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

Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 142 posts

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#81

Post by scintill76 »

jabagawee wrote: post #73
sosuke wrote: post #58

Oh no I sure hope not, the tax will be back and that is enough to move me to other sites in several cases. Edit: To clarify, no sales tax was one of the first things Amazon and other online retailers had on their side. They could sell things cheaper, even by a little, and the rest would be made up by not having to pay sales tax. If they have a presence in a state though they have to collect sales tax. If you buy a lo…

IIRC, aren't you supposed to calculate your owed taxes for your state and then pay when you filed? Of course not many people do this, and the IRS (or state equivalent) has no hope of enforcing this.

In some states, "use tax" is due on goods or services bought out of the state and used in the state. I don't know how widespread it is, but I don't think there's a blanket law that applies over all the US.

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#82

Post by jessaustin »

morgante wrote: post #68
seanp2k2 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have we learned nothing from pets.com and the expense of shipping heavy pet products? :)

> Have we learned nothing from pets.com and the expense of shipping heavy pet products? :) It gets shipped even if you buy it in a retail store. Pets.com was a great idea poorly executed about a decade too early.

There's a difference between shipping on a pallet in the same semi trailer as 51 other pallets and shipping in a cardboard box from a fulfillment center.

Who's doing pets.com's modern equivalent now?

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#83

Post by jessaustin »

sushid wrote: post #67
dragonwriter wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pump and dump doesn't require that the stock be traded on an exchange -- the idea is to manipulate perception and, thereby, demand to improve the price you can sell at, which applies no matter what mechanism you are using to sell.

Right, I'm aware of 1) what pump and dump is and 2) the fact that unlisted stocks can still be traded. But the reason the NYSE suspended trading is to prevent pump and dump amidst talks of a buyout with Sprint, Amazon, etc. It's much harder to do so with unlisted stocks...

You seem to be conceding the point? Or is the NYSE just wrong?

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#84

Post by jessaustin »

650REDHAIR wrote: post #63
tn13 wrote: post #37

This is a good example of why we should let failed companies fail and let good companies then salvage the good assets. Imagine US government had taken over RadioShack to "protect the jobs" using taxpayers money and spent billions for a so called turnaround.

RadioShack is not comparable to Detroit.

Yeah unionized auto workers are far more valuable to politicians than part-time $9/hr people.

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#85

Post by VonGuard »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #62
seanp2k2 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're in the Bay Area, halted.com has a store in Santa Clara that totally blew my mind. Dozens of aisles of electronics components, including racks of reels of surface-mount stuff. They also have stuff like used oscilloscopes, industrial robotics controllers, etc.

If you're in the Bay Area, you never needed Radio Shack to begin with. Their market is (was) the rest of us, here in flyover territory.

Yeah, not everyone has access to Fry's or Weird Stuff, sadly.

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#87

Post by morgante »

jessaustin wrote: post #82
morgante wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Have we learned nothing from pets.com and the expense of shipping heavy pet products? :) It gets shipped even if you buy it in a retail store. Pets.com was a great idea poorly executed about a decade too early.

There's a difference between shipping on a pallet in the same semi trailer as 51 other pallets and shipping in a cardboard box from a fulfillment center. Who's doing pets.com's modern equivalent now?

> There's a difference between shipping on a pallet in the same semi trailer as 51 other pallets and shipping in a cardboard box from a fulfillment center.

True, but Amazon (amongst others) is increasingly making the economics of delivery more feasible.

> Who's doing pets.com's modern equivalent now?

Amazon is: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=lp_2975359011_ex_n_1?rh=n%3A2619...

So is Wag.com (a subsidiary of theirs): http://www.wag.com/

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#88

Post by ozi »

xur17 wrote: post #4
chiph wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With their analytics, they could probably make a good guess as to what people living in a 5-mile radius of the store are likely to purchase. Which could make for some interesting juxtapositions on the shelves. Kitty litter next to Blu-ray movies, etc. But if it sells, it sells.

I could also see it acting as a showroom for certain products that people want to be able to look at, handle, etc.

Also, returns. How cool would it be if you could just run the product down the street to return it instead of having to ship it back?

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#89

Post by DigitalSea »

This could be very interesting if it proves to be true. Seeing Amazon purchase Radioshack and then miraculously return it to its former glory and exclusively sell electronic components, hobbyist kits and stop selling things like TV and phones would be a move that I would wholeheartedly support as would my inner 7 year old self who has fond memories of going to Radioshack with my dad and buying a bag of LED's and various electronic components to build things.

As a bonus they could use it to locally store popular items, use the stores as pick-up and drop-off zones (as the site suggests) and have a few computers consumers can come in and use to order directly off of Amazon. I would hate to see Radioshack die, it kind of makes me sad to think the brand could just vanish.

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#90

Post by hdctambien »

libria wrote: post #71
eof wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

old leases = below market rate? they are already well distributed for ten zillion amazon lockers? it doesn't seem so far fetched to me; amazon being able to pick up a bunch of cheap space in fell swoop.

Having used Amazon Lockers a lot, I don't really get it. If you don't want a package sitting on your doorstep all day, have it delivered to work. And Lockers has a maximum size limit that I hit every so often that negated that option. Having it show up at my desk is a lot more convenient. Now if I could return packages through Lockers, then I'd be game.

So, just have the UPS guy come to McDonalds to deliver your package while you're working?

Not everyone works in an office...

Post reply on HN