All true, though much of the current retail landscape is just a reinvention of something very old, mail order. The Internet is nothing more than a catalog, with the benefit of quicker order fulfillment. Before anyone says this is the new technology the Internet provides, that's not entirely true, either. In decades that seem long ago, it was easy to call Sears, Montgomery Wards, Spiegel, or JC Panney, place an order, and get it a few days later. The first time I ever used my first credit card was not for a local purchase, but a telephone/mail order. This was 1977.
Technology affects short term trends, but long term buying habits are dependent on human psychology. In reference to the subject of this thread, RS's woes are not from changes in technology per se, but failure to understand the psychology of the buying public. There are many types of bricks and mortar stores that continue to do well. The best also have heavy online presences, so they're priming the pump from both ends. RS couldn't figure out the psychology behind either B&M or online sales.
Well said Gordon.
And mail order can trace its routes to the very beginning of postal systems...centuries old.
And before that...the ancient trade routes of antiquity....where the traders brought the goods they knew would trade.
Actually, it's here already. I'm fortunate live just minutes away from the world-famous TRW swap meet, which is part hamfest, part antiques, part tools, and part hi-tech items: satellite TV, lasers, LiPos, etc. I recognize a lot of Ebay China parts there, some with a little markup, some with a lot. It's nice to have the option to see stuff in person before buying, or if you need it yesterday. Last Saturday of each month, rain or shine. And it NEVER rains in LA.
Swapmeets are a form of the old blanket under the tree approach...a great place to learn how business is conducted in real life...the good,the bad and the ugly..
They used to be THE PLACE to find great stuff you didn't know you needed. The Internet and especially Ebay have changed swap meets...sometimes not for the better. I have seen various surplus resources...like the Boeing surplus store ...close because of the sites like Ebay...and the Dayton hamfest is definitely a different animal since the Internet.
I went to RS today and they had 2 QuickStarts marked at $43. I didn't even bother to ask what the price was but months ago it was a lot less.
I think this store was recently remodeled.
RS would be a lot better if they had a larger selection and more reasonable prices. They have a fraction of the microcontroller products they used to.
I went to RS today and they had 2 QuickStarts marked at $43. I didn't even bother to ask what the price was but months ago it was a lot less.
I think this store was recently remodeled.
RS would be a lot better if they had a larger selection and more reasonable prices. They have a fraction of the microcontroller products they used to.
I agree..total count is way down...and I don't see any thing else in the pipeline coming.
And I have yet to see any 3D printers surface in any store.
But as a blast from the past....Last month I found another Boebot in a dusty corner of a backroom..$5.97 out the door. ;<)
Before RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH) reported earnings Tuesday morning, the company’s market cap was about $150 million. After the earnings debacle and some nasty comments from analysts, the firm’s market cap just before noon on Thursday had dropped to about $116.5 million.
When RadioShack’s market cap drops below $100 million, it will officially become a penny stock because the company has just over 100 million shares outstanding. The way the shares are plummeting — down 22% since Monday night — we might not have too long to wait.
I wonder if Radio Shack would make more money if they became local "fix-it-clinics". It seems like most folks don't want to spend or don't have the money to buy new appliances these days, and would rather have them fixed...
I also agree with a former poster that the DIY crowd wasn't (and won't) be able to sustain Radio Shack the way they want it to (even though we are a very exuberant community), but getting into the business of making things "more convenient" would probably serve them well.
I wonder if Radio Shack would make more money if they became local "fix-it-clinics". It seems like most folks don't want to spend or don't have the money to buy new appliances these days, and would rather have them fixed...
That would be neat if there were many "fixable" appliances left around - especially appliances. It seems like we've become a throw-away, commodity based society.
I'm sure their staff could step up to the plate for repair seminars!*
*Why, yes, that *IS* my tongue planted firmly in cheek!!
A new better printer from same manufacturer is cheaper than replacing the toner cartridges--throw away to the ultimate.
John Abshier
So true in many cases. I wouldn't feel so bad about that if the old printer was recycled into raw materials. Unfortunately achieving anything close to 100% recycling is not possible at present.
I wish things such as recycling were thought of more as National Security issues. We as a country need to be more self sustaining and not so dependent on other countries especially for materials.
I would willingly pay more for a product that was made for the benefit of our country instead of the bottom line of some corporation.
Going, going, gone! RadioShack Corp. (RSH) has broken the buck. Shares traded under $1 on Friday. If you are a shareholder who is surprised about this, then about the only excuse would be is if your name is Rip Van Winkle. Please consider this a final warning in RadioShack.
24/7 Wall St. has seen a recent analyst report calling for the value to go to zero, and even a ratings agency call warned of a liquidity implosion back in May. We have warned over and over about this name, and just last week we warned readers that RadioShack needs to immediately file for bankruptcy protection now while it still has some assets to its name.
RadioShack is in such a unique situation that it is a no-win situation. The company could not even strike a bargain basement buyout in recent years, and the companys balance sheet is dwindling by the hour.
