The news for RadioShack is not good. The retail chain that we hackers hold near and dear to our hearts is in financial trouble, and could go under next year. With just 64 million in cash on hand, it literally does not have enough capital to close the 1,100 stores it planned to in March of this year.
On May 27th, 2011, we asked you what RadioShack could do to cater to our community. They listened. Most of their retail stores now carry an assortment of Arduino shields, the under appreciated Parallax (why?), and even El Wire. Thanks to you. You made this happen.
Today, we are asking you again. But not for what RadioShack can do better. We’re asking what they can do to survive. To live. It makes no sense for RadioShack to compete in the brutal cell phone/tablet market, and makes every bit of sense for them take advantage of the rapidly growing hacker/builder/maker what-ever-you-want-to-call-us community. Let’s face it. We’re everywhere and our numbers are growing. From 3D printers to drones, the evidence is undeniable.
With 5,000 retail stores across the USA, they are in a perfect position to change their business model to a hacker friendly one. Imagine a RadioShack down the road that stocked PICs, ARMs, Atmels, stepper motors, drivers, sensors, filament….like a Sparkfun retail store. Imagine the ability to just drive a few miles and buy whatever you needed. Would you pay a premium? Would you pay a little extra to have it now? I bet you would.
Now it’s time to speak up. Let your voices be heard. Let’s get the attention of the RadioShack board. You’ve done it before. It’s time to do it again. Hackers unite!
They need to stock quality parts and tools, not the bottom of the line crap they have now. Wiha hand tools, Hakko irons, etc…
They need to take a look at Sparkfun, Adafruit for in-store inventory.. and have a online ship to store catalog of Digikey and Mouser that can be shipped to store in 1 day without payment from the website for pickup… pay in store.
Competition is not what it used to be, too many vendors choosing inventory based on anything but quality of said inventory.
Sell Reprap parts and kits, put ArduPilot and Multiwii boards on display next to brushless motors. Show off the Teensy and projects like it, Spark boards, Red Pitiya etc… have staff that has interest in these things and constantly updates inventory.
Sell reflow ovens and manufacture pcb’s in store, cut them on a tiny CNC. Show people what can be done if you want to get them excited. Right now a trip to radio shack is:
a) consumer crap on display next to cell phones
b) low quality tools and kits/parts
c) gray bins full of pcb parts from 1990
they already have a sort of deal with instructables. instructables already has a whole section dedicated to projects that use parts from radioshack. why not make workshops out of that. teach some basic electronics and soldering and build a new clientele. if tney direct it more towards kids especially they could then possibly have a consistent customer base. close down stores that arent performing well and try to broker something with sparkfun.
Hiring knowledgeable people at the wages they are able to pay just isn’t going to happen unfortunately. Same problem you get when trying to get help at home depot. But a lot of time at Home Depot you can take classes and things like that… that would be awesome. They need to turn Radio Shack into a community… model it more after hacker/maker spaces. Learn a thing or two from tech shop.
I cannot figure out what Radio Shack’s target market is. they are too expensive for a finished product (cell phones and televisions) store, and don’t have a large enough selection for a component store. this leaves adaptors, and a store cannot survive on a wall of adaptor cables. I would like Radio Shack to survive, because they are the only store within miles that sells components of any sort. I agree with the people who suggest that Radio Shack turns into a makerspace store. to survive they need to find a growing market that is relatively untapped, and cater to it. it wouldn’t be to hard for them to have a monthly project day where they set up a few tables, and some wire wrappers (soldering irons might be to dangerous for kids) , and give out (sell?) simple noise maker or blinking light kits. the sort of kit that appeals to kids, but will grow into an interest for electronics as they grow older. couple this with some practical “Real World” products and examples for the adults, things like Smart Phone controlled outlets , and then Radio Shack might be able to sell enough products to stay alive, while creating an interest that requires a supply of components that Radio Shack can supply with more convenience than China.
“I cannot figure out what Radio Shack’s target market is. ”
you might be a radioshack exec when…..
I think their identy issues have been the primary cause for their eventual demise
So, how do we get Radio Shack to read this? Anyone have a corp email address? There appear to be NONE on their website (another problem)
Investor Relations
Phone: (817) 415-3021
E-mail: investor.relations@radioshack.com
Media Relations
Phone: (817) 415-3300
E-mail: media.relations@radioshack.com
RadioShack Corporation – Riverfront Campus
300 RadioShack Circle, Fort Worth, TX 76102-1964
Phone: (817) 415-5400 | Fax: (817) 415-8870
Corporate Governance: Leadership
http://ir.radioshackcorporation.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=84525&p=irol-govmanage
I tend to agree with the “let it fail” conclusion. It’s a sad picture, but a hard lesson needs to be learned by the people that messed it up. I won’t miss today’s Radio Shack. What I already miss is the 1980’s Radio Shack, wish I could get it back. Let Walmart and Target sell phones. In the vacuum that is left by Radio Shack, a new store can emerge called Maker Shack that does everything that Radio Shack should have been doing.
