Slashdot Mirror
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 RadioShack has also publicly admitted its current stores are out of date and in need of a massive overhaul.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?"
There isn't a place for a Radio Shack that won't commit 100% to being the hobbyist shop they started to be, or an online retailer that isn't just a smaller version of Mouser or DigiKey. We already have little rat shacks everywhere on the Internet that sell soup-to-nuts, we need a retailer that is passionate about their place in the market. You can't beat the big boys on price - they can always undercut you, and if needs be - they can give product away for free until they drive you out of business. You need to be able to provide service and product that the larger competitors can't or won't - so far, Radio Shack doesn't seem to be able or willing to do it.
I stopped visiting RadioShack in the mid-90's because everything in it had their fucking name stamped on it in big ass bold letters. I wanted an alarm clock but every single one had "WE'RE RADIOSHACK BITCH" written on the front right next to the time. I hate this in much the same way I hate car dealers putting their dealerships logo on the car I want to buy. I actually made a salesman scrape it off and have it repainted at their expense before I purchased the vehicle.
Radio Shack would be better off just closing all of their stores and firing everyone, as that would surely make them heroes in the eyes of the American business community.
Nobody in America cares about electronics any more. You could stage a broad daylight bank robbery perpetrated by clowns armed with handgrenades and you'd have a below average chance of getting the average American to look up from their phone.
Anything that leads to massive waves of layoffs, abandoned stores, landfills brimming with brand new discarded products, crying, pain, suffering, bankruptcy, investor fraud, theft, arson, graft, embezzlement, female store staff getting their asses pinched, CNN specials, Piers Morgan scolding us five nights a week and a government bailout is always the better option.
Close 'em all.
Radio Shack is already 100x bigger than that niche could ever support, regardless of how much they commit to it.
Radio Shack ought to get back to being the electronic hobbyist store. They'll survive selling Arduinos , Raspberry Pi's, 3D printers, etc... Not over priced headphone cables and lack luster phones. Hows Beta?
This is my signature.
Radio shack has always been one of those stores I walk into looking for parts and come out realizing I'm only getting it online and I have to wait a week. What they should do is repurpose the stores to become what they always should have been, a hacker haven. Fill it with knowledgeable people who know how to make custom electronics, and foster people who want to build things but don't know how. Problem is... its just too late. Would be cool to see someone like sparkfun or something buy them and do something like that.
The big question is, in order to ensure their survival, would Radio Shack be better off continuing to phase out their brick and mortar presence while making substantial efforts to expand as an exclusively online retailer?"
Not likely. They have no particular advantage in the online space aside from a recognizable (if tarnished) brand name. What they really should have done was to expand their catalog sales back in the day and become a distributor like Digikey or Mouser. I suppose they still could though they are behind the curve. They've gotten into cell phones but no one really thinks Radio Shack when they think cell phones. They sell batteries but there now are specialty battery stores that usually have a better selection and better prices. They don't have the scale or the expertise to compete with Amazon online and they are too unfocused to have profitable retail space. I can't really think of anything where Radio Shack would be my preferred shopping destination.
Radio shack has been trying to be all things to all people and when you do that you don't serve any of them well. They have expensive real estate, small square footage, small selections of products, high prices and unclear strategy. Their advantages are that they are fairly well known and have a lot of storefronts. That's a pretty thin advantage these days. I'm thinking Radio Shack might be a pretty good stock to think about short selling.
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?
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.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
I'll have you know, sir, that my brother-in-law is a COLLEGE dropout selling cell phones at radioshack!
I think convenience is the one thing brick and mortar stores have going for them. I sometimes buy things at the local gas station. They are more expensive there, but they are a lot more convenient.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
That being said - stocking last minute items could provide a niche. Sometimes you need a new keyboard, battery, or PSU stat, and even next day shipping isn't an option. The question is - is that a frequent enough occurrence to sustain a store?
Absolutely not. Walmart stocks enough of that stuff to fill that need. Radio Shack simply straddling multiple strategies and not doing any of them well. They are simultaneously trying to supply batteries, electrical components, cell phones, toys, and a few other niche items from small and expensive stores where it is relatively expensive and inconvenient for their customers to visit them. I honestly cannot think of anything Radio Shack sells where they would be my preferred shopping destination.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...
