Is radioshack turning around?

KJ6EAD

Joined Apr 30, 2011
1,581
I put in my suggestions and at least one of them seems to have made it in edited form into the top ten. They asked people to tell them the three things they'd most like to see at Radio Shack. It was funny to read some of the long-winded rants that some people threw at them.

They've seen the growth of a hacker/maker/hobbyist community that often has no local store and they face really stiff competition on consumer electronics from the big box discount stores so it makes sense to push a few cell phone displays into the dumpster and make room for the hobbyists again.
 

DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
My local RadioShack never really turned in the first place. It has always aimed mainly towards DIYers, with a good 3/4 of the store filled with tools, multimeters, perfboards, breadboards, components, soldering equipment, wire, etc. Only a little bit of the store was phones, cameras, computers, and TVs. It's still one of my favorite stores in my area :p
Der Strom
 

DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
Look out when large book stores are closing,any business can close.
When national chain stores start closing,why.
If you are referring to Borders, they are closing because of the creation of digital books. Have you noticed that it was not very long after the Kindle came out that Borders began losing business?
 

mbxs3

Joined Oct 14, 2009
170
http://blog.radioshack.com/2011/07/21/top-ten-diy-suggestions-from-you/

Looks like they might be trying to appeal to the DIY community again, I hope so.
I think so. I went into the one up the street from me 6 months ago and couldn't get a breadboard. But man did they want me to buy another iPhone, all though I had the latest and greatest.

I went in there the other day and was pleasantly surprised that they had all sorts of equipment and components geared towards hobbyists. Plus, they didn't try to push any crap on me. Now if they would just come down on their ridiculous prices I would be more happy.
 

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,781
My local RadioShack never really turned in the first place. It has always aimed mainly towards DIYers, with a good 3/4 of the store filled with tools, multimeters, perfboards, breadboards, components, soldering equipment, wire, etc. Only a little bit of the store was phones, cameras, computers, and TVs. It's still one of my favorite stores in my area :p
Der Strom
That's wierd. I though all the radioshacks turned. Mine has about 60% of the store dedicated to selling phones & ipods; 25% dedicated to home audio/video, cables, adapters, etc.; 10% dedicated to selling keyboards; and a little 3' tall cabinet for components (call it 5%)
 

DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
That's wierd. I though all the radioshacks turned. Mine has about 60% of the store dedicated to selling phones & ipods; 25% dedicated to home audio/video, cables, adapters, etc.; 10% dedicated to selling keyboards; and a little 3' tall cabinet for components (call it 5%)
Well, all the ones I've been to in Vermont and New Hampshire have all been geared more towards DIYers. I guess I'm lucky :D
 

Thread Starter

magnet18

Joined Dec 22, 2010
1,227
That's wierd. I though all the radioshacks turned. Mine has about 60% of the store dedicated to selling phones & ipods; 25% dedicated to home audio/video, cables, adapters, etc.; 10% dedicated to selling keyboards; and a little 3' tall cabinet for components (call it 5%)
same here, and they insist on playing horrible rap music, quite loudly :p
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,408
Borders closing has much more to do with Amazon.com's success then with ebooks.
You could be putting the cart before the horse. Barnes and Nobles has been doing very well too, and they attribute their success to the Kindle. Personally I'm not a fan of ebooks, I look at them as glorified tablets, and I especially detest someone else controlling my content (remember the "1984" fiasco?).
 

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,781
You could be putting the cart before the horse. Barnes and Nobles has been doing very well too, and they attribute their success to the Kindle. Personally I'm not a fan of ebooks, I look at them as glorified tablets, and I especially detest someone else controlling my content (remember the "1984" fiasco?).
Good news is, with the ebook and closing bookstores, the prices for real books will be at a new low. buy 'em up. stockpile knowledge and art.
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,408
I take it you don't think SciFi and Fantasy (I prefer SciFi BTW) qualifies?

Sturgeon's Law, 90% of anything is crap.

These books are as much art as anything else man has produced, opinions nonwithstanding.

As for knowledge, you do know what science fiction is? The word Science in the name should offer some clues. Of course, Sturgeon's Law applies here too.
 

steveb

Joined Jul 3, 2008
2,436
I don't know why people are asking Radio Shack for a stronger sales force as one of the top ten improvements. They are always looking out for the consumer. One of their sales guys tried to prevent me from making a very bad purchase. When I tried to buy a CD lens cleaning kit to clean my DVD lens, he pointed out that I needed to buy the more expensive DVD cleaning kit because that would clean both video and audio, while the CD kit only cleans audio. :p

I bought the CD lens cleaner anyway and explained to him that only my audio bits were dirty.
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
RadioShack is gone from my part of Canada and maybe is gone from all of Canada.
Circuit City took over a few of the largest stores and sells the same cell phones and same computer peripherals that Radioshack sold and the "new" stores are called The Source.

RadioShack electronic parts had no spec's except for colour and weight. They were very cheap Chinese junk (maybe factory rejects?) sold at very high prices. My last purchase was an audio-video cable fairly long. I found exactly the same cable (and the same Chinese manufacturer) at The Dollar Store for much less cost so I bought it and returned it to RadioShack and got my money back.
 
Top