T&L Publications

It had to happen sooner or later.
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/2009 ... dioshack_1
I just hope they stay afloat.

CeaSaR

Hi,


I think any improvement is good. I hope they get bigger stores though, that would be nice.

I never understood why they just didn't rename it "Battery Shack", "Telephone Shack", "Turn-Key Consumer Electronics Shack", etc.

You can't even find decent CB, shortwave or scanner radios in the store anymore, let alone a decent selection of parts.

Dean

Just stopped in there yesterday. They caught me at the door wanting to help me. I said I needed a 75 ohm balun and some "F" type connectors and watched her eyes glass over. As I walked past, I said "antenna accessories - right this way"!
She sure knew her cell phones though.

CeaSaR, you beat me to the punch. My comment is on the name change is simple.

Lipstick on a pig.

I don't see this as a great help in they're image.

The problem that RS has, is that the once profitable niche market of parts it had.
Has been eroded by cheap ready made disposable consumer electronics.
That's kind what happened to Heathkit.
Also, as was pointed out in the article.
Big Box stores can under cut RS's prices by 10% to 20%.
Example: I went to RS for a diplexer for my SAT setup.
It listed $19.95.
I went to Menards, they had it for $8.99.

In this tuff economy, people are going to be bargain hunting for the best possible deals.


Signed: Janitor Tzap

From a strictly marketing perspective, this makes sense. Getting rid of the Radio broadens their appeal to the actual customers they have left (young affluent mall shoppers) and completes the purge of components and the old Radio Shack image. We can cling to the old image all we want but the new reality is here. Consumer electronics most of the year and RC toys at christmas.

In a world without the internet things might have been different. If they had clung to components, they surely would have gone belly up long before last year or at least shrunk to a few stores in high tech centers.

I dunno. I only go in there a few times a year and the electronic component supply has dwindled down to nothing - which is the only reason I ever go in there. If that is all gone, there is nothing left for me to go in there for.

The name change reminds me of a Stephen King line : You can't polish a turd! (from Christine)

Kevin

psycho wrote:I dunno. I only go in there a few times a year and the electronic component supply has dwindled down to nothing - which is the only reason I ever go in there. If that is all gone, there is nothing left for me to go in there for.

The name change reminds me of a Stephen King line : You can't polish a turd! (from Christine)

Kevin

Hi,


Obviously he didnt know any paleontologists

I havent gone in there now for a few months either (04/03/09) so i dont know if the local
'Shack' has gotten rid of its components or not. I sure hope not. If that happens then
they become dead to me (just kidding), really just another department store to me.

I applied for a job there many years ago. I don't know if they refused me because I knew electronics or because I have more conscience than ambition.

Yea, but now that they are sponsoring a toor-day-france cycling team, customers will be flocking to the stores, 'cause bicycling and consumer electronics are just || that close!

rolerbe wrote:Yea, but now that they are sponsoring a toor-day-france cycling team, customers will be flocking to the stores, 'cause bicycling and consumer electronics are just || that close!

Now that would be an interesting sight.
Bicycles sitting along side cell phones in the stores.


Signed: Janitor Tzap

How about the more fitting name, "Everything but Radio"?

jwax wrote:How about the more fitting name, "Everything but Radio"?

There are amusing comments about the name change all over the place:

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/showt ... p?t=212481

So it must have been about 1970 or '71 and the boss at our Olsen's Electronics had us in for a sales staff meeting at 7:00 on a Saturday morning.
The main topic of the meeting seemed to be that our two main rivals, Allied Electronics and (I think) Radio Shack had merged and were to be known henceforth as Allied Radio Shack. He pronounced that within a couple of years they'd drop the Allied name and a couple of years after that they'd just be the Shack & then they'd go out of business. Then he instructed us to sell more tuner cleaner and batteries so that when our time came we would be ready. (Come on, I made an extra dime a can off that tuner cleaner.)
We got no place to go get components to do component level repairs but in case you haven't heard the component level repair technician is a dinosaur, destined for extinction.