I think it’s great that Radio Shack started carrying arduino, but shame on them for letting Home Depot be ahead of them in carrying 3D printers. Radio Shack should have been on top of that already 2 or 3 years ago.
I think you hit it in the head with “like a Sparkfun retail store”. That would be perfect.
Also sell stuff like brushless motors, props, and ESCs, so I don’t have to wait 2-4 weeks to fly again while ordering replacement parts from hobbyking :)
Great to see that a lot of hackers still acknowledge Radio Shack despite it’s shortcomings.
My father used to heavily frequent Radio shack to buy car speakers, cheap batteries and random electronic stuff.
So maybe radio shack could, first off; sell cheaper cables. Monoprice level prices. Undercut WM and BestBuy.
Focus on having everything in stock. It pisses me off to no end when I go there for something simple like an LED and they are sold out.
I like the suggestion for them to get into the RC stuff a little bit more.
Back to prices, RS prices suck, I can find almost anything they sell cheaper at Target.
$20 for a SD card adapter? Found it for $7 at Target.
Walmart and Best Buy are putting these guys under, they need to be a store that serves people in a way that WM and Best Buy don’t
“Focus on having everything in stock. It pisses me off to no end when I go there for something simple like an LED and they are sold out.”
And you have to ask yourself: Did a bunch of people come in an buy LEDs or was the whole campaign to carry parts again just a half-ass lie and they never even stocked those LEDs in the first place.
They cry that the market can’t support them carrying parts, yet their parts are always sold out? Someone’s not being honest.
I have very little lost love for RadioShack and always just saw it as that last-resort place I go to with the annoying, inept sale-people and a 50/50 chance of actually having a part I needed… and paying 3-4 times more for it if they did. I also never experienced it in its mythical hey-day of the 70s/80s, so maybe I’m just jaded from 90s/2000s RadioShack.
In any case, my 2 cents is that this is all a massive conspiracy that involves having a dying company shift its inventory towards components, seeing it slowly implode on itself, and reaping all of this unsold inventory at massive discounts during the clearance sales to follow…
Darn! You had to come out and spew the whole plan, like some James Bond movie villain, thanks a lot!
Radio Shack is in the trouble it is in because it tried too hard to be a cell phone store for too long.
The corporate structure is for crap and doesn’t do anything but think of new ways to nickel and dime their associates out of a living wage.
The mess they are in is their own doing. Think of it as evolution in action.
This descent and fall is not a surprise, they have plotted this course themselves, so let them take it to it’s logical conclusion. Their only asset is their scale. I think save the name (because it still suggests scale, if not quality) but rebrand. Save a couple of warehouses and cheaper stores, maybe a couple of flagships with makerspaces in them for PR, staffed with educators, partner with hacker/maker-spaces and drive round an ice-cream van full of components every night.
Try and copy the Games Workshop business model. It is by definition social (unlike soldering), but it seems like the gold standard for bricks’n’mortar in an online world.
Here’s an idea…go in heavy into a Radio Shack vending machine…place it in every maker and hackerspace as a shared profit model. Turn the stores into upgrade centers and logistics for those vending machines. The stores stock everything that is an entry-point into the maker community…and most common consumables. If the maker wants to upgrade their project with more expensive supplies, they go to the shack…(and have the inventory for both vending machines (and their locations) and the stores online with the hours of availability. That will be faster than Amazon prime any day…particularly if I need a thermister at 2am!
sorry, I meant the VENDING MACHINES stock everything that is an entry-point into the maker community…and the most common consumables. The store carries everything else on top.
It is not the customers to save a buiseness it is the job of the management. If the CEO and his team can’t do it, no body will. The board should hire a better CEO. Look at Blackberry. It was going to bankruptcy but the new CEO John Chen is doing well remedying it.
The problem is that hackers are the type who hack not just for fun, but many times to save money. They aren’t looking for retail items or cellphones. And they certainly can’t justify spending over five times the price for something when they can get it online so much cheaper, even if they have to wait. I honestly don’t think it can be saved by devoting it to just hackers, there simply aren’t enough of us around to keep a brick-and-mortar store like that profitable. The few times I do go into RS, the people working the register look at me and ask questions like I’m either some uber-scientist or bomb maker – it’s obvious people who do buy components and such are far and few between.
I think there are far more of us than you think. We just don’t go to Radioshack anymore for the same reasons you don’t.
If they fail maybe Maplin can take over – if Maplin could open stores in SE Wisconsin even better !
Maplin, Radio Shack, and The Source (Canada) are all the same company.
I am working on a PhD in Comp Sci. I took a friend into a Radio Shack (which he had seen before but never even walked in to) to show him the components area, pointed out a few things and their price, and then we left. We went 2 doors down to a Harbor Freight (which he had never been to, either), and found several things (including a soldering iron) for half the price of RS. I was in the process of making my own under-cabinet lighting, and an RGB LED strip was $30 for 1 meter at RS. I bought a 5M one for $16 on eBay, and it arrived in 1 week.
