RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing • Hacker News Board

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#211

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 16, 2015, 5:22 AM UTC

ChickeNES wrote: post #185

rhino369 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 retai…

Actually the Microcenter near me (Chicago), has expanded their selection of electronic components significantly in the past couple of years. What once was one rack is now an entire wall, with Sparkfun, Adafruit, Parallax, and Seeedstudio stuff, Arduinos, Beaglebones, and Raspberry Pis, and plenty of resistors, transistors, and other individual parts.

[deleted]

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#212

Post by mc32 » Fri, Jan 16, 2015, 5:25 AM UTC

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 only thing I can think of that could have helped them prolong their agony is to join with the iFixits or iCrackeds of the world --back in the early 2000s maybe had they been the 'geeksquad' then again, maybe not. But they didn't even try...

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#213

Post by twangist » Fri, Jan 16, 2015, 5:33 AM UTC

plingamp wrote: post #189

boydjd wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Sbarro's still exists...

Yea man! It's my favorite pizza place in NYC :)

If THAT's your favorite pizza in NYC, of all places, ... well, you need to sample the local wares more. Or you have no idea what "pizza" means.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#214

Post by underwater » Fri, Jan 16, 2015, 5:45 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #129

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…

I missed the heyday of computing, but I was a kid in the 1990's and still remember going to radio shack to get resistors. I think as we grew out of it, that enthusiast market never really got replenished. My wife has two much younger siblings (13-14) and it's actually kind of surprising how they're less computer literate than we are (30-31). They use Snapchat and whatnot, but don't even know how to make more complica…

I don't think you can draw too many conclusions based on those observations. The fact you're posting on Hacker News makes you atypical for your generation.

Look at people like Palmer Luckey. He revived VR and kick started an entire industry from his parents garage when he was 18.

I think we're in living in a pretty amazing time for computing. We're still figuring out what the next wave of computing will look like. Programmers can bootstrap apps and games that reach millions of people without breaking a sweat. Programming is more accessible than ever. I'd chose today over the 80's in a heartbeat.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#215

Post by DigitalSea » Fri, Jan 16, 2015, 6:40 AM UTC

I live in Australia, so when I was a kid it wasn't called Radioshack here, but rather Tandy Electronics (same company though, different name). You could by electronic components; resistors, LED's, hobbyist kits, breadboards and all kinds of electric items. Then they started moving out of the space into more consumer focused electronics, eventually you couldn't even buy a a packet of LED's like you once could. Eventually forgoing non-consumer focused electronic components altogether.

Such a shame that a company as iconic as Radioshack is filing for bankruptcy. Would things have been different if they stayed in the electronic component/hobbyist side of things? Who knows. They obviously got out of the components game for a reason. Here in Australia we have Jaycar Electronics which is exactly how I remember Tandy being when I was a kid. Electronic components, educational breadboard/electronic kits, weird gadgets, DIY kits and more. They seem to be doing fairly well and best of all: no televisions or computers in sight.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#216

Post by brotchie » Fri, Jan 16, 2015, 8:32 AM UTC

endgame wrote: post #151

gtjay wrote: post #88

Having moved to Australia in recent years, I was very happy to see that JayCar, their equivalent to Radio Shack, seemed to be doing quite well. This is judging by what I've seen of the stores in what is considered a fairly backwards part of Australia (Queensland). The difference seems to be two-fold. First, Jaycar didn't go through an insane expansion (there are only 12 or so locations per state). Second, they've gro…

Another thing that probably helped is that Dick Smith Electronics moved out of that space and became Yet Another Consumer Electronics Store.

It's almost as if Dick Smith made exactly the same mistake as RS.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#217

Post by shams93 » Fri, Jan 16, 2015, 8:50 AM UTC

time to grab an arduino for like $10 just before the local one closes its doors lmfao

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#218

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 16, 2015, 10:23 AM UTC

underwater wrote: post #214

rayiner wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I missed the heyday of computing, but I was a kid in the 1990's and still remember going to radio shack to get resistors. I think as we grew out of it, that enthusiast market never really got replenished. My wife has two much younger siblings (13-14) and it's actually kind of surprising how they're less computer literate than we are (30-31). They use Snapchat and whatnot, but don't even know how to make more complica…

I don't think you can draw too many conclusions based on those observations. The fact you're posting on Hacker News makes you atypical for your generation. Look at people like Palmer Luckey. He revived VR and kick started an entire industry from his parents garage when he was 18. I think we're in living in a pretty amazing time for computing. We're still figuring out what the next wave of computing will look like. Pr…

[deleted]

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#219

Post by pjc50 » Fri, Jan 16, 2015, 10:36 AM UTC

HCIdivision17 wrote: post #143

danielweber wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a wonderful story. A management clusterfudge all the way. I'm confused by him saying that you don't get commissions until hitting a threshold that he "barely" hit once, and then a paragraph later he talks about someone returning phones that got him a $40 commission (so he now loses that commission).

It is actually likely as bad as you'd imagine. Think about how you could rationalize paying minimum wage, but then docking the pay. Give up? Read the comment by `pud in another thread a couple months back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8665082 The shorter seems to be that they were always on commision, with a default of minimum wage. Should a return occur, the commision would be removed, even if that dropped t…

In countries with working legal systems, minimum wage means what it says, so removing the commission to drop pay below minimum wage levels would be illegal, and likely to be enforced.

Re: RadioShack Prepares Bankruptcy Filing

#220

Post by dspillett » Fri, Jan 16, 2015, 12:10 PM UTC

jawns wrote: post #89

dspillett wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree with paywalls generally, but I don't think paywalled content should be (intentionally) linked as the main subject on HN or similar unless that is the only good source of information about the matter in hand. It stops us masses actually reading what you have posted for us to read. If all the non-paywalled sources are lacking detail, then I'd suggest using one of them for the main link and add a "more…

> I don't think paywalled content should be (intentionally) linked as the main subject on HN or similar unless that is the only good source of information about the matter in hand. I think a fair expectation is that if you're going to post a link to a paywalled site, you should add a brief summary of the article as a comment. (Kind of like a companion to tl;dr, only in this case, it's te;dr, for "too expensive; didn'…

Usually a good paywalled article will at least present an abstract, which should cover the need for a summary.

If it is an absolute paywall (pay or read nothing, no abstract/summary for free) then yes the poster should provide a summary so others can decide if they want to gain access to the rest or not.