RadioShack Trying To Return To Its DIY Roots

An anonymous reader writes "In what seems to be a desperate attempt to keep the company afloat, RadioShack has made a video appeal to the DIY community that helped the retail chain grow into what it is today. The days of amateur radio operators and tinkerers flocking to the store are long gone, but it seems that the company wants to issue a mea culpa and move forward."

Comments

You mean that cell phone store?

[Dwedit]

You mean that store that sells Cell Phone plans and accessories, and doesn't sell any electronic components?

Re:You mean that cell phone store?

[Miamicanes]

One sensible inventory compromise: instead of spreading out a thin inventory across hundreds of stores, designate a few stores per metro area as regional parts superstores that stock "everything" a hardcore Arduino enthusiast or bot-builder would be likely to need on short notice over the course of a weekend. Using South Florida as an example, I'd start with store #1 at Sawgrass Mills (less than an hour away from ~90% of Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties as long as it's not rush hour). I'd put stores #2 and #3 at Dolphin Mall (~6 miles west of Miami International Airport, roughly 20-30 minutes from most of Dade County) and near I-95 & Palm Beach International Airport. (ok, those are actually the locations where I'd put hypothetical Fry's stores, but it's the same market). Later, if I could add one or two more stores, I'd put #4 at Aventura, and #5 somewhere off I-95 between Pompano Beach and Oakland Park (at which point most of South Florida would have a store within a 15-20 minute drive).

Of course, there's my wet-dream fantasy: a PC board milling machine at those stores where you could swipe your credit card, plug in a USB drive, select the Eagle CAD files, and watch it mill your board (say, $10 for a 2" x 4" board, $20 for a 3" x 5" board, and $25 for a 4" x 6" board) on the spot.

One thing Radio shack needs to do, and do NOW: start selling Circuit Cellar, Nuts & Volts, Servo, and every magazine like them that it can get its hands on... and work closely with all of them to get them to publish projects built from parts available at the local Radio Shack store (working both ways... adding inventory to accommodate upcoming projects likely to be popular, and encouraging them to use the parts they already sell when possible). Then, hire Joe Pardue to walk in the footsteps of Forrest Mims, and write his own series of books full of projects that can be built entirely from parts available at Radio Shack.

The truth is, the group that used to be into ham radio never really went away... it's just that Radio Shack didn't notice that TODAY, that group builds robots and projects based on microcontrollers & FPGAs. Robots, in particular, are a goldmine for store like Radio Shack. I can't think of any single hobby that gives 20/30/40-something guys more of an excuse to burn through cash like there's no tomorrow. PC components might be cutthroat, with negative retail profit margins, but check out the markup on something like a Robotis AX-12 digital servo... ~$45 mail order. For each one. A decent 'bot is going to have at least a half dozen. A biped? About a dozen. A stair-climbing hexapod? Good god, I think the credit card machine just melted ;-)

Re:You mean that cell phone store?

[macs4all]

One thing you can do is check the RS web site, do a search and it can usually tell you whether any of the local stores stock something you can use. That way, you're leveraging their local inventory with the internet, you go to the store that has it and get it locally much sooner

Funny you should mention "leveraging their website".

Last night, I was trying to do JUST THAT, looking for some sort of power supervisor, or even an HC gate package I could use to fashion a reasonable Power-On-Reset circuit for a friend's Buffalo NAS (let's not devolve into a discussion of POR circuits, please! Suffice it to say, I figured out another way, ok?)

ANYWAY, Here is what the Radio Shack website lists under the category Microcontrollers and DIGITAL ICs.

So, tell me: Just HOW does one "leverage" THAT???

Oh, and the "Transistors & Analog ICs" Category is similarly laughable.

I have fond memories of going to Radio Shack to find components for some little project, or components to build some sort of weird audio adapter; but no more. Now, there's no choice but to go to DigiKey and Mouser, and figure out how I'm going to meet their minimum order requirements, when all I wanted was $5 worth of stuff. Actually, unless it has changed in the past couple of years, I have found that Fry's actually has a pretty respectable (by comparison) variety of electronic components. Heck, last I was in there (they are about 25 miles away, on the other side of town), they even sold stuff like soldering stations and (IIRC) and some high-end (Fluke?) multimeters and stuff.

