Radio Shack ask the "DIY Community" for Input

My evil side considered placing a wreath in front of an RS store as the stores became peddlers of cell phones and other things we can easily get at larger stores. But my good side wants RS to live on and return to some of it's roots. I worked for ARS (Allied Radio Shack) back in the mid 70's and the atmosphere was vibrant. While Realistic, Archer, Micronta, etc. were not necessarily the best, the prices were reasonable and the variety of items under these and other RS/ARS branding was broad. Re the parts, we had a great variety for the experimenter and whatever we did not have could be gotten through Allied Electronics.

We can certainly see that the Internet has had a large affect on how people shop. Unfortunately many people go for price only and also take advantage of evading tax. And as for the experimenters, this group has declined dramatically as people seem to want instant gratification rather than "roll your own". On the other hand, I seem to sense a resurgence of the hobbyist. Perhaps the slim economy having some effect? There are even two companies that I know of that are providing HEATHKIT type kits; mostly for ham radio type gear and at least one of these two companies seems to be doing pretty well.

So I would personally like to see "parts" expanded. I would like to see more items related to ham radio. CB probably does not have that much of a market but if RS is going to stay in the CB game then at least offer a mix of products that makes sense. I mean what sense is there in selling a ball mount for whip antenna if you no longer sell the PL-259 to lugs cable so someone can connect the mount/antenna to their radio? Since you cannot buy 50 ohm coax by the foot anymore, a customer cannot make up their own from RS parts either. Oh, if RS would sell 50 ohm coax again, they need to make a point about now-marketing very good quality coax instead of the stuff they used to sell which barely had a useable shield and the foam core was made of something not so good either.

Has anyone tried to buy antenna masts at RS lately? Well maybe the 5 and 10 foot masts for outdoor TV antennas has little market these days but would mail order, surface truck delivery of some towers and telescopic masts for ham guys provide enough market for RS to deal in? Or how about this? Swing a deal with Made In USA, TEN-TEC radios to display their rigs with functional receivers but non-op transmitter sections. This would avoid the need to have licensed hams employed but could help move product that is not available for local view or demo anywhere else except visiting T-T's plant in TN or one of a few Hamventions that T-T goes too. Could do the same with some JA brands but the uniqueness and best or nearly best in class products from the likes of T-T or ELECRAFT could really boost sales for either of these companies through RS chain who would also stand to profit. Hey, it's more of a market than RS has now for things they no longer sell anyway.

Perhaps a return of Realistic stereo systems would not make sense but figure out what audio-video products do and put an RS brand name, Realistic-branded or otherwise. Keep the product lines focused on current market wants & needs.

High quality car stereo systems with amps and speakers for the younger crowd for self-install.

Stay away from computers as these cannot be stocked and sold profitably nor would the typical RS employee know how to sell these.

 

Responded. Here's what I told 'em. Can't believe I fat fingered the HTX-202 and I have one sitting on my desk!

If you're trying to cater to the DIY community, here goes:

1. Make Magazine (and components for projects therein where component level crafting is invloved. Make kits for projects outlined in the current issue, perhaps? Packaging for this could be so simple that you wouldn't even have to train your force feed warehouse people much to accomplish the task!)

2. Arduino and project/ expansion kits for it. It's time to retire the BASIC Stamp and the current "What's a Microcontroller" kit. Most PCs don't even have the a serial port these days.

3. Ham Radios. Not just recieve, but transcievers like the HTX-214, HTX-242, HTX-100, HTX-10, and the like.

Now, this being said, just putting the stuff on the shelf isn't gonna win. "If you stock it, they will come" isn't good enough to gain customers now, as many of your customers are not as well educated or comfortable when it comes to DIY. What to do? Cater to the crowd! Help them to grow with you! Here's how:

In cities where there are more than a couple of your stores, dedicate some space in one of them for meeting and networking by the customers you are now trying to attract. It needn't be elaborate. Put wheels under those massive phone displays loaded with non-working models so they can be moved sometimes, and some folding tables and chairs will work. Work with local Maker groups, amatuer radio groups, etc and let them know this space is available for their use.

Eliminate the commission based pay system for your sales people. A maker digging in the force feed is often snubbed by a sales ...person... when there's a potentially nice perq associated with a cell phone contract. Never mind that the customer at the parts bin was there first, eh?

Insure your staff has sufficient technical prowess to live up to your former slogan "You've got questions, we've got answers". Many is the time I've had a sales person that didn't know the difference between an attenuating patch cord and a non-attenuating one, the diffeence between a DC and an AC wall wart, and more.

Thanks for soliciting feedback. I hope you gain some insight as to the crowd you're wanting to cater to, and will work to find a place in that community, rather than being an isolated retail outlet.

Cheers,
former employee, franchise store 22A205

X-franchisee

 

Agreed, save for the legendary Mach One speaker! Subwoofers? We don't need no stinkin' subwoofers!

 

That would be Tech America. I managed their computer section. That place was a great idea that just failed to pan out. I still see some of my old price stickers on bits and pieces on the shelf at Fry's. Tech America would have been in the mid 90's along with Incredible Universe.

 

Well gentlemen I have the good fortune of living twelve miles from a Decent Radio Shack. Part of a larger Appliance Store and Computer Repair facility. The help there really tries to get the right answers and if they do not know they will tell you.

As far as what Radio Shack should do hire a few hams to take marketing people into their stores as secret (mystery) shoppers. Let marketing see the responses that we get.

