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.
Bad prediction. Against all odds and logic, the company is reasonably profitable.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
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.
He just created a new cycling team called Team RadioShack and will have to change the name to match, he had the t-shirts printed and everything.
1) The workers make minimum wage plus commission.
2) They specialize in items with a high profit margin. And then they mark them up.
3) They attach themselves to "hot items" that suddenly everyone needs. Most recent example: digital converter boxes have been huge business.
4) They cut costs like crazy. The CEO famously sold off all their plants to employees to save them money on maintaining them. Et cetera.
5) They're everywhere, they're convenient. If you need something specific and relatively common, chances are the RadioShack is closer to where you live and small enough that, unlike, say, Fry's, you don't have to wander around a big box for 30 minutes.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
"Radio Shack. You've got questions; we've got blank stares."
The competitors of the traditional Radio Shack were not the likes of Ace Hardware, and only marginally were they stores like BestBuy or CompUSA. Radio Shack didn't sell hardware for mechanical engineering, like an Ace Hardware store; it sold hardware for electr(ical|onic) engineering. Its competitors were other electronics hobbyist and surplus stores, like Dow Electronics, Marvac Electronics, HSE Electronics, and so on.
Truth be told, though, Radio Shack's biggest competition came from the atrophy of that market. Over the last three decades, steadily more people have become consumers of electronics and stopped being creators or engineers of it. That is why Radio Shack transitioned from selling components to selling "pre-fab" products; they couldn't compete with those other stores in a dwindling market, and some of those other hobbyist stores have disappeared altogether. Could they have created an advertising campaign that would single-handedly have reinvigorated the hobbyist component market? I doubt it.
That said, this alleged re-branding is even more idiotic than Pacific Bell spending $750,000 to re-brand itself as Pacific Telesis Group (that was just the bill from the ad agency that came up with the name, not the total cost of the name change). "The Shack" isn't edgy or funny, it's just weird and dumb, especially because it will say NOTHING descriptive about the current business model or product offerings.
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...
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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 wanted to hook up my laptop's S-Video to my TV's RCA video.
I know such cables and adapters exist, I've used them before and seen them online for just a few dollars. But I didn't have any handy, and didn't want to wait for something to ship. I figured Radio Shack would have what I needed.
My wife and I were the only customers there, so the sales people kept hovering around. I shoo'ed them away a couple times, but I was having a genuinely difficult time locating the part. Eventually I got tired of them asking to help me and I told them what I was looking for.
One of them gave me a blank look, the other one looked amused. He then carefully explained that there was no such simple adapter and that I'd have to purchase some kind of RF converter box. He showed me a device with inputs for everything under the sun... S-Video, RCA, component... And outputs in RCA and coax. The box cost around $100.
I noticed right next to this RF converter box an S-Video to RCA cable. Exactly what I'd been looking for. Except that it was about 10 feet long and gold plated. The cable itself was $30 or so.
I didn't buy either item at Radio Shack. I went to WalMart instead. Found a little adapter for $2 and a 5 foot cable for $7 or so. Spent about $10 total and it works great.
That was the last time I went to Radio Shack.
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde