Radio Shack Bankruptcy

[Zero999]

Did you ever notice all their sales were fake? I had a part time job there in college and every week we would put out price tags including "sale" tags. We had this one crap RCA TV that was always $299.99 but every other week we would put a car out that said "SALE" in red and said was $399.99. That's so shady. Every sale was like that or the sale price was actually more then it was last week, they would just edit the WAS price. That's theft by deception.

It's also illegal in some jurisdictions: the item has to have been previously sold at a much higher price for a certain time period, before the shop can stick sale signs on it. Of course that doesn't stop the shop from rotating the sale signs across several different products in the same range.

[schmitt trigger]

From the photos, the Chip and Dip stores appear to be decently stocked, clean and brightly decorated.   

[Electro Detective]

That would make them another online store. It's the bricks and mortar that people are sad to have lost. Those can't be run indefinitely at a loss, subsidised by the online store.

I was hinting they conduct the online business using the bricks and mortar stores to operate and for partial stock holding and handball distribution,
just like Jaycar and Altronics over here in Kangaroo Central.

Some franchise arrangements can work too in remote areas,
if not too many buy/sell/advertising and other constraints placed on owners by the usual 'out of touch' corporate clowns      back at the main company HQ

Some discussion erupting here about the fading beauty of online ordering: 
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/nice-one-dhl/

 

[CJay]

All those bemoaning the loss, try to think seriously how you might keep a store like the RS of old in the black. It's not an easy task to imagine how to do it, let alone actually do it over hundreds of stores. There just plain ain't enough hobbiests to support that many stores.

That's true but I think the fact, that it's so much cheaper to buy online is the main factor in stores being unprofitable. It just doesn't make sense to stock around a million different low value parts, over thousands of stores.

Here in the UK we still have Maplin but they don't sell many small parts any more but consumer electronics and even that is limited. They still stock things for the hobbyist but nothing like it was before the Internet came along.

Even consumer electronics stores don't exist like they used to because they can't compete with online stores. I can't remember the last time I bought any consumer electronics from a real shop. I just buy online.

It's a terrible business to be in, my last local independent electronics shop closed down over ten years ago, they have/had a reasonably profitable mail order business going but just didn't have enough walk in to make it worthwhile keeping a shop open. I spoke to the owner a year or two ago and he was still in business but only for industrial clients.

I do wonder if there is some scope for an automated 'shop' to be set up (like a shop sized vending machine), somewhere with reels of components so you ordered your parts either online or 'in store' and then waited while the machinery packaged them up for you then you collect a nice, automatically packed box of parts from something like the Amazon smart lockers?

[Cerebus]

Did you ever notice all their sales were fake? I had a part time job there in college and every week we would put out price tags including "sale" tags. We had this one crap RCA TV that was always $299.99 but every other week we would put a car out that said "SALE" in red and said was $399.99. That's so shady. Every sale was like that or the sale price was actually more then it was last week, they would just edit the WAS price. That's theft by deception.

It's also illegal in some jurisdictions: the item has to have been previously sold at a much higher price for a certain time period, before the shop can stick sale signs on it. Of course that doesn't stop the shop from rotating the sale signs across several different products in the same range.

There are get-outs though. If you look carefully at !SALE! items in some UK chain stores you'll find "was £xxxx, now £yyy*".

*Previously on sale at £xxxx in our store at No-one-goes-there, Tiny Backwater, North West Scotland.

But never sold at any of their other stores at that price. It's within the letter of the law, but nothing like the spirit.

[schmitt trigger]

*Previously on sale at £xxxx in our store at No-one-goes-there, Tiny Backwater, North West Scotland.

Your font is actually quite large, compared to some fine print I've seen. 

[SeanB]

Don't think Dave has the 1point flyspec font that most terms and conditions are printed in, and I doubt the colour selection includes a 3% grey on white background either.

[DaJMasta]

Last day of their going out of business sale here, you have maybe 4h left on the east coast.  Parts are cheap, though the selection is somewhat limited.  I got this for about $30, and it's probably just under 200 packs of things.  My store said $25 for everything you could fit into a small bag, the transformers were like $1.50 each.

[Zero999]

Wow, just look at all of those bags. Imagine how much it must have cost for each component to have been individually packaged, taken stock of and transported to the store.

