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About ten years ago I needed a capacitor for a failed power supply. I drove to RS, found a replacement cap in the parts bin (which was virtually hidden in a cor

by kabdib 10y ago

About ten years ago I needed a capacitor for a failed power supply. I drove to RS, found a replacement cap in the parts bin (which was virtually hidden in a corner in the back of the store), and went to the register. The cashier gave me a disdainful look and didn't even want my money. He just handed the cap back to me and told me to leave with it. These days I just order parts off of eBay. They arrive in a few days, and they're really cheap. The parts usually work, too.

FigBug 10y ago
Why not use DigiKey? They'll arrive the next day and be really cheap.
- CamperBob2 10y ago
  Not as cheap as eBay. People don't understand what an amazing resource eBay is for electronic parts. Yes, 75% of it is junk. But when you get the remaining 25% for 1 cent on the dollar, it's hard to work up a good complaining frenzy.
- MrBuddyCasino 10y ago
  DigiKey is amazing. It only takes two days to ship stuff from their Thief River Falls, Minnesota warehouse to your doorstep somewhere in Europe. Easily the most maker-friendly distributor, too.
Stratoscope 10y ago
I recall reading an article a few years ago about RadioShack in that era. It said that employees weren't just rated according to how much they sold in total, but also by the average amount of each sale. So that cheap capacitor would have dragged down this employee's performance rating and compensation. It was better for him personally to ignore a capacitor disappearing out of the store than it would have been to ring it up and take your money. I wish I could find the article; there was a story in it almost identical to yours. In a way this reminds me of when HN used to track not just your total karma but also your average karma. If you cared about such things, it meant that every time you posted a comment you had to think not only about whether it was a worthwhile comment, but also whether you expected it to move your average karma up or down. If you had an average karma of 10, then you wouldn't want to post a comment that you figured may only get 5 upvotes - even though those votes meant that five people appreciated your comment. To me at least, HN seems like a friendlier place now that average karma is gone. And RadioShack would have made more money if they hadn't made their salespeople worry about lowering their average sale. But, like some of the wacky schemes I've come up with, it must have seemed like a good idea at the time.
- ascagnel_ 10y ago
  Many retail stores are starting to fall into this metrics trap. For example, just a few days ago there was a report[0] that GameStop now dis-incentivises sales of new games & console hardware in order to promote used hardware, even though most customers would likely prefer new over used. Retail shops need to be cognizant of how aligning to certain metrics can be short-sighted and ultimately drive away customers, but that reckoning has yet to arrive. [0] http://kotaku.com/new-gamestop-program-leads-employees-to-lie-to-customer-1791874332 http://kotaku.com/new-gamestop-program-leads-employees-to-li...
- soylentcola 10y ago
  Can confirm that this is how it was, at least for the ~6 months I worked there in the early 2000s. I'd recently been laid off and saw RS was hiring. Being somewhat technically inclined and having fond memories of the place in my youth I figured it was as good as any other low-end retail gig while I looked for something better. This was not the case. I'm not going to get into any long RS stories but in terms of sales averages, it went roughly like this as far as I can recall: Actual hourly wage was around the state minimum but you could make commissions and "SPIFF" bonuses for selling things like cell phone contracts (since they got a cut of those). The cell phone thing was straightforward - sell a phone contract, get a flat amount added to your paycheck. But the commission thing was awful and things were set up so that it was incredibly difficult to get commission. You had to sell not only a certain amount, but rather your average for each day of a pay period had to be at a certain level in order to even qualify for commission. If you were unable to hit those goals every day, you got no commission, even if one of those days you sold thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. So they would make sure to give everyone at least one or two short shifts a week or shifts during crappy hours so that it was nearly impossible to make commission. Combine this with the sales meetings you had to attend out of town every (month? can't remember) it was almost like you were losing money by working there. Thankfully I found some other crap job that at least paid better and in time, I moved on to better things but man...that place was awful.
digler999 10y ago
IIRC, Radio Shack also ran one of the first customer tracking programs. From my recollection it started circa 1998, until about 2003 ? Every purchase you made they'd ask for your full mailing address.
- kabdib 10y ago
  Even in the 1970s RS was asking customers for address info. The salespeople were really adamant about it, since they were yelled at for not getting it from the customer.

by kabdib 10y ago

FigBug 10y ago

Why not use DigiKey? They'll arrive the next day and be really cheap.

