4 ms·

I don't RS could make a business of selling drones -- they'd become a showroom for online drone makers who would sell much cheaper than Radio Shack could afford

I don't RS could make a business of selling drones -- they'd become a showroom for online drone makers who would sell much cheaper than Radio Shack could afford to sell. I'm convinced that cell phones are the only thing that's kept most Radio Shack stores afloat since there's decent margin in cell phone accessories and plans.

vkou 7y ago
> I'm convinced that cell phones are the only thing that's kept most Radio Shack stores afloat since there's decent margin in cell phone accessories and plans. They were. Source: A friend of mine worked for Radioshack between 2008 and 2012. He had no idea why his store was still in business. The only thing he ever sold at any volume was cellphones. Besides phones, there'd also be the occasional lunatic who would wander in, convinced that the end of the world was nigh, who wanted to buy a battery-powered off-the-grid television, while talking about his stockpile of guns, and how the country was heading towards civil war. It was never entirely clear what kind of television broadcasts he was planning on watching after the fall of civilization.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  I assume after the zombie apocalypse, there would be pirate television stations broadcast out of bunkers, or something like that.
  - dvtrn 7y ago
    Some lone guy with a high gain antenna broadcasting Mad Max over and over from eastern Kentucky.
- lebanon_tn 7y ago
  Swan Lake of course.
bluGill 7y ago
Radio shack was able to expand - profitable - much larger than their hobbies base could support on cell phone sales. They had a reputation of being the goto place for electronics, so it worked well when phones were new and a little scary... Then phones become common and they had too many stores for the rest of their products. Their business model from 1980 probably would still work if you want to try it - but that won't get you rich.
- Johnny555 7y ago
  Selling consumer electronics is a tough business to survive in, ask Circuit City... oh, you can't, they are out of business. The hobbiest electronics business seems even harder, it's hard to sell a 4 pack of resistors for $3.99 when you can buy a 300 pack on e-bay for the same price. But they couldn't afford to stock a useful variety of parts and sell them for much less than that, a decent size metro area can support a few electronic component houses that have enough volume to have good inventor, but not 27 neighborhood Radio Shack retailers. Though even then it's hard to compete when national online retailers like Digikey have a catalog of 8 million items and can ship most of them the next day -- whether you need 1 or 10,000 components. Make Magazine found out that that the entire Maker movement is not really enough to sustain a business.
  - rascul 7y ago
    > Selling consumer electronics is a tough business to survive in, ask Circuit City... oh, you can't, they are out of business. Circuit City is back in business. https://www.dealerscope.com/article/in-time-for-black-friday-circuit-city-is-back-and-aiming-to-truly-differentiate/ https://www.dealerscope.com/article/in-time-for-black-friday...
    - Johnny555 7y ago
      Well sort of, only online for now: Once the company re-established itself online, Shmoel said at the time, then they’d be able to consider a move back into the physical retail space in the form of Circuit City Express stores, and a potential store-within-a-store model With the ongoing decline of brick-and-mortal retail in general, it seems unlikely that they'll ever have a significant physical presence.

vkou 7y ago

> I'm convinced that cell phones are the only thing that's kept most Radio Shack stores afloat since there's decent margin in cell phone accessories and plans. They were. Source: A friend of mine worked for Radioshack between 2008 and 2012. He had no idea why his store was still in business. The only thing he ever sold at any volume was cellphones. Besides phones, there'd also be the occasional lunatic who would wander in, convinced that the end of the world was nigh, who wanted to buy a battery-powered off-the-grid television, while talking about his stockpile of guns, and how the country was heading towards civil war. It was never entirely clear what kind of television broadcasts he was planning on watching after the fall of civilization.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago
I assume after the zombie apocalypse, there would be pirate television stations broadcast out of bunkers, or something like that.
- dvtrn 7y ago
  Some lone guy with a high gain antenna broadcasting Mad Max over and over from eastern Kentucky.
lebanon_tn 7y ago
Swan Lake of course.

bluGill 7y ago

Radio shack was able to expand - profitable - much larger than their hobbies base could support on cell phone sales. They had a reputation of being the goto place for electronics, so it worked well when phones were new and a little scary... Then phones become common and they had too many stores for the rest of their products. Their business model from 1980 probably would still work if you want to try it - but that won't get you rich.

Johnny555 7y ago
Selling consumer electronics is a tough business to survive in, ask Circuit City... oh, you can't, they are out of business. The hobbiest electronics business seems even harder, it's hard to sell a 4 pack of resistors for $3.99 when you can buy a 300 pack on e-bay for the same price. But they couldn't afford to stock a useful variety of parts and sell them for much less than that, a decent size metro area can support a few electronic component houses that have enough volume to have good inventor, but not 27 neighborhood Radio Shack retailers. Though even then it's hard to compete when national online retailers like Digikey have a catalog of 8 million items and can ship most of them the next day -- whether you need 1 or 10,000 components. Make Magazine found out that that the entire Maker movement is not really enough to sustain a business.
- rascul 7y ago
  > Selling consumer electronics is a tough business to survive in, ask Circuit City... oh, you can't, they are out of business. Circuit City is back in business. https://www.dealerscope.com/article/in-time-for-black-friday-circuit-city-is-back-and-aiming-to-truly-differentiate/ https://www.dealerscope.com/article/in-time-for-black-friday...
  - Johnny555 7y ago
    Well sort of, only online for now: Once the company re-established itself online, Shmoel said at the time, then they’d be able to consider a move back into the physical retail space in the form of Circuit City Express stores, and a potential store-within-a-store model With the ongoing decline of brick-and-mortal retail in general, it seems unlikely that they'll ever have a significant physical presence.