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RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

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Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#11

Post by bsder »

easton wrote: post #6
mortureb wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone buys these things online or at Walmart. I think the best bet would be to try to remain small and capture the hobbyist market around electronics. Michaels already exists for art supplies, Home Depot can supply the screws but no one can really supply electronic components, PCBs, 3D printers etc.

I mean, Micro Center exists in some areas of the country (the one near to me is literally next to a Michaels). The reason it’s not everywhere is probably because there’s not as much demand outside of big cities.

Cries in Fry's

Austin, of all places, really could use a Microcenter. I'm suprised they haven't put one there given they have them in Houston and Dallas.

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#12

Post by bigyikes »

easton wrote: post #6
mortureb wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone buys these things online or at Walmart. I think the best bet would be to try to remain small and capture the hobbyist market around electronics. Michaels already exists for art supplies, Home Depot can supply the screws but no one can really supply electronic components, PCBs, 3D printers etc.

I mean, Micro Center exists in some areas of the country (the one near to me is literally next to a Michaels). The reason it’s not everywhere is probably because there’s not as much demand outside of big cities.

Begging for a Micro Center in Austin. They're in Dallas and Houston, so it surprises me we don't have one in the tech capital of the state.

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#13

Post by lancesells »

nodesocket wrote: post #9
mortureb wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone buys these things online or at Walmart. I think the best bet would be to try to remain small and capture the hobbyist market around electronics. Michaels already exists for art supplies, Home Depot can supply the screws but no one can really supply electronic components, PCBs, 3D printers etc.

I honestly don't know how Michaels is still in business. I do tend to think it's not necessary location that is going to make it for Radio Shack, but their products, and target market. They should focus on makers, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Drones, make that their core business. Pricing needs to be competitive (vs online), stock should be plentiful, and knowledgeable employees (maybe like a Geek Squad equivalent "The Sha…

The thing with Michaels is there are a lot of products that are nicer to experience in offline instead of online. For electronic components I'm not sure that's the case. I know very little about electronics but I would much rather go to adafruit.com and look at tutorials, specs, etc. and then order. I personally don't need any sort of tactile feel or quality control on breadboard compared to if I'm buying yarn to knit something.

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#14

Post by bigyikes »

bsder wrote: post #11
easton wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, Micro Center exists in some areas of the country (the one near to me is literally next to a Michaels). The reason it’s not everywhere is probably because there’s not as much demand outside of big cities.

Cries in Fry's Austin, of all places, really could use a Microcenter. I'm suprised they haven't put one there given they have them in Houston and Dallas.

Ha, we posted nearly identical comments at nearly the same time.

(Sorry, this comment doesn't add anything, but it was too synchronistic to not point out)

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#15

Post by bsder »

mortureb wrote: post #4
rmason wrote: post #2

I think the best chance for RadioShack to make a comeback is to become the electronics store for small towns like the Dollar stores. If I live in the country why should I have to travel to the city to buy a laptop or a cell phone or even a big screen TV? The only success Sears had in the last thirty years were their small town stores which were franchised.

Everyone buys these things online or at Walmart. I think the best bet would be to try to remain small and capture the hobbyist market around electronics. Michaels already exists for art supplies, Home Depot can supply the screws but no one can really supply electronic components, PCBs, 3D printers etc.

> Everyone buys these things online or at Walmart.

Most people need in-person, tech customer support--especially in small towns. Radio Shack could find a nice niche by being that.

The problem is that while it could be profitable, it won't be a "growth industry". And that seems to be a gigantic problem given the MBA management mindset in the US.

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#16

Post by duskwuff »

bigyikes wrote: post #10

It's a shame what happened to RadioShack. I liked them for hobby components. >Items will include “more end products than the stores have typically sold, focusing more on cellphone products, headphones, batteries and adapters, for instance.” I don't see this as a winning strategy. I can buy any of these items at a number of convenient locations, like Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and Walmart. Why would I choose RadioShack…

> I don't see this as a winning strategy. I can buy any of these items at a number of convenient locations, like Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and Walmart. Why would I choose RadioShack, especially when I don't have faith in their ability to price competitively?

Moreover, that's just doubling down on the same business strategy that already ran the company into the ground. I can't imagine it's going to work any better this time.

