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.
The sad fact is they have lost that core demographic that would shop there. They have found workable replacements for whatever Radio Shack used to sell them, and even at cheaper prices that the internet can offer.
I have a difficult time seeing how it is not too late. There are a few corporate businesses that struggled in the past, closed stores, and then were able to make a comeback after restructuring and reinventing themselves. But for the vast majority, it just signals the beginning of the end.
If I had a hand in Radio Shack, I'd fire anything that called itself a manager, and get rid of positions in corporate that seem to be merely taking up space. Maybe that's what will happen with all these store closings. Get rid of quite a few district managers.
Somehow Ironic that they will be forced to go through now what they forced countless salesman to do - walking the plank of unemployment.
However, if you notice, every store is focussed on the upsell. It's more rare that I walk into a store and be left alone than it is where I walk into one and they try to upsell me.
Retail store fronts simply are not needed at all for electronics any more. They simply are not going to be able to stay in business with a guy walking in once a week to buy a pack of resistors.
The thing that Radio Shack needed to do like days of old was not necessarily sell parts, but rather innovate. Like what others dealing in electronics have. It's not that Digikey dropped their minimum (though I never thought that was big deal) but that they had every part being made, and then built a robot system that could pull parts faster, more accurately, and cheaper than humans. Something Radio Shack should have spotted, if they weren't more than a bunch of salespersons worried about bagging the next cell phone sale.
People need to be stop being pollyannaish about the old days of electronics coming back, because there is no reason for it to.
Everybody who is the type to buy electronics does so now online. It is impossible for Radio Shack to stay open with a customer walking in once a week to buy a pack of fuses.
This is a story about the transformation of electronics as much as it is Radio Shack mismanagement. Depending on cell phones for short term profit instead of innovation was the death knell for Radio Shack. You can browse old threads about Radio Shack and see that this is no surprise. I think it also marks the path that others will take when they focus entirely on short term gains and not try to look ahead.
As I said in another comment. Radio Shack should have been the inventor of Arduino. Not another me-too place. And who is going to spend $100 for a Raspberry Pi?
Radio Shack is simply not needed. Quite honestly, it's probably beneficial for employees that they close their doors as well, because they can now move on to another place that will treat them a little kinder.
Since when do people repair electronics? Electronics are not like cars where people are going to find a way to repair them. When electronics break, they are sent to a land fill and replaced as expeditiously as possible. And used as an excuse to upgrade.
I'm not saying that it is right, just what the market has morphed into. It makes no sense to have an "Autozone" for electronics now.
Actually around the holiday season Radio Shack mall stores would outperform the strip mall stores by miles because of all the RC toy sales (and gift giving). And people would also always buy a pile of batteries to go with them. During the same time, people who would show up at the strip malls were people looking to buy a pack of resistors or fuses.
Malls can charge higher rent because of the demographic and foot traffic in a mall far outstrips that in a strip mall. Sales people always wanted to work in malls because they would easily get more commissions.
However, if you worked in a strip mall, you always worked for minimum wage.
I welcome ex-Radio Shack employees to chime in, as I know that is not far from the truth.
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.
They resented their employees worse than a fast food place. My thoughts is that management had to blame someone for their poor sales, and as they say crap rolls downhill. So it was the poor lackey at the bottom to catch it. Employees were probably blamed for stealing when it was shoplifters that could not be stopped. That kind of nonsense.
If it would have been the Radio Shack of old, they would have been the ones to invent the Arduino But they're not. All they are now is a bunch of stuffy managers making a death bed repentance.
Everything you mentioned can now be found online for cheaper, and everybody is now used to getting it that way and probably prefers not having to drive to the store and having it delivered to the doorstep anyway.
Amazon will probably be able to pick up the slack with same day shipping in the near future for a lot of these items. But even then I don't mind waiting two or three for the USPS.
I disagree. Other places now sell batteries quite inexpensively, like Harbor Freight where you can find numerous button cells imexpensively blister packed (a lot cheaper than Radio Shack sells them). Along with a whole aisle of electrical supplies and nuts and bolts. Radio Shack was arrogant in thinking they could continue to charge exorbitant prices for these.
Other discount stores now sell a lot of the cables that TVs need, like Wal Mart and KMart.
