BTW
I went to RadioShack yesterday and bought a wireless mouse for around $10.
There were many items with 'Clearance' tags, but not much so in the components area, no "fire sale" there, nobody running naked through the parking lot or any of that.
And they've re-designed the battery labels. When business is bad, paint the counter red - or maybe just paint the counter.
Read your bible, learn some Hebrew. Then tell me it's not possible that when finding gold in the gold rush one might not shout out the name of God. As proposed to be the origin of the word by Loopy above.
Hey, I could be totally wrong. After all I did say "I suspect". But unless you can say something about the origin of the expression it's better to keep quite than sling abuse around for no reason.
So long as reality is a corner inside of your skull then that's all you need.
Please do lecture us on the nature of reality. As you experience it it should not take so long.
Not intentionally. The problem of one's personal lexicon, it may be based upon the usage of the people around you that you experience, it may be something found in a book, or it may be based on some thing in history.
I'd say I just learned the meaning of 'Yahoo!!' first from TV and the way that cowboy's spoken, unaware of 'the Yahoos' in Gulliver's Travels. Thus, I considered it as a tie into 1849 and such. And I really suspect that the founder's of the company pretty much chose the name from being the first generation of TV children. Blame it all on Hollywood and Burbank overtaking language input from the real world.
While it has its hazards, I am not so pedantic as to rush to the dictionary for the meaning of each and every word. And I have read Gulivere's Travels, but forgot about 'the Yahoos'.
So long as reality is a corner inside of your skull then that's all you need.
Sometimes that works for me, other times I find that reality is a shared experience.
How people create and acquire the deragatory and perjorative are just a topic of interest to me as a language teacher. Second language teachers seem to have a tacit taboo on teaching this portion of lexicon. And yet, it is a huge part of daily English use. I even suspect a Dictionary of Deragotory English might be a money maker among text books for English as a Second Language learners.
Actually the founders of Yahoo, Jerry Yang and David Filo, chose the name exactly because of it's meaning from Gulliver's Travels. I guess being educated at Stanford does actually work.
That "pedantic rush" to the dictionary is what people used to do when they came across a word they had never heard before. Or saw it being used in a way that they had not come across before. Very useful.
Now a days we just ask Google.
Those who are not so strict about spellings and meanings will be very happy when every possible combination of letters in a word can convey every possible meaning. Then nothing will mean anything any more and they won't have to feel inadequate for not knowing.
If you want to argue about Jonathan Swift's writings, start another thread please. This was originally about Radio Shack's potential demise. Also please watch that you don't slide down the slippery slope to personal attacks, etc. It's a beautiful day here and there must be other places in the world where it's also beautiful, etc.
What is going on here? Are you incapable of debating without being abusive?
From one of your own links:
"It is one of the names of the God of Israel used in the Hebrew Bible.
"...Although Yahweh is favored by most Hebrew scholars..."
Perhaps some remedial reading lessons are in order for you.
My "english" is not up for debate. I am English, ergo, however I choose to use it is English. If you want to create your own language please call it something else. Didn't we have this discussion already?
My "logic" is up for debate. I'm always glad to be shown the error of my ways with rational arguments and preferably evidence.
Sadly your abusive tirade does not provide either.
About "Radio Shack". As I said above there was an idea they should change the name as "radio" was meaningless to the new generation of xbox/iphone/ipod gadget laden kids who had no use for a soldering iron.
This seemed a bit weird to me because "wireless" was our grandparents word for the radio. We used to say "wireless" as a kind of joke back in the 1980s.
But the all of a sudden "wireless" is in again. WIFI and BlueTooth and wireless battery charging.
The ironic thing is that there seems to me a huge swell of interest in "doing stuff" recently as shown by the maker movement, the Arduino, the Raspberry Pi, Spark Fun, AdaFruit, and so on and so on. Exactly the "doing stuff" idea that Radio Shack was in originally.
Interestingly Radio Shack was nearly out of business in the 1960's. When the whole "build your own radio and HIFI" thing was over.
