[Coco] Another Radio Shack Article

Sat Jan 4 13:31:07 EST 2014

Whats the big deal about Radio Shack?

I don't remember it being so hot "back in the day".  Other than the COCO 
I didn't buy much else from them. Most of their stuff was a bit on the 
junk side. Here in Phoenix there were several stores hands above them 
for electronics geeks albeit "geeks" were unheard of then :-).  
Lafayette was one that came to mind. There were a couple more also, but 
I don't remember their names. There was even a computer store that had 
non Tandy software and accessories for the COCO in stock!

The past always seems better than the present for some reason.  I guess 
nostalgia takes over our common sense. he he he

IMNSHO
Tim

On 1/4/2014 11:15 AM, Louis Ciotti wrote:
> Lets face it anyone on this list is going to have some skewed opinion of
> Radio Shack back in the day and Radio Shack now.  If one really thinks
> about it our beloved RS has a tough road ahead of them assuming they are
> going to attempt yet another re-branding.  I mean really where do they go?
> Most on this list will ultimately say they have to get back to their
> hobbyist roots, myself included.  But in reality that will be a disaster.
> How many patrons will you see there to buy component parts, prototype
> boards, electronics kits?  Todays youth, heck even in the 30+ crowd you
> will find very little interest in building electronics.  With a population
> so used to being able to hop in a car and go buy a radio, mp3 player,
> blue-ray player all for under $50 each, nobody has an interest in building
> anything.
>
>
> There is no way they can get into the computer market, even if they
> attempted, what would they sell?  90% of the non-apple fanatic market
> will drag themselves to the local Walmart and pick up a windows PC for a
> few hundred bucks and call it a day.
>
> Gone are the days where people had to put up an antenna to watch 3 TV
> stations, or have to change a tube to get the TV/Radio running.  The
> need/desire for a bulk of the population sees no need to build anything on
> their own.  Electronics have become disposable items.  Heck when was the
> last time you seen a TV repair shop? Just look at how many people would
> change their own oil, or flat tire.  In a society built off of instant
> gratification, any store geared toward a hobby market will struggle unless
> they cater to multiple hobbies at the same time.  i.e. hobby lobby-ish is
> what pops into my mind.
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 11:23 AM, Bill Loguidice <bill at armchairarcade.com>wrote:
>
>> There would be no viable market for a new CoCo 3, particularly not at the
>> $100 price point. You have to remember that Atari TV games (and Sega, as
>> well as the upcoming ColecoVision and Intellivision units, and even the
>> C-64 unit from 2004) are always targeted to sell at minimum, hundreds of
>> thousands of units, and on the upper end, a million or more. There's just
>> not enough nostalgia for Tandy products to hit those mass production
>> numbers, and I can tell you from direct experience that there has been
>> nothing Tandy brought up as a possibility by the main purveyor of such
>> devices, AtGames (not surprising, considering we're talking videogame
>> products, not computing products). What Tandy could have done was gotten
>> into the Rasberry Pi and similar product business, perhaps increasing
>> margins a bit by having custom value-added bundles instead of selling the
>> $35 base units (which would have been pitiful margins). With that said,
>> outside of the Maker sections of some stores, Radio Shack's were not really
>> configured for that type of business anymore. They took a gamble on cell
>> phones and had all their marketing and resources behind that. Now, if they
>> want to once again give their stores a new direction, it will take a
>> monumental effort (the advertising alone) and monetary resources that they
>> may no longer have. Regardless, it's a very different time for electronics
>> retailers, and a LOT of business is now done online by stores laser focused
>> on meeting the needs of the most demanding consumers.
>>
>> On the other end, it's impossible to ignore the squeeze put on by
>> everything retailers like Amazon. Even Best Buy was in serious trouble
>> before they made some significant changes, including putting stores within
>> a store, where companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung essentially pay
>> rent to have a retail presence in the store. That's a very different
>> proposition though than what Radio Shack can do from retail locations that
>> are closet-like in comparison to the vast warehouse-like settings of a Best
>> Buy. It may just be that there's not a place for a Radio Shack in the
>> modern world. With that said, of course I'd like to see them make one last
>> honest effort at a reimagining, and it certainly would be nice to see them
>> go back to the old school hobbyist roots (somehow).
>>
>> -Bill
>>
>> ===================================================
>> Bill Loguidice, Managing Director; Armchair Arcade,
>> Inc.<http://www.armchairarcade.com>
>> ===================================================
>> Authored Books<
>> http://www.amazon.com/Bill-Loguidice/e/B001U7W3YS/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_1>and
>> Film <http://www.armchairarcade.com/film>; About me and other ways to get
>> in touch <http://about.me/billloguidice>
>> ===================================================
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 7:28 AM, <iggybeans at comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>>> " I don't know what they might have done differently once the Wintel
>>> cancer metastasized. How could >they have stayed in the computer business
>>> once PC clones were cheap, fungible commodity items?"
>>>
>>>
>>> Possibly continued to focus on hobbyists, hackers, and those interested
>> in
>>> hardware and software projects?
>>> Commodity computing was hardly the death note to recreational computing,
>>> it survives to this day.
>>> As the average price of a Coco3 is now back up to about $100, and the
>>> price of production would actually be lower than in the past, why not
>> build
>>> a few more?
>>>
>>>
>>> Sounds crazy? That explains all those Atari retro machines that have been
>>> built.
>>>
>>>
>>> AND, Tandy had a strong foothold in the Wintel market.
>>>
>>>
>>> They decided to give up, no market force dictated it.
>>>
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