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Unfortunately I couldn't read the article, but agree strongly with the title. (It's like Slashdot, but I'll try hard to offer an informed response). Radio Sha

Unfortunately I couldn't read the article, but agree strongly with the title. (It's like Slashdot, but I'll try hard to offer an informed response). Radio Shack's problem was that they stopped selling anything you couldn't get elsewhere. They allocated more than half each store to cell phones, which are commodity items available everywhere. When I needed a soldering iron on travel, the selection was paltry compared with the Radio Shack of 20 years ago. But Radio Shack was the only place I could think of to buy one. As another poster pointed out, electronics hobbyists are not immune to the market forces which push non-service industries like bookstores online. Price is so often king. But there is still room in the market for a service-oriented maker/hobby shop. I've thought for some time that there are areas of the country, primarily cities, where an electronics shop with a collaboration space could do very well. If they could find a way to make the gym model work - long, cheap contracts which aren't worth canceling - it could work out well. It's not a gym, of course, but if you push the education and personal enhancement side of the business, you might be able to achieve the same result. A company called Techshop just opened a huge subscription-oriented machine shop near my office. The fees are around $100/person/month, and they are paying for a lot of currently empty space in a very expensive DC suburb. There's room for this business model. Radio Shack didn't just miss the boat, they sank their own ship when they switched from being the only place where strange electronic parts were sold, to being another cell phone shop.

Mister_Snuggles 12y ago
This (the gym model) is what the Edmonton New Technology Society uses: http://ents.ca/index.php/Main_Page http://ents.ca/index.php/Main_Page It seems to be working out well for them, and they do more than electronics. They have equipment for woodworking, metalworking, and electronics: http://ents.ca/index.php/Equipment http://ents.ca/index.php/Equipment I'm not a member, but I've visited and can see the appeal.
- commandar 12y ago
  Makerspaces are popping up all over, as non-profits more often from what I've seen. e.g., Freeside in Atlanta: https://wiki.freesideatlanta.org/fs/Info https://wiki.freesideatlanta.org/fs/Info
dpark 12y ago
The profit margin on your soldering iron isn't high enough to keep Radio Shack afloat. That stuff never kept them going. There's a Radio Shack in West Seattle where I live. There's another a few miles south near White Center, and another downtown, and another near Beacon Hill, and two more near UW, and one in Ballard, and one at Northgate Mall, and still two more a bit further north. I count ten on the map. TEN. These are all in Seattle proper, not even looking at the surrounding areas. How many hobbyists does Seattle have? No way hobbyists are keeping this going, no matter what Radio Shack puts on the shelves.
- dangayle 12y ago
  At Radioshack, literally everything is about the profit margin. The store in the U-Village in Seattle is/was one of the top 5 revenue stores in the entire chain, a fact they were proud of when they hired me. I worked there for less than a week before I quit because the culture was awful. It was a typical commission-based sales environment: We weren't encouraged to actually help anyone, we were encouraged to push bricks of batteries on people because they had the highest margin in the store. No one was to leave without a brick of batteries. Instead of making it easier for people to find a standard RCA cable, we hid them in the back and only left the "gold plated" RCA cables on the shelf. We were not allowed to sell an Apple computer, because the margin was too thin, so we were expected to push whatever PC we had on the shelf. It was a poison environment, and I for one don't feel the slightest sympathy for Radioshack's demise.
stonemetal 12y ago
But Radio Shack was the only place I could think of to buy one. Homedepot is where I got my last soldering iron. While I agree with the conclusion that Radio Shack didn't just miss the boat, they sank their own ship when they switched from being the only place where strange electronic parts were sold, to being another cell phone shop. I disagree with what that boat would be, they should have been more best buy\fry's than following hobbyist electronics in to the super niche that it is today. What I don't get is why they started to sell computers\ electronics then pivoted to brookstone crap gizmos and cell phones.

Mister_Snuggles 12y ago

This (the gym model) is what the Edmonton New Technology Society uses: http://ents.ca/index.php/Main_Page http://ents.ca/index.php/Main_Page It seems to be working out well for them, and they do more than electronics. They have equipment for woodworking, metalworking, and electronics: http://ents.ca/index.php/Equipment http://ents.ca/index.php/Equipment I'm not a member, but I've visited and can see the appeal.

commandar 12y ago
Makerspaces are popping up all over, as non-profits more often from what I've seen. e.g., Freeside in Atlanta: https://wiki.freesideatlanta.org/fs/Info https://wiki.freesideatlanta.org/fs/Info

dpark 12y ago

The profit margin on your soldering iron isn't high enough to keep Radio Shack afloat. That stuff never kept them going. There's a Radio Shack in West Seattle where I live. There's another a few miles south near White Center, and another downtown, and another near Beacon Hill, and two more near UW, and one in Ballard, and one at Northgate Mall, and still two more a bit further north. I count ten on the map. TEN. These are all in Seattle proper, not even looking at the surrounding areas. How many hobbyists does Seattle have? No way hobbyists are keeping this going, no matter what Radio Shack puts on the shelves.

dangayle 12y ago
At Radioshack, literally everything is about the profit margin. The store in the U-Village in Seattle is/was one of the top 5 revenue stores in the entire chain, a fact they were proud of when they hired me. I worked there for less than a week before I quit because the culture was awful. It was a typical commission-based sales environment: We weren't encouraged to actually help anyone, we were encouraged to push bricks of batteries on people because they had the highest margin in the store. No one was to leave without a brick of batteries. Instead of making it easier for people to find a standard RCA cable, we hid them in the back and only left the "gold plated" RCA cables on the shelf. We were not allowed to sell an Apple computer, because the margin was too thin, so we were expected to push whatever PC we had on the shelf. It was a poison environment, and I for one don't feel the slightest sympathy for Radioshack's demise.

stonemetal 12y ago

But Radio Shack was the only place I could think of to buy one. Homedepot is where I got my last soldering iron. While I agree with the conclusion that Radio Shack didn't just miss the boat, they sank their own ship when they switched from being the only place where strange electronic parts were sold, to being another cell phone shop. I disagree with what that boat would be, they should have been more best buy\fry's than following hobbyist electronics in to the super niche that it is today. What I don't get is why they started to sell computers\ electronics then pivoted to brookstone crap gizmos and cell phones.