Mike, I did recount my experience at RadioShack. I'm sure the true nature of the situation would be best ascertained by the odd suppositions of some nominal ingl
PJ, as you probably well know, but haven't said, part of the issue is that there's this nice infrastructure that used to support hobbyists and people new to the hobby. We've been through a period of not so much interest in the hobby, partly because the tools and pieces used in the past are mostly not used for DIY (passives and simple active parts) and the newer building blocks have not been very "user friendly" to date. This has been changing in recent times with the advent of fairly powerful microcontrollers packaged for experimenters' uses (with Arduino as the biggest "game changer"). Radio Shack hasn't made use of their previous dominance in the field ... what they've done is very superficial and isn't working and they can't really compete in the other markets they're working in (electronic appliances, cell phones, etc.).
I'm not trying to be a wiseguy.
I'm sincere.
If there's money to be made, exploit the lapse.
So, anyone, get in there and do it. Fill that void.
I have "thought" about this.
But, what kind of revenues, margins, are needed to net out even $30K as any kind of entrepreneur let alone this enterprise?
"Business plan"? Separate revenue stream, some optional but desirable "value added" service or other?
I've always been an employee.
Either there's gold in them thar hillsorthere ain't.
[ The result will be either "Eureka!" or "Oy vay!" ]
PE - No upset here. Guess what we're having for lunch -- lamb tacos!
What I was thinking is that the original "Radio Shack" was founded at a time when if you wanted a "wireless" on a low budget you had to build one ourself. And then the whole HAM radio thing was big.
The same happened when digital logic and the microprocessor arrived on the scene. Before the likes of Apple and co. turned up.
P.J. Has a point."if you don't like RadioShack then make one of your own." Seems to me that Sparkfun, Adafruit and others have exactly taken up that challenge. With quite some success. Radio Shack did not hear the call.
You called God a yahoo, or kind of mixed up his name a little. (Yahweh != Yahoo)
Religious discussion always has a way of ruffling anyone's feathers. I once had a professor prove the existence of God using the mathematical formula shown on this ring. It made a Muslim girl so angry in the class that she stormed off and told the department head that the math teacher was questioning the existence of God. (The proof showed that God does exist, but merely questioning His existence made her aaaannnngggry.)
Actually the founders of Yahoo, Jerry Yang and David Filo, chose the name exactly because of it's meaning from Gulliver's Travels. I guess being educated at Stanford does actually work.
That "pedantic rush" to the dictionary is what people used to do when they came across a word they had never heard before. Or saw it being used in a way that they had not come across before. Very useful.
Now a days we just ask Google.
Those who are not so strict about spellings and meanings will be very happy when every possible combination of letters in a word can convey every possible meaning. Then nothing will mean anything any more and they won't have to feel inadequate for not knowing.
"Yet AnotherHierarchical Officious Oracle" was a suitable backronym for this name, but they insisted they had selected the name because they liked the word's general definition, as in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth."
Yahoo's current Wikipedia entry.
And yet I wonder if that is just a face saving revision of history. We may never know. It is hard to know what these Stanford graduates are really thinking. But I capitulate entirely, I have been back into a corner from which there is no way out.
++++++++
Actually, it is taboo to say 'Yahweh', but that is entirely another subject. It doesn't quite make sense to name an internet search engine after a taboo work, does it?
Early TV ads for Yahoo! exploited the cowboy's joyful shout. I certainly made the connection.
It was when Tandy Leather Corporation of Fort Worth, TX took it over that it got to be something odd. Never really sold anything in a complete component inventory from then on.
In the early days, the stores had both leather craft tools and electronics. It was a hobby focus.
you want to fix radio shack ......... Its simple .
Hire people whom know ohms law .
There simply aren't enough people interested in this level of electronics to support neighborhood electronics stores. The retailers that are managing well in this niche are either mail order only, or have larger more focused stores in far fewer hand-selected locations.
Car parts stores are abundant because most people have at least one car, and many people still work on their cars. Very few people fix their own TVs or build their own circuits. There is simply no comparison.
For years I've collected old "mechanics" magazines: Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Mechanix Illustrated, and Science & Mechanics. First, I'll note that I've written for all four at one time or another, just as an indicator that I know the kind of content they publish. But beyond that...
* Two of the magazines are now defunct. S&M ceased publication long ago, in the mid 1980s.
* The remaining two are nothing like what they used to be.
* During the 40s and 50s, you could could count on at least one construction article per issue involving lathe work. Lathes in the garage were common then, as were individuals with machining experience.
