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The final paragraphs about the rise of surface mount PCBs are a more accurate diagnosis than anything to do with RadioShack's marketing strategy. Just look at

The final paragraphs about the rise of surface mount PCBs are a more accurate diagnosis than anything to do with RadioShack's marketing strategy. Just look at AdaFruit Industries and Sparkfun. These two companies couldn't do a better job marketing to the DIY audience and have done an incredible job expanding the reach of DIY, but even taken together, with MakerFaire thrown in, I don't think they'd crack $200MM in revenue. Topline. Assuming margins of 30%, it's a great catalog business, but not one that can support a 7,000 store chain. The reality is during RS's heyday, if you wanted electronics, you had to build them. Or at least know the rudiments of repairing them. Today, the stuff we get from Shenzen is just too good. Too advanced and too cheap and too disposable. While experimenting with Raspberry Pi boards is cool, it's a hobby, or educational experience, not a replacement for manufactured goods. Changes in manufacturing took away RadioShack's raison d'être. Big box retail applied purchasing power leverage to take away many of RS's most profitable categories and Amazon/Walmart piled on. This left them as a weird Frankenstein combo of a Brookstone and cell phone retailer. Selling a few more Arduinos and Zigbee breakout boards wouldn't have saved them.

larrys 12y ago
"Changes in manufacturing took away RadioShack's raison d'être" Being around in the hey day of Radio Shack I will also add that there are many more things that you can do for "fun and learning" today than you could do back them. People (not everyone who would buy things at Radio Shack is hardcore) only have so much time. If they have something better to do than a stamp collection (was big years ago) or a model train set (also a big thing) or building model airliners with glue (did that one myself) then they will do the most fun interesting useful thing with their time. Oh yeah some kids did baseball cards. And we even collected decals and stickers at one point. One thing I did back in the 70's was I had a darkroom in the basement which I would spend hours in. So I visited specialty camera stores and bought darkroom supplies, cameras and so on and spent hours upon hours doing that (turning it into a business which I made a bit of money from). While there were many reasons I did that, one was that there really weren't many things that I could do with my time that I found more interesting. This was before PC's or at least where I was located and that type of "hobby". I'm sure if I had a PC back then I probably might not have done so much photography or some of the other things I spent my time on.
dlu 12y ago
Exactly this. The hobbyist market certainly wasn't going to save them

larrys 12y ago

"Changes in manufacturing took away RadioShack's raison d'être" Being around in the hey day of Radio Shack I will also add that there are many more things that you can do for "fun and learning" today than you could do back them. People (not everyone who would buy things at Radio Shack is hardcore) only have so much time. If they have something better to do than a stamp collection (was big years ago) or a model train set (also a big thing) or building model airliners with glue (did that one myself) then they will do the most fun interesting useful thing with their time. Oh yeah some kids did baseball cards. And we even collected decals and stickers at one point. One thing I did back in the 70's was I had a darkroom in the basement which I would spend hours in. So I visited specialty camera stores and bought darkroom supplies, cameras and so on and spent hours upon hours doing that (turning it into a business which I made a bit of money from). While there were many reasons I did that, one was that there really weren't many things that I could do with my time that I found more interesting. This was before PC's or at least where I was located and that type of "hobby". I'm sure if I had a PC back then I probably might not have done so much photography or some of the other things I spent my time on.

dlu 12y ago

Exactly this. The hobbyist market certainly wasn't going to save them