[Coco] Another Radio Shack Article

[Mathieu Bouchard]

Le 2014-01-04 à 13:15:00, Louis Ciotti a écrit :

> 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.

Back in the old times, what were people used to ? They were used to hop in 
a car and go buy a radio, cassette player, turntable at whatever price. 
Who cared about building their own radio, their own cassette player and 
their own turntable ? The same type of crowd who would be into similar 
things today.

If there are any reasons for a smaller audience today, they must be 
different reasons, such as : what do people think of people who are into 
this hobby ? Do as many college kids today have time for this hobby ? Is 
the focus moving from increasingly generic and powerful hardware to 
increasingly diversified and complex software ?

But also, for people who want electronics, other players in the market 
offer better. Radio Shack's / La Source's advantage is that it has 
more shops. But when people want more choice (or simply enough choice), 
they go at Active, and when they also want mail-order they ask Digikey, 
and when they want lower prices they go at Addison. Where does Radio Shack 
/ La Source fit in ?


> 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.

Make sure you clearly separate desire-by-necessity / money-saver crowd, 
from the hobbyist / professional crowd. The former stop when they're done 
doing the thing they came for. The latter are interested in the discipline 
for the sake of it.


> Electronics have become disposable items.  Heck when was the last time 
> you seen a TV repair shop?

Yup. Prices dropped, but also, complexity increased, models diversified, 
etc.

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| Mathieu BOUCHARD ----- téléphone : +1.514.383.3801 ----- Montréal, QC