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RadioShack never actually left? And it's coming BACK!?

The thing is, guys like us who buy a resistor or fuse once in a while won’t keep the doors open.

Hopefully, they figure out a way to market and sell higher ticket items to a younger demographic.

20 years ago that customer might have been me.
Probably not anymore.
 
It's hard to imagine a brick and morter category that is wide open for new players. The speciality stores are all going belly up.

Lately, I find that if I want special fasteners Amazon is my goto. Home depot is pure crap, and ludicrously priced, and all the Old School hardware stores that once had aisles of fasteners are simply closing for lack of business.

All the bits and pieces needed for DIY projects are just priced at such lunatic levels it makes DIY a money sink. I still do it because, you know, you gotta keep busy, but the end result is always pretty spendy./
 
The store two country blocks from me officially changed it's signage to "T Mobile" about 2 years ago.
Up until then, they did have a small selection of RC cars, battery chargers, and digital TV antennas.
 
Screw the batteries. If I ran a RS store today all idling employees would be repairing gear on a bench earning $90/hr for the store while showcasing our marginal quality parts and answering technical questions to curious customers with ease.
 
eizner23 said:
Screw the batteries. If I ran a RS store today all idling employees would be repairing gear on a bench earning $90/hr for the store while showcasing our marginal quality parts and answering technical questions to curious customers with ease.
Click to expand...
Back in the day they had their own regional repair facilities
 
RS is dead and gone. Take a look at their online inventory. Pretty much bluetooth speakers and headphone. Frys is gone. Weirdstuff Warehouse is gone. American Science and Surplus is still around, I think. Apex Jr is cool. Thank goodness for Parts Express. The only thing I see these days that is even remotely similar is Micro Center, and although there's one near me, there aren't many. I think AliExpress is pretty much it now, except for the big online parts houses.

RIP, Radio Shack. I actually worked at one, in 1979 in Golden, Colorado. It was great.
 
Vintage9090 said:
I think it all depends on the owner of the store. The RS in Cape Coral has a decent selection of components including Nichicon capacitors, a variety of resistors, switches, potentiometers IC's, tools, soldering stations, ect. The one in Ft.Myers not so much so.
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Before the last few in Michigan closed, it was cell phones and bluetooth gizmos. Nary a resistor or capacitor in sight. I had pretty much stopped going back when they insisted on my name and address for cash purchases, which I found irritating.
 
Wigwam Jones said:
Before the last few in Michigan closed, it was cell phones and bluetooth gizmos. Nary a resistor or capacitor in sight. I had pretty much stopped going back when they insisted on my name and address for cash purchases, which I found irritating.
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I don't blame you , anywhere that asks for personal info for a purchase especially a cash purchase is a no go with me.
 
OBMG74 said:
The thing is, guys like us who buy a resistor or fuse once in a while won’t keep the doors open.

Hopefully, they figure out a way to market and sell higher ticket items to a younger demographic.

20 years ago that customer might have been me.
Probably not anymore.
Click to expand...
True. There isn't as many HAM operators either that used to frequent RS needing parts for radio repair and builds. A lot.of the older Farmers in my area were HAM guys. One store about a half hour away stocked a lot of parts and tubes for HAM operators. The biggest businesses in that town are farm equipment companies.
 
RS is dead and gone. Take a look at their online inventory.
Click to expand...

The actual store location I saw in Hamilton, MT still had parts and a lot of the old inventory. Fellow working there promised adding a huge number of SKUs every month and many more stores opening. But, as with any corporate operation, could be hot air.

This is THE real challenge isn't it- How does any brick and mortar business compete with absolutely everything being available online in one click? I'm setting up a lawn chair and cracking a beer to watch how they do, if they can. I think there is a solution space, it's kind of small, but it's there.

The skeptical side of me thinks the traditional bean counters are repeating history thinking "lets open a chain of cell phone stores (plenty of precedent for that) and sell a few components along side" not realizing that model has already failed. The optimistic side of me hopes they will actually reach out to the DIY/school-STEM/Maker/Audiophile/Repair community that has been blooming over the last decade and get ideas that can actually be different from the competitors.

