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RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

wsj.com

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Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#161

Post by morcheeba »

DanBlake wrote: post #147

Nobody seems to have a good answer for what RS should become to avoid shutting down. The most common answer is to go back to its roots and embrace the maker market and stock up on things like 3d printers, breadboards and arduinos. I think this is the wrong idea, since the market is nowhere near large enough to support the vast amounts of stores RS has. I think if I was the CEO, I would focus on being a boutique shop…

While this is a cool idea for a store, does it really fit with the assets that Radio Shack has? Here's what I see they've got to work with:

- lots of retail stores in crappy locations. There's no way I'll hear the difference between a Grado and a Sony when the juicer at Orange Julius is echoing down the hallway. It would be perfect for 3d printers, though.

- Cheap, non-committed workers. I'm not sure it would be worth training everyone there how to use a 3D printer if they only stay there a year. Also, not everyone there would be able to sell hifi; definitely not better than the blue-shirts can.

- A good supply chain of custom-branded products. This used to be their bread-and-butter, but no one wants Enercell batteries anymore.

- A brand name that has been diluted. I know Brookstone is great for craptastic stuff, but it would take a lot to re-educate people on the new RS.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#162

Post by DanBlake »

morcheeba wrote: post #161
DanBlake wrote: post #147

Nobody seems to have a good answer for what RS should become to avoid shutting down. The most common answer is to go back to its roots and embrace the maker market and stock up on things like 3d printers, breadboards and arduinos. I think this is the wrong idea, since the market is nowhere near large enough to support the vast amounts of stores RS has. I think if I was the CEO, I would focus on being a boutique shop…

While this is a cool idea for a store, does it really fit with the assets that Radio Shack has? Here's what I see they've got to work with: - lots of retail stores in crappy locations. There's no way I'll hear the difference between a Grado and a Sony when the juicer at Orange Julius is echoing down the hallway. It would be perfect for 3d printers, though. - Cheap, non-committed workers. I'm not sure it would be wort…

I think the point is, there current business model of catering to low end clientele is NOT working. They need to reinvent themselves and this is what I feel has the most legs of keeping them alive. The margin for high end goods is much more palatable than selling power strips.

The long and the short of it is, RS needs to radically change everything about themselves and go for broke. Trying to do slow changes while holding onto a legacy business will just leave them in a situation like compusa.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#163

Post by SwellJoe »

TehCorwiz wrote: post #134
rgbrenner wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There's one Fry's in a city. There used to be dozens of Radio Shacks. It's a very different model. Radio Shack would have had to close 9 out of 10 stores, and turned the remaining one into some sort of superstore.

I'm not saying that's not what should have happened (though the big box stores are now beginning to see the writing on the wall, as much of their business goes online), or that it wouldn't have extended the life of the Radio Shack brand another five, ten, maybe more, years. But, it would have also been the end of the Radio Shack of my childhood (then again, that Radio Shack died years ago anyway).

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#164

Post by rbanffy »

DanBlake wrote: post #147

Nobody seems to have a good answer for what RS should become to avoid shutting down. The most common answer is to go back to its roots and embrace the maker market and stock up on things like 3d printers, breadboards and arduinos. I think this is the wrong idea, since the market is nowhere near large enough to support the vast amounts of stores RS has. I think if I was the CEO, I would focus on being a boutique shop…

The risk is that it could become an expensive immersive 3d catalog for stuff you could buy online for a fraction of their prices. It would need some sort of exclusivity deal with several high end brands to be viable.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#165

Post by [deleted] »

sbergot wrote: post #92
criley2 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's offensive for you to place your opinion in the context of "right and wrong", specifically that your opinion is "right". If content owners want to block adblocker: They can! They absolutely can use javascript to detect ad-blockers and prevent the majority of all of them from visiting the site unless the adblock is disabled. Sites like Hulu.com use anti-adblock to ensure that their terms are met and that users vie…

I agree with about when you say that businesses should not ignore the fact that adblock is wildy used when making decisions. Imagine now that if a working drm solution existed for films, it would be ok to download the unprotected ones for free? Surely a technical solution is way of making a business profitable, but not an argument to justify a bad behavior. And yes, even if moral is irrelevant to businesses, it is st…

[deleted]

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#166

Post by criley2 »

sbergot wrote: post #92
criley2 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's offensive for you to place your opinion in the context of "right and wrong", specifically that your opinion is "right". If content owners want to block adblocker: They can! They absolutely can use javascript to detect ad-blockers and prevent the majority of all of them from visiting the site unless the adblock is disabled. Sites like Hulu.com use anti-adblock to ensure that their terms are met and that users vie…

I agree with about when you say that businesses should not ignore the fact that adblock is wildy used when making decisions. Imagine now that if a working drm solution existed for films, it would be ok to download the unprotected ones for free? Surely a technical solution is way of making a business profitable, but not an argument to justify a bad behavior. And yes, even if moral is irrelevant to businesses, it is st…

"Imagine now that if a working drm solution existed for films, it would be ok to download the unprotected ones for free? Surely a technical solution is way of making a business profitable, but not an argument to justify a bad behavior."

Apples and Oranges.

If the movie studio offered an officially hosted version of the movie with advertisements for free online, and I watched without advertisements on their official site (similar to a news organization posting their news online for free, with ads), then yes it's ok. They can (and do! See: Crackle) block that particular behavior from working very simply.

But, to go pirate a movie from a third source? That's not only wrong it's actually illegal.

I don't go to "thenewsbay" and download illegal copies of the New York Times, so it's unfair to make a comparison to pirated movies.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#167

Post by syntheticnature »

funkdobiest wrote: post #40

Last time I was in RadioShack was in the 90's in Washington DC, and I went there for a connector, and there were literally 20 people in line all buying minutes for cell phones, with only one person in the store. I thought this was some sort of hidden camera reality/joke tv show. I just put the item down and left.

This sounds almost identical to my last time in RadioShack, except instead of 20 people, there were two couples, each doing some contract change so onerous that I waited half an hour to buy the component in my hand -- and only got out then because one of the two clerks decided to put the cell phone contract bits on hold and let me buy my item.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#168

Post by syntheticnature »

astrodust wrote: post #146
syntheticnature wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 assu…

There was, at their peak, around twenty Radio Shack stores in Toronto. They were one of the few retailers in the 1980s and 1990s that would sell you one of something. Larger distributors were harder to deal with, and were geared towards thousands. Now there's about a dozen stores that sell components to the hobbyist community and university students that need parts for projects. They have a selection way better than…

I'll note they're closing one, and of the three, it was the one that still had electronic parts bins. (Admittedly, one of the two others stocks a number of computer parts one might be desperate for, notably replacement power supplies.)

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#170

Post by api »

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…

Yeah, it's a classic case of a company not believing in itself. Had Radio Shack owned its identity as a maker shop, it would be thriving today.

I'm sure somewhere in all this there's a group of MBA consultants. I can smell it.

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