RIP, Tandy Corp. We hardly knew ye!

Re:You mean that cell phone store?

[macs4all]

analog electronics has kinda fallen by the wayside

As an embedded developer with over 30 years of experience, I couldn't DISagree more.

Especially if you deal in the world of real-time measurement and control, you will find that, for every microcontroller you place in a design, there will typically be 8 to 16 op-amp "sections" (usually in dual/quad packages) used as "buffers", active filters, etc., and several "passive" (analog) components. For example, to turn a PWM signal with 16-bit accuracy coming out of your microcontroller into an analog signal with a even just 12-bit accuracy (worst-case "ripple" being, of course, at 50% duty cycle), you need a minimum of a three-stage active Butterworth filter, requiring no less than 2 op amp sections, and several resistors and capacitors. Yes, you can use a D/A converter; but that usually isn't nearly as cost-effective, and usually carries its own group of voltage-reference ICs, passives to make the voltage-reference "stable" and "quiet" enough, plus op-amp output buffers, etc. All of those are ANALOG components.

Look at the catalogs of companies that make a good selection of both analog and digital semiconductors, like ST Microelectronics, or even better, Texas Instruments. Their analog offerings are as wide (and perhaps even wider) than their digital offerings. Ever wonder why that is? See the above.

I agree if you spend your time looking at Atmel, Cypress, Freescale or the like, you might get the impression that "analog is dead"; but nothing could be further from the truth. Heck, even Microchip has quite a nice selection of Analog, and Analog Interface, components. And companies like Analog Devices (and to a lesser extent, Maxim), have made an entire business model out of straddling that Analog/Digital "threshold".

So, as long as we continue to live in an an analog universe, there will always be the necessity for getting analog signals into, and out of, that DSP or microcontroller chip, or into/out-of that Data Acquisition and Control system. Period.

Re:You mean that cell phone store?

[gordguide]

the ones that have been rebranded 'The Source by Circuit City' in Canada still sell a modest range of components and miscellaneous useful adapters and cables and so on at decent prices. Nothing like as decent a range as Maplins in the UK, but better than the big box electronics stores.

Actually, they're neither Radio Shack or Circuit City operations in Canada.

They're owned by Bell Canada; Circuit City USA went bankrupt and in 2009 Bell bought the Canadian assets of The Source from Circuit City, which were still profitable and a viable operation, and operated by a Circuit City subsidiary, a company called InterTAN.

InterTAN was formed from the former Canadian operations of Tandy/Radio Shack ... don't know the exact date, but think 20 years or so, when Tandy USA spun off and sold them to Canadian investors. If you dig through your parts bin, you definitely have to go a long way back to find the Tandy Radio Shack name in the small print on the back of the package if you bought it in Canada; for many people, all they will have will be marked InterTAN instead, even if it says Radio Shack on the front.

There was a licensing agreement to use the Radio Shack name, however, as part of the deal. When Circuit City bought InterTAN in 2004, that licensing agreement was declared invalid (after a lawsuit, by Radio Shack USA, of course) in 2005. Thus the rename to "The Source by Circuit City".

Technically now they're called "The Source (Bell Electronics, Inc)". Some stores, however, to this day retain the old branding with the "The Source by Circuit City" name on the outside signage. You could probably chalk that up to Bell being cheap more than anything else.

InterTAN, which is still based in Barrie, Ontario, was created out of a big part of the "old" Radio Shack operation in Barrie, which was responsible for sourcing components offshore and commissioning the Radio Shack branded parts, like Archer, Realistic, etc, and warehousing and distributing stock for North America. It was sold by Radio Shack's parent company, I believe which is Tandy, and renamed InterTAN at that time.

So, there hasn't been a true Radio Shack in Canada for many years, and although the two companies have been independent for a very long time, there was some relationship that saw the same products in both stores, but also they differed with each offering unique products not available to the other. Although there is some relevance because there are similarities between the two national companies product mix and target customers, for the most part this /. submission has nothing to do with the Canadian situation.

Since they're now owned by one of Canada's largest cellular phone networks, it's hardly surprising that the phones are prominently marketed in the stores in Canada.