The point is that I won’t shop at RS because they are not just a little expensive, they treat common electronic parts like luxury items! I can buy 10-20 components online for less than a single one costs at RS.
If RS wants my business, they are going to have to be realistic in pricing. I would pay *slightly* more to buy locally as opposed to online, but not double.
The idea to turn each Radio Shack outlet into a small hacker space (credit to George) is brilliant. I have three Radio Shacks within 40 minutes driving of my house. While the nearest affordable hacker space is roughly two hours away. If I were able to visit the nearest Radio Shack to do a little breadboard work or pay for 3d printing lessons and services, I would be there once a week at least. I would happily pay for in-person tutorials on how to use CAD software, how to troubleshoot electrical issues, and the like. I think you could make a good deal of money off of small, weekly classes.
Radio Shack could do something equivalent to Friday Night Magic, where once a week they would host an event that attracts hackers. Hackers could pay an entry fee to this “hackerday” (host it on Saturdays… why not) and get components or services or whatever. It would help build the community outside the store, but with Radio Shack as a central hub.
I personally think that Radio Shack should seriously consider moving into wearable electronics. And I’m not talking about the nike fuel bands or the samsung galaxy gears. While these name brand wearables are neat, they are a tad expensive while they also, usually, lack personality. I suggest that Radio Shack starts to sell components and kits to make custom wearable electronics. You could sell pre-assembled products for extra. I highly recommend that you (Radio Shack) look into the work of Becky Stern (http://www.adafruit.com/beckystern) concerning this matter.
Finally, make some friends. I think that whatever partnership you developed with MAKE magazine was a great decision. But I would love to see the maker/hacker community come together more, online and otherwise. I understand that sparkfun and adafruit are easily your direct competitors when it comes to sales, but they are both great learning outlets, and online community hubs. I would love to be able to go to one source and find references to content elsewhere. The unique situation that you find yourself in is that you have physical locations near the hacker/maker community all over the US. If you make yourself central to the development of the physical maker/hacker community, I can’t see it ever letting you go out of business.
By the way (on the wearable tech note, and other things) if you happen to be able to restructure yourself within the next 6 months — unlikely, I know — you could ride the Back to the Future hype so very far. October 21, 2015 is the specific day, but you could do an entire ad campaign through the year where doc brown has been buying components at radio shack all this time to make his time machine in the past, and to fix it on his trips to the future. Market some of your wearable tech kits as the clothing of the future…. er, the clothing of NOW.
Best of luck. And long live the Radio Shack
Possibly having classes to teach people how to use the things they carry. Community outreach to high schools and colleges to get kids into the classes. They could be grass-roots organized, too, they don’t have to be provided from the corporate level. Some classes I could see:
– Build your own 3D printer
– Build your own sous-vide cooker
– Build your own holiday light controller
– Build your own quad-copter drone
– Build your own home security system with zigbee
…
All would have an opportunity for the store to earn revenue from material sales and class fees, plus the follow on revenue from people pursuing their new hobby. The key is to provide classes consistent with current Maker interests. This would maybe follow a bit of the Tech-Shop business model.
Like Most have said, Radioshack needs to ditch the Cell hpone/Tablet/PC/and probably even TV’s stop selling stuff that costs and every other store sell and go back to selling electronic parts, they can still sell A/V cables of every sort but stop selling TV’s/laptops/Netbooks/Tablets/cellphones, its what will and probably has slowly choked all their business.
To carry more parts then just their little 10×2 drawer of overly simple parts and overly priced parts would bring in so much more money, Seriously who is going to to 5 1K ohm 5% through hole resistors for $1US, if they carried more parts, and possibly even tried to get in touch with Ada fruit/ARduino/sparkfun and all the others and started offering retail breakout boards from those companies RS might pull through, oh and ditch the pushing for people to buy their remarked over priced RS batteries, maybe start selling more LiPo for Electronic hobbyists and RC, but doing so with a small mark up rather then the riduclous mark up they have now.
If each one had a Makerspace it wouldn’t be bad, but most are in such a tiny space that a makerspace wouldn’t be to practical or econimical.
a 3d printer in every store, email your design in and pay for prints. or they could go back to selling radio equipment and parts…
I love all the “Setup Hackerspace” suggestions. RS needs something that will MAKE A PROFIT, not lose money, they’re all set in the losing money department.
In the 70s and 80s, Radio Shack was just that, a Ham and hobby Radio supply store, staffed by knowledgeable technicians who could understand component based design and repair. When I go into a store now, there’s no one there who even understands basic electronics, let alone with the imagination to design something new. Unless they return to their roots, they are doomed, they can’t keep up with the toy, video, and cell phone operations.
They are just so so so pricey. Sure they are convenient, but the price wall is outstanding. Solder flux, £20, online £6. Resistors, 39p each, no large quantity discounts, RS online, farnell, 2p each, with large quantity discounts…
Power supplies minimum £20!