Get off my lawn, noob.
The local (Columbus, Ohio) Micro Center (from wiki: founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1979 by two former Radio Shack employees) has a much better selection of hobby stuff from my experience 2 weeks ago. And then there is Digikey, Mouser, Allied, etc., just a day or 2 away if you want to pay for the shipping (which sometimes makes up for the bloated Rat Shack pricing).
I would never go to Rat Shack for a cell phone or satellite TV.
Maybe batteries, but the Kroger next door had a better selection of coin cell Lithiums for odd sizes like what goes into my Toyota remote.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Albert Einstein
Radio Shack is already 100x bigger than that niche could ever support
And, having been around and watching in the 1970s and comparing to today, I wouldn't be surprised if the hobbyist electronic niche is 100X time smaller today than it was then.
Actually I believe it was the Model II that had the 8" drives. The model 1 used regular 5.25" drives.
I was once denied a job at Radio Shack because I had been trained as an electronics technician. It was explained I knew too much about electronics and they didn't want me talking electronics with customers. The manager said they were trying to move the company away from that.
Radio Shack just makes me cry when I go in there now. Having one small cabinet with nothing more than about a dozen different resistor values and toggle switches priced at $8 a piece is not a "return to your roots"
When Radio Shack was doing well they sold some of the best, and even most unique Stereo equipment you could find. The first surround sound I ever heard was in a Radio Shack and that was a good 5 years before I saw it anywhere else. I could take in a parts list and the clerk would tell me to come back in a few days and he'd have my order ready.
There IS a market for Radio Shack and they could do well, but they need to get out of the mall where rent is so high and start stocking real stuff again. How about offering project boxes with custom silk screen or etching right in the store? I'd pay $100 - $200 for such a service. How about an array of knobs and such to make your project stand out? 3D printers and supplies? Arduino supplies... how about workshops on coding for them? Come on, this isn't that hard.
There's a strip mall near me and all within about 5 blocks you can find Woodcraft, Harbor Freight, Northern Tool, Home Depot, AutoZone, Hobby Lobby and a fabric store. THAT is where Radio Shack needs their store... not next to Bannana republic for gods sake.
The problem is "inventory is expensive". For a store to have a cabinet full of resistors and switches, they have to buy them from the manufacturer, put them in little plastic bags, then send them out. Let's say that parts cabinet cost the store $2000. The store has now lost money until 100 hobbyists have shown up and each bought $20 worth of stuff from it. With as few hobbyist customers as they see, that could be two or more years away. That makes buying it a risky proposition. Then figure that Radio Shack HQ makes every store buy one: that's perhaps $10,000,000 investment that won't break even for two years.
They can't just carry the 3 most popular resistors, either, as their customers have varied needs and require a broad selection. People who buy resistors also buy LEDs, transistors, capacitors, wires, solder, breadboards, etc. So if they're going to carry components, they have to have enough so that they can meet reasonable requests. If they are missing a single essential part, the customer is likely to abandon their entire basket, then go on line to Digikey or Mouser.
John
I think a better headline would have been "Radio Shack still has at least 1,100 stores".
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
They tried to grow the niche, but missed. Rather than being RC & phones (what they were the last time I was in), they could have branched into home automation and other tech items that were not mainstream, but hobbies. And hopefully large enough to support the business. But by the time they went back to roots, I'd already moved on. So they missed their chance. They alienated their "loyal" base, then abandoned their phones & RC model. They were left with nothing.
Learn to love Alaska
Retail electronics parts stores are dead. Even in Silicon Valley, we barely have any left. Digi-Key used to have a minimum order of $25. But they dropped that a few years ago. You can order one resistor from them and it will ship the same day by first class mail, in a small padded envelope. This pretty much solved the parts problem for people who know what they want.
The Digi-Key site can be overwhelming to hobbyists. Want a 100 ohm, 1/4W resistor for through-hole mounting? Radio Shack has one type. Digi-Key has 225 different types. That's part of what keeps Radio Shack and Jameco in business. If Digi-Key or Mouser ever sets up a hobbyist-friendly front end site to their inventory, the last need for the little guys will disappear.
http://www.theonion.com/articl...
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."
Too bad, though. I thought they had something planned after seeing their awesome new ad.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
"I seriously doubt it. I'll find it myself."