I don't think the problem is that they didn't...

[jra]

cater to DIYs.... it's that there *weren't* any.

Make is changing this, of course, but we *all* turned into appliance operators over the last 50 years; no surprise Rat Shack went with the flow...

CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Busin

[Anonymous Coward]

FORT WORTH, TX—Despite having been on the job for nine months, RadioShack CEO Julian Day said Monday that he still has "no idea" how the home electronics store manages to stay open.

"There must be some sort of business model that enables this company to make money, but I'll be damned if I know what it is," Day said. "You wouldn't think that people still buy enough strobe lights and extension cords to support an entire nationwide chain, but I guess they must, or I wouldn't have this desk to sit behind all day."

The retail outlet boasts more than 6,000 locations in the United States, and is known best for its wall-sized displays of obscure-looking analog electronics components and its notoriously desperate, high-pressure sales staff. Nevertheless, it ranks as a Fortune 500 company, with gross revenues of over $4.5 billion and fiscal quarter earnings averaging tens of millions of dollars.

"Have you even been inside of a RadioShack recently?" Day asked. "Just walking into the place makes you feel vaguely depressed and alienated. Maybe our customers are at the mall anyway and don't feel like driving to Best Buy? I suppose that's possible, but still, it's just...weird."

After taking over as CEO, Day ordered a comprehensive, top-down review of RadioShack's administrative operations, inventory and purchasing, suppliers, demographics, and marketing strategies. He has also diligently pored over weekly budget reports, met with investors, taken numerous conference calls with regional managers about "circulars or flyers or something," and even spent hours playing with the company's "baffling" 200-In-One electronics kit. Yet so far none of these things have helped Day understand the moribund company's apparent allure.

"Even the name 'RadioShack'—can you imagine two less appealing words placed next to one another?" Day said. "What is that, some kind of World War II terminology? Are ham radio operators still around, even? Aren't we in the digital age?"

"Well, our customers are out there somewhere, and thank God they are," Day added.

One of Day's theories about RadioShack's continued solvency involves wedding DJs, emergency cord replacement, and off-brand wireless telephones. Another theory entails countless RadioShack gift cards that sit unredeemed in their recipients' wallets. Day has even conjectured that the store is "still coasting on" an enormous fortune made from remote-control toy cars in the mid-1970s.

Day admitted, however, that none of these theories seems particularly plausible.

"I once went into a RadioShack location incognito in order to gauge customer service," Day said. "It was about as inviting as a visit to the DMV. For the life of me, I couldn't see anything I wanted to buy. Finally, I figured I'd pick up some Enercell AA batteries, though truthfully they're not appreciably cheaper than the name brands."

"I know one thing," Day continued. "If Sony and JVC start including gold-tipped cable cords with their products, we're screwed."

In the cover letter to his December 2006 report to investors, "Radio Shack: Still Here In The 21st Century," Day wrote that he had no reason to believe that the coming year would not be every bit as good as years past, provided that people kept on doing things much the same way they always had.

Despite this cheerful boosterism, Day admitted that nothing has changed during his tenure and he doesn't exactly know what he can do to improve the chain.

"I'd like to capitalize on the store's strong points, but I honestly don't know what they are," Day said. "Every location is full of bizarre adapters, random chargers, and old boom boxes, and some sales guy is constantly hovering over you. It's like walking into your grandpa's basement. You always expect to see something cool, but it never delivers."

Added Day: "I may never know the answer. No matter how many times I punch the sales figures into this crappy Tandy desk calculator, it just doesn't add up."

http://www.theonion.com/articles/even-ceo-cant-figure-out-how-radioshack-still-in-b,2190/

RadioShack just followed money orders, anyway...

[ibsteve2u]

Some time ago Corporate America decided they didn't need any stinkin' American engineers...toooooo expensive...outsource 'em all. RadioShack just followed along and eliminated elementary school for engineers in favor of pre-fab junk for the proles in a "We're a service economy now!".

Shouldn't let Wall Street run a country; they're only in it for themselves.