All comes down to desire to innovate, and break moulds, and take bold risks which I do see a fair lot of lately in many industries "post web".

Some key areas and thoughts:
  • Don't "add value" to low value components by putting a capacitor in fancy packaging so you can hang it on a wall and charge 5 times what the capacitor is actually worth. That's DUMB. Don't carry "any resistor you need as long as it is 1K,10K,or 100K". That is not a critical mass.
  • Do keep a LARGE selection of these very inexpensive components in bins in the back (or heck, in drawers like they do screws at ACE). Follow ACE, and set a healthy price for the convenience, but not 5X what you can get online- they are screws, not diamonds.
  • Do maximize the chance someone can get all of the parts needed for a project (or at least what they want to do NOW), and don't offer to order it online for them. If someone has to go online, you destroy your entire value proposition, because if they have to wait, they will order everything online and you are irrelevant. Repeating history there.
  • Do have a teaching space. I have seen this in quilting and fabric stores that are otherwise dying because young people are not getting into sewing, and Grandmas who do are dying. Offer free or low cost classes or kit project builds in the evening or on weekends. Make it fun little projects that kids can learn and do one day, and a more advanced project or class interesting to adults another. Need not be soldering- make a little proto board kit with some wires and some parts for reasonable cost- They can then keep the kit and build the other kits in the book. While they are there, you can demonstrate what a multimeter is, how soldering works for when they are ready- Give them something to bite into that is physical, hands on- Parents would LOVE that and be supportive.
  • Do have a demonstration area- For Christ's sake, have a 3D printer that kids can get a free key chain from. Even public libraries are getting these to get kids involved into STEM. You can have volunteers in this area, experienced people you can't afford to pay who can answer questions or run demonstrations. Have a couple of drones and other toys that people can actually see what is available and what it can do, and maybe have a hand at.
  • Do reach out to and cater to the audiophile community. There is a Chi-Fi explosion going on right now, with an amazing increasing array of inexpensive audio gear that is getting better and better, with more features and quality. Yes, we can get them cheap online- however, they have to come from China (long wait) and you have no idea what the quality is or what it sounds like. You can stock this stuff- Heck, if it's profitable after Amazon takes it's 30% certainly RadioShack can take that same cut. People are willing to pay a premium to take home now what they have just listened to. Same with speakers- a huge lineup of bookshelf, standing, and subwoofer offerings that customers could switch A/B and see for themselves- What DO those new Class-D offerings sound like- how do they compare.
  • Do carry phonographs and more importantly record accessories. How stupid is it that Walmart carries and entire aisle of $30 records, which the college kids are loving right now but they do not carry a single record cleaning kit? And the only turntable offerings are super low end Crosley suitcases or maybe a very low end Audiotechnica? Yet I can walk one aisle over and they are selling $1000 laptops and gaming desktops?
  • Do hire employees that know their a$$ from a hole in the ground. At least for common stuff. Pay something at least, and understand that an employee who posesses knowledge and experience is a MAGNET for customers, most of whom have questions or need help on basic things. That is just as important as a flashy sign, or nice carpet- and can be an important resource for an entire community.
  • Do (I like this idea) have a repair facility. If beyond repair -> direct to inventory. Consulting, charge a small fee at the "genius counter". Carry a selection of basic parts that those few local repair places could use rather than always having to place an order, actually encouraging more local repair to happen. And you are right eizner23- You have to sell a LOT of resistors to equal the $90 an hour your repair counter could be making. With the exploding love for vintage audio gear I would think that alone could make the store profitable. There is a used record/CD store in Fort Collins, CO that caters to college students, and they do a huge business refurbishing and flipping older audio gear.
Anyway, I could go on and on- and I hope others add more. Maybe this can become an open letter to the corporate leadership or something.
 
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