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Vultures Fight Over the Bones of Radio Shack — Parallax Forums

Vultures Fight Over the Bones of Radio Shack

Too_Many_ToolsToo_Many_Tools Posts: 765
edited 2014-06-25 14:27 in General Discussion
I have been wondering why we haven't been some movement on RS's new plan...now we know why.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/radioshack-comeback-plan-hits-the-skids-140226542.html
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Comments

  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2014-04-17 21:08

    "As a rule of thumb, when a company is doing so bad that it literally can't afford to go out of business, its worst days are still to come."

    Wow. What a bummer.
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,400
    edited 2014-04-17 21:14
    Considering the amount of Parallax inventory in their stores, and the continual replenishment, this makes me nervous. If and when they finally tank they'll be selling our products for pennies on the dollars. That process ends up setting the market for our products until their Parallax inventory is depleted.

    Ken Gracey
  • msrobotsmsrobots Posts: 3,709
    edited 2014-04-17 22:08
    Ken!

    it like in the stock market. You just have to buy the quickstarts back from RS lower then you sell them

    Enjoy!

    Mike
  • WildatheartWildatheart Posts: 195
    edited 2014-04-17 22:24
    Ken Gracey wrote: »
    Considering the amount of Parallax inventory in their stores, and the continual replenishment, this makes me nervous. If and when they finally tank they'll be selling our products for pennies on the dollars. That process ends up setting the market for our products until their Parallax inventory is depleted.

    Ken Gracey

    Perhaps, but then, I bought 2 QS boards from a Phoenix RS store recently that I don't need and would likely not have purchased from Parallax anyway. The bright side is that if I do end up using these boards, they may very well need other Parallax accessories only available from Parallax.

    More importantly, lets stay focused on the P1+++++ and a new QS2 board that will replace these discounted QS boards. And also, lets crank out a new C tutorial each week that encourages use of accessories that work with the discounted RS stuff. Seems like a great opportunity for Parallax to me.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2014-04-18 05:20
    RS.. more comebacks than Mickey Rooney had wives.
    Publically listed corporations just won't admit how bad business is.. even if they are near bankruptcy.

    Pro and Con for Parallax

    Con
    You can buy a Parallax product which will be available for less at RS or if they go into bankruptcy by thier administrator
    Parallax might have to negotiate an unpaid account recievable if they go bankrupt

    Pro
    More people may have Parallax product in hand
    The next Propeller might get a bigger following sooner and that is not on sale at RS.
    Another retailer wiill evolve with a better idea of how to better serve the customer.


    ..... You really just have to go foward with what you got and not worry about what RS does. It has long been a cul de sac in the corporate world for mediocre career corporate 'suits'. It takes a company like Parallax that has some real vision of what the customers are doing to make any headway in todays electronics for education, hobby, and industry use.

    I just wonder who actually pocketed the nice fat kickback cash from the Radio Shack Superbowl ad.
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2014-04-18 10:59
    Considering the amount of Parallax inventory in their stores, and the continual replenishment,
    I'm not sure about other stores, but the 3 that are closest to me have not replenished their Parallax items since the X-Bee's and other items were being clearance out.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2014-04-18 11:26
    hmmm. you know that the fact that RS is running clearance sales of Parallax items might mean that these are popular and actually raise cash faster.

    That wud be indicating something good.

    But if they are heavily re-ordering from Parallax on credit... whoa!
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2014-04-18 11:35
    But if they are heavily re-ordering from Parallax on credit... whoa!
    Yea. I think it might be time for Ken to change terms to C.O.D.!!!!!
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2014-04-18 11:52
    I'd tend to agree with RS's creditors that closing just 1100 stores isn't enough. As I've noted here in the past, the chain should have NO MORE than 1100 stores. They simply have too many stores for their market.

    If RS doesn't agree to more store cuts it looks like the creditors will force a liquidation, and Ken's concerns are right on the money, no pun intended. They'll have to declare Chapter 7, which will remove the company from their lease obligations and much of their debt. From there, they'll probably run clearance sales for 30 days prior to closing each store, and any remaining stock -- as well as store fixtures, etc. -- will go to a liquidator for pennies on the dollar, and stock sold on the surplus market. I don't see them keeping stores open for longer than 30-45 days due to the cost of keeping the employees.

    Another scenario is that someone outside of the current RS management buys enough stock to force a leveraged buyout, files for Chapter 11, and tries to make a go of it with some new ideas and fresh money.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2014-04-18 13:38
    And so, we can only hope that the financiers involved are trying to push RS into Chapter 11 so that they can take over the assets (Is there real estate involved) for a bargain price.
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2014-04-18 14:14
    There's little real estate involved, or else someone would have raided RS long ago. My understanding is that nearly all store locations are leased. According to the Wiki page on RS, they lease their office building in Ft. Worth, having sold it nearly 10 years ago.

    What an investor would be buying, apart from inventory, is a brand name with dubious value in the 21st century, store fixtures and furniture, the mail order/online biz, and cherished retail locations in malls. All that could be worth $200M, but I bet it will end up going for even less.

