3 ms·

I worked at Radio Shack 20 years ago. The ideal customer would probably be a guy in his 30s coming in with his girlfriend or wife to buy a television and VCR,

by Ologn 12y ago

I worked at Radio Shack 20 years ago. The ideal customer would probably be a guy in his 30s coming in with his girlfriend or wife to buy a television and VCR, or a stereo system. Maybe a parent looking for a remote controlled car as a Christmas gift. Hobbyists were not the customers we looked for. You'd spend five minutes with them looking for a one ohm resistor. The sale usually did not exceed $1. If you were lucky maybe they'd buy a stripboard or some solder. The Internet has accelerated this, but even in those days hobbyists were buying most of their parts from Digikey or Mouser. Radio Shack's markup was insane so you can't blame them. Mostly they'd run in to buy some part they forgot to order or didn't realize they'd need. Most hobbyists already had a good soldering iron, solder, flux, a breadboard, stripboards and perfboards etc.

sehugg 12y ago
The most expensive part I think I ever bought was a SP0256 speech synth chip, $30 or so. I don't think I ever got it working.
VLM 12y ago
From familial experience the best way "kids these days" can experience a Radio Shack store from 30 years ago, is simply visit Best Buy. Imagine the small legacy physical media section replaced with a small parts section, that's about the only difference. Then shrink it at least 10x to physically fit the smaller RS store footprint. A Best Buy IS just a giant 1985 radio shack with lower prices, more selection and legacy media instead of parts. It really is that simple. Journalists can't talk about "big box annihilating small retail" without offending the very popular big box advertiser contracts so we're being treated to an absolute flood of "it must have been feng shui" or "it must be those darn nerds" or "it must be bad luck"
- emerod 12y ago
  No, Best Buy is more like RadioShack as it was becoming when it was self-destructing 15 years ago. Fry's (which ironically took over an Incredible Universe location where I live) represents what RadioShack would have naturally turned into with proper business strategy.
  - smacktoward 12y ago
    Fry's, which has 34 locations, seems an odd choice to point to for what a company with 4,000+ locations could have aspired to become. If anything it reinforces the thought that the "maker" market is far too small to have saved RS by itself.
    - emerod 12y ago
      Precisely. They needed to ditch the old Neighborhood Hobby Shop Full of Expert Geeks marketing strategy in order to be competitive in the mass consumer market. Radio Shack was always targeting the mass market. It would have required a huge change of internal culture in the 1990s for Radio Shack to actually cater to the niche hacker/maker community.
emerod 12y ago
Yes, the hobbyist was not so much the ideal customer as the ideal held by the typical customer. I am also a former RadioShack employee (twice over, from the '80s and the '90s) and although I enjoyed meeting hobbyists, they were neither my favorite customers nor my bread and butter. My bread and butter were people buying AV stuff, phones, and Christmas toys. My favorite customers were people who asked me to tinker with their radios, change watch batteries, or talk about the newest technology.

by Ologn 12y ago

sehugg 12y ago

The most expensive part I think I ever bought was a SP0256 speech synth chip, $30 or so. I don't think I ever got it working.

VLM 12y ago

From familial experience the best way "kids these days" can experience a Radio Shack store from 30 years ago, is simply visit Best Buy. Imagine the small legacy physical media section replaced with a small parts section, that's about the only difference. Then shrink it at least 10x to physically fit the smaller RS store footprint. A Best Buy IS just a giant 1985 radio shack with lower prices, more selection and legacy media instead of parts. It really is that simple. Journalists can't talk about "big box annihilating small retail" without offending the very popular big box advertiser contracts so we're being treated to an absolute flood of "it must have been feng shui" or "it must be those darn nerds" or "it must be bad luck"

emerod 12y ago
No, Best Buy is more like RadioShack as it was becoming when it was self-destructing 15 years ago. Fry's (which ironically took over an Incredible Universe location where I live) represents what RadioShack would have naturally turned into with proper business strategy.
- smacktoward 12y ago
  Fry's, which has 34 locations, seems an odd choice to point to for what a company with 4,000+ locations could have aspired to become. If anything it reinforces the thought that the "maker" market is far too small to have saved RS by itself.
  - emerod 12y ago
    Precisely. They needed to ditch the old Neighborhood Hobby Shop Full of Expert Geeks marketing strategy in order to be competitive in the mass consumer market. Radio Shack was always targeting the mass market. It would have required a huge change of internal culture in the 1990s for Radio Shack to actually cater to the niche hacker/maker community.

emerod 12y ago

Yes, the hobbyist was not so much the ideal customer as the ideal held by the typical customer. I am also a former RadioShack employee (twice over, from the '80s and the '90s) and although I enjoyed meeting hobbyists, they were neither my favorite customers nor my bread and butter. My bread and butter were people buying AV stuff, phones, and Christmas toys. My favorite customers were people who asked me to tinker with their radios, change watch batteries, or talk about the newest technology.