Retailers and magazines share the same basic requirements for staying in business, namely they must cater to what the public wants. You don't see full construction lathe plans in Popular Science or Popular Mechanics these days because the vast bulk of the readership A) don't have the experience or skills and/or don't care to build this sort of thing any more.
There will always be a DIY set, but the nature of it changes. Sparkfun and Parallax were among the first to realize the potential of the breakout board. Few people want to collect all the parts and solder. The hobby of electronics isn't like it was 15 or 20 years ago, any more than it was when Radio Shack stores had tube testers. The tube testers were removed when no one had TVs with tubes to test. The resistors are on their way out as people prefer to buy ready-made boards rather than solder their own stuff.
Re: "There will always be a DIY set, but the nature of it changes. Sparkfun and Parallax were among the first to realize the potential of the breakout board. Few people want to collect all the parts and solder. The hobby of electronics isn't like it was 15 or 20 years ago, any more than it was when Radio Shack stores had tube testers. The tube testers were removed when no one had TVs with tubes to test. The resistors are on their way out as people prefer to buy ready-made boards rather than solder their own stuff."
Very true, and this is happening in the service area as well. Field service reps rarely if ever make a repair at the component level. It is module and board swapping until the problem goes away. Few have the skills or experience for component level troubleshooting, and it is time consuming and expensive to do in the field.
I've never been a big fan of Radio Shack for a few reasons:
1: The sales people don't know the difference between an armature and a field coil
2: The prices are sky high and the selection is minimal compared to Mouser or Jameco
3: The toys are junk that don't last a day of normal use
4: They annoy you with pestering questions about whether you want their crappy batteries and your address when you're paying cash.
5: Did I mention the teenaged girl sales-help doesn't speak your language of resistors, microcontrollers, drivers and PCB's? There is no connection at all between the hobbyist and the store. It might as well be a vending machine you're talking to.
6: The store doesn't know what it wants to be. Toys, electronic hobbyist, cell-phones, off-brand stereos. Take your pick it doesn't do any of them well.
PS: Home Depot has the same problem of not having knowledgeable sales-help. When I'm not sure of what I need, I go to my local Tru-Value hardware store and they can tell me what I need to do. Home Depot at least makes an attempt at getting knowledgeable sales help, you can tell by their ads looking for retired skilled-trades though most the sales help CGAS.
I've never been a big fan of Radio Shack for a few reasons:
1: The sales people don't know the difference between an armature and a field coil
2: The prices are sky high and the selection is minimal compared to Mouser or Jameco
3: The toys are junk that don't last a day of normal use
4: They annoy you with pestering questions about whether you want their crappy batteries and your address when you're paying cash.
5: Did I mention the teenaged girl sales-help doesn't speak your language of resistors, microcontrollers, drivers and PCB's? There is no connection at all between the hobbyist and the store. It might as well be a vending machine you're talking to.
6: The store doesn't know what it wants to be. Toys, electronic hobbyist, cell-phones, off-brand stereos. Take your pick it doesn't do any of them well.
PS: Home Depot has the same problem of not having knowledgeable sales-help. When I'm not sure of what I need, I go to my local Tru-Value hardware store and they can tell me what I need to do. Home Depot at least makes an attempt at getting knowledgeable sales help, you can tell by their ads looking for retired skilled-trades though most the sales help CGAS.
Many times the subject of lack of qualified staff comes up.
There is no free lunch...qualified staff cost money.
So what are you as the customer willing to pay for having a company to have well educated/knowledgable staff....10%, 20%, 30% or more?
And would having that qualified staff cause to you to shop at that B&M store versus buying your items off the Internet because it was cheaper?
Many times the subject of lack of qualified staff comes up.
There is no free lunch...qualified staff cost money.
So what are you as the customer willing to pay for having a company to have well educated/knowledgable staff....10%, 20%, 30% or more?
And would having that qualified staff cause to you to shop at that B&M store versus buying your items off the Internet because it was cheaper?
At Radio Shack you didn't get either low prices or knowledgeable staff. Like I said, you might as well be talking to a vending machine.
Internet shopping is for me. The cost of shipping is comparable to the amount of gas/travel I'd spend and use. Can't beat the selection on the internet, nor the readily available data sheets and having friendly discussions with other forum users. I think I'm talking to some German guy living in Taiwan (Loopy), someone I'd never cross paths with IRL.