They seem competitive with their flouncy stuff like tablets, but online again is cheapest
I think that the radio shack should get rid of all of those annoying electronic parts. Every time I go in to find a cell phone I can’t find one because all the LEDs, caps, and resisters are in the way.
Seriously though, they need to close all the stores. Then re-open fewer larger stores/ hacker spaces in lower rent areas. To really succeed though they need to go private, since no publicly traded corp will ever go for this. Maybe once the corporation has been burned and looted, some private entity can buy up the radio shack name and do some good with it.
I would strongly recommend Radio Shack stop with the commission base pay-scale and go to a standard retail pay-scale so employees can get a fair wage without having to force “batteries” onto those of us who want to by tech.
In additional with online and places like Ax-Man Surplus stores, then need to lower their prices for components, LED’s, Motors, Wire, wtc.. until they build their revenue back up from increased customer sales.
Lastly there are few stores (Home Depots and Microsoft Store) that sell 3d Printers and Filaments, there is a nice market for different printers and different filaments along with DIY kits they could compile and sell.
Another great idea would be if they would hold classes for newbs for soldering, basics and advance electronics, DIY kits and assembly. they could tap a new market there for kids and beginners while making money form each person per class taught. This would also expand the knowledge base of the radio shack employee, who so far in Minnesota are the equivalent to a Walmart greeter but smell slightly better.
That’s right, I DID see a motor in the parts bin, but no gears, pullys or mounts to in any way connect it to anything else…
I wasn’t aware that was how they paid their employees, it makes sense now why they’re always trying to push batteries on me.
If the noob classes were making interesting kits, I’d probably buy one myself. Maybe intermediate classes/kits as well, like a programmable LED Display, maybe as a badge (bonus points if you can program over USB by any PC).
What if they became the Redbox of electronic components? I am not sure if this would be inside the store or the store would be replaced by the vending machine. It would solve our need for immediate parts, they could still charge a lot, better inventory control,. They could also fit more parts into an automated vending machine than their slide drawers. Vending machine could give you more info on the parts. You could search inventory online so you don’t have to drive to a radioshack that only has one of a specific component and that is gone. If it is outside, it could be 24 hours. I cant tell you how many times I have run to walmart at 1 am in hopes I could find something to hack apart with the appropriate parts I needed. Plus there are a lot of companies that they could get to build the machines for low cost and quickly. Plus they could run a subscription thing where you get very detailed schematics for projects and also the parts to pull it off. Enough stops at the machine and you earn credits, this would help build loyalty.
I agree that they should also work in conjunction with digikey and sparkfun and the rest of them. Digikey could make more on their parts and Radioshack could gouge us, but hey that is ok. If they put together group buying for specific large dollar items that would be cool. That way they wouldn’t have to pay upfront to shelve crappy soldering stations and only buy them when they have enough interested parties and the customers get a discount.
Grab bags? I would love to pay a reasonable price to get a mix of all sorts of stuff to use in future products.
If they could retrain their employees that would help not only the customer, but also provide a better knowledge base for the employees. Maybe they could get a department of Labor retraining grant or something?
Hack space would be cool, but I feel the dedicated makerspaces are already better. 3D printing like a kinkos would be cool. Maybe even rentals?
The electronics industry is what happened to Radio Shack. Even 20 years ago, the number of different parts that a retail store would have to stock to be useful to an electronics hobbyist was vanishingly small compared to what would be required today. 40 years ago, the required variety was even less. Radio shack would need to stock at a bare minimum many thousands of parts to be useful to most hackers. That’s a huge overhead, and many of them would simply sit on the shelves for months. Also, retail sales would require blister packs or similar packaging. All of that overhead would add a heck of a lot more than the $8 shipping that Digikey charges. I’m sorry to say it, but Radio Shack is on its way out, and there is very little that can be done about it (if anything)
My two cents:
– Here are (some of) the problems
1. Small strip mall retail stores are not suited to be makerspaces. They aren’t usually zoned for manufacturing or configured for heavy/large tools like milling machines, laser cutters, etc… About the only ‘maker’ tools that are appropriate are hobbyist 3d printers, and maybe soldering stations (ventilation issues may be a prob.).
2. Although the maker movement is growing rapidly, it really isn’t big enough to support the Radio Shack chain by selling parts that average a couple dollars here and there. Even with massive markup the average sale would probably be under $10. I’m pretty sure those stores need to make at least $600-$800 per day to survive (staffing cost, rent, utilities, etc…).
3. Perception: When I think of building something, electronic or otherwise, I no longer even think of going to Radio Shack. My first inclination is to search online for parts, ideas, schematics I can tear apart, etc…
And here are some possible solutions:
1. (3D) Rather than become a makerspace, follow the business model of Shapeways and iMaterialize. Have high quality printing services (off site) that will ship to the store or your home.
2. (3D) Provide a HUGE repository of free 3d files for use and allow user submissions with maker friendly TOS. Scour other repositories for files that are open source for your initial start. Don’t forget the attribution. Be a responsible part of the community!
