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

A Eulogy for RadioShack

sbnation.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 171 posts

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#71

Post by kjs3 »

personZ wrote: post #57
chipotle_coyote wrote: post #17

While it's glib to say that Radio Shack was lost for the want of a space, the change in their corporate identity from "Radio Shack" to "RadioShack" -- 1995 -- coincides with their slide to irrelevance nicely enough to seem kind of symbolic. We don't really know what the Internet is, but we've noticed that cool companies are using CamelCase. I suspect it's hard for people who are under 30, maybe even 40, to believe ho…

Quite a few comments about how Radio Shack lost their way and squandered their opportunity, but really their business model was dead. Nothing they could have done would have changed what happened. It was a store with a very large number of SKUs that they could only sustain through very high profit margins. Sure that works great when it's Sunday and you need that resistor now, but the vast majority of times people wou…

RS was out of the "grab a part on the weekend for a project" business a decade or so before "order online" was an option.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#72

Post by ams6110 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #47
toomuchtodo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It really saddens me to know that he'll likely have to drop the RadioShack name one day soon Could he turn his shop into a for-profit hackerspace that has inventory for projects?

This is an idea I've toyed with for a while, I called it 'prototype electronics' where the 'store' part had inventory that was known to work together so that projects could be designed, built, and sourced out of the store parts. (this was true early in the RS era as well of course) There are some annoying liability (ie expensive) issues with letting minors operate soldering irons on the premises or while using solder…

It's a shame really. I learned to use a soldering iron when I was about 10 years old. My dad used to buy home electronics from Heathkit and we would put them together. I took an electronics course in middle school and we would use soldering irons there also. Also a shop class where we used drill presses, sabre saws, all kinds of oil-based paints and stains, etc. (the table saw was one of the few tools that were "off limits" to the kids).

We're now so scared of liability that kids don't get a chance to learn how to work with their hands.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#73

Post by mrpippy »

cicero wrote: post #37
adricnet wrote: post #2

That's certainly an interesting read... and one I can't really argue with the anecdata of from my own experiences. So I'll add one: After it was too late by that author's reckoning, the parent of Radio Shack tried another venture, a "big box" store called The Incredible Universe. When that failed and they wrote it off, it wiped out the entire profit of Radio Shack thousands of stores for that financial year. I still…

The Fry's in Dallas is in the space of a former Incredible Universe. The Fry's is decorated like a cattle ranch, but Incredible Universe was like a rock concert. The first time I went in there, I immediately thought they were trying too hard to be cool. It was completely over the top, so I'm not surprised they wiped out all of their profits. It's too bad they couldn't find a happy medium.

Yep the San Diego Fry's also moved into an Incredible Universe after they closed down (probably 15 years ago). Fry's never gave it a theme though and never even took the Incredible Universe logo off the delivery trucks

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#74

Post by dragonwriter »

brianberns wrote: post #60

I learned to program in the early 1980s by playing with a TRS-80 floor model for an hour or two at a time while my mom shopped elsewhere in the mall. My first program animated a sine wave in BASIC by printing a single character one line at a time, and letting the lines scroll up the screen. I would've loved to own one of those computers, but my dad refused to buy one because he said it would be too tempting for me. H…

> My opinion of them started to go south about a decade ago when they began insisting that they needed to know my zipcode every time I bought something.

When I worked for RS just out of high school (1990) that was already corporate policy.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#75

Post by spiritplumber »

blhack wrote: post #53

Radioshack, want to save you business? Turn every single one of your stores into a hackerspace. You don't even need much. Get a laser cutter, a 3D printer, a drill press, free WiFi, some tables, and a stack of arduinos and you'll be doing awesome. Then build an instructables-esque community website for people to show off their projects. I'll even consult with you guys on this if you make a big enough donation to the…

I tried to tell this to the RS closest to my home, they won't. I even offered to give them a 3d printer for two months to try, they won't. The manager there told me that the electronics stuff is basically overhead, they're there to sell phones 11 months a year and RC cars in December. The funny part is, the guy is a hardcore libertarian.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#76