That has to be spoken with the Comic Book Guy voice.
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.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
You have questions, we have blank stares....
I would agree. People don't want to fix that expensive [something electronic], when they already know everything is surface mount, and they don't have the skill to fix it. The cost for the replacement part and tools is higher than the cost of the replacement unit.
We are in a disposable society now. Throw away your old electronics and buy new ones.
There are fewer hobbyists now. I was at one of the Radio Shacks that actually sells components. I spent probably 2 hours doing parts conversions in my head to see what could work, and redesigning parts, because virtually nothing I wanted was in stock. Even for 4 transistors, I spent time going through what they had to find what was "good enough", versus what I wanted. Part of that time, I was restocking their stuff, because things I was looking for were tossed back in the wrong drawers. Not just one compartment off, they'd be in the wrong rack entirely. They tried to help, but they knew more about the cell phones and batteries, than they knew about the components. At least one guy working there knew what a transistor or resistor was. We had a decent talk while I shopped for parts. When I couldn't find something (like heatsinks for the transistors I settled on), he checked the other local store inventory, and then ended up telling me I had to buy it online.
I was looking for another component the other day. I don't remember what it was, but it was something fairly simple. Their site had "Web Only" right the photo. The same for every potentially compatible part.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Blame the MBAs. Every time they take over a niche business, they want to turn it into the business model of the largest generic vendor out there. The Science Channel is no longer science, but looks like every other cable channel. Mini wants to sell bigger and bigger cars. Radio Shack is no longer electronics bits and pieces, but wants to be every other electronics vendor. A successful small business is never enough. The greedy buggers only care about their suicidal rush to the top.
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
F^@$ I just said that, I'm doing the old angry guy thing, I've become one of them :(
It all starts at 0
...as a 11 year-old kid riding my bike to the local RS, actually sitting in the display window in the strip-mall, and pounding code into a TRS-80 (around 1976) and saving the BASIC programs on a cassette drive, so i'll always have a soft-spot for these guys. the guys that used to work there would tell me i helped sales as people would walk by, see a kid on a "computer", and think to themselves "well, how hard could it be to use one of those if this kid is doing sorta-cool stuff on it?"
however, like someone else here said, it's been painful to watch the slow and steady decline of this American institution (yes i said and stand behind that characterization)...they have always been totally overpriced but often were the only game in town for getting components and such.
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
The bigger problem was the loss of knowledgeable staff. They should have expanded in to cameras not phones, they would have had more of a chance there. Now all the staff that knew what they were doing are gone though and instead of "You've got questions, we've got answers." It's "You've got questions and our stares are even more blank than the idiots at Best Buy."
AJ Henderson
No it's your memory that's failing. As other people have pointed out, one of the TRS-80s had 8" floppy drives. The first computer I ever used was an Ohio Scientific something-or-other - 6502-based, with 48k of memory and dual 8" floppy drives. These computers were at my high school, and they weren't multi-tasking systems, so they couldn't have cost that much.
Sit, Ubuntu, sit. Good dog.
RadioShack reminds me a lot of how CompUSA was run into the ground during its final decade of business. You basically had upper management throwing random ideas at the wall hoping to see what sticks (not much). The truth is, companies like these fail because the they are constantly trying to hitch themselves to the latest "bandwagon" rather than focusing on their core business.
With CompUSA, it was a result of them trying to become a BestBuy clone. In doing so, they relegated their core business of computer parts to one or two small isles of video cards, and their tech services devolved into being middle men shipping laptops out for warranty service. They chose instead to focus selling printers (because the ink and cables were high margin), TV's (because they wanted to be like BestBuy), cameras (because most could only be returned to the manufacturer back then, bypassing the store's bottom line or a while), and a shitload of laptops (but only because they could sell TAP on them). They replaced that stuff with such a wide variety of product that sometimes it felt like they had absorbed one of the generic Indian retailers that hangs out in mall hallways selling cheap RC copters, or Sega Genesis emulators. There was even a laughable attempt by the store manager to try and sell this new HD VHS system as being the next big thing, and how the AV quality was better then either HD-DVD or BluRay.
