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Just because the maker movement exists, it doesn't mean it's big enough for over 5000 stores. And they couldn't staff up in people with maker expertise while a
by danielweber 12y ago
Just because the maker movement exists, it doesn't mean it's big enough for over 5000 stores. And they couldn't staff up in people with maker expertise while also serving their old market -- whatever it was -- of unskilled salesman.
The company is full of management who know the old way of doing business. A great many of them would have to be fired to switch to the new way of business.
Humans have incredibly loss aversion. The reason the story of Aron Ralston cutting his arm off to escape that boulder is so fascinating is that most people wouldn't do it. Give all the management -- not just the people at the top, but all levels down to store managers -- the option between facing the known pain of needing to cut a bunch of stores, or that Something Magical Will Happen and they and all their friends get to keep their jobs, and the second is the choice that will win, hands down.
- s_q_b 12y agoI agree with your logic in the second and third paragraphs entirely. I won't pretend to be smart enough to know how to have saved that company, but surely any viable solution would have involved reducing their physical retail footprint by a significant amount. >Just because the maker movement exists, it doesn't mean it's big enough for over 5000 stores. Surely not. But as another commenter pointed out, Radioshack has always catered to the enthusiast, relying upon them to drive sales of more consumer oriented product.