3. (3D) Design or license their own ‘hacker friendly’ 3d printer and leverage the huge number of stores for distribution. Sell it as a kit, individual parts, or already assembled. Selling 1-2 printers a day could covert the store cost when you keep in mind that Staples sells the Cube for $1300. When you add in consumables and upgrades it becomes a decent profit booster. It won’t save the business alone, but it would help a lot.
4. (Elec.) Become the electronic parts equivalent of Mcmaster-Carr. Include free design files for useful circuits. Have another HUGE repository of schematics (free use). Allow user submissions (again). etc… Link directly to the parts needed from the schematic (individually or as a whole package)
4. (Elec.) Either start doing small batch circuit board production for customers, or even better, just become the middle man and establish a relationship with a Chinese manufacturer. Customer sends the file to RS –> RS sends to Manufacturer -> part shipped to store or home with RS branding on the box.
5. (Other) Build blogs for customers (mycustomername.radioshack.com) with links to parts list BOM (individually or as a package), 3d print files, circuit schematics to be etched, etc…
6. (Other) Use the Kinko’s business model and provide a few(rented or free) in store computer stations with good 3D modeling tools, schematic design tools, 3d scanners, and of course connected to 3D printers. Allow people to print their own files on site if they want. Charge by print time or filament used or whatever.
7. (Other) Provide evening classes (paid or free) in electronics, 3d modeling, building a 3d printer, 3d scanning, etc… Use the repositories and tools I suggested to get people involved.
Basically, if Radio Shack isn’t suited for a makerspace, then it needs to become a community, knowledge base, and first stop for any type of build. These options reinforce each other to do all that. I’m sure I could add more, but this is a good core list.
RS has fallen too far too fast without a real plan to get up again. Let them fall, and their vacuum will be filled. We are, after all, a nation of gotta-have-it-now.
Forget about having an original idea, they should copy a successful business – maybe Micro Center, since we have a shortage of those.
There is a radio shack in several cities near where I live. I was really excited when I could actually pick up an arduino and xbee module at a local store. However their selection of electronics parts are seriously lacking. The closet place to me with a decent inventory is 150 miles away. While closure of stores is probably inevitable combining and centralizing stores to increase inventory and reduce staff is a viable solution. Why not tap into the maker/builder market and provide hackerspace equipment. I would totally pay for a chance just to get at a mill. Much less any 3d printers specialized tools, etc. I know I wouldn’t get as much grief from my wife as I did when I built a fish farm in my garage.
Tandy Radio Shack drove Lafayette Radio out of business because they were not diversified enough and RS product was competitively priced. Lafayette was the place to go for parts and electronics because they were specialized. RS broke the mold.
They have a website that deals in online ordering. That is a good thing to keep. Just make prices more competitive to the other non-brick&mortar electronics parts distributors. Offer massive discounts for customer loyalty with some sort of RS customer loyalty membership card. It will drive sales up. They 30% off deal is a good model to keep too. Keep up to date on technology to adjust product line too.
Don’t do any B&M (brick&mortar) reductions. They can keep those and add a bistro subcontractor like Starbucks or Gloria Jeans. They are always looking for cheap space at malls. Starbucks did a B&M reduction too but came back with cheaper overhead locations. They could put them in the BACK of the RS mall stores so customers would have to pass through merchandise-areas to get to the coffee. And there would be table seating too. Registered RS customers get a 10% discount on coffee if they present their RS loyalty cards.
You need to hire a better staff of employees. No more incompetent high pressure salesmen. Either train them better in product knowledge or just hire electrical engineering wannabes who need the work. They should follow the BEST BUY business model. Hire GEEKS (i.e. Geek Squad) that does home or office repair service and installations. They could also setup mobile installation stores that will install car stereos, accessories, and communication equipment like police scanners and CB radios. Loyal customers get service discounts.
Radio Shack Geek Squad could be called something like RS Nerd Squad or RS Hacker Squad and they not only can fix your PC at home but can install RS TV’s, stereo systems, PC’s, etc. Of course just like Best Buy you have to pay a monthly subscription for the service.
Really play up the CLEARANCE sale angle. You’d be surprised how even rich affluent people are attracted to that stuff. They eat it up to save a few dollars. Even seemingly worthless product line too.
No more sending walk-in repairs to a regional service center or back to Fort Worth TX. Setup local service centers at RS super centers in the back. Have well-paid qualified and certified electronic service engineers back there. Your equipment can be repaired while you wait sometimes.
Increase your product line to more marketable product lines based on customer desire and needs (i.e. Arduino, etc.). The cell phone line is really over-done and should be sidelined. Just put in a cellphone kiosk for self-service or let it go all together. Self-service kiosks are what BEST BUY and WALMART use; try to exploit it more. Put an automated EXPERT system application on it to give advice that the salesman is struggling to do as he/she just isn’t that in tune with their own product line (ughh!).