The biggest sign of trouble, however, was TAP (Technology Assurance Program, if I remember correctly). It was basically your standard high-margin warranty extension that most places offer. You can tell when a company is truly screwed because they begin to view these "products" as the only viable source of revenue, and begin training staff to push them as hard as possible. There were times where employees were basically instructed to use fear tactics to sell TAP, where they would play out scenarios for the customer like "You don't want to open this new monitor and find out there's a dead pixel do you? We can't return it if you don't purchase TAP!" Of course you also people like the best salesmen claiming TAP covered practically everything from flooding to divine retribution, when in reality it was basically an extension of the manufacturer's warranty.
The reason I bring all of this up is because the same patterns happened with Circuit City, and now RadioShack. They've confused their core business model with newer shiny opportunities, like cell phones, and service plans. It's fine to expand your business with those things, but it should never push your bread and butter out of the spotlight. RadioShack can branch out all it wants, as long as its stores continue to offer the core services (hacker parts, electronics, and knowledgeable staff) front and center. Since it isn't doing that, it will become another CompUSA.
>There are fewer hobbyists now.
There are fewer electronics hobbyists, just like less people are building steam-engines, but there aren't fewer hobbyists in general. The fun is in programming these days, rather than soldering together electronic components. We still break out the soldering iron, but the software is the larger part of current-day hobby projects.
Seriously. I've got two words for Radio Shack:
Monoprice and Digikey.
I went in there to buy some lame battery (CR123 or whatever) and ended up buying like a 30 pack online for cheaper than their ONE battery. Same deal with cables, electrical components, etc.
Oh gee, you started selling Arduino? At the size of Radio Shack, why the fuck can't they get within every $10 of the price of the board online? FAIL...
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
I see what you're saying, but I'm a retailer (among other things) and it's not about "hobbyist components"
Your Auto Parts example is actually the same thing. Auto parts = Components
I think Radio Shack should take your suggestion, precisely **because** it allows them to stock **more** of those components, and offer them in any ammount not a pre-packaged ammount. It allows for more stock in the same ammount of space.
Radio Shack & Auto Zone can afford the overhead of stocking all those specialized parts because of **economy of scale**
if you have 3000 stores & suppliers set up, the scale makes it profitable...don't put them in shitty low-rent neighborhoods though?!? that's horrible advice...also, they mall locations are not that much more than a regular storefront. Its a good choice, b/c they make alot of money on consumer electronics! Radio Shack should stock more high-end stuff...not exit the market!
the online aspect really is just a matter of logistics...look at Sears' online store...its' actually really good & prices are lower than Amazon etc on some things....Radio Shack could do that AND take your advice AND keep their stores open!
Thank you Dave Raggett
You're my hero.
No seriously, you really are. You talk down to kids hardly making minimum wage because they're not experts on a niche hobbyist field? And hiring EE students to do the job of answering questions your local RS probably gets about once every three weeks would do what for their customer base exactly? Wow. You're just The Man!
Sorry but even if RS had sold every Arduino and Raspberry Pi sold in the US it probably wouldn't have put a dent in their cash flow woes. It's really just not that big of a customer base. The only people I know of who dicker with that kind of thing put about 50 dollars into it and lose interest or they're old neckbeards who are still playing with reel-to-reel decks and demand very specific components which they need to import from Japan.
It ain't just that...
Before Online Privacy was even a concept, Radio Shack happily demanded to know my phone number, home address, blood type, maternal grandmother's maiden name, the dog's last vet checkup results, an affidavit from my first girlfriend as to how often she caught me staring at her chest...
The sad part? One of the absolute best presents I ever had as a little kid was that 120-in-one electronics lab kit they used to sell (even the then-brand-new Atari VCS I got for Christmas came in 2nd place... but mostly because I had to share that with the younger siblings).
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
I'm guessing the margins on the cell phone business were pretty good there for a while.
As much as I'd love a retail store where I could buy hobby components, and I'd be willing to pay more than internet prices for the immediacy. Heck, for an individual resistor or whatever, I'd pay double. But I don't think there's enough business there, sadly.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
There isn't a place for a Radio Shack that won't commit 100% to being the hobbyist shop they started to be
It's important to note though, that even in its glory days Radio Shack was much more than a place to buy blister-pack transistors and soldering irons.
They sold metal detectors, HiFis, shortwave receivers, tape recorders, CBs, walkie-talkies, "flavor radios," speciality batteries - Tons of high-margin stuff that supported the hobbyist who spent two hours in the shop pouring over resistors.