Mims

[smoothnorman]

1. Find Forrest Mims
2. Make him CEO
...
4. Profits (from DIY if profits from DIY are possible)

Cell Phone and Toy store in the mall

[Technician]

It would be nice if they carried a much larger selection of parts. Long ago they found that a large inventory of low value parts took up too much wall space with too little turn. Unfortunately without traffic, the higher margin items didn't sell either.

They pretty much lost me when they became another mall toy store and cell phone shop.

If they would guarantee stocking all the common standard resistor values and capacitor values and most of the common IC's and transistors, then a hobbyist won't start elsewhere because the local shop is unlikely to carry a full inventory.

How hard is it to have in stock resistors of the 1, 2.2, 2.7, 3,3 , 4.7, 6.8, and 9.1 values in most multiplier values in 1/4 and 1/2 watt sizes?
A lack of semiconductors is their greatest downfall. They have maybe a dozen IC's in stock in the lines of the common 555 and little else.
The transistor selection is very thin. The most common small signal transistors are absent. 2SC1815 or a 2N249 are scarce.

If you want parts to build an interface to drive a sprinkler valve for robotics from an Arduino, there is nothing that would do the job. Power Mosfets for building any kind of H bridge for robotics is not in stock.

Other stores and online are about the only place to get those parts anymore. Radio Shack's failure has given Mouser a huge market. Mouser is not as convenient for a quick pick up of some 4.7K resistors and other small orders so Radio Shack is missing out on the electronics convenience store they used to be.

Re:I don't think the problem is that they didn't..

[Mashiki]

There was plenty of DIYs around. Well at least in Canada anyway. But, radioshack got shoved to the dirt when their competitors(usually smaller places with better stock, and cheaper prices) out did them. About 30mins from my hometown there's a major DIY shop that carries just about every thing electrical you need. And what they don't have, they can get within 24-48hrs for you.

Price is another example. Simple 10 pack of 10ohm resistors were $8 at the shack, and $2.49 at another shop. Most of the time, even if you were driving 30mins you saved money. This is all 4-6 years past of course, but radioshack killed itself, by overcharging on everything. I mean really $4 for a red LED? What? I can by them for $0.18/c elsewhere.

Last time I went to Radio Shack regularly...

[Jane Q. Public]

I was mainly building digital and digital-analog circuits... so I'd go into Radio Shack and some sales guy would approach. (This happened not just once, but many times, seemingly a different salesperson each time.) I'd tell him I was looking for another Quad 4011 CMOS NAND Gate or a particular transistor or some such, and he'd get a blank look on his face. I'd say, "I know where they are" and go get them.

I admit that was years ago. But the funny thing was, not very long after that I applied for a job at one of the local Radio Shacks, and a little while later received a letter in the mail telling me I was not qualified for the job. I was not sure whether to be upset over the unjust insult, or laugh at the hypocrisy of it all.

But I think that was one of the big things that killed the store. They had a policy of hiring people who didn't know squat about DIY stuff. Instead they tried to sell stereo equipment and cell phones and Christmas toys. But that's really not what they wanted -- or needed -- to do. Everybody else was already doing that stuff.

I would love to see Radio Shack get back to its DIY roots. This time around maybe they can sell Arduinos and 3D printers. Heck... people are already selling machines that are 3D printers and CNC milling machines put together. It doesn't get much better than that. I want one.

Re:Last time I went to Radio Shack regularly...

[emt377]

I would love to see Radio Shack get back to its DIY roots. This time around maybe they can sell Arduinos and 3D printers. Heck... people are already selling machines that are 3D printers and CNC milling machines put together. It doesn't get much better than that. I want one.

PCBs would be awesome. Upload the design and go pick up the boards a week later. They could get enough volume to bring prototype-run prices way down.

And sell essential tools, which includes things like reflow stations these days. And ribbon cable kits, tools and all.

Cell Phones are Radios

[bill_mcgonigle]

Just sayin'.

Ok, start by stocking/selling the Commodore stuff

[Marrow]

You want geek creds, you need to inspire people. Be the place where parents want to take their kids because they have a chance to learn something besides the best "fatality" moves. Think about offering classes. Have homebrew stuff displayed in-store so people can see what they can build. Embrace the niche.