Get rid of the sales quotas and commissions. Make it a straight salary with cash incentive bonuses based on merit and customer feedback. Offer them perks like free coffee or lunch or snacks sometimes. Think about running a 24-hour super-center in very good neighborhoods (i.e. low crime profile, affluent clientele, etc. – hire security guards or off-duty cops if needed). Hire seasonal or temps to do store inventory and stocking shelves freeing up sales force for SALES. Tell them to stop saying “May I help you?” and leave walk-ins alone until they actually ask for help. Just say “Good morning…” (etc.) and that’s it! I want to tell those jerks to just “go away! I know what I want!”
Sponsor Science Fairs or other innovative events at local high schools, colleges. civic centers, etc (i.e. Community Awareness stuff) . Do local TV/Radio spots to promote it. Ask other local gadget vendors to attend to make it more interesting as well as competitive. Hold SF contests to allow winners and runners-up to get really cool (mildly expensive – tax write off stuff) stuff from RS for free.
Like Home Depot, and others, bring in high-tech service equipment to be used for RENTALS. Only fully vetted customers can rent off-site oscilloscopes, signal gens, analyzers, etc (security deposit may be required in some cases). Setup rental booths fully stocked with service equipment and parts for geeks and nerds (who have no space or privacy at home or work) to build electronic projects in full privacy (free wi-fi supplied – they can use VOIP for private phone calls). Their booth is reserved only if fully paid in advance and stay in store until finished so there is no scheduling conflicts. They would have to schedule during working hours and be current on their membership dues too.
How about offering a fricking unisex rest room for walk-ins EVEN if they are not customers? All the big B&M do that. Why not Radio Shack? Duh!
Back in the 80s, I worked as a electronics tech for a LARGE government contractor in San Diego. Come 1985, they had a massive layoff and I got canned. A friend was the store manager at a local RS store, and told me that the local RS Computer Service Center was hiring. I was fairly up on RS’s ’80s computers, having bought one of the first TRS-80 Model I’s sold in San Diego in 1979. I applied and was hired, and stayed there for a couple of years. That started my “second career” as a computer support tech, which I retired from back in 2010. They certainly could expand on that “Computer Service Center” concept from way back then…
Become the storefront for Adafruit, Sparkfun, digikey, etc. Be an outlet for kickstarter and Indiegogo successful campaigns. Switch to selling resources instead of products. (Have you tried to buy a sheet of brass lately?)
What will happen instead is they will circle the drain for a year or so, the executives will get bonuses and the employees will get pink slips.
I say they team up with a company like sparkfun that has a good maker market base.
We have a local store called MicroCenter in Denver. You walk in and you are taken right back to the 80s and 90s. Aisles and aisles of computer stuff for cheap. They started adding sparkfun retail stuff a few years ago. Now that section has tons of other vendors. In that store the original radioshack lives on. I’m not sure if they make much money from it. When I go to that section there are always a few people looking around.
Probably too little-too late, but if they’d emulate Frys, making them more like they were in the 70s-80s, they *might* have a chance.. Being they are nationwide, and Frys is semi-regional, they *could* bring back the “glory-days” of Radio Shack.. But I’d expect hell to freeze over before THAT would happen…
Sadly, I don’t think there is much Radio Shack can do to become profitable again. The only real service they could provide is parts on hand. Due to online companies offering a better selection for less, they can’t compete as a brick and mortar store.
RADIO SHACK – DO YOUR OWN SWOT ANALYSIS!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis
Didn’t read the (currently) almost 196 comments in a shameful display of tl;dr — but here’s my nickel o’ speechifyin’ anyways.
(1) Hire people who know their $#!*. I don’t want to buy a cell phone at a Radio Shack. I want even less to buy a computer or an R/C car. I have eBay for cell phones and computer parts (I can build better than I can buy, and enjoy it more, but thank you) and I’ve long outgrown R/C cars and similar toys, particularly at Radio Shack’s current prices.
(2) Sell a wide array of microcontroller products, not just Arduino. For example, I got my start on PICAXE and it rocks. Yes, they’re closed-source and insanely underpowered chips that run interpreted BASIC. No, you can’t use them in derivative stuff. But OMG is it so beyond easy to get your foot in the door with them. They’re a starting place, and a good one at that.
(3) Sell a wide array of electronic components FFS. Look at Sparkfun. Try to be somewhere between them and Mouser/Digikey. I go in a Radio Shack, I expect more than a token fifty or so poor quality components to be available — and half of them switches that are only rated for AC. Get some DC switches, yo!
(4) Sell stuff that doesn’t break in five minutes. I know you get your switches from Shin Chin right now, because I know the logos from when I shop at Mouser. Go up a little in the market, at least.
(5) Have. Datasheets. For. Everything. You don’t right now. You have real datasheets for NOTHING. You have shortform datasheets for a token few components. What are the real dimensions of your perfboards (and why on Earth do you call them “breadboards”)? Decimal inches, please, and how many holes in a row/column, and how many rows/columns, and what is the spacing between the first and last row/column and the edge of the board? You provide almost no information whatsoever on this. I have to buy them and figure it out myself — which means I probably won’t.