There really is no need for a Radio Shack anymore. Everything can be found elsewhere for cheaper. And if they don't soon Amazon will have it for next day shipping if not same day shipping.
>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.
After Radio Shack closes, you'll be able to find that relay at either the junk yard or an Autozone. Radio Shack's great tragedy is that everything they sale you can find easier elsewhere now.
Actually that was considered by marketers at the time at Radio Shack's height as brilliance, as they would get your address and thus have a relevant mailing list of willing customers.
It is no different than all the "loyalty cards" that you now see everywhere (which make obtaining the address at every sale unnecessary - which really was annoying for both the customers and Radio Shack workers).
The 120-in-one kits was another stroke of brilliance for its time. And it too was one of my favorites along with the Atari. If you had those, you had everything!
But this is where they went wrong. They stopped that kind of innovation in favor of retail electronics and cell phones, in trying to capture short term gains. Both of these things are easier to get elsewhere. And the one demographic that went to their stores continually ceased needing to go there as hobby electronics was left in the dust, generally speaking. The areas that they needed to innovate in, they did not. It became all about cell phone sales.
I think it's too late for them now, There's too much management cruft around, and all the engineers are gone.
The best strategy that I heard is that they should sell themselves to Best Buy and become a "Best Buy lite."
Other than that, everybody in the financial community has been predicting the end of Radio Shack. So these store closings are not really a surprise for anyone.
That's not funny! Seriously, I saw this day coming from the way they treat their employees as grist for their mill. I stopped buying anything from them (thanks internet!) and haven't spent more than $15 in their stores in the last twenty years.
Let's not forget that in the same time frame electronics has fundamentally changed to an enterprise that is largely disposable. The days of through hole electronics has pretty much ended and gone the way of vacuum tubes, in exchange for customized and unique semiconductors.
Radio Shack has lost their main demographic because they wanted to sell their soul to the cell phone business. Really a good example of looking for short term gains that come at the sacrifice of long term ones.
Haven't carried out a detail search on the said patent,
You won't be able to, either. The article states that due to age of the patent, the application is confidential.
Without seeing the application, it's difficult to tell what its validity is. But when this patent application was filed in 1971, electronic control of machinery was already quite widespread. So, it would have to be quite specific about its implementation. Then there is the question of making companies pay for something they knew nothing about.
In the end, congress would have the power to invalidate this patent outright, if they wanted to.
Their cautiousness can also be prescient. Note that you won't find yellow #5 artificial coloring there, something that science is only now starting to recognize as unhealthy. So while some of the things that they sell don't make sense to a skeptic, the fact that they recognize that we have to be careful with what we eat is right on target.
My casual observation is that many STEM workers are far too amenable with building the robots, programming the computers, and engineering solutions to replace other people, or themselves, or help train the cheaper worker to replace themselves or another worker.
So we are also seeing an increasing supply of labor coming from increased efficiencies, which is in complete contradiction to somehow expecting long term growth for their own products?
And then is the failure of this administration (or any one for that matter) to take on age discrimination head on.
And it goes deeper. The so called smart "superstars" that someone might want to hire are smart enough to recognize how hollow of a promise STEM trades have become esp. programming might be and are moving to take up a trade instead. I see this everywhere. Because at least that is not going to be outsourced, or you won't lose your job because you turn 35.
I recommend that every would be programmer do this. You'll enjoy coding more for an open source project in your spare time. And then eventually companies will be forced to lie in the bed they are making for themselves, and it will not be comfortable. They can go ahead and move all their managers and the rest of their shebang overseas. We won't miss them.
I check a store's inventory and maybe make a call before I drive off. Olden days I would need to travel around to different stores to find a special item. More often than not I also mail order supplies I would have bought locally. Sorry Radio Shack. Well, not really.
Slashdot Mirror
Does anyone else remember when IBM would be the one to do something like this?
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.
The sad fact is they have lost that core demographic that would shop there. They have found workable replacements for whatever Radio Shack used to sell them, and even at cheaper prices that the internet can offer.
I have a difficult time seeing how it is not too late. There are a few corporate businesses that struggled in the past, closed stores, and then were able to make a comeback after restructuring and reinventing themselves. But for the vast majority, it just signals the beginning of the end.