Too late; dead to me

[Just Some Guy]

First, SparkFun has a hugely better selection than the local Rat Shack ever did. Second, OK, so you decide to shift focus. Where are you going to get the people to staff these places? You can't throw a few ICs on a wall display and expect the mouthbreather at the front desk to be able to help with it. I'd honestly rather buy from a vending machine than deal with the kid who's trying to upsell me to a gold-plated breadboard, and would I like an iPod case with that? Finally, prices, prices, prices! The cat ate the charger to my wife's laptop. I found a replacement through the manufacturer's website for $50, and from eBay for $16. Rat Shack only stocked a universal (read: Soviet styling with crap specs) unit for $80.

So how's this supposed to work? They're not going to outstock online stores or other established local specialty shops. They don't have a competent sales force (and probably can't get one, because people worth having probably wouldn't be caught dead working there). I can't imagine that they'll ever set reasonable price points. Nah, they're dead to me - and apparently to almost everyone else. The "Radio Shack" brand is crap, and I don't think they can salvage it. I think their best best is to throw it away and launch a giant rebranding and "we used to suck and we're honest about that but we're better now" blitz.

Re:DIY Consumer?

[emt377]

After watching that video, I am sick and tired of being referred to as a consumer, and not a customer. Unless we are in an economics lecture, or a corporate board room, I think it's truly impolite and frankly condescending to refer to someone that tries to make regular use of your goods and services as a consumer.

Totally agree. In addition, people who build things are producers, not consumers.

Some ideas for Radio Shack

[michaelmalak]

Before my time, but I'm assuming Radio Shack got its start servicing radio amateurs.

During my time (80's), radios were a "solved problem," but there were at least three new markets. First, in the pre-IBM PC days, everyone had to make their own RS-232 and printer cables because every computer had a different pin-out. Even if a commercial one was available, it was often more expensive (like $30) compared to the parts (like $10). Remember, this was the 80's, so multiply those prices by 3. ($90 for a pre-made cable vs. $30 for making it yourself). Second, terrestrial TV was still huge and Radio Shack was the most convenient place to get TV antennas, both indoor and out, and all the associated cabling and accessories, including rotators, bulk cable and crimpers. Third, for those of us early early adopters of home theater, Radio Shack was the place to get A/V patch cables.

So what should Radio Shack be selling now?

Well, computer and A/V cables are "solved problems" and available at Wal-Mart. Radio Shack should be focusing on the next bleeding edge consumer technologies -- the ones that are still sold in pieces and parts instead of all-in-one solutions. They could catch the tail end of home video security. There are a lot of cheap turn-key solutions, but there's still some special applications that call for pieces & parts: wide-angle, night-vision, motion detection, high-end PC capture cards, etc.

They could serve the homebrew robotics market. Right now, Asia is dominating advances in robotics -- we need some robot tinkerers in the U.S. just as the U.S. had for automobiles a century ago.

Finally, Radio Shack desperately needs to update its inventory for electronics tinkerers rather than using SKUs from 1980. Over the past 30 years, oscilloscope prices have fallen through the floor and are now well within Radio Shack price ranges. The world has moved beyond hex-AND chips. Radio Shack should be selling FPGA starter kits.

It may be that a metropolitan area can't support more than one or two such Radio Shacks that serve tinkerers. Perhaps Radio Shack needs to have a limited number of "Super Radio Shacks". But as with Micro Center, there are times where same-day pick-up is needed and even overnight delivery from the Internet is not fast enough.

Re:I don't think the problem is that they didn't..

[poptones]

I disagree. Ratshack sold out its base over time because it lots its innovative drive. It became just another competitor to the cheap big box stores and lost because it's not a big box store. Radio Shack once sold some of the highest quality affordable home audio (yes, it did) and look where it went: RCA and other "brand name" CRAP. That's just one example of how it lost focus.

Radio shack has almost unprecedented community presence. They could offer services, like reflow soldering, act as a front end to an affordable pc board manufacture, and even offer walk-in cnc services. There's like 2500 stores in the US; imagine if you could walk in to a store less than 20 miles from the house, hand them a thumb drive, then stand there with the kid and watch while a cnc machine grinds out a part for you. No better way to get kids interested in this stuff than seeing it done and working hands on.