Creditors did not allow RadioShack to close the 1,100 or so stores that the company wanted to close. What does that tell you? The note holders and creditors almost certainly are looking to make sure they are the only ones with viable claims by the time the bankruptcy arrives.
The company rents its stores, but it owns the distribution and manufacturing facilities. What those will be worth would be a guess without site inspections.
It is even sadder to report that RadioShack is worth less than $100 million now in its equity market cap. The companys retail network includes roughly 4,250 domestic company-operated stores, another 258 company-operated stores in Mexico and 912 dealers and other outlets worldwide.
What is sad is that it seems as though RadioShack will not ultimately be a Chapter 11 filing that protects it from creditors, even if the first filing could be for Chapter 11. The endgame here looks as though it will be an outright liquidation.
If this does not seem possible, go ask yourself what ever happened to brands like Circuit City, CompUSA and others.
And after it drops under a buck, the crash continued: 91 cents now. Friday trading can be cruel with such a well-publicized panic. Yet there are probably a lot of traders with their fingers on the "buy" button, waiting for any sort of good news and trend reversal. I kept shares of BAC (Bank of America) when it plummetted several years ago. I finally got out ahead last month, right before it dropped again. I love a good roller coaster ride but I'll pass on RSH and WHX. We gotta get those kids together.
Oh dear, not even bones left for the vultures to peck at.
Never mind. AdaFruit, SparkFun, oshpark, RaspberryPi, Arduino, Olimex, Parallax, and many others are doing very well. Things have not looked better for the DIY, hacker, tinkerer, electronics hobbyist for decades.
Seems the Maker movement and such has grown by orders of magnitude world wide over the past 5 years or so. RadioShack just did not get it.
To honor the 80's Radio Shack I purchased a Color Computer 2 with six games off eBay on Wednesday. It's one of the few 80's computer's that I never used.
Wise move. I'm sure the prices will start to go up once the totally tank and become collector's items.
I found the power supply to my (previously discarded) TRS-80 Model 100 - it was a depressing moment as I realized how stupid I was to throw that guy away. (I'll exercise my 5th amendment rights to decline any further questions on said Model 100).
Without commenting on the Yahoo article as a whole, parts of it were poorly researched. Both Circuit City and CompUSA first filed for voluntary reorganization, despite the claims of the article otherwise. Under Chapter 11, the trustee can determine if the reorganization will result in a further loss to creditors with no hope of recouping, and change it to involuntary Chapter 7. But both of these companies made a pitch of it, for a while.
I don't see RS immediately filing for Chapter 7 unless their outlook is so dismal they know the bankruptcy trustee to agree to a reoganization plan. If there's a rumor they'll go straight to liquidation, I'd wager it's an inside leak to scare the creditors. Under bankruptcy law, they'd be in line get under Chapter 11 what they would have gotten under Chapter 7, and at least under Chapter 11 there's a chance someone will buy them out, lock, stock, and old unsold T-Mobile phones.
Oh dear, not even bones left for the vultures to peck at.
Never mind. AdaFruit, SparkFun, oshpark, RaspberryPi, Arduino, Olimex, Parallax, and many others are doing very well. Things have not looked better for the DIY, hacker, tinkerer, electronics hobbyist for decades.
Seems the Maker movement and such has grown by orders of magnitude world wide over the past 5 years or so. RadioShack just did not get it.
Without commenting on the Yahoo article as a whole, parts of it were poorly researched. Both Circuit City and CompUSA first filed for voluntary reorganization, despite the claims of the article otherwise. Under Chapter 11, the trustee can determine if the reorganization will result in a further loss to creditors with no hope of recouping, and change it to involuntary Chapter 7. But both of these companies made a pitch of it, for a while.
I don't see RS immediately filing for Chapter 7 unless their outlook is so dismal they know the bankruptcy trustee to agree to a reoganization plan. If there's a rumor they'll go straight to liquidation, I'd wager it's an inside leak to scare the creditors. Under bankruptcy law, they'd be in line get under Chapter 11 what they would have gotten under Chapter 7, and at least under Chapter 11 there's a chance someone will buy them out, lock, stock, and old unsold T-Mobile phones.
I agree.
A few weeks back one trader pushed the button on vulture calls...it resulted in the most activity on the Dow that day.
you have quoted this article almost in its entirety. You should probably reduce your quote amount to what might more likely be covered under "fair use" and simply leave the link.
In college one guy in my dorm had a Model 100. He got an amazing amount of use out of it. He wrote papers and printed them out, wrote source code and upload it via a modem. It was expensive, but far from a toy. In some ways it was more useful than my desktop which I used for similar purposes. Another guy had a Kaypro 2 which be used in similar ways. It was so cool at that time but completely dorky within a few years.
In college one guy in my dorm had a Model 100. He got an amazing amount of use out of it. He wrote papers and printed them out, wrote source code and upload it via a modem. It was expensive, but far from a toy. In some ways it was more useful than my desktop which I used for similar purposes. Another guy had a Kaypro 2 which be used in similar ways. It was so cool at that time but completely dorky within a few years.