If I had a hand in Radio Shack, I'd fire anything that called itself a manager, and get rid of positions in corporate that seem to be merely taking up space. Maybe that's what will happen with all these store closings. Get rid of quite a few district managers.
Somehow Ironic that they will be forced to go through now what they forced countless salesman to do - walking the plank of unemployment.
However, if you notice, every store is focussed on the upsell. It's more rare that I walk into a store and be left alone than it is where I walk into one and they try to upsell me.
It happens online too. Look at Amazon's "ad ons."
Retail store fronts simply are not needed at all for electronics any more. They simply are not going to be able to stay in business with a guy walking in once a week to buy a pack of resistors.
The thing that Radio Shack needed to do like days of old was not necessarily sell parts, but rather innovate. Like what others dealing in electronics have. It's not that Digikey dropped their minimum (though I never thought that was big deal) but that they had every part being made, and then built a robot system that could pull parts faster, more accurately, and cheaper than humans. Something Radio Shack should have spotted, if they weren't more than a bunch of salespersons worried about bagging the next cell phone sale.
It was, and remains to be, beyond them.
People need to be stop being pollyannaish about the old days of electronics coming back, because there is no reason for it to.
Everybody who is the type to buy electronics does so now online. It is impossible for Radio Shack to stay open with a customer walking in once a week to buy a pack of fuses.
This is a story about the transformation of electronics as much as it is Radio Shack mismanagement. Depending on cell phones for short term profit instead of innovation was the death knell for Radio Shack. You can browse old threads about Radio Shack and see that this is no surprise. I think it also marks the path that others will take when they focus entirely on short term gains and not try to look ahead.
As I said in another comment. Radio Shack should have been the inventor of Arduino. Not another me-too place. And who is going to spend $100 for a Raspberry Pi?
Radio Shack is simply not needed. Quite honestly, it's probably beneficial for employees that they close their doors as well, because they can now move on to another place that will treat them a little kinder.
Since when do people repair electronics? Electronics are not like cars where people are going to find a way to repair them. When electronics break, they are sent to a land fill and replaced as expeditiously as possible. And used as an excuse to upgrade.
I'm not saying that it is right, just what the market has morphed into. It makes no sense to have an "Autozone" for electronics now.
Actually around the holiday season Radio Shack mall stores would outperform the strip mall stores by miles because of all the RC toy sales (and gift giving). And people would also always buy a pile of batteries to go with them. During the same time, people who would show up at the strip malls were people looking to buy a pack of resistors or fuses.
Malls can charge higher rent because of the demographic and foot traffic in a mall far outstrips that in a strip mall. Sales people always wanted to work in malls because they would easily get more commissions.
However, if you worked in a strip mall, you always worked for minimum wage.
I welcome ex-Radio Shack employees to chime in, as I know that is not far from the truth.
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.
They resented their employees worse than a fast food place. My thoughts is that management had to blame someone for their poor sales, and as they say crap rolls downhill. So it was the poor lackey at the bottom to catch it. Employees were probably blamed for stealing when it was shoplifters that could not be stopped. That kind of nonsense.
Also lots of Arduino stuff.
If it would have been the Radio Shack of old, they would have been the ones to invent the Arduino But they're not. All they are now is a bunch of stuffy managers making a death bed repentance.
Everything you mentioned can now be found online for cheaper, and everybody is now used to getting it that way and probably prefers not having to drive to the store and having it delivered to the doorstep anyway.
Amazon will probably be able to pick up the slack with same day shipping in the near future for a lot of these items. But even then I don't mind waiting two or three for the USPS.
I disagree. Other places now sell batteries quite inexpensively, like Harbor Freight where you can find numerous button cells imexpensively blister packed (a lot cheaper than Radio Shack sells them). Along with a whole aisle of electrical supplies and nuts and bolts. Radio Shack was arrogant in thinking they could continue to charge exorbitant prices for these.
Other discount stores now sell a lot of the cables that TVs need, like Wal Mart and KMart.
There really is no need for a Radio Shack anymore. Everything can be found elsewhere for cheaper. And if they don't soon Amazon will have it for next day shipping if not same day shipping.
