RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing • Hacker News Board

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#111

Post by jordigh » Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 6:55 PM UTC

sbergot wrote: post #95

jordigh wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is interesting to interpret not using adblock as capitalist duty. I see it more as a way to respect the terms of the content producer. The author has no lordship over my computer or my mailbox. I can toss out junk mail. I can even more easily program my computer to toss out ads. Programmability is a very natural feature of a computer, so why not use it? My home, my computer, my rules. If you make it more difficu…

Be sure that this arm race is happening. How do you find the overall quality of web media today? Are you satisfied? As a business, once you realize that 1% of your users are watching ads, what are you going to do? You can either go for a paywall, integrate sponsored content provided as articles, or aim at the less tech savy internet users with click-bait articles. So what is your solution? You seem satisfied with the…

> As a business, once you realize that 1% of your users are watching ads, what are you going to do?

A paywall seems like a fine solution.

Manipulating people into wanting things they don't need is not.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#112

Post by ghaff » Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 6:55 PM UTC

tmm wrote: post #87

specialp wrote: post #38

Radio Shack cannot make money selling hobbyist things to support their expensive retail locations. We all love that kind of stuff but admit it, that business has gone online to places like Adafruit. Even hardcore electronic component retailers that were in low rent industrial parks, or in my case a guy that operated out of his basement when he could not afford the rent in his industrial park have closed. For years ce…

I live near Baynesville Electronics[1] and somehow they've managed to stay in business for a really long time selling stuff that RadioShack couldn't seem to competently sell. (The 50 years part of their sign has been up there at least 10 years). They do a surprising amount of business from local engineering firms, AV/network/cable installers, and little IT shops because where else are you going to get a 25 pair Amphe…

A lot of things can work at small scale that don't work at Radio Shack public company scale.

Example. There's a board game store in Harvard Square that has been there forever. I assume it must make enough money for its owners to have stayed in business all these years. That doesn't mean that opening hundreds or thousands of such stores across the country would be a brilliant business plan. The same applies to the individual model stores, comic book stores, aquarium stores, etc. across the country. I suspect few make a lot of money--and it probably still gets harder rather than easier--but they can work on an individual basis.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#113

Post by jordigh » Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 6:57 PM UTC

Goronmon wrote: post #96

jordigh wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is interesting to interpret not using adblock as capitalist duty. I see it more as a way to respect the terms of the content producer. The author has no lordship over my computer or my mailbox. I can toss out junk mail. I can even more easily program my computer to toss out ads. Programmability is a very natural feature of a computer, so why not use it? My home, my computer, my rules. If you make it more difficu…

The author has no lordship over my computer or my mailbox. I can toss out junk mail. I can even more easily program my computer to toss out ads. Programmability is a very natural feature of a computer, so why not use it? My home, my computer, my rules. This reasoning falls apart pretty quickly when you take into account that you are adblocking content you specifically requested. Effectively, your justifications are t…

I'm fine with paying for things. I mentioned donation buttons and paywalls. I'm not fine with making my computer do things I do not want it to do or forcing me to watch things I do not need to see.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#114

Post by sea6ear » Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 7:00 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #70

whistlerbrk wrote: post #18

Why couldn't they just stay a hobbyist store instead of schlepping cell phones? This stuff is cyclical and we're on the up-cycle now as they are going bankrupt. Instead of having their employees push plans they could have had them grow and share their knowledge of electronics. Sad, this place was near and dear to me for a bit.

> Why couldn't they just stay a hobbyist store instead of schlepping cell phones? Because even before selling cell-phones was a big deal, their main money maker for a decades was being a general consumer electronics store, with the hobbyist thing being secondary at best.

When I worked at a Radio Shack back in 1991 (ish?), I was told by the store manager that they sold things like TVs and Computers for the prestige factor, but that their real profit was highest on the electronic parts.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#115

Post by aceperry » Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 7:03 PM UTC

It's a shame. RS doesn't really have much anymore in the way of electronics components, but they have some parts which cater to the arduino/maker community which helps when in a pinch. I really missed being able to get just about any electronic component when I moved from the southbay to SF. RS is now the only place where I could get the bare essentials in San Francisco.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#116

Post by smackfu » Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 7:06 PM UTC

boydjd wrote: post #97

bluedino wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure in their case. But the Sbarro's around here all turned into generic pizza places, as far as I can tell everything tastes about the same.

Huh? Sbarro's still exists...

Yeah, I think they just closed a couple hundred locations during one of their bankruptcies.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#117

Post by aceperry » Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 7:08 PM UTC

cypher543 wrote: post #74

copsarebastards wrote: post #30

A lot of people think RadioShack should have made the transition to internet sales, but I think that they actually started failing earlier, when they expanded into a non-technical market. In the 80s and 90s I could go into a Radio Shack and buy resistors, fuses, soldering equipment, breadboards, various controllers and sensors, hard drives, processors: everything I needed to assemble an electronics project, fix a com…

The last time I went to a RadioShack, I was looking for a resistor. I checked their website, which said my local store had it in stock. When I got there, I found the electronic components stuffed in a dark corner and the smaller components were all mixed up in the wrong drawers. After a few minutes of searching, I didn't find the resistor I needed, so I asked the only employee in the store where it might be. She told…

I always call the store to confirm if the website is correct. And half the time, they don't have in stock what the website claims. That may be why the employees are so eager and helpful in looking for the part.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#118

Post by elinchrome » Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 7:08 PM UTC

angersock wrote: post #109

hsod wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't a rebuttal against the tragedy of the commons argument. Commercial fisherman "just don't want to have to deal with" catching less fish, but overfishing is still a problem.

If I put a bowl of M&Ms out on my front lawn, and then complain that nobody else refills it from time to time, is that the tragedy of the commons, or me just being a fool?

I would gladly fill your bowl with m and ms.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#119

Post by dragonwriter » Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 7:11 PM UTC

whistlerbrk wrote: post #98

dragonwriter wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only chance they had to stay relevant was to challenge the Best Buy's of the world, but they failed to do that. They tried -- back when what is now RadioShack was Tandy Corp. and Radio Shack was one of its units, it tried with the Incredible Universe stores -- but gave up because at the time their boutique Radio Shack stores were more profitable than their big-box Incredible Universe stores. Of course, for wide…

The long term resilience is key here -- but I think an education model helps. If you have knowledgeable employees who can help you, you turn a person who has no idea where to get started and won't into a consumer. We still go to brick and mortar places for help and advice, so provide it.

I think you are right, but I think RS has been focused on low-knowledge sales focused on training staff on narrow canned feature/function/benefit of particular products on the shelves and redirecting consumers in line with centrally-set incentives, with line management largely themselves developed through the same process, for so long -- decades -- that its been a long time since RadioShack could be practically turned around in that way, short of selling the name (presuming there is goodwill attached to be worth even that) to a different company with a completely different top-to-bottom culture.

I think a brick-and-mortar boutique electronics retail chain could work on that model, but I think it'd be easier at this point (or any time in the last decade or longer) to grow it from scratch than to turn RadioShack into it.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#120

Post by drum » Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 7:12 PM UTC

RadioShack sounds like an incredible opportunity for a blue chip software company wanting to get into hardware with a brick and mortar presence. Thousands of retail locations ready to go, all across the US has to be worth something to somebody.