Author Topic: Radio Shack is back?  (Read 2721 times)

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Offline funkyantTopic starter

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Radio Shack is back?
« on: May 31, 2016, 09:26:11 pm »
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Radio Shack is now a greatly scaled-down company and more focused on building a new business model around its stores and a greatly expanded online presence. It will continue to sell popular consumer electronics items, but also will take advantage of the growing DIY/Maker niche. Look for a growing number of Radio Shack smaller electronic kits in stores in the months to come. What they really need is a few signature larger kits to generate some significant buzz and dollars. Drones and robots come to mind, but that has been done. How about more radio products? Why not ham radio products, as this is a known and growing market? Besides, the former ham kit company Heathkit is not doing anything.

Radio Shack is also pursuing an educational approach to the hobbyist market. It plans to participate in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) movement in schools to introduce students to these technical fields. It will also offer in-store learning sessions and demos. I urge them to do even more educational projects like offering books, learning kits, and online webinars.

Source:

http://m.electronicdesign.com/blog/shack-back
 

Offline iampoor

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Re: Radio Shack is back?
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2016, 09:47:16 pm »

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"valuable resource for parts and accessories that many of us have come to rely upon."

 :wtf:

It isn't 1982 anymore....
 

Offline jsi

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Re: Radio Shack is back?
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2016, 10:17:38 pm »
Well it happens that I was at Radio Shack just yesterday looking for some MOV's and capacitors, none of which they had in the values I needed.  I did pay $2 for two zener diodes, but seriously  :wtf:  While I was there a high school aged kid and his dad were looking for arduino parts and they had none.  They did have a couple of shield kits, but the clerk didn't have the first clue about anything electronic. 

I'd pay extra ($2 for .20 cents worth of zeners) to have the parts available on weekends and after work hours, but they have to have a well stocked selection. I keep hoping Radio Shack will get their act together, but I'm not holding my breath.
 

Offline starphot

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Re: Radio Shack is back?
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2016, 05:18:44 am »
  The Shack was my old employer. I worked in one of their regional repair centers for nearly 20 years. I checked last month on their website and just now and that site still cannot locate a common part at the nearest stores. Sad to see RS in this way. I had some good years invested in the company. The complaint of the sales staff not having a clue to the product line? The experienced ones left long ago in the 1990's when the sales strategy changed. "Just sell them as much as you can" strategy replaced the one that says "What are you looking for?" It is hard to find knowledgeable staff anywhere in today's retail environment. The info is on some server somewhere that takes the store part # or SKU #. They'll sell you a phone and those accessories, but no clue of what's in those parts drawers. And they are going to participate in STEM and all of those school projects that STEM produces?

Joe
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Offline RickBrant

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Re: Radio Shack is back?
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2016, 09:44:58 am »
Subtitle (from a FB post): "Radio Shack re-emerges as a major DIY/Maker player, while Heathkit continues to meander."

I'll believe it when I see it. I'll bet they will continue to be poorly stocked, their web site will continue to claim parts in stock that are not (and vice versa), their staff will continue to claim that they don't have stuff that they do have (and vice versa), and what stock they do have will continue to be mostly hung on the wrong pegs.

And they will continue to try to sell bog-standard LEDs for two bucks apiece.

In a way this is not their fault. Given the vast number of parts a DIY electronics store needs to supply, the vast majority of them being "long tail", low-margin items that demand the lowest-overhead-possible business model (i.e. not shelf space in a walk-in store), I don't think they can compete with the likes of Adafruit, Sparkfun, and "new line" distributors like Mouser and Digikey, and the reinvented Newark.

And eBay if you don't mind waiting a bit for dirt cheap parts and subassemblies from China.

Heck... in the U.S. at least, even Amazon is a viable source of lots of DIY electronics parts these days, especially if you have Prime.
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Online xrunner

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Re: Radio Shack is back?
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2016, 11:59:13 am »
Well the first CEO split after downsizing; left after less than a year, but when you hire a comedian as the chief creative officer you still don't get it ...

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FORT WORTH

Ron Garriques has departed as chief executive officer at RadioShack less than a year after taking over at the downsized Fort Worth consumer electronics chain.

A company representative confirmed the departure on Wednesday, saying that Garriques stepped down “to pursue other interests in a role that will put him back closer to his family.”
Former RadioShack CEO Joe Magnacca was named CEO of Massage Envy. Joyce Marshall Star-Telegram

Chief Financial Officer Gordon Briscoe will serve as interim CEO until the company’s board finds a permanent replacement.

Garriques, a former executive with Dell and Motorola, was hired as CEO in April after the New York hedge fund, Standard General, acquired 1,743 stores in bankruptcy court. He succeeded Joe Magnacca, who stepped down as CEO at that time.

Since taking over, Garriques led RadioShack’s efforts to reinvigorate the business with new store designs including Sprint wireless centers, and hired comedian/actor Nick Cannon as Chief Creative Officer.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/article55646755.html#storylink=cpy
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Offline jsi

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Re: Radio Shack is back?
« Reply #6 on: June 01, 2016, 07:26:24 pm »
IMHO if Radio Shack is going for a web based model they will fail.  There are way too many players in the online space already.  Now if they have a GOOD stock of parts in their stores and they are open when hobbyists like me (who have day jobs) can visit they could be succeed.  I really don't like waiting a week+ and paying a fortune in shipping for little pieces and parts for the online stuff. 

 

Offline IanB

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Re: Radio Shack is back?
« Reply #7 on: June 01, 2016, 08:05:45 pm »
I think if a web sales model can ship small items in a padded envelope by regular mail at negligible shipping cost it can succeed. It's inconvenient using the likes of Digikey if you have to make a large order to justify the cost of shipping.
 

Offline DimitriP

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Re: Radio Shack is back?
« Reply #8 on: June 01, 2016, 08:15:05 pm »
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web sales model can ship small items in a padded envelope by regular mail at negligible shipping cost it can succeed.

It's a catch 22, if RS can do this, so can DigiKey and Mouser but they'll have to retrain their packers.
Which begs the question, why are they not doing this already?



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