 

This line of thinking this is why their stores will close. I used to work for a cell phone company that had similar issues with marketing always insisting that the Hail Mary massive sales influx was going to be better than a 'slow and steady' cash income. Sure adding in ham gear won't bring a massive influx of cash, but it WILL bring in cash. You have to be a really lousy businessperson to think that turning away customers is better than selling them something, even if it's a small purchase. You get them in the store by providing what they want and add-on sales will happen.

No ham goes into RadioShack expecting the sales people to know what they need, they go in expecting the sales people to be able to FIND what they need. Back in the mid 90s I worked for RadioShack. The training I got was a good schooling in basic parts and their functions. Occasionally I could suggest a replacement for an out of stock component, but 99% of my job when it came to parts was walking to the wall and picking up a package when my customers came in asking for something in particular. I may not have had an engineering degree, but I had the respect of every person who came in the door looking for a transistor and a diode and was able to get it in their hand and them out the door in five minutes rather than having them dig through bins or look through racks of hanging parts looking for something.

 

First thing, change the name of your company to **CELL PHONE SHACK!
be honest, when I walk in the store, thats the first thing the sale person is trying to push. Your people are not trained to help with DIY projects. They are not interested enough to help because it will not make them a dollar.
Tandy Corporation...not what it use to be!!

 

Try going back to carrying pieces parts that people need to build and/or repair electronic equipment. It used to be that you could go into any Radio Shack and get a wide variety and assortment of the parts needed for home made electronics projects. Now, all they want to sell you are cell phones and junk toys for kids.

 

I'd like to actually see a "Radio Shack" near me and not this "The Source" rubbish. "The Source" only offers the latest cellphone digital crap and has completely abandoned true electronics interests.

 

It would be nice but I doubt they can pull it off and make it viable. As the saying goes, you can never return home. I am sick of having to pay shipping and handling that exceeds the price of the merchandise on those "need it now" parts items and I stock a fair amount at home.

 

This post is EXACTLY the kind of stuff that led RS back in the 80's to HATE hams. Even when they sold ham equipment, there were idiots that did nothing but feel they had to come into RS stores and harass the staff with smart-alec comments. I knew RS managers that reacted by blowing off ALL hams as soon as they knew they were hams. I was a ham, and I was in Ft Worth, and when I was 'in the field', I cringed if the fact that I was a ham was learned by the employees out there that I had to deal with.

Hey, if you don't like RS that's fine, but why do people like this feel they have to make derisive comments when the original post was pointing out something that RS was actually reaching out to the very people that do nothing but moan and complain about it?

 

I never liked the Mach One. EXCEPT when a pair of Minimus 7's were placed on top of them in parallel.

Oh, I thought the MC1400's were fantastic for a small bookshelf system. There was another speaker I liked too, but it was a bit weak in the high end. Nova-8B? Add pm a super-tweeter and it wasn't bad.

I actually ended up with T200's, but thought there were a bit 'thuddy' in the upper bass. But they looked nice. I paralleled them with a set of Phillips/Norelco speakers that used the same midrage as the B&O and the system was pretty decent.

 

Nd this is just why I don't go there anymore. The RS that is near me does just about nothing with any electronics except cell phones.

Radio Shack - You have questions, so do we.

 

I agree! Some of the audio gear was fantastic, but some was 'less than optimum'. I still have my LAB 400 turntable that has a B&O MMC4000 cartridge on it, with an optional head with a Shure M95ED. And the cassette deck, the SCT-3000, I put up against my friend Nak and blew it away for everything except background noise. The -20db and -3db curves NEVER intersected in human passband, and when you ran good tape, like Maxell UDXL type II (I bought my tapes in bulk to get exact matches) the deck was incredible. You could adjust the bias with built-in generators from the front panel, then use other built in functions to adjust tracking so that the Dolby worked the way Dolby was designed, and when set up right, there was absolutely ZERO high frequency attenuation when Dobly was used. And the Beta HiFi deck... That was fantastic too. Flip down the front panel and there was a switch to turn the deck into an audio recorder by supressing some of the video signals and enhancing audio performance. Until recordable CDs came along, I never heard anything better.

 

One interesting story...

RS was taking a certain piece of audio gear and putting their name on it from a European manufacturer. It wasn't a big seller, but did well enough. Paul in RnD designed his own piece of gear and showed it to people and they loved it, but told him to strip it down. He did, and it was designed and built to go out the door at a price of about 1/4 of the other gear, with almost TWICE the markup. It was technically much better too. Merch looked at it and said they can't sell it at that price, so they almost doubled the retail. Well, if FLEW out the door. Then when it slowed down, they kept putting it 'on sale' at the lower designed sell price.

Anyway, the European manufacture was upset and wondered why we stopped buying their product. But when they saw the Tandy designed product they understood, and ended up buying it from Tandy and putting their name on it. And selling it as their 'revised' and improved product at an even higher price.

Then one of the audiophile magazines got hold of it, reviewed it, and said it was the best one they had ever tested at that price point. (The higher price point!) What was ironic was that the power supplies were different from the Tandy unit and they mounted it in a nice 'rubbed wood' case (it did look sweet, I have to admit) with no shielding when the Tandy unit was totally shielded. But Tandy never even got reviewed.

By the way, there was a lot of 'trading' of parts too. Receivers, for example, might use a power amp from one manufacturer, the RF tuner from another, the power supply from a third, and the input/preamp from yet another.