[Coco] More poor news for Radio Shack

[Zippster]

I don’t know how they’ve stuck around this long.  Must be the cell phones… lol..

The ones around here at least are VERY overpriced on pretty much everything,
especially in this age of internet ordering.  Any electronics enthusiast is likely
to have much cheaper online options they already use.

The only thing Radio Shack would have going for them would be the convenience
of not having to wait a few days to get your parts (albeit at a greatly inflated price).
And I’d buy parts there in situations where I didn’t want to wait, if it weren’t such a
rare thing for them to actually have a component I needed.

Obviously they don’t have the store size to stock too much of a selection in components,
but having the full value range of basic resistors and caps would be useful.  
But they can’t even manage that.  I understand people that want to buy stuff like that
are a tiny minority of the shopping public, but if you’re going to have components
for sale at all…

I’ve pretty much stopped trying to buy anything there unless I unexpectedly
run out of solder, or really need a $23 usb cable that I can’t wait 4 days to get for $5.

- Ed


> On Dec 12, 2014, at 10:20 AM, David Gettle <david17361 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I gave John Roach (then RadioShack C.E.O.) a warning about this about 20
> years ago...
> 
> They didn't listen then, and still won't. So the RadioShack employees are
> going to have to face the struggle to keep the company open and be worried
> about their employment for the long term. though most RadioShack employees
> are only there for the short term (or think they will be, been there, done
> that).
> 
> They used to have a program where businesses could buy in bulk at lower
> prices, I don't know if they still do that or not, but it did require a
> business account that was set up with the home office, and all purchases
> had to be called or faxed in to the home office, business orders could not
> be done over the internet, or through the local stores. At least that was
> true when I left the company in 2009.
> 
> To set up the account required the business to have a Tax ID with the state
> they are registered in, a D.U.N.S. number, and the payments were either
> required to be company check with net-30 billing or paid on shipment with a
> company credit card, unless the company applied for, and was approved for a
> RadioShack credit card.
> 
> On Fri, Dec 12, 2014 at 9:43 AM, Allen Huffman <alsplace at pobox.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Dec 12, 2014, at 6:55 AM, Gustavo Ranaur Schoenaker <
>> ranaur at ranaur.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>> In my last vacation to San Francisco I went to a Radio Shack that had no
>>> electronics components! Only cellphones and accessories! That's an
>> absurd!
>> 
>> Yeah, that didn't last long. In 2005, I think, I was building control
>> boxes for some Halloween props for a local haunted house. The computer I
>> used was a EFX-TEK Prop-1 controller (Parallax BASIC Stamp 1 computer).
>> Everything else I bought from Radio Shack: connectors, enclosure, 12V
>> lights, power supply, etc.
>> 
>> I was having to hit four or five Radio Shack stores each week, wiping them
>> out of the pieces I needed. They were just then downsizing their parts. I
>> was racing to get everything I needed before they didn't carry it.
>> 
>> But today, you go in one, and it has a HUGE selection -- but they are all
>> in five or six vertical cabinets instead of spread out on the back part of
>> the store. They have so many things they never carried before, but likely
>> are missing many things they used to. Still, tons of parts.
>> 
>> They carry things I can't see there being much demand for -- like these
>> circuit board things you can put a surface mount part on then solder it "no
>> skill required". I had no idea such things existed until I saw it at Radio
>> Shack. They also have tons of Arduino things -- ethernet, touch screen,
>> Xbee, relay and other add-on shields.
>> 
>>> I think they should go after repair/DIY market. They will need to lower
>> the
>>> prices of the comodities to be competitive. But they can add services,
>> like
>>> rent 3D printers. Repair/fix electronics, and other "nerdy" stuff. It
>> will
>>> be tough, but there is no opponent in this market.
>> 
>> Yeah, going after the "Maker" market would make sense -- though so many
>> other larger niche stores (Sharper Image, anyone?) have failed as well. I
>> still think many of us use RadioShack for one-off quick projects, but then
>> we would order stuff cheaper online once we figure it out. It would be nice
>> if you could buy something in the store, then they would let you order
>> online quantities of the same item as a competitive price.
>> 
>>                -- A
>> 
>> 
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