    If it were me, I'd close all of the company-run free-standing stores except for those that show exemplary year-over sales. I'd keep a few in the outdoor strip malls that consistently do well, and concentrate mostly on malls.

    Personally, I'd probably drop a lot of the component sales (sorry guys), but then take the savings and pour it all into greatly expanded online sales, maybe with four or five regional warehouses where 80% of orders are shipped and delivered within one or two days. I might have a small section for general supplies, but everything else would be mail order. If that's not possible, I'd get on a plane and visit Jeff Bezos in Seattle, and talk merger.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,257
    edited 2014-04-18 14:18
    That great Superbowl commercial cost a pretty penny. I had hoped it was a turning point for the Shack, but now it seems it was more of a last hurrah. Bummer for the DIY movement.
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2014-04-18 14:29
    The Super Bowl ad might have been clever, but was unmotivating, IMO. They dissed many 80s icons, including the BTTF Delorean. Uncool. These are things people *like*. Had they nuked some orange shag carpeting and old wood paneling it might have been different. While the ad had some viral success, I think it had the opposite effect than intended. People saw it and said, "Oh great -- all the things I liked about the 80s are junk and have no value."

    Let's also not forget that for RSs key current demographic (millennials), the 80s are now the nostalgic years.

    So while a nifty show of favorite icons, the ad had zero marketing impact. How could it otherwise?
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2014-04-18 15:14
    I'd suggest they convert themselves into video game addiction treatment centers.

    Rename themselves RDDio Shack.






    RDD = Reality Deficit Disorder
  • 4x5n4x5n Posts: 745
    edited 2014-04-18 15:18
    Ken Gracey wrote: »
    Considering the amount of Parallax inventory in their stores, and the continual replenishment, this makes me nervous. If and when they finally tank they'll be selling our products for pennies on the dollars. That process ends up setting the market for our products until their Parallax inventory is depleted.

    Ken Gracey

    I've gone around to all the radioshacks around me and bought up as much Parallax "stuff" as I could find and have been giving most of the stuff away to people I know that have been using arduino.
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,452
    edited 2014-04-18 17:58
    In the Harahan store near my workplace, none of the maker stuff has been replenished recently, neither Parallax nor Arduino. I did snap up a cellphone Arduinio shield which I have no real use for for $10 down from $99, and I might slink off to Parallax for a Prop ASC to play with it. I haven't checked Mandeville which is closer to home but really harder for me to get to (and which serves a wealthier community with lots of leisure time) lately; might drop in tomorrow to see what's up.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,257
    edited 2014-04-18 18:36
    GordonMcComb wrote: »
    All that could be worth $200M, but I bet it will end up going for even less.

    So if we all kick in $50, we can buy the Shack?
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2014-04-18 19:10
    Well, at least their core business has not yet reached a negative valuation, like Yahoo's did recently:

    -Phil
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2014-04-19 05:27
    Ironically, Yahoo may suddenly be in for a big windfall due to Weibo going public. Alibaba might go public like Weibo, and then might buy out the Yahoo ownership of a big chunk of their stock.

    http://blogs.barrons.com/emergingmarketsdaily/2014/03/17/sina-yahoo-advance-on-weibo-alibaba-us-ipo-dual-class-shares/

    It is difficult to say what might really happen to RS. I did enjoy seeing Chuky in the Superbowl ad.. very funny.
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2014-04-19 07:54
    While I understand the Bloomberg writer's points, there's a place even for non-organic growth if it fills the coffers of the company. That in turn fuels other expansion and growth, and can pay for systemic improvements in the core business. Yahoo is up against Google, which is a tough adversary, and even Google is having a hard time of some of it.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-04-19 08:54
    Any body know what Yahoo does? I'mean apart from owning bits of profitable businesses in China or wherever?

    I seem to remember that they had a search engine back in 1990 something, before Google.

    They dropped off my radar at the turn of the century, until I started watching Douglas Crockford videos on YouTube and found that he worked there. He does not any more.
  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    edited 2014-04-19 09:28
    Basically they spy on you, just like Google, and I think they still have the search thing and free e-mail accounts.

    According to this article they want "to provide a web ordered for you".

    http://www.businessinsider.com/finally-marissa-mayer-explains-what-her-yahoo-does-we-provide-a-web-ordered-for-you-2013-1

    They don't mention any charge for this "personalized" web, so I guess they have some other plan for making money off this information they will gather about your "activity on Yahoo and elsewhere" and "likes on Facebook, tweets, articles you click on", etc.
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2014-04-19 14:11
    Heater. wrote: »
    Any body know what Yahoo does?

    Sells ads. It all comes down to that, whether it's in mail, their news page, or Yahoo search -- which is actually Microsoft Bing. Whatever else they do it's all in order to display ads.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-04-19 14:20
    But that's the thing. I was not aware that anybody used Yahoo for mail or news or search since last century. Certainly nobody I mix with would admit to it.

    So who do they get to display adds to?