First off, everyone bashing Radio Shack employees, I hope you know everything, and have never taken a job to learn something or because it was available. To follow that up, with the limited collection of what the shack does sell, how many possible questions could you have?
Secondly, take a look at the amount of floor space the products you want take up in comparison to the rest of the store carrying that dead weight. Now compare that to another store. Radio Shack has about 1/5th of the store of electrical components. Fry's has around 1/60th. You think Fry's would be in business if they had 1/5th of their store in components?
Third, we're the people Radio Shack should get rid of, not the cell phone people. You really think your neighbors need some LEDs and a 555 over the weekend? No, but how many people need cell phones?
I'd love to start a little electronics shop, put all kinds of cool specialty items out for sale, but then what? Lose money because not enough people buy that stuff, look at the demographics. It's really not that complicated.
Comments
Do you make this junk up as you go along?
So long as reality is a corner inside of your skull then that's all you need.
I went to RadioShack yesterday and bought a wireless mouse for around $10.
There were many items with 'Clearance' tags, but not much so in the components area, no "fire sale" there, nobody running naked through the parking lot or any of that.
And they've re-designed the battery labels. When business is bad, paint the counter red - or maybe just paint the counter.
Read your bible, learn some Hebrew. Then tell me it's not possible that when finding gold in the gold rush one might not shout out the name of God. As proposed to be the origin of the word by Loopy above.
Hey, I could be totally wrong. After all I did say "I suspect". But unless you can say something about the origin of the expression it's better to keep quite than sling abuse around for no reason. Please do lecture us on the nature of reality. As you experience it it should not take so long.
For the lazy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_and_Titles_of_God_in_Judaism
http://www.revelations.org.za/NotesS-Name.htm
Please don't quibble that the spelling is different.
Not intentionally. The problem of one's personal lexicon, it may be based upon the usage of the people around you that you experience, it may be something found in a book, or it may be based on some thing in history.
I'd say I just learned the meaning of 'Yahoo!!' first from TV and the way that cowboy's spoken, unaware of 'the Yahoos' in Gulliver's Travels. Thus, I considered it as a tie into 1849 and such. And I really suspect that the founder's of the company pretty much chose the name from being the first generation of TV children. Blame it all on Hollywood and Burbank overtaking language input from the real world.
While it has its hazards, I am not so pedantic as to rush to the dictionary for the meaning of each and every word. And I have read Gulivere's Travels, but forgot about 'the Yahoos'.
Sometimes that works for me, other times I find that reality is a shared experience.
How people create and acquire the deragatory and perjorative are just a topic of interest to me as a language teacher. Second language teachers seem to have a tacit taboo on teaching this portion of lexicon. And yet, it is a huge part of daily English use. I even suspect a Dictionary of Deragotory English might be a money maker among text books for English as a Second Language learners.
See Yahoo history here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Yahoo!
That "pedantic rush" to the dictionary is what people used to do when they came across a word they had never heard before. Or saw it being used in a way that they had not come across before. Very useful.
Now a days we just ask Google.
Those who are not so strict about spellings and meanings will be very happy when every possible combination of letters in a word can convey every possible meaning. Then nothing will mean anything any more and they won't have to feel inadequate for not knowing.
Why do you embarrass yourself by being so stupid?
Your Biblical scholarship is sloppier than your "english", to say nothing of your "logic."
Jehu is different from Jehovah.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YHVH
Have a nice fall, Humpty Dumpty.
For example: Newton famously said "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
Sounds like a compliment to those who came before right?
However it is strongly suspected that it was a barbed comment about a rival mathematician, Robert Hooke, who was well known for being very short!
It's Gulliver - two L's, there, Genius.
What is going on here? Are you incapable of debating without being abusive?
From one of your own links:
"It is one of the names of the God of Israel used in the Hebrew Bible.
"...Although Yahweh is favored by most Hebrew scholars..."
Perhaps some remedial reading lessons are in order for you.
My "english" is not up for debate. I am English, ergo, however I choose to use it is English. If you want to create your own language please call it something else. Didn't we have this discussion already?