Even though you paid nothign compared to what it cost Radio Shack, I wonder how much of it could have still been purchased for less online? The transformers were probably the biggest bargain. You probably got them for less than the cost of the raw materials.

[DaJMasta]

I think a handful of the parts were actually about at cost - I figure it was in the ballpark of a dime per baggie, and the single pack of caps or maybe some of the diodes were close if they bought in bulk.  Since they moved away from the blister packs with cardboard backing, the bags themselves are probably pretty cheap, but I figure it was a significant percentage of the total cost of goods for each one.  There were some that I didn't go for which there's a chance they could still have been making a profit off of - 5 packs of 1/8W resistors or two packs of 0.1uF caps - but after the packaging and organizational cost, they could be around breaking even instead at this price.  Those SMA to whatever cable adapters in the lower right were listed at like $16 each.... though I've bought similar through ebay for less than $1.50 shipped each...


My perspective on their bankruptcy is that they sort of over-diversified and pushed themselves out of the niche markets they could have serviced.  While I certainly understand that demand for parts like this have dropped off in the last few decades, I think there probably is a market that can support a local place with a stock of components - there are plenty of times I need a quick replacement part or finishing bit and I don't mind paying a premium to get it now... but they reduced their selection, making it less likely to find the part you need and raised their prices.  Something like $2 for 5 resistors or $4 for a single 220uF cap is something I'm only going to pay if I'm REALLY desperate.  The one area they always seemed to have a good stock of was terminations for cables - crimp terminals, coax connectors, audio jacks... but while that may be viable for DIY types fixing equipment, it's probably not in many others' wheelhouses.

Aside from our niche, they tried to go into cell phones, toys, batteries, and sort of cables and adapters... but their prices can't compete with online and because of the size of their stores, their selection never really seemed big enough to make them a go-to place over best buy, a drugstore, a toy store, etc.  While the early moves in that direction may have been able to support their huge number of stores better, I think in the long run it sort of pushed them out of people's buying habits.

While I'm sad to see them go, I really only found myself in a radioshack a couple days of a year, at most... and given that their stuff is supposed to generally appeal to people with my interests, I'm not really surprised it's worked out this way.

[Cerebus]

Don't think Dave has the 1point flyspec font that most terms and conditions are printed in, and I doubt the colour selection includes a 3% grey on white background either.

Oh, I could have made it smaller and almost impossible to read but, unlike the original users, I intended for you to be able to actually read it.

[NottheDan]

There are get-outs though. If you look carefully at !SALE! items in some UK chain stores you'll find "was £xxxx, now £yyy*".

*Previously on sale at £xxxx in our store at No-one-goes-there, Tiny Backwater, North West Scotland.

But never sold at any of their other stores at that price. It's within the letter of the law, but nothing like the spirit.

Just as often you will find
*Previously on sale at £xxxx from #date to #date.

With those dates nicely indicating that what they are offering is the predecessor to the current model and the "sale price" is in the ballpark of the revised RRP for it.

[jh15]

Don't think Dave has the 1point flyspec font that most terms and conditions are printed in, and I doubt the colour selection includes a 3% grey on white background either.

Oh, I could have made it smaller and almost impossible to read but, unlike the original users, I intended for you to be able to actually read it.

And printed on thermal paper that fades by tax time. So you have to copy it. (easier now with phones), but how do you put that in your receipt shoe-box?

[yada]

Don't think Dave has the 1point flyspec font that most terms and conditions are printed in, and I doubt the colour selection includes a 3% grey on white background either.

Oh, I could have made it smaller and almost impossible to read but, unlike the original users, I intended for you to be able to actually read it.

And printed on thermal paper that fades by tax time. So you have to copy it. (easier now with phones), but how do you put that in your receipt shoe-box?

They do this with mail in rebates intentionally stalling until the colour fades. 

[vk3yedotcom]

Some of their franchises are doing well and even expanding https://swling.com/blog/2017/08/radioshack-franchises-expand-in-wake-of-corporate-bankruptcy/

[rdl]

The independent franchise stores always were the best.

Some of their franchises are doing well and even expanding https://swling.com/blog/2017/08/radioshack-franchises-expand-in-wake-of-corporate-bankruptcy/