[Coco] RadioShack closing 1100 stores

[Allen Huffman]

On Mar 4, 2014, at 4:38 PM, Frank Swygert <farna at amc-mag.com> wrote:

> I don't feel for them. They haven't been a hobbyist store for a long time. They still carry some parts and pieces, but few.

...but more than anyone else. I still find myself dropping by when I need an adapter or connector because they still are the only game in town for all of us not near a Fry's Electronics.

CompUSA was also a go-to store for me -- hard drive enclosures and things like that. Once they were gone, so many things were just not available locally any longer -- though there were still a few independent places with banker's hours I could never get to.

We can't get through a Halloween season without a few visits to Radio Shack for a splitter cable or something. I guess if they shut down a few Des Moines stores, they will keep their flagship store at the "big mall" across town and we'll just be driving 25 miles to get that cable to keep the show going on a Friday night :)

> I don't know that they would have done as well as they have by catering to hobbyists and selling computers though. Selling their computer manufacturing and concentrating on retail sales was probably a smart move -- they sold while the manufacturing facilities were still worth something. I remember when the bottom fell out of the PC market and several manufacturers closed shop. So I call that a very timely move. This moving to cell phones is the thing I don't understand. Carrying them yes, but concentrating on them? Too many eggs in one basket!!

There was a point where Radio Shack had become THE LARGEST cell phone activator in America. At least, that's what I read. But, that market is not what it once was -- everyone is locked in to two year contracts now, and you can get the latest iPhone at Wal Mart. Speciality stores are no longer special.

But MAN does Radio Shack have a ton of cool parts and things on the shelves these days -- servos, IR sensors, joysticks for Arduino, surface mount soldering boards... Just wild the stuff that is there now.

		-- A