(6) Bonus round: go for franchise stores. My local is a franchise, one of a very few left. Simply put, it rocks. Go back to that model, and make sure (per #1) that the owner knows his/her crap and is around for questions (etc) — and (again, per #1) hires competent and knowledgeable employees. Let the franchisees decide if they want to put a hackerspace in (but call it something a bit more friendly like “Community Create-Space” or something — most people, sadly, still think that “hack” has something to do with noodling in Granny’s bank account…). That said, if the franchisees DO want to implement a small hackerspace or somesuch, front them the money for it.
Alright, that’s my opinions, I’ll let someone else have a turn with the soapbox now.
It’s Back-to-Basics for Brick-&-Mortar:
Let’s start by clearly stating some of the key requirements of an adequate solution, take a look at what RadioShack presently has, then see what solutions fit those resources and requirements.
Requirements:
1. Provide something unique in the retail space. Be different from other local and online vendors.
If it’s available online in a few days, or from multiple local retailers, then don’t go there! it is more likely that a service will be harder to replicate than a product, but both are possibilities.
2. Become a destination.
Once customers arrive, provide not only a straightforward retail experience, but also a reason to travel to the store and to stay a while.
3. Focus, focus, focus. Avoid too much of too much.
Do a few things extremely well, and fill in the gaps with “while I’m here” stuff.
Resources. RadioShack presently has the following:
1. A Hacker-Friendly History.
While most of the RS customers who remember those halcyon days are now well over 40, we’re still here, and many of us are still hacking!
2. Lots of parts in-stock.
Not an extremely diverse or deep stock, but a useful one.
3. Lots of cell phones and accessories.
Dunno about this, in its present form. There is no RS branding to be seen!
4. Gadgets.
Toys, tools and PC peripherals. I do about 10% of my Holiday shopping at RS, mainly because I can check out the gadget or whatever before buying it.
5. Staff.
The quality of the staff at my 3 local RS stores has been consistently good for at least the past 3-4 years. Well-informed, attentive, good personality, diverse (age & ethnicity, not so much in gender). Not necessarily strong in the Maker Arts, but we can work on that.
Possible Parts of The Solution:
1. Provide workbenches loaded with RS gear.
– A functional display for hacker tools and parts.
– A place for product demos and educational seminars.
– A supervised mini-Maker-place that can be rented by the hour.
My inspiration here is the kitchen classroom at the rear of my favorite kitchen store. They charge a bundle for classes, and always sell out. They also rent the classroom to groups who want to host their own event (it’s way cheaper than renting a restaurant).
2. Reduce the number of stores, and make each remaining store “worth the trip”.
Anyone remember “Incredible Universe”? That was RS. It was a great idea with an abominably bad implementation. My local IU became a Fry’s. Fry’s is “worth the trip”! RS should take the best and leave the rest.
3. Get a ‘fridge loaded with hacker-friendly non-alcoholic beverages and snacks at reasonable prices.
I know I get thirsty and hungry whenever I spend hours at a workbench!
4. Get RS into the local schools.
Provide free seminars to local schools that are truly educational, and “happen” to be sponsored by RS. RS must establish direct contact with their next generation of customers, and listen to them. While many of our commercial and social institutions are going online, schools look to be sticking around for some time to come.
5. Bring back the “Battery Card”!
Give folks a reason to drop by. Often. Free or really inexpensive batteries are a great way to do that. Especially for kids who go through batteries faster than parents want to buy them.
When I was a kid, my parents would drop me off at RS while they did the rest of their shopping. The guy behind the counter was often a retired Ham operator who knew what everything in the store could be used for, and loved to inspire kids to nag their parents to get that next electronics kit.
It worked.
When the Tandy TRS-80 arrived, kids were given free access, and wound up making the TRS-80 the true volume leader of the “PC Revolution”. While there may never be another “PC Revolution”, the idea of inspiring the young to master technology then share it with others (especially adults) is still valid.
Become that place again.
I remember the battery card. I also remember the cheap plastic 5 D cell flashlight they had. Man that thing sure could eat batteries. For the amount of light it threw the plastic was probably conductive. That flashlight probably drained the batteries even when it was switched off. I’m not entirely sure how they engineered it, but it was brilliant!
So, I have walked into a Radio Shack three times in the past 6 months and walked out without purchasing anything. Here is why…
1) I was looking for a double throw single pull switch. The guy asked me what I was looking for and when I told him he looked at me like I was from outer space. He told me he “did not know much about switches and stuff”. I looked for myself and the selection was horrible. I remember going to Radio Shack as a kid and there were 6 drawers of different switches, now there is one drawer.