>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.
After Radio Shack closes, you'll be able to find that relay at either the junk yard or an Autozone. Radio Shack's great tragedy is that everything they sale you can find easier elsewhere now.
Actually that was considered by marketers at the time at Radio Shack's height as brilliance, as they would get your address and thus have a relevant mailing list of willing customers.
It is no different than all the "loyalty cards" that you now see everywhere (which make obtaining the address at every sale unnecessary - which really was annoying for both the customers and Radio Shack workers).
The 120-in-one kits was another stroke of brilliance for its time. And it too was one of my favorites along with the Atari. If you had those, you had everything!
But this is where they went wrong. They stopped that kind of innovation in favor of retail electronics and cell phones, in trying to capture short term gains. Both of these things are easier to get elsewhere. And the one demographic that went to their stores continually ceased needing to go there as hobby electronics was left in the dust, generally speaking. The areas that they needed to innovate in, they did not. It became all about cell phone sales.
I think it's too late for them now, There's too much management cruft around, and all the engineers are gone.
The best strategy that I heard is that they should sell themselves to Best Buy and become a "Best Buy lite."
Other than that, everybody in the financial community has been predicting the end of Radio Shack. So these store closings are not really a surprise for anyone.
That's not funny! Seriously, I saw this day coming from the way they treat their employees as grist for their mill. I stopped buying anything from them (thanks internet!) and haven't spent more than $15 in their stores in the last twenty years.
Let's not forget that in the same time frame electronics has fundamentally changed to an enterprise that is largely disposable. The days of through hole electronics has pretty much ended and gone the way of vacuum tubes, in exchange for customized and unique semiconductors.
Radio Shack has lost their main demographic because they wanted to sell their soul to the cell phone business. Really a good example of looking for short term gains that come at the sacrifice of long term ones.
I'll make and sell conversion kits to unfuck your Keurig 2.0
The new pods will have a plastic tap and notch so that they will be the only ones that physically fit in the coffee maker.
Haven't carried out a detail search on the said patent,
You won't be able to, either. The article states that due to age of the patent, the application is confidential.
Without seeing the application, it's difficult to tell what its validity is. But when this patent application was filed in 1971, electronic control of machinery was already quite widespread. So, it would have to be quite specific about its implementation. Then there is the question of making companies pay for something they knew nothing about.
In the end, congress would have the power to invalidate this patent outright, if they wanted to.
Their cautiousness can also be prescient. Note that you won't find yellow #5 artificial coloring there, something that science is only now starting to recognize as unhealthy. So while some of the things that they sell don't make sense to a skeptic, the fact that they recognize that we have to be careful with what we eat is right on target.
My casual observation is that many STEM workers are far too amenable with building the robots, programming the computers, and engineering solutions to replace other people, or themselves, or help train the cheaper worker to replace themselves or another worker.
So we are also seeing an increasing supply of labor coming from increased efficiencies, which is in complete contradiction to somehow expecting long term growth for their own products?
And then is the failure of this administration (or any one for that matter) to take on age discrimination head on.
And it goes deeper. The so called smart "superstars" that someone might want to hire are smart enough to recognize how hollow of a promise STEM trades have become esp. programming might be and are moving to take up a trade instead. I see this everywhere. Because at least that is not going to be outsourced, or you won't lose your job because you turn 35.
I recommend that every would be programmer do this. You'll enjoy coding more for an open source project in your spare time. And then eventually companies will be forced to lie in the bed they are making for themselves, and it will not be comfortable. They can go ahead and move all their managers and the rest of their shebang overseas. We won't miss them.
I just read online that the flash drive containing the 170K missing bitcoins was just found behind the couch at Starbucks that it slid behind!
Average -20C day in Canada
Yes. But it is a "dry cold."
yet sites like /. have been around "forever" in internet time but for the most part people don't want "deep intellectual stimulation" anymore.
I know! Slashdot could remake it's format in new and interesting ways in order to attract lots of new younger readers, and call it beta!
I check a store's inventory and maybe make a call before I drive off. Olden days I would need to travel around to different stores to find a special item. More often than not I also mail order supplies I would have bought locally. Sorry Radio Shack. Well, not really.