Standard General bids to save RadioShack from oblivion

@Peter Gathercole

I think your point if exceedingly pedantic in as much as that particular vulture fund is HIGHLY unlikely to have purchased shares of Radio Shack back in the days when it was a beloved store.

Re: " from selling a Bentley to selling a Ford to selling a used Vespa.”

They were not able to make their brands, such as Realistic or Micronta as recognisable as the Japanese companies (like Technics, Sony etc)

I disagree. At the time, Realistic was a very recognisable brand.

It just wasn't a very desirable one...

Vic.

Re: Radio Shack was useful at one time (And still is)

I can buy pretty much anything online - these items are not carried in-store, I was there last Thursday.

Have you noted even Staples is offering items in their weekly circular that are available online-only?

<meanwhile, back to configuring a home Pocketmine server on a Raspi2>

Re: Radio Shack was useful at one time (And still is)

The one thing I noticed, having perused their once well-stocked shelves since back before the dawn of blue LED's, (early 90's), is that they slowly raised prices and dropped selection.

A disc cap assortment of around a hundred pieces was around $5 (going on foggy childhood memory here..), chump change, but eventually price stayed the same and quantity went down.

Soon the "RC toy" craze went full nards to the wall, then the cellular craze started, and then the MP3 players, overpriced computer accessories ($35 USB cables...), and other "OMG AWESOME!!!" stuff creeped in.

Since a store is only so big, what once was 4 aisles of components, turned to 4 half-aisles, then to 2 halfs, then to one half aisle, to accommodate. Entire wall of cellphone cases, kiosks of Verizon, Sprint, Etc phones, walls of cables, bluetooth speaker gizmos...

The arduino/pi/beaglebone/etc came in too late, at too high a price point, for most to buy them. Those who knew about them bought online, and those who didn't were put-off by the price.

The 1000-in-one electronics kits never really dropped in price with the reduction in component costs, and were always on the expensive side to begin with.

They were great though, I have many fond memories of messing around with mine and driving the parents nutty with bloops, squeals, bluarps, and the occasional bit of magic smoke when I biased a transistor too hot.

Add to it that the old white-beards and EE students were no longer working there, and you got "I don't know what you mean?" when you asked if they had decoupling caps or any new microcontrollers in stock.

I'm rambling... :(

Oh RadioShack, we are saddened by your transformation into CellHut...

Re: Next

"but is there a <high street> retail option?"

Not for hobby electronics. The fundamental problem is that mail order has always been cheaper and more efficient than a physical retail operation. This is made worse in the UK because a physical retailer expects to be loaded up with an expensive lease, laden with "upward only" rent reviews, and worse still, will have to pay extortionate business rates for no say and virtually no services from the council that pockets those rates. Those two things alone probably need a minimum 50% uplift over a mail order price. A recent PWC analysis concluded that retailers pay taxes equivalent to 59% of their UK profits, primarily driven by business rates, and the overall burden of taxes on retailers has increased by 65% since 2005. Funnily enough you often hear local and national politicians prattling on about the sad decline of the high street, yet they never mention their part in its downfall.

Factor in modest footfall for specialist stores in even quite large towns, and the maths can rarely work. Even if they've shrunk the business to the few profitable sites, they'll then find they've lost important economies of scale in procurement, brand, and overheads, so cure a repeat shrinking cycle. Because the time insensitive customers will find it not just cheaper, but easier to buy from a good online retailer, it seems unlikely that specialist chain retailers can survive outside of a few big city sites.

I suggest somebody writes to the National Trust and asks them to buy a Maplin store when they go bust, with a view to preserving it in its full glory. Against the likelihood that the NT will refuse, those who haven't been in Maplin of late should perhaps take the opportunity to revisit the place while its still there.

Re: Next

RS seems to do OK, but is there a retail option?

The cinch with electronic parts retail is the selection of stuff you would need to carry beyond resistors, caps, generic semiconductors, inductors, transformers, switches, etcetera to even start to compete with mailorder. Because when for some project there's just one item I can only get online, I'll order the entire lot in one go.

Re: Next (No retailers left!)

Perhaps if some of you had spent some money there instead of blowing it all online they might still be around. There is some use to a bricks and mortar storefront. Don't whine now, its too late.

Just wait, FOOD is next.

Re: Next

Used to make many electronic gadgets from amps in the 50s to computer bits for BBC B in the 80s to PA related bits in the 90s.

However the cost of the bits became more expensive than the retail items. It then was only worth it if you needed a specialist item. Luckily recently when I need a width controller for a PA setup - stereo too wide and mono bland so i need a narrow stereo sound field - I had enough components in my tray rack to build it.

I would have been pushed to get the bits from Maplin as when I tried to get an 8W bridge rectifier for my daughter's shower unit, which they said was in stock, my daughter who went to pick the ordered part up was given a bag with an 8 pin CMOS IC in it. When I took it back it took the third person I spoke to to know anything about components.

Liked their 100W MOSFET DIY modules