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#17

Post by hellotheretoday »

easton wrote: post #6
mortureb wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone buys these things online or at Walmart. I think the best bet would be to try to remain small and capture the hobbyist market around electronics. Michaels already exists for art supplies, Home Depot can supply the screws but no one can really supply electronic components, PCBs, 3D printers etc.

I mean, Micro Center exists in some areas of the country (the one near to me is literally next to a Michaels). The reason it’s not everywhere is probably because there’s not as much demand outside of big cities.

I moved 2 years ago but before that I lived about 10m from a micro center for a decade. The hobbyist section in that time progressively got smaller and the selection was overtaken by branded expensive tools and kits. Like instead of just selling the cheap Chinese screwdriver set you could buy on Amazon for 9.99 they’d sell ifixit branded screwdrivers which appeared to be of the same build quality but with the branding and micro center markup were now 24.99 for the exact same set in terms of features. Or the solder practice kits where you could make a blinking heart from an op amp but for $20 when you could get it online for half that. Raspberry pis and arduinos and such were usually priced well but not always although sometimes they’d be on sale for very good deals. They’d sell hats, sensors, and such for them and those would be marked up considerably.

So it was the same problem as RadioShack; anyone who knew what they were doing would plan out a project and order what they needed online to save a considerable amount. What you’d buy would be if you forgot or broke something and needed to grab something asap and didn’t want to wait. That didn’t justify the space I suppose so they kept shrinking it down

What was really annoying was the stuff that would really be handy would be like small packs of passives. Like when I went to akihabara in Japan there was a market that sold small packet of things like resistors, capacitors, transistors, etc. in little baggies for few yen. And when I went to shenzen it was even better, you could get basically anything, smd or throughhole, in any quantity, but that’s kind of cheating ha. Micro center didn’t do this at any point I lived near it. They would only sell the big assortments so if you just needed a 100ohm resistor for an arduino project you had to spend $20 to buy 300 assorted through holes. Frustrating and pricey so id rather just go online and spend less to get a better and broader assortment.

Maybe if we actually do some real right to repair there might be some demand to justify but as is I think it’s just one of those niches that cannot compete with the internet and warehouse/logistic companies like digikey and mouser. There’s just too many skus

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#19

Post by troupe »

nodesocket wrote: post #9
mortureb wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone buys these things online or at Walmart. I think the best bet would be to try to remain small and capture the hobbyist market around electronics. Michaels already exists for art supplies, Home Depot can supply the screws but no one can really supply electronic components, PCBs, 3D printers etc.

I honestly don't know how Michaels is still in business. I do tend to think it's not necessary location that is going to make it for Radio Shack, but their products, and target market. They should focus on makers, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Drones, make that their core business. Pricing needs to be competitive (vs online), stock should be plentiful, and knowledgeable employees (maybe like a Geek Squad equivalent "The Sha…

Frames, both custom and premade, tend to be harder to order online because of shipping and because you often want to actually see it...or someone has to made it for you. Many of the craft or home decor items are similar. Michael's markup on those types of things is probably pretty high, so even the stuff sold on sale after the season is probably making good profit.

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#20

Post by smaudet »

dragontamer wrote: post #8
mortureb wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone buys these things online or at Walmart. I think the best bet would be to try to remain small and capture the hobbyist market around electronics. Michaels already exists for art supplies, Home Depot can supply the screws but no one can really supply electronic components, PCBs, 3D printers etc.

PCBs these days are like $5 per board from American makers like DKRed (Digikey's PCB service), with support for both 2x layer and 4x layer boards. Radio Shack will never be able to compete against DKRed (or OSHPark) from PCB making perspective. Even cheaper if you buy from China. Radio Shack would be best as a board-level hobbyist group: selling Teensy, Arduino, Beaglebones, Rasp. Pi... as well as wires and common co…

I don't know, I think a shop that could offer both would be invaluable. I haven't heard of either of those PCB services, I'm not in the market to make them, but if I walk into a store and see this on offer, especially if someone is helping me to design etc, that could be a valuable service.

Wholesale mfgs will always be cheaper, but there is something to be said for a one-stop shop experience. I don't have to spend time learning websites or which tools they accept, I can just go to the store to get my idea built.

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