    And whoever thought "Yahoo" was a good name for a company?

    yahoo1
    ˈjɑːhuː,jəˈhuː/
    noun
    • 1.
      a rude, noisy, or violent person.


    synonyms:
    barbarian, philistine, vulgarian, savage, brute, beast, boor, oaf,ruffian, thug, lout, hoodlum, hooligan, vandal, rowdy, bully boy,brawler; More







    Pretty much sums it up really.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-04-19 14:30
    Ahhh!!! my eyes...

    Out of curiosity I had to visit Yahoo.com.

    Great, A video of a cat opening a door and a news story, "How Victoria Beckham Celebrated Her 40th Birthday"

    Seems much the same as it was when I last checked in 1996.

    Also seems the founders chose the name specifically because of the above meaning.
  • GordonMcCombGordonMcComb Posts: 3,366
    edited 2014-04-19 17:49
    Heater. wrote: »
    But that's the thing. I was not aware that anybody used Yahoo for mail or news or search since last century.

    Yahoo's Alexa global rank: 4
    Wiki page says monthly visitors: about 700 million per month

    If I had that kind of traffic I'd sell display ads to anybody, too. Who cares if they're not the kind of people one cares to mix with.

    Anyway, none of this has anything to do with Radio Shack. Their problems are completely different.
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    edited 2014-04-19 22:17
    I have an email account (paid pop3, not free) at yahoo that has been active for many years, but I must admit I do not visit yahoo for much if anything else. As for the name, how is it any worse than google, twitter, twits, or a number of other names on the web?
    Heater. wrote: »
    But that's the thing. I was not aware that anybody used Yahoo for mail or news or search since last century. Certainly nobody I mix with would admit to it.

    So who do they get to display adds to?

    And whoever thought "Yahoo" was a good name for a company?

    yahoo1
    ˈjɑːhuː,jəˈhuː/
    noun
    • 1.
      a rude, noisy, or violent person.


    synonyms:
    barbarian, philistine, vulgarian, savage, brute, beast, boor, oaf,ruffian, thug, lout, hoodlum, hooligan, vandal, rowdy, bully boy,brawler; More







    Pretty much sums it up really.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-04-20 02:27
    As for the name, how is it any worse than google, twitter, twits, or a number of other names on the web?
    No idea. Perceptions of words, especially rare words, as in not used much, will vary from place to place culture to culture. When I hear "Yahoo" I associate with uncivilized, ignorant, stupid. That drunken lout you try to avoid at the party. Why would that attract me to visit?

    When I first heard "Google" I immediately associated it with the "Googol", the name for the number 10 to the power 100. Quite clever when naming a huge index of all the web. Sounds cool.

    "Facebook" on the other hand was a meaningless phrase when I first heard it. Sounded a bit silly. Turned out to be very silly.

    "YouTube" just sounds vaguely obscene.

    This is all off topic of course, but I can relate it to the plight of Radio Shack by noting that it has been suggested hat hey change their name and branding. Why? Because somebody felt that "Radio Shack" just evoked all the wrong emotions in the new generation as being very old fashioned, dusty, and irrelevant.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2014-04-20 02:42
    @Heater
    Those who read and cite dictionaries never really get the whole story. Leonardo Da Vinci even has a famous quote about how those that cite others tend to have no actual thought to share.

    FYI, yes 'a yahoo' is slang for a rude person, etc. It is derogatory or pejorative.

    But the word 'yahoo' started life as an exclaimation for great joy of discovery, likely in the 1849 California gold run.

    The pejorative came along later, in the 1960s or 1970s for as a reference to know-it-all types that seemed to always claimed a new discovery for themselves.

    God forbid that we might associate anyone on the Propeller Forums as 'a yahoo', but exclaiming 'Yahoo!!!' is just expressing joy, discovering, and enthusiasm.

    Language is chock full of common and uncommon words that evolve into a derogatory or pejorative meaning in some special context or slang. And dictionaries rarely find themselves keeping up with the colloquial (spoken) language where words such a yahoo reside.

    So put that in your search engine~
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-04-20 03:15
    Loopy,
    Leonardo Da Vinci even has a famous quote about how those that cite others tend to have no actual thought to share.
    I love the exquisite self referential feed back in your saying that. I conclude you are saying you have no actual thought to share :)
    FYI, yes 'a yahoo' is slang for a rude person, etc.
    Hardly slang. It's the name of an imaginary race of brutish creatures in Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726). The OED notes it as "informal".
    But the word 'yahoo' started life as an explicative for great joy of discovery, likely in the 1849 California gold run.
    In American, perhaps. Not in English.
    The pejorative came along later, in the 1960s or 1970s
    No, See Gulliver's Travels.

    I suspect that joyful 'Yahoo!!!', popular in America, comes from the fact that it is a name of God in Hebrew.

    As for dictionaries, yes, of course they are descriptive rather than prescriptive. No news there.

    'When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.' - Humpty Dumpty

    But more relevant to the naming of web sites and Radio Shack Humpty also said 'my name means the shape I am — and a good handsome shape it is, too. With a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost.'
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