Flip through this RS catalog from 1975 to see what I'm talking about -
http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/1975/
It's not like they can go back to that business model now.
They should have changed their business model to match their business setup
#1 order on line for parts
#2 pickup in store using their existing delivery network to "ship for free"
They could have had 1 week delivery. Essentially 1 or 2 days for most places near a distribution center. They had weekly or 2x weekly shipments.
Rather than a limited in store inventory. That
a) frees up store space
b) reduced individual store inventory
c) gets a much wider array of parts
d) drives foot traffic
The hobbyist niche didn't fully support them in the old days either, with something like 80% of retail revenue coming at Christmas time and Radio Shack selling a ton of RC toys and such. Other times of the year, non-geeks looking for cables, adapters, etc. were a major market for them. Their slogan "you've got questions, we've got answers" was accurate - their employees got raises for passing tests in various fields, so they would have the answer. Any average Joe could come in saying "I want to hook both my DVD player and my game console to two TVs ..." and the Radio Shack employees would steer them to the products they needed, cable, A/B switches, etc.
For the niche that defined the brand, that's still there, it's just shifted a little bit. The same guys, like me, are still interested in similar stuff. It's just shifted from ie short-wave radio to 3D printing. If each Radio Shack location (or some of them) had a 3D printer in the store, that would bring traffic from the same people who used to buy resistors and antennas there. We're not building homebrew computers anymore, but we sure might want some servos to hook to our Raspberry Pi.
Video game stores aren't still trying to sell Atari 2600 games, but they haven't changed too much - they are just selling the new games. Radio Shack could do the same. Not by selling (only) the same resistors they sold 30 years ago, but by adding what today's geeks want, stuff for rPi and microcontroller systems, and whatever else is most popular on makezine.com.
Radio Shack used to be a pretty awesome place. Back in the 8 personal computer revolution, they were for sure a force to be reckoned with. Compared to the other guys at the time, they were the only ones who had their own retail distribution channel. They had a variety of models with different capabilities (and little cross-compatibility!), and was a great little shop to visit when you're a nerd kid in the 80s. Beyond computers, they had a "Battery Club" where you would get a free battery every month!
They also had walls of common electronics components... 555 timers, resistors in exactly the impedance you needed, prototype boards, power supplies, lcd numeric displays... Completed products were the exception, components were the rule. Not to mention educational materials and experiment kits! http://imgur.com/XZyJf
Talking about how things were better "back then" can be cliche, but sometimes it's true.
Squash
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.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Why not buy it online ship it to my house instead?
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
The Radio Shack I knew and loved, growing up, was one of the early computer stores, among other things. The TRS-80 line of 8-bit computers, despite being much maligned by proponents of competing brands ("Trash 80" as they liked to call them), were solid, reliable and capable computers in their day. I *still* know several people who have their old TRS-80 Model 3 or 4 computers in good, working condition to this day. (If you purchased that optional dust cover Radio Shack used to sell for them, and used it religiously, the machine might even LOOK almost like new!)
The parent poster is also correct that Radio Shack home stereo equipment was pretty good stuff, all in all. Like every brand, they sold a few "duds" too, but products like the old Minimus 7 die-cast metal bookshelf speakers were even critically acclaimed in magazines like Stereo Review. (They eventually got renamed Optimus 7, with the 77 being a larger wattage version with about an inch larger woofer.) I believe some of their component stereo receivers were made for them by Pioneer, but designed custom for Radio Shack so not just identical to Pioneer models for sale elsewhere.
Radio Shack used to also be one of only a few really good "go to" places for things like police scanners, weather radios or shortwave radios. Sure, other brands were arguably "better" but were typically only available by mail order or at specialty shops. At least with Radio Shack, you could recommend a particular one and know anyone could run down the street and grab it at their nearest store. The availability of some of these also meant readily available hardware modifications. (I remember downloading instructions on how to cut one capacitor off of a board in one of my Radio Shack scanners to unlock the ability to scan a whole portion of the frequency spectrum that was otherwise locked out. Pretty cool enhancement for nothing but the cost of my time to open it up and cut one thing.)