My "logic" is up for debate. I'm always glad to be shown the error of my ways with rational arguments and preferably evidence.
Sadly your abusive tirade does not provide either.
Well spotted, a spelling mistake. Thank you.
Mike,
Point taken. It' is actually a beautiful day here. About the first spring day this year. The roast duck was great.
This seemed a bit weird to me because "wireless" was our grandparents word for the radio. We used to say "wireless" as a kind of joke back in the 1980s.
But the all of a sudden "wireless" is in again. WIFI and BlueTooth and wireless battery charging.
The ironic thing is that there seems to me a huge swell of interest in "doing stuff" recently as shown by the maker movement, the Arduino, the Raspberry Pi, Spark Fun, AdaFruit, and so on and so on. Exactly the "doing stuff" idea that Radio Shack was in originally.
Interestingly Radio Shack was nearly out of business in the 1960's. When the whole "build your own radio and HIFI" thing was over.
Hire people whom know ohms law .
Pay them a Real living wage .
Aggressively Weed out parts that dont sell and ones that do ........... ditch the one offf logic gate in the bin for componets that do sell .
Offer Real help to fix problems . * this is where the ohms law thing comes in to play *
Sell Less TVs and radios GASP and no NO NO phones . they take up Peg space and are not worth it .
Offer Ship-to store overnight parts
so have there be a like the old radioshack tech America catalog but as a PC term .
have there be a somewhat close by warehouse to fulfill the orders .
We have NAPAs here and they are doing the same and it works does it not ?
many of the things they sell can also be stored back of house in more compact form . . resistors and caps and diodes . Batts and the like .
if you don't like RadioShack then make one of your own.
Your work is cut out for you. Seize that market, baby! Go for it!
WTF did I do to upset you?
I'm sincere.
If there's money to be made, exploit the lapse.
So, anyone, get in there and do it. Fill that void.
I have "thought" about this.
But, what kind of revenues, margins, are needed to net out even $30K as any kind of entrepreneur let alone this enterprise?
"Business plan"? Separate revenue stream, some optional but desirable "value added" service or other?
I've always been an employee.
Either there's gold in them thar hills or there ain't.
[ The result will be either "Eureka!" or "Oy vay!" ]
PE - No upset here. Guess what we're having for lunch -- lamb tacos!
The same happened when digital logic and the microprocessor arrived on the scene. Before the likes of Apple and co. turned up.
P.J. Has a point."if you don't like RadioShack then make one of your own." Seems to me that Sparkfun, Adafruit and others have exactly taken up that challenge. With quite some success. Radio Shack did not hear the call.
You called God a yahoo, or kind of mixed up his name a little. (Yahweh != Yahoo)
Religious discussion always has a way of ruffling anyone's feathers. I once had a professor prove the existence of God using the mathematical formula shown on this ring. It made a Muslim girl so angry in the class that she stormed off and told the department head that the math teacher was questioning the existence of God. (The proof showed that God does exist, but merely questioning His existence made her aaaannnngggry.)
"Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle" was a suitable backronym for this name, but they insisted they had selected the name because they liked the word's general definition, as in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth."
Yahoo's current Wikipedia entry.
And yet I wonder if that is just a face saving revision of history. We may never know. It is hard to know what these Stanford graduates are really thinking. But I capitulate entirely, I have been back into a corner from which there is no way out.
++++++++
Actually, it is taboo to say 'Yahweh', but that is entirely another subject. It doesn't quite make sense to name an internet search engine after a taboo work, does it?
Early TV ads for Yahoo! exploited the cowboy's joyful shout. I certainly made the connection.
Recently, Malaysia has officially banned Christians from referring to God as Allah. http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/malaysian-ministry-bans-use-of-term-allah-by-non-muslims/
So please forgive me if I spelled Gulliver with only one 'l'.
It was pretty good then, but Allied Radio has absolutely everything... both sent you huge free catalogs.
http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=7932554082&searchurl=kn%3Dcatalog%2Bradio%2Bshack%26amp%3Bsortby%3D17%26amp%3Bsts%3Dt%26amp%3Bx%3D54%26amp%3By%3D14
It was when Tandy Leather Corporation of Fort Worth, TX took it over that it got to be something odd. Never really sold anything in a complete component inventory from then on.
