Fewer do-it-yourself options with the demise of Radio Shack. In my town MictoCenter fills the gap with Raspberry Pi kits, Arduino and components.
The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store
111–120 of 211 posts
Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store
#112I have three pi zero cameras and one regular pi camera at home for watching my dog when I'm away.
Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store
#113How are they going to afford the rent and salaries? Besides being very niche, their margins must be very low.
They’re almost certainly not expecting for the store itself to be profitable. Rather, the store is a billboard for the company (the same is actually very much true for Apple Stores; except those are probably crazily profitable in addition). In a way, the store’s main purpose is to take the product out of the niche. Let’s hope it works.
Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
This post on the forums [0] is the best answer I've read yet. They sell the Pi Zero (W) at such a low price to promote the platform for educational and non-commercial purposes. However, the margins are so low at that price that they cannot afford to sell in bulk. They apparently do offer bulk buys (>500 [1]) at higher prices. The few options to buy multiple are to buy kits (which basically pass that bulk pricing in t…
Although this may work in general, it hurts the very purpose of the Pi. I have an open source project I've been working on for some time, it's based around the Pi Zero W, however, here in the UK it's practically impossible to get more than one Zero W unless you order individually from each site and pay shipping individually for each. Even then, you'll be paying at least £12+shipping per unit. It's wasteful and needle…
The purpose of the Pi is to get kids a computer they can play with.
I struggle to see how your inability to buy lots of Pis disagrees with that.
Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store
#115Seems like comparing apples and... uh, raspberries.
Why can't fruit be compared?
https://youtu.be/NWWeQlXfSa0?t=520 ( 8:40 )
"Bitch that phrase don't make no sense why can't fruit be compared!?"
Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store
#116Because this headline demands a cynical response - this isn't cooler than Apple, its cooler than RadioShack. Also, why the couch? Unless there are some coding camps at the location, I can't imagine someone (even a parent) coming in and needing to sit down. Maybe an experienced sales associate that maps out the types of activities that can be done, but I doubt that as well.
> this isn't cooler than Apple, its cooler than RadioShack. Arguably it could be cooler than both. You’re making an arbitrary distinction where one isn’t needed. Plus we never even had RadioShack in the UK (maybe Maplins might have been more apt? But I think the Apple comparison serves the authors point quite fine). > Also, why the couch? Plenty of shops in the UK have seating. It isn’t that weird at all. > Because t…
When Maplins was just a Southampton mail order outfit advertised in the back of electronics magazines, Tandy (Radio Shack) was very much a thing in the UK. The shops were always Tandy, the products always Radio Shack prepacked from the US. They spread pretty wide as even small towns often had a shop.
It was the place to buy a pack of 3 resistors, or 2 spade connectors or fuses for your car for 10 to 50 times a reasonable price. It was an OK place to buy books though, as we still had the net book agreement so UK books had the price pre-printed. The US Radio Shack branded books they carried were much more expensive, and always shrink wrapped.
Maplins when they arrived were super cheap by comparison. RS and Farnell had minimum orders and needed a business account.
Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
> this isn't cooler than Apple, its cooler than RadioShack. Arguably it could be cooler than both. You’re making an arbitrary distinction where one isn’t needed. Plus we never even had RadioShack in the UK (maybe Maplins might have been more apt? But I think the Apple comparison serves the authors point quite fine). > Also, why the couch? Plenty of shops in the UK have seating. It isn’t that weird at all. > Because t…
"we never even had RadioShack in the UK" We did kind of . Tandy was basically RadioShack, they even sold RadioShack branded products. I would like to say that it rebranded as RadioShack towards the end, but I cant find any evidence of that. So that's probably just my failing memory.
They had to rebrand as Tandy as in UK if you said RS you meant RS Components - basically the biggest electronics supplier in the country.
at my first job the electronics shop had a standing account so if you needed anything electronic you just got it added to that's weeks order
Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store
#118Because this headline demands a cynical response - this isn't cooler than Apple, its cooler than RadioShack. Also, why the couch? Unless there are some coding camps at the location, I can't imagine someone (even a parent) coming in and needing to sit down. Maybe an experienced sales associate that maps out the types of activities that can be done, but I doubt that as well.
You’ve never gone clothes shopping with your SO? Remember the chairs by the changing room? These are the changing room chairs for the other half.
Its also why the mothership Games Workshop in Nottingham has such a nice café/bar.
They also did a nice GW branded bitter
Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store
#119I wonder if they will sell you more than one Raspberry Pi Zero? The Zero is advertised as being $5, and it makes me angry every time, because it's not possible to buy it at that price. Every Pi retailer either has a one-per-customer limit, and charges shipping, or, charges up to $15(!) per Zero if you buy more than one. So it's essentially a $15 device being advertised as $5. I shouldn't be so annoyed about it, but I…
> and I just can't get them.
Why can't you just pay $15 for them?
Re: The Raspberry Pi store is much cooler than an Apple Store
#120I wonder if they will sell you more than one Raspberry Pi Zero? The Zero is advertised as being $5, and it makes me angry every time, because it's not possible to buy it at that price. Every Pi retailer either has a one-per-customer limit, and charges shipping, or, charges up to $15(!) per Zero if you buy more than one. So it's essentially a $15 device being advertised as $5. I shouldn't be so annoyed about it, but I…
This post on the forums [0] is the best answer I've read yet. They sell the Pi Zero (W) at such a low price to promote the platform for educational and non-commercial purposes. However, the margins are so low at that price that they cannot afford to sell in bulk. They apparently do offer bulk buys (>500 [1]) at higher prices. The few options to buy multiple are to buy kits (which basically pass that bulk pricing in t…
So assuming they are selling the zero at cost or a loss, why?
This thread just shows how confusing the situation is, and it isn't even clear to me that it helps in promoting the education side, further it damages the brand and puts people off buying.
Why not have a school and student channel, so that they can buy at $5. And then sell it at a higher cost retail? Everyone knows where they stand, schools can bulk buy $5 zeros, which presumably they can't now. The current system just seems to be a mess.