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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

#41

Post by ars »

If they had a highly curated/organized website with tons of components ready to ship in small quantity and fulfilled by Amazon, I think they would succeed.

Their differentiation would be a focus on small, hobbyist quantities, high speed Amazon shipping, and a very well organized website where you can quickly find the component you need without hours of searching.

For extra credit they could add in a special order section: write in what you are looking for and they give you a price including shipping.

Most of the big sites Digikey, Mouser, etc are focused on large quantities. They would be competing with Adafruit, but I think there's room for more than one company here.

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#42

Post by [deleted] »

PM_me_your_math wrote: post #29
exabrial wrote: post #18

Radioshack needs to jump on the Maker movement, Right To Repair movement, and science education movement. Offer everything from 3d printing classes to how to fix classes. By educating the masses, you create demand for your products you're selling.

I just need a single 100uF 100V Electrolytic NP Capacitor

[deleted]

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#43

Post by soared »

> The former owner Retail Ecommerce Ventures, which acquired RadioShack in 2020, relaunched RadioShack last year as a crypto exchange called RadioShack Swap as the cryptocurrency market was crashing.

> “We will continue to offer a robust innovative product portfolio that makes the life of our customers easier, along with an extensive benefit program that adds value to every purchase,” Unicomer’s Siman said in a statement. “Our challenge is to continue innovating in both directions and remain on our customers’ top of mind.”

This really doesn’t sound like it’s going to end well.

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#44

Post by wizerdrobe »

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.

I live in the country and frequent the Dollar General for those little daily things. Jug of milk, a freezer pizza, some cat litter, a pack of beer and some hot dog buns.

I don’t but these all at once in a single trip, I go there 3 or 4 times a week as I find I need them and forgot to purchase them at the grocery store a good trip away. That’s what a DG operates on, those daily needs close by. Closer than a Wal-Mart or an Ingles would ever get.

Maybe the next best analogy for what a Radio Shack could be is like an Ace Hardware. The small town Aces are often better than anything I’ve seen in the city competing with a Lowe’s and Home Depot. However, I have a hard time seeing the volume to work. If I’m on a project getting that extra tube of caulk and backer rod or can of primer paint an Ace is great and closer than the Big Town Box Store 25 minutes away so they win my routine business and the routine business of folks nearby be they DIY or professional.

I just have a hard time seeing enough consumer electronics use that it would matter. The most routine thing would be a cell-phone and for most that really means driving to the ATT store to see what my upgrade elegibity looks like this season.

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#45

Post by phlakaton »

duskwuff wrote: post #16
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 thi…

Why? Because the shopping experience at all of those places is awful.

RadioShack's advantages, where it had them, were in its convenience and its ergonomics. Get in, get what you want, browse a couple of human-scale shelves, pick up some batteries, and get out zippity-zap. Try doing that at Target.

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#46

Post by kevinmchugh »

phlakaton wrote: post #45
duskwuff wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 thi…

Why? Because the shopping experience at all of those places is awful. RadioShack's advantages, where it had them, were in its convenience and its ergonomics. Get in, get what you want, browse a couple of human-scale shelves, pick up some batteries, and get out zippity-zap. Try doing that at Target.

The check out process at radio shack is infamously part of why people stopped going there - the insistence on getting a phone number or email address

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#47

Post by hellotheretoday »

spiritplumber wrote: post #35
hellotheretoday wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 brandin…

how do you live 10 meters away from a micro center? next building?

10 minutes lol

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#48

Post by tzs »

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…

Don't most of those PCB places have a minimum number of copies of 3 or so? For nearly everything I've wanted to build I've only needed one. I end up using some kind of generic pre-made board like these [1] that mimics a common prototyping board or like these [2] that just have a bunch of groups of 3.

I really wish wire wrap was still common. Wire wrap was actually more durable and reliable than PCBs, and for a lot of hobby projects would be easier and faster than designing a PCB and having it made. I wonder if there is a big enough hobbyist market for a wire wrap revival?

[1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08SQ34KTC/

[2] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZYTZ48N/?th=1

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#49

Post by bsder »

notatoad wrote: post #30
bsder wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

"people will pay more to shop in person because they want the in-person support that our staff provide" is written on the gravestone of every dead retail company.

Only because they try to scale.

Support doesn't scale. It's weakly profitable. It's specific to an area. It's slow. It requires workers with a bit of clue.

Support is everything that modern business culture loathes.

Re: RadioShack’s new owner plots old comeback strategy

#50

Post by linsomniac »

tyrfing wrote: post #24
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…

Have you gone to similar retailers recently, ones like Batteries Plus?

Batteries Plus is one of the retailers I do go to, though infrequently. Was just there a month or two back paying for battery recycling. I'll usually drop in when I have a lead acid I need to replace like in a mobility scooter or UPS, but that's been a while.
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