When they tried to change into a mini Best Buy type of store, they really went downhill fast, IMO. I guess that was an attempt to appeal to the masses, who were less interested in electronics projects and hacking, and more interested in buying off the shelf accessories and gadgets. But too many retailers already did that better than Radio Shack ever could with their smaller stores.
At this point, I agree that R/S may need to cut back and close quite a few stores -- but it could do well to focus the remaining ones on electronics for true hobbyists and electricians, IMO. Drop the prices so they're really competitive, especially on items like ethernet cabling and jacks. Carry a full line of quality tools like phone linemen's handsets, punch-down tools and "fox and hound" toners/probes, but sell them below the high prices of places like Greybar! IMO, there's no room to make any money selling computers anymore. R/S just needs to step out of that area -- other than maybe stocking a few common items like USB memory sticks or SD cards. But definitely go back to carrying a full line of soldering irons, solder remover tools, maybe an R/S branded oscilloscope ....
Cameras wouldn't have worked. Ask Ritz or Wolf Camera. Aside from photography stores in larger cities catering to higher end prosumer/professionals (think B&H or Adorama), and Best Buy, that business has all but disappeared from retail.
No Trash 80s had a 8 inch floppy stock
I present to you, the TRS-80 Model *2* with a Shugart *8-inch* drive -
http://www.old-computers.com/m...
Complete with the 'orange button' referenced by the GP.
Who's "trash" now, punk? Now get off my lawn.
>But I don't think there's enough business there, sadly.
And there never was. But what would happen in the vast majority of cases is that people would walk in for that fuse or resistor and walk out with a bunch of other things as well, like batteries and RC toys. Which they became well known for around the holiday season.
However, with the great change in electronics that we have seen, they needed to continue to innovate, in the same way that they did with computers and the TRS-80 that was light years before anything else. They also had the first portable computers with LCD display. They needed to keep that same thinking alive.
Instead they put all their eggs in the same basket with cell phones, which was destined to become a commodity item.
If they really wanted to remain relevant, they would have moved into cell phone repair. That has now been taken up by countless niche kiosks in the same malls that Radio Shacks operate. They just could not see themselves doing that. They really dropped the ball on that one. And that is just one example of where they could have moved to.
If you want to see a store that is on the ball (and now another great place to buy batteries) is Harbor Freight.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
About 40 years ago Radio Shack was actually a place worth going to for electronic components and tools. As a fledgling electronics hobbyist I was grateful to have somewhere to buy parts, especially after the local TV repair supply store closed, and the nearest alternative was 70 miles away and I didn't drive. Back then Radio Shack's selection was decent, and the prices were high but not terrible. Even their audio equipment was often pretty good too. The stores were popular, and the staff were actually somewhat knowledgeable. (Back then an "electronics store" was a place to buy electronic parts, not TV's and stereos).
Here in Canada, Rat Shack stores became The Sores by Circuit City some time around 2005, but long before that they had become annoying places to shop at, with a poor selection of crappy over-priced components, and arrogant staff who knew far less than they thought they did. On the one hand I'm happy to see the beast put out of its misery, but on the other hand I'm sad to see a company that was so important to me and to my eventual career die such an ignominious death.
Requiescat In Pace, Radio Shack.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
OOhhh, I could rant. And I will.
I needed a VOM, mostly because I wasn't totally sure where mine was. They had a real cheap one for something like $7.99. Great!
I got it home, and there's no battery. I opened it up, and it doesn't take a regular battery. The battery was about $15, and they didn't stock it. Nowhere locally stocked it. I could order it online, but that kind of defeats the purpose of picking up a cheap multimeter to use the same day.
$8 isn't usually something I worry about, but it was the principle. How can you sell a multimeter, that doesn't work without buying a battery, *AND* you don't stock the battery. If I got the battery, now I have a $23 multimeter, with a consumable part at $15/ea. I couldn't even give it away to someone without them hating me for giving them a crap multimeter with an expensive battery.
So I went back to the store and bitched them out. Someone in that store is responsible for ordering. Somewhere in their system should have said "You need to stock these too". When I was btiching them out, I asked, "have you ever seen that battery?" Nope, to the best of their knowledge (the floor guy *and* the manager) they never stocked it. I guess enough people take home the worthless multimeter, and either order it online, or just toss it in the tool box and forget about it.