CamperBob2 10y ago
Not as cheap as eBay. People don't understand what an amazing resource eBay is for electronic parts. Yes, 75% of it is junk. But when you get the remaining 25% for 1 cent on the dollar, it's hard to work up a good complaining frenzy.
MrBuddyCasino 10y ago
DigiKey is amazing. It only takes two days to ship stuff from their Thief River Falls, Minnesota warehouse to your doorstep somewhere in Europe. Easily the most maker-friendly distributor, too.

Stratoscope 10y ago

I recall reading an article a few years ago about RadioShack in that era. It said that employees weren't just rated according to how much they sold in total, but also by the average amount of each sale. So that cheap capacitor would have dragged down this employee's performance rating and compensation. It was better for him personally to ignore a capacitor disappearing out of the store than it would have been to ring it up and take your money. I wish I could find the article; there was a story in it almost identical to yours. In a way this reminds me of when HN used to track not just your total karma but also your average karma. If you cared about such things, it meant that every time you posted a comment you had to think not only about whether it was a worthwhile comment, but also whether you expected it to move your average karma up or down. If you had an average karma of 10, then you wouldn't want to post a comment that you figured may only get 5 upvotes - even though those votes meant that five people appreciated your comment. To me at least, HN seems like a friendlier place now that average karma is gone. And RadioShack would have made more money if they hadn't made their salespeople worry about lowering their average sale. But, like some of the wacky schemes I've come up with, it must have seemed like a good idea at the time.

ascagnel_ 10y ago
Many retail stores are starting to fall into this metrics trap. For example, just a few days ago there was a report[0] that GameStop now dis-incentivises sales of new games & console hardware in order to promote used hardware, even though most customers would likely prefer new over used. Retail shops need to be cognizant of how aligning to certain metrics can be short-sighted and ultimately drive away customers, but that reckoning has yet to arrive. [0] http://kotaku.com/new-gamestop-program-leads-employees-to-lie-to-customer-1791874332 http://kotaku.com/new-gamestop-program-leads-employees-to-li...
soylentcola 10y ago
Can confirm that this is how it was, at least for the ~6 months I worked there in the early 2000s. I'd recently been laid off and saw RS was hiring. Being somewhat technically inclined and having fond memories of the place in my youth I figured it was as good as any other low-end retail gig while I looked for something better. This was not the case. I'm not going to get into any long RS stories but in terms of sales averages, it went roughly like this as far as I can recall: Actual hourly wage was around the state minimum but you could make commissions and "SPIFF" bonuses for selling things like cell phone contracts (since they got a cut of those). The cell phone thing was straightforward - sell a phone contract, get a flat amount added to your paycheck. But the commission thing was awful and things were set up so that it was incredibly difficult to get commission. You had to sell not only a certain amount, but rather your average for each day of a pay period had to be at a certain level in order to even qualify for commission. If you were unable to hit those goals every day, you got no commission, even if one of those days you sold thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. So they would make sure to give everyone at least one or two short shifts a week or shifts during crappy hours so that it was nearly impossible to make commission. Combine this with the sales meetings you had to attend out of town every (month? can't remember) it was almost like you were losing money by working there. Thankfully I found some other crap job that at least paid better and in time, I moved on to better things but man...that place was awful.

digler999 10y ago

IIRC, Radio Shack also ran one of the first customer tracking programs. From my recollection it started circa 1998, until about 2003 ? Every purchase you made they'd ask for your full mailing address.

kabdib 10y ago
Even in the 1970s RS was asking customers for address info. The salespeople were really adamant about it, since they were yelled at for not getting it from the customer.