RadioShack To Close 1,100 Stores

wjcofkc writes "The decline of RadioShack has been painful to watch, and now CNN Money reports that they will be closing 1,100 of their stores, totaling 20% of their brick and mortar presence. RadioShack has also publicly admitted its current stores are out of date and in need of a massive overhaul. But the number-one culprit has been a continuous slide in sales down a steep slope in the area of mobile device sales. A few years ago, in a bid to expand its customer base, RadioShack made a bid to return to its roots as a hobbyist electronic components retailer. Apparently the extra traffic hasn't been enough to make up for their failings. The article mentions that some of their stiffest competition is coming from online retailers. The big question is, in order to ensure their survival, would RadioShack be better off continuing to phase out their brick and mortar presence while making substantial efforts to expand as an exclusively online retailer?"

Comments

A victim of their own pricing.

[Anonymous Coward]

Went to Radio Shack 6 months ago for a replacement mini-usb cable for programming a Logitech Harmony remote for my parents (they lost theirs in a move). They wanted $30 for a 3-foot cable. At that price they deserve go to out of business. Waiting 2 days for Amazon to deliver your cable is inconvenient, but saving $25 to wait 2 days? That's a no-brainer for most folks. If instead of focusing on gouging ignorant consumers (they're not alone in this, I realize) instead of providing reasonably priced products with excellent service, they've done this to themselves.

Based on that experience, why would I even think of looking for hobby electronics at this store? So I can pay $10 for a capacitor available for 30 cents online?

Poor management

[slapout]

I worked at RadioShack around the turn of the century. IMHO back then they had poor management at the cooperate level. Inside of listening to the stores and stocking things the customers were asking for (like blank CDs) they chose to stock things no one wanted (and overcharged for it). They claimed there higher prices were because they had better trained employees. The employees didn't see that money. And the training program was a joke. Every employee had to take about 15 multiple choice tests. But every store had cheat sheets and no one really learned anything.

At one point their managers filed a class action lawsuit against them. Some of the executives had to give dispositions and they were posted online. After reading them I could tell that either they had no idea how things worked in the store or they were lying though their teeth.

Around the time I left they had started putting part in "bins". And they started sending in secret shoppers. If an employee didn't ask every customer about a cell phone AND a satellite dish they were fired. Even before that turnover was like a fast food place.

RadioShack's business model: overpriced crap

[frovingslosh]

As far as I'm concerned, Radio Shack's business model has long been to sell overpriced but inferior merchandise. In many areas it is the only place one can physically go to by some electronic parts, so it does get some traffic even from people who are reluctant to buy from them. If they were to go on-line only, I expect that they would soon be out of business completely, a result that I would not feel bad about because just maybe someone else might try to fill the void.

Even the simplest things bought from RS seem to be plagued with defects. I've bought cables from them and found them intermittent and once I bought a simple 2 to 1 telephone jack and, when my phone wouldn't dial when connected through it, I found it was wired wrong. Their electronic component "substitutes" are frequently improperly spec'ed. And as to price, I recently saw a Raspberry Pi kit in Radio Shack, it was priced well over $100.

May these stores just be the first, I'll be glad to see them all go.

Re:RadioShack's business model

[frovingslosh]

As to your 20 questions complaint, they always swear that they never sell or share your info. But decades ago I started giving RS my mailing info with a middle initial of R in my name. My middle name doesn't start with an R, it was just a flag to see where my junk mail was coming from. Sure enough, within a year, I was getting junk mail from "Bell & Howell Schools" (remember them?) wanting to sell me an education in electronics, with that R prominently placed between my first and last name.

Re:No place for 'almost', 'not quite' and 'nearly'

[50000BTU_barbecue]

Exactly. Electronics is now just a support for software. You don't design electronics so much as specify what completed system you want to program. Electronics is a mature field now, the only place I see new challenges is in power electronics, either in cars/EV in general, and HVDC transmission, and I guess solar PV home systems. Everything else? Dead and buried. Take a look at 20 year old electronics magazines: I'd wager 90% of the proposed hobby projects are either useless, too expensive or simply not relevant anymore these days. When was the last time you needed a 100KHz sawtooth generator, even if it had a digital readout of the frequency? Who cares? Anything you needed a 100KHz sawtooth wave for is probably software-defined nowadays, or deeply buried in a 1$ microcontroller (PWM)...

I know I don't even use my oscilloscope much anymore, and I don't understand why some people seem so convinced you absolutely need one. To beginners, I always recommend a good power supply and to not waste time making your own. Get one that works first. Then you need a decent multimeter that at least checks diodes, and maybe capacitor and frequency measurement. Then you need one or two USB based instruments like a logic analyzer and a I2C/SPI/JTAG master. Then add a ICSP programmer for microcontrollers. Of course, a good soldering iron with fine tips, some fine braid, a bit of fine tin/lead solder. (It wets better).

There you go, small, simple, cheap, compact.

Oh I know, like last time I said this someone always comes up with an anecdote of the variety "but I had a signal that didn't work and the oscilloscope showed it had the wrong logic level!"

To which I say read the damn datasheet. You'll learn more and end up knowing your device more. Scopes are a tool of a bygone era where things like television sets had a few signal paths with one or two very complex analog signals snaking around a few active components where having all the information from one or two channels of an analog scope made sense.

"But but but!"

But nothing. Electronics has fundamentally shifted away from the basics of the R, the L and the C and is now about the ONE and the ZERO.

(Disclaimer: For the vast majority of hobyists I believe I am right. Naturally for the professional engineer working in a corporate environment things are different. But even then, there aren't that many 'scopes anymore. It's about the DCA.)