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The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

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Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#31

Post by rbanffy »

joezydeco wrote: post #21

The internet and Digi-Key replaced RadioShack for me a long time ago. Digi-Key sells everything , and will let you buy in onesies and twosies without screwing you on the price. Maybe Monoprice for cables, but that's rare. The one time I needed a DB-9 gender changer in a hurry and paid freaking $20 for it was the day I decided I was done with RadioShack. You served a great purpose, dear friend, but times have changed.…

It's not the same as walking into a physical store. You get an awful lot of ideas by looking at what's available, kind of improvisation engineering.

I am very happy to live within walking distance from São Paulo's "electronics district" (it's called Santa Efigênia, for the name of one of the streets around which lots of electronics (some of very uncertain origin), component and junkyards abound. Many items carry heavy import taxes and counterfeit items are sold on the street. I tend to go to the adjacent streets where the least mainstream stores are located. Those are far more interesting.

Walking there is always an expedition to a strange land. I usually get the stuff I planned to get, but often with lots of stuff I didn't knew I needed when I left home.

I know physical stores cannot compete with the internet and its zero-friction-commerce, but those places will be missed when they go.

Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#32

Post by rbanffy »

It's a classic story of management by managers. You just can't hire any generic executive and expect it to work. If all the manager knows is management, all the manager will see are numbers. Some things are the soul of the company.

We don't expect a psychiatrist to be able to run a restaurant.

Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#33

Post by nitrogen »

jws wrote: post #6
anigbrowl wrote: post #5

“You walk into a regular RadioShack and it’s become like a neurosis,” Cohen says. “‘Sir, can I sell you a cell phone today? How old is your cell phone? What about your family, do they have cell phones?’” Depressingly true. Of course they have to worry about the bottom line, but I really doubt the long-term future viability of becoming a mini Best Buy - if all they sell is mid-priced consumer goods, I have no incentiv…

I've mostly solved the cable problem using monoprice.com. They are about 25% the price of a radioshack or other intown store. So when I place an order I buy 3 of everything I might need and keep them in a box, including a couple really long examples of each cable. It's cheaper for me to keep inventory than to buy local. I use the long ones temporarily if I run out of "right length" and swap when the next order comes…

Upvoted for how relevant this solution is to my own cable needs. I definitely don't miss the cashier trying to convince an electronics entrepreneur with engineering in the blood that 6' $80 HDMI cables have a noticeable quality difference. Still, I haven't found a good source for prototype project boxes in Radio Shack's price range.

Can anyone recommend a low-cost rapid-prototyping plastic case manufacturer?

Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#34

Post by thunk »

ebiester wrote: post #29
thunk wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's precisely where Radio Shack should be focusing its effort. They should outfit their stores with high-end 3d printers and fabrication machines and retool themselves as a sort of Hardware Kinko's. Some one's going to fill that niche Real Soon Now, regardless.

It's still too soon. That said, when it is time, Radio Shack can always move into that space too. However, what's more likely is that fab machines will come down in price quickly enough that people can have their own.

Sooner than you may think [1]. And we all have printers in our home, but even now go to specialty shops for our more exotic or higher volume jobs. Why would it be any different with 3D printing? And since, in this vision, they'll also be stocking all the electronics prototyping hardware, they'll be a one-stop shop for the emergent DIY robotics scene. Radio Shack should absolutely be planning for this now if they have aspirations in this direction.

[1] http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=3d+printer+cost+dro...

Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#35

Post by [deleted] »

rbanffy wrote: post #31
joezydeco wrote: post #21

The internet and Digi-Key replaced RadioShack for me a long time ago. Digi-Key sells everything , and will let you buy in onesies and twosies without screwing you on the price. Maybe Monoprice for cables, but that's rare. The one time I needed a DB-9 gender changer in a hurry and paid freaking $20 for it was the day I decided I was done with RadioShack. You served a great purpose, dear friend, but times have changed.…

It's not the same as walking into a physical store. You get an awful lot of ideas by looking at what's available, kind of improvisation engineering. I am very happy to live within walking distance from São Paulo's "electronics district" (it's called Santa Efigênia, for the name of one of the streets around which lots of electronics (some of very uncertain origin), component and junkyards abound. Many items carry heav…

[deleted]

Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#36

Post by sekou »

rbanffy wrote: post #31
joezydeco wrote: post #21

The internet and Digi-Key replaced RadioShack for me a long time ago. Digi-Key sells everything , and will let you buy in onesies and twosies without screwing you on the price. Maybe Monoprice for cables, but that's rare. The one time I needed a DB-9 gender changer in a hurry and paid freaking $20 for it was the day I decided I was done with RadioShack. You served a great purpose, dear friend, but times have changed.…

It's not the same as walking into a physical store. You get an awful lot of ideas by looking at what's available, kind of improvisation engineering. I am very happy to live within walking distance from São Paulo's "electronics district" (it's called Santa Efigênia, for the name of one of the streets around which lots of electronics (some of very uncertain origin), component and junkyards abound. Many items carry heav…

I think emerging economies in the world would take much stronger to the original concept of Radio Shack. Since we've grown a "throw away instead of fix" economy, the U.S. doesn't create nearly as much demand anymore... But there are plenty of places that would.

Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#37

Post by slapshot »

Fry's.

Period.

It's a west coast thing, but it should be a clue that the first one was in the heart of Silicon Valley. Aisle after aisle of computer components, electrical components, and truly random stuff (Mace next to hard drives, LED glowsticks next to cases, etc).

An electrophile's dream.

Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#38

Post by nitrogen »

joezydeco wrote: post #21

The internet and Digi-Key replaced RadioShack for me a long time ago. Digi-Key sells everything , and will let you buy in onesies and twosies without screwing you on the price. Maybe Monoprice for cables, but that's rare. The one time I needed a DB-9 gender changer in a hurry and paid freaking $20 for it was the day I decided I was done with RadioShack. You served a great purpose, dear friend, but times have changed.…

In addition to Digikey, Mouser and Newark similarly have diverse catalogs and allow single-unit orders of most parts. I've never ordered from Newark, but I do order from Digikey and Mouser, depending on who has the best price and availability on whatever it is I'm buying.

http://www.mouser.com/ http://www.newark.com/ (and a clickable link for Digi-key: http://www.digikey.com/)

Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#39

Post by naturalized »

slapshot wrote: post #37

Fry's. Period. It's a west coast thing, but it should be a clue that the first one was in the heart of Silicon Valley. Aisle after aisle of computer components, electrical components, and truly random stuff (Mace next to hard drives, LED glowsticks next to cases, etc). An electrophile's dream.

Fry's are not all the same. The only one that has a decent components section is in Palo Alto. Other stores, in San Jose, Mountain View etc do not have anything.

Re: The Lost Tribes of RadioShack: Tinkerers Search for New Spiritual Home

#40

Post by pg »

nitrogen wrote: post #38
joezydeco wrote: post #21

The internet and Digi-Key replaced RadioShack for me a long time ago. Digi-Key sells everything , and will let you buy in onesies and twosies without screwing you on the price. Maybe Monoprice for cables, but that's rare. The one time I needed a DB-9 gender changer in a hurry and paid freaking $20 for it was the day I decided I was done with RadioShack. You served a great purpose, dear friend, but times have changed.…

In addition to Digikey, Mouser and Newark similarly have diverse catalogs and allow single-unit orders of most parts. I've never ordered from Newark, but I do order from Digikey and Mouser, depending on who has the best price and availability on whatever it is I'm buying. http://www.mouser.com/ http://www.newark.com/ (and a clickable link for Digi-key: http://www.digikey.com/ )

You might like http://octopart.com, which searches all those sites.
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