Post by spiritplumber »

kenrikm wrote: post #59
jmspring wrote: post #11

Radio Shack at this point is a sad caricature of itself. I remember being able to buy all sorts of ICs, analog parts, interesting radios and kits. Now it peddles cell phones and overly prices things -- I recall needing a battery for my cordless phone recently, they wanted $23 for a battery for a $50 phone? Uh, no. Two other bay area places that have changed a lot are Frys and the now closed Quement Electronics. Fry's…

I go to the Fry's Palo Alto store, it has a decent selection of parts/components if you stay to the right half of the store. (Left hand side is all TVs and Sales guys yuck..) If you want a larger selection of electronic components in the Bay Area - HSC is hard to beat and they have a ton of weird stuff too.

Also, the Jameco warehouse on highway 101 is open to the public. Super handy for same-day printer filament, ICs, or just picking cheap shipping and getting it the next morning anyway.

And the lady at the will-call desk is a wonderful human being for being patient with me taking forever to fill an order.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#77

Post by ams6110 »

chrischen wrote: post #26
jmspring wrote: post #11

Radio Shack at this point is a sad caricature of itself. I remember being able to buy all sorts of ICs, analog parts, interesting radios and kits. Now it peddles cell phones and overly prices things -- I recall needing a battery for my cordless phone recently, they wanted $23 for a battery for a $50 phone? Uh, no. Two other bay area places that have changed a lot are Frys and the now closed Quement Electronics. Fry's…

> I remember being able to buy all sorts of ICs, analog parts, interesting radios and kits. They still do. Most radioshacks I've visited carry arduino kits and ICs, electronic parts, LEDs, resistors, capacitors, etc.

They do, but it's one little corner of the store. It used to be at least a full aisle.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#78

Post by dragonwriter »

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #70
personZ wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite a few comments about how Radio Shack lost their way and squandered their opportunity, but really their business model was dead. Nothing they could have done would have changed what happened. It was a store with a very large number of SKUs that they could only sustain through very high profit margins. Sure that works great when it's Sunday and you need that resistor now, but the vast majority of times people wou…

Quite a few comments about how Radio Shack lost their way and squandered their opportunity, but really their business model was dead. True, but I'm not sure those are mutually exclusive. I'd bet that the primary reason RadioShack never became a major online parts and electronics retailer is because of fear that it'd start cannibalizing their retail stores. Which it would have -- but either you cannibalize your own bu…

> (I suspect it's only the Sears captive brands that have let it hang on as long as it has, given how woefully it's been managed its last decade.)

The Sears you are thinking about before the last decade was already dieing -- the current "Sears" is the result of KMart buying Sears in 2004 (during a brief profitably period shortly after KMart's own bankruptcy, and the combined entity -- which was called Sears Holdings Corporation -- went south pretty quickly.)

I don't think Sears captive brands are keeping it alive for the last decade, I think the temporary reset it got at the acquisition by KMart has been keeping it alive.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#79

Post by emcrazyone »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #47
toomuchtodo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It really saddens me to know that he'll likely have to drop the RadioShack name one day soon Could he turn his shop into a for-profit hackerspace that has inventory for projects?

This is an idea I've toyed with for a while, I called it 'prototype electronics' where the 'store' part had inventory that was known to work together so that projects could be designed, built, and sourced out of the store parts. (this was true early in the RS era as well of course) There are some annoying liability (ie expensive) issues with letting minors operate soldering irons on the premises or while using solder…

I had similar ideas too. I envisioned designing a PCB and then going to my nearest Rat Shack to pick it up like the one hour photo idea back in the day. I grew up in the 80s and have very fond memories going there and just browsing the electronic components. I think the hacker space is a great idea for kidspic but is probably not viable for the same reasons you mentioned.

Re: A Eulogy for RadioShack

#80

Post by timthorn »

leoc wrote: post #28

> RadioShack is a company of massive real estate, and is peddling a business model that is completely unviable in 2014. We have good evidence to suggest that the RS business model is indeed viable in 2014: it's Maplin https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8328621 (followup https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8329953 ).

Maplin has been doing ecommerce for over twenty years - anyone else remember CASHTel?
Post reply on HN