Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 230 posts

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#131

Post by syntheticnature »

hellgas00 wrote: post #65
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 in Toronto, Canada where there are a bunch of independent stores that sell hobbyist electronics and seem to make a good profit doing so, so the market isn't dead. I like to buy stuff online but there have been plenty of times where I've been stuck needing a sensor, resistor, or things of that sort, and don't want to wait for 2 weeks for it to ship from China. It's a false premise to say that electronic compone…

I don't disagree, but there is a scale issue Radio Shack has. As a quick example:

Population of Toronto, Canada: 2.5 million.

From http://wheretobuy.klab.ca/ I see seven stores mentioned for electronic components.

Population (not including the large college population which perhaps adds another 33%) of the county where I live: 155,400.

Number of Radio Shack stores at present: 3. (There used to be two more.)

Even assuming the list for Toronto is only half of the relevant stores, Radio Shack would have to close down a lot of stores to resize similarly for the hobbyist market.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#132

Post by syntheticnature »

sharkweek wrote: post #57

One of my favorite writers covered his tenure at RadioShack back in the early/mid augts http://www.sbnation.com/2014/11/26/7281129/radioshack-eulogy... It's one of the funniest/most heartbreaking articles I have ever read, but also explains a lot about RadioShack's slow spiraling collapse.

HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8663729

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#133

Post by worklogin »

rgbrenner wrote: post #122
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…

started failing earlier, when they expanded into a non-technical market. Radio Shack was dead when the 80s ended. Look around, where are the small computer stores that used to be all over the place? They went the same way the record store did... Radio Shack works in an era where computers are $10000, and people build and solder their own computers. That era is gone. And that's why Radio Shack will die. Pretending tha…

Perhaps it is a niche market. That said, I was really looking for some brick and mortar resources for a ham radio, some coax, and some resitors/circuit kits the other day. I actually thought of RadioShack, but thought "no, I'm not looking for a cell phone."

There is still a market, though small, that RadioShack gave up on.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#134

Post by TehCorwiz »

rgbrenner wrote: post #122
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…

started failing earlier, when they expanded into a non-technical market. Radio Shack was dead when the 80s ended. Look around, where are the small computer stores that used to be all over the place? They went the same way the record store did... Radio Shack works in an era where computers are $10000, and people build and solder their own computers. That era is gone. And that's why Radio Shack will die. Pretending tha…

In the last 5 years Microcenter has been expanding their selection of electronics tools, kits, and parts. Not to mention Fry's which has always carried a selection of electronics tools and parts. They've essentially picked up the market that Radio Shack dropped.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#136

Post by untog »

bunderbunder wrote: post #72
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…

What's even more tragic is that Radio Shack realized they needed to get makers back, and when they started expressing a desire to do so a lot of makers were initially enthusiastic. But I don't think they ever really grokked what makers would want out of a local brick-and-mortar. They never did fix the sorry state of their loose component selection. The parts drawers are still stocked with 50% stereo equipment parts t…

They'd still go out of business. Not only is that market for components like that small, the profit margins are too. You'd have to stock a very wide selection of items.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#137

Post by Animats »

This bankruptcy has been long anticipated. It's time.

There was a time when it was hard for hobbyists to buy parts. Even in Silicon Valley. I used to have a commercial account with Hamilton/Avnet just so I could order and pick up at will-call. The alternative was ordering from Allied Radio, with two week delivery and a 5% error rate. Now, anybody can order from Digi-Key, and get delivery tomorrow if you pay for express shipping. There's not even a minimum order.

If you're looking for a business model, consider a hobbyist front end to Digi-Key and Mouser. Digi-Key has about 40 options for a 1/10 watt 100 ohm leaded resistor. This overwhelms many hobbyists. (Do I need flame resistance?) Octopart does some of this, but a social component is needed. Something like Github for hardware, with design files, bills of materials, issue tracking, etc.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#138

Post by rhino369 »

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…

You got the cause and effect backwards. They expanded into non-technical markets because the technical market was failing.

>resistors, fuses, soldering equipment, breadboards, various controllers and sensors, hard drives, processors: everything I needed to assemble an electronics project, fix a computer, make something.

Almost nobody uses any of these. Those who do it as a hobby and don't wanna pay corner store retail for products. Microcenter is essentially the only one selling half that stuff and they can support like 1 store per major metro area. And they don't even really sell resistors and sensors.

Nobody repairs electronics anymore.

The tiny niche maker movement could support a radioshack like store. But radioshack is a corner store. More like 7-11 than a microcenter.

They have to tell resister for 400 bucks to keep 5 thousand stores open.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#139

Post by sam »

Animats wrote: post #137

This bankruptcy has been long anticipated. It's time. There was a time when it was hard for hobbyists to buy parts. Even in Silicon Valley. I used to have a commercial account with Hamilton/Avnet just so I could order and pick up at will-call. The alternative was ordering from Allied Radio, with two week delivery and a 5% error rate. Now, anybody can order from Digi-Key, and get delivery tomorrow if you pay for expre…

Sam from Octopart here. Our Common Parts Library is an effort to distill commonly used components for connected device applications, https://octopart.com/common-parts-library .

But the list doesn't have common prototyping components like radially leaded resistors (it's almost all SMT parts). I could imagine a "Common Parts Library for Prototyping". I'd love to hear feedback on something like this.

Also, check out our lightweight Bill of Materials Manager, https://octopart.com/bom-lookup/manage It has built in collaboration features - it can be collaboratively edited much like Google Docs.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#140

Post by acveilleux »

untog wrote: post #136
bunderbunder wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's even more tragic is that Radio Shack realized they needed to get makers back, and when they started expressing a desire to do so a lot of makers were initially enthusiastic. But I don't think they ever really grokked what makers would want out of a local brick-and-mortar. They never did fix the sorry state of their loose component selection. The parts drawers are still stocked with 50% stereo equipment parts t…

They'd still go out of business. Not only is that market for components like that small, the profit margins are too. You'd have to stock a very wide selection of items.

And there's established mail order dealers with cheap overnight shipping and cavernous warehouses (i.e.: Digikey) that have the volume to keep those margin very thin.
Post reply on HN