For the day it was THE computer used by anyone who needed portability...it was VERY POPULAR with news people who could write a story and use a modem to transmit it to the office.
RS is unique in that it has been around for many decades...and some of its stores have dusty backrooms where goodies still remain.
And once in awhile I am lucky to find something special..the best was a Model 1 in the original wrapper...last year...during the RS purge...that computer had been sitting in a back room for over 30 years.
My friend found a Hero 1 sitting behind a water heater at a closing RS store...who knows how it got there.
Comments
Well said Gordon.
And mail order can trace its routes to the very beginning of postal systems...centuries old.
And before that...the ancient trade routes of antiquity....where the traders brought the goods they knew would trade.
Swapmeets are a form of the old blanket under the tree approach...a great place to learn how business is conducted in real life...the good,the bad and the ugly..
They used to be THE PLACE to find great stuff you didn't know you needed. The Internet and especially Ebay have changed swap meets...sometimes not for the better. I have seen various surplus resources...like the Boeing surplus store ...close because of the sites like Ebay...and the Dayton hamfest is definitely a different animal since the Internet.
I think this store was recently remodeled.
RS would be a lot better if they had a larger selection and more reasonable prices. They have a fraction of the microcontroller products they used to.
I agree..total count is way down...and I don't see any thing else in the pipeline coming.
And I have yet to see any 3D printers surface in any store.
But as a blast from the past....Last month I found another Boebot in a dusty corner of a backroom..$5.97 out the door. ;<)
I also agree with a former poster that the DIY crowd wasn't (and won't) be able to sustain Radio Shack the way they want it to (even though we are a very exuberant community), but getting into the business of making things "more convenient" would probably serve them well.
That would be neat if there were many "fixable" appliances left around - especially appliances. It seems like we've become a throw-away, commodity based society.
I'm sure their staff could step up to the plate for repair seminars!*
*Why, yes, that *IS* my tongue planted firmly in cheek!!
John Abshier
So true in many cases. I wouldn't feel so bad about that if the old printer was recycled into raw materials. Unfortunately achieving anything close to 100% recycling is not possible at present.
I would willingly pay more for a product that was made for the benefit of our country instead of the bottom line of some corporation.
Your Last and Final Warning on RadioShack
Never mind. AdaFruit, SparkFun, oshpark, RaspberryPi, Arduino, Olimex, Parallax, and many others are doing very well. Things have not looked better for the DIY, hacker, tinkerer, electronics hobbyist for decades.
Seems the Maker movement and such has grown by orders of magnitude world wide over the past 5 years or so. RadioShack just did not get it.
Oh well.
Is that the famous "Dead cat bounce" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_cat_bounce
Sounds good if you can get out before the dead cat comes to it's final resting place.
I found the power supply to my (previously discarded) TRS-80 Model 100 - it was a depressing moment as I realized how stupid I was to throw that guy away. (I'll exercise my 5th amendment rights to decline any further questions on said Model 100).
I don't see RS immediately filing for Chapter 7 unless their outlook is so dismal they know the bankruptcy trustee to agree to a reoganization plan. If there's a rumor they'll go straight to liquidation, I'd wager it's an inside leak to scare the creditors. Under bankruptcy law, they'd be in line get under Chapter 11 what they would have gotten under Chapter 7, and at least under Chapter 11 there's a chance someone will buy them out, lock, stock, and old unsold T-Mobile phones.
Check out the latest robot line at RS.
Ebay is an expensive place to buy stuff.
I buy RS 100s for $5-10 a piece locally...they are excellent terminals to monitor and log data.
I agree.
A few weeks back one trader pushed the button on vulture calls...it resulted in the most activity on the Dow that day.
Ron,
you have quoted this article almost in its entirety. You should probably reduce your quote amount to what might more likely be covered under "fair use" and simply leave the link.
I'm just sayin.
In college one guy in my dorm had a Model 100. He got an amazing amount of use out of it. He wrote papers and printed them out, wrote source code and upload it via a modem. It was expensive, but far from a toy. In some ways it was more useful than my desktop which I used for similar purposes. Another guy had a Kaypro 2 which be used in similar ways. It was so cool at that time but completely dorky within a few years.
For the day it was THE computer used by anyone who needed portability...it was VERY POPULAR with news people who could write a story and use a modem to transmit it to the office.
Within its limitations, it still shines.
Apparently not the stores that you shop at. ;<)
RS is unique in that it has been around for many decades...and some of its stores have dusty backrooms where goodies still remain.
And once in awhile I am lucky to find something special..the best was a Model 1 in the original wrapper...last year...during the RS purge...that computer had been sitting in a back room for over 30 years.
My friend found a Hero 1 sitting behind a water heater at a closing RS store...who knows how it got there.
Not too many Shacks that I am aware of that even have "Dusty Backrooms".