2) I went the other night to get thermal paste since I was replacing the motherboard on my cousin’s laptop. I found it there, but it was $8.00 for a very very tiny tube. Might be worth $2.00 tops, but I was taken advantage of since I needed it right away,
3) I went to buy a charger for my iPhone. Granted, it has a lightening connector which was somewhat new at the time, but the cheapest charger was $45!! I later ordered one off Amazon $12
Please yes, My radio shack guy is amazing, he has helped me with so many electronics projects. I come in every week when he is working to talk about his and my next project ideas. I know I would love to have a store stocked like adafruit, or spark fun, and digikey just a mile down the road. So what if I pay a little extra; when it comes down to a project going wrong or a mockup I want to do i hate waiting for shipping and really adafruit shipping is like $7 for any order anyways…. I am down for Radioshak going back to amateur radio and electronics shop.
Since it’s not logically possible to acquire enough capital with some sales campaign, they have to cut infrastructure/scale-down, or give a pay cut to just one of their execs a pay cut..
“or give a pay cut to just one of their execs a pay cut.”
HERASY!
Quality of components also matters. For a while it seemed like RS was inexpensively selling component lots that failed QC for more demanding customers.
Even if every single hobbyist decided to only buy from RadioShack, they’d still go bankrupt. Let it go.
I’m surprised no one has gone way back in time and spoken of Radio Shack’s former life as a subsidiary of Tandy and a merger with Allied Electronics. The former was a mail-order parts company and Radio Shack was mostly into stereo equipment and hobby electronics (101 circuit kits, etc). I can recall shopping at Allied Radio Shack, then years later, visiting the Radio Shack headquarters on 7th St, downtown Ft. Worth. This was a tall, old building that housed, among other things I suppose, an engineering department. The first floor was open to the public and you could buy engineering prototypes of products they were selling or evaluating. They also had all the parts that Radio Shack offered in the days. Bought my first 8080 and Z80 chips there.
This may or may not be the central theme as to the PROBLEMS with Radio Shack. He is an ex-Walgreen Drugstore Chain executive at RS since 2013. His name is:
Joseph C. Magnacca
Chief Executive Officer (RS)
“Joe serves as RadioShack’s chief executive officer and is a member of the Company’s Board of Directors. An experienced retail executive and merchant, Joe joined Radio Shack in February 2013 from Walgreen Co., where he was executive vice president and president of Daily Living Products, overseeing all of Walgreen’s marketing and merchandising operations across more than 8,000 stores. He also was responsible for the integration of the Duane Reade drugstore chain where he was president at the time of its acquisition by Walgreens in 2010. Before that, he served as chief merchandising officer, undertaking the successful transformation of Duane Reade through the creation of an innovative urban operating and customer experience model. Joe’s previous senior management experience includes merchandising and marketing roles at two of Canada’s leading retail chains. He spent seven years as senior vice president at Shoppers Drug Mart, where he was instrumental in the company’s turnaround, and fifteen years at Loblaw, where he began his career. In 2010, Joe was named Merchant of the Year for Drugstore Retailing by Chain Drug Review magazine.”
http://ir.radioshackcorporation.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=84525&p=irol-govBio&ID=228142
A laser cutter, 3D printer and PCB mill in for hire in every store would get a hell of a lot of my business.
Flashback to 2007…
Wife, daughter and I with shiny new Ham licenses go into Radio Shack.
Ask about .. “Radios. Ham Radios?”
Manager comes over since clerk has no clue, wants to sell me a CB.
2 meter?
10 Meter?
6 Meter?
HF?
Manager:”Nobody wants that stuff,which is why we don’t sell it. There’s no money in it.”
Me: “Really?”
Put AES/Orlando receipt on counter, showing where we’d shelled out about $1k earlier that day on stuff there’s no money in.
Hams are buying old RS radios on eBay for near what the _new_ price was, because they made damn good radios back then.
We’re in the middle of the biggest boom in Ham growth in decades… and if RS had started just re-introducing the old designs, much less building newer stuff, they would have made a mint.
Selling… Radios… at … Radio Shack.
And, of course, all the other stuff that goes with it.
Bring back the 1978 catalog, substituting “Audrino” for “TRS-80 model I”
I’m the guy who can spend an hour in RS and buy nothing. This happens because I’m answering questions for fellow customers, helping them figure out what it is they need. I’ve sold hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of RS products for them. I’d rather someone have solutions and answers than nothing at all, even if they are paying a higher price.
I generally only go in once in a while to see what happens to be on sale. I simply can’t justify the higher cost on most of their products, but when I see that the 1 meter programmable RGB LED strips are down to $5 (as an example) I clear the shelf.
I also, on occasion take completed projects back into the store to show it off. I’m not looking for praise, but I am trying to get the people there excited about the potential of what it is they have available. I know I got one of their associates really interested in learning arduino after showing them their RGB LED strips in action (using the demo sketch from the RS site, no less); she honestly thought that the software was hundreds of dollars and that it would be impossible for a beginner to learn.
Having worked for them in the past. They should of kept a better pay scale. When i started I made 40K a year after 4 years i was down to 15k. They kept cutting employee pay. If they would have kept it up they would have had better employees. When i worked there other employees in the Ohio PA area would call me for help instead of support because i had a better solution. They lost people like me because of the cuts in pay. IF they would have stayed that way they would have been set. I left in 2010.