In the early days, the stores had both leather craft tools and electronics. It was a hobby focus.
There simply aren't enough people interested in this level of electronics to support neighborhood electronics stores. The retailers that are managing well in this niche are either mail order only, or have larger more focused stores in far fewer hand-selected locations.
Car parts stores are abundant because most people have at least one car, and many people still work on their cars. Very few people fix their own TVs or build their own circuits. There is simply no comparison.
For years I've collected old "mechanics" magazines: Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Mechanix Illustrated, and Science & Mechanics. First, I'll note that I've written for all four at one time or another, just as an indicator that I know the kind of content they publish. But beyond that...
* Two of the magazines are now defunct. S&M ceased publication long ago, in the mid 1980s.
* The remaining two are nothing like what they used to be.
* During the 40s and 50s, you could could count on at least one construction article per issue involving lathe work. Lathes in the garage were common then, as were individuals with machining experience.
Retailers and magazines share the same basic requirements for staying in business, namely they must cater to what the public wants. You don't see full construction lathe plans in Popular Science or Popular Mechanics these days because the vast bulk of the readership A) don't have the experience or skills and/or
There will always be a DIY set, but the nature of it changes. Sparkfun and Parallax were among the first to realize the potential of the breakout board. Few people want to collect all the parts and solder. The hobby of electronics isn't like it was 15 or 20 years ago, any more than it was when Radio Shack stores had tube testers. The tube testers were removed when no one had TVs with tubes to test. The resistors are on their way out as people prefer to buy ready-made boards rather than solder their own stuff.
Very true, and this is happening in the service area as well. Field service reps rarely if ever make a repair at the component level. It is module and board swapping until the problem goes away. Few have the skills or experience for component level troubleshooting, and it is time consuming and expensive to do in the field.
1: The sales people don't know the difference between an armature and a field coil
2: The prices are sky high and the selection is minimal compared to Mouser or Jameco
3: The toys are junk that don't last a day of normal use
4: They annoy you with pestering questions about whether you want their crappy batteries and your address when you're paying cash.
5: Did I mention the teenaged girl sales-help doesn't speak your language of resistors, microcontrollers, drivers and PCB's? There is no connection at all between the hobbyist and the store. It might as well be a vending machine you're talking to.
6: The store doesn't know what it wants to be. Toys, electronic hobbyist, cell-phones, off-brand stereos. Take your pick it doesn't do any of them well.
PS: Home Depot has the same problem of not having knowledgeable sales-help. When I'm not sure of what I need, I go to my local Tru-Value hardware store and they can tell me what I need to do. Home Depot at least makes an attempt at getting knowledgeable sales help, you can tell by their ads looking for retired skilled-trades though most the sales help CGAS.
Many times the subject of lack of qualified staff comes up.
There is no free lunch...qualified staff cost money.
So what are you as the customer willing to pay for having a company to have well educated/knowledgable staff....10%, 20%, 30% or more?
And would having that qualified staff cause to you to shop at that B&M store versus buying your items off the Internet because it was cheaper?
At Radio Shack you didn't get either low prices or knowledgeable staff. Like I said, you might as well be talking to a vending machine.
Internet shopping is for me. The cost of shipping is comparable to the amount of gas/travel I'd spend and use. Can't beat the selection on the internet, nor the readily available data sheets and having friendly discussions with other forum users. I think I'm talking to some German guy living in Taiwan (Loopy), someone I'd never cross paths with IRL.
I don't know what I'd do if I were the CEO of RS.
First off, everyone bashing Radio Shack employees, I hope you know everything, and have never taken a job to learn something or because it was available. To follow that up, with the limited collection of what the shack does sell, how many possible questions could you have?
Secondly, take a look at the amount of floor space the products you want take up in comparison to the rest of the store carrying that dead weight. Now compare that to another store. Radio Shack has about 1/5th of the store of electrical components. Fry's has around 1/60th. You think Fry's would be in business if they had 1/5th of their store in components?
Third, we're the people Radio Shack should get rid of, not the cell phone people. You really think your neighbors need some LEDs and a 555 over the weekend? No, but how many people need cell phones?
I'd love to start a little electronics shop, put all kinds of cool specialty items out for sale, but then what? Lose money because not enough people buy that stuff, look at the demographics. It's really not that complicated.