I'm not a customer to fund them by buying worthless crap.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
I don't know about other folk. But when I saw RadioShack's SuperBowl commerical, I cringed.
Timothy remarks that "a few years ago" RadioShack was trying to get back to its roots as a hobbyist outlet. I don't know how anybody could reconcile that idea with the incredible disdain for the past demonstrated in that commercial.
Trouble is... what differentiates RadioShack? Why would I bother going THERE for cell phones? As they've tried more and more to become like everyone else, they've succeeded in undercutting and destroying any reason I'd have to go there first for anything. I'll still end up at RadioShack when my shopping research shows they have what I want less than others. But to go there on a lark? Not these days.
http://lcdalternatives.com/ probably has a kit made up already for that particular model TV.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
I recently needed a new 123 lithium battery for my EDC flashlight. Radio Shack wanted $13 for the store brand, while I found an Engergizer at Target for $7. With that kind of pricing it is no wonder that they are doing poorly.
I also remember a few years ago noticing that you could buy a USB cable for close to $30. Or, you could buy a complete USB hub, with a similar cable included, for the same price. Gee, which one is a better deal?
I have actually been pleasantly surprised to see them sell Arduino and Basic Stamp stuff recently. While the prices are a little high, it is nice to be able to grab that kind of thing locally if you need one quick.
I had kind of hoped that they would get back into amateur radio (ham) stuff too. With cheaper Chinese hand-held radios available for as little as $30 (Baofeng is one of the biggest manufacturers), they could have the stuff re-branded and possibly get back into the business with low cost and low risk. The quality is not fantastic, but is generally good enough, and might establish themselves as a destination for amateur radio operators again.
I remember back when I was a kid, Radio Shack was one of my favorite places to go, and I even enjoyed going over the catalogs to see what cool things they used to have. Now, other than a smattering of hobby stuff (but not much), all they have is the same cell phones , DVD players, and digital cameras that everybody else has, but with more cost and less selection. Other than the occasional adapter or Arduino, there is absolutely no reason to go there.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
Sharper Image sold gadgets, and expensive ones at that. The problem with "The Internet" is that you get low prices and unknown quality. Wal-Mart succeeds because they sell low-end junk, but with a good return policy, and internal QA. If Radio Shack would have been a China mart with QA and a return policy, they could charge 2x the Internet price for most things and still steal lots of business from the Internet shops.
You don't try to beat the Internet on price. You try to get close and focus on support and availability (a 5 minute drive, vs a delivery).
Learn to love Alaska
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.)
Mostly random stuff.
The one part of RS which has performed flawless is the "How to tick off the customer division." Recently I went to a store with the exact name of the part from their web site. After being told by the clerk that he had never heard of it, I handed him the RS part number. While he was busy with the computer, I found what I was looking for on the wall beside the cash register. After I handed him the money, he stood there holding it and launched into a 4 minute, by my watch, spiel on cell phones, trade-ins, etc. I twice politely said that I was not interested, but it had no effect. And they expect return business?
To me, that would be amazing. Alas, I can dream.
As long as the FIRE (finance, insurance, real-estate) economy rewards those who collect rents (literally and figuratively) over those who work to produce profit, we'll have these issues - the cost of having retail presence is not going down, and looks like it won't, absent another financial crisis when the government refuses to bail out the banks.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Would you recommend a Porsche 911 for someone learning to drive just because you have 50 years experience driving and have fun in your Porsche? Fine if you can afford it, but how about a nice pair of socks and sneakers first? Then a bicycle? There's plenty of time for that new hobbyist to get into "analog fun", but that doesn't mean s\/he should throw away the other 50 years of progress in electronics that we are enjoying now.
I'm just being pragmatic and realistic.
If you're someone with 300$ to spend on starting out, that's either 1 so-so probably used scope and nothing else, or a used power supply, a basic multimeter and a soldering iron. With a bit more work, insistence and luck that 300$ is going to get some parts too.
What's better for the neophyte? Especially if they still have decades ahead of them to get into all the other nooks and crannies of electronics.
Mostly random stuff.
Homebrewing stores (the malt kind that is) have made a successful business model of teaching people how to brew beer in a 3 hour class charging a nominal fee, Afterwards they are lined up buying all sorts of brewing ingredients and paraphernalia..