OH NO!!!! another rat shack

[ND6M]

i haven't been in a RS for years. could this be why?

FORT WORTH, TX—Despite having been on the job for nine months, RadioShack CEO Julian Day said Monday that he still has "no idea" how the home electronics store manages to stay open.
"There must be some sort of business model that enables this company to make money, but I'll be damned if I know what it is," Day said. "You wouldn't think that people still buy enough strobe lights and extension cords to support an entire nationwide chain, but I guess they must, or I wouldn't have this desk to sit behind all day."

The retail outlet boasts more than 6,000 locations in the United States, and is known best for its wall-sized displays of obscure-looking analog electronics components and its notoriously desperate, high-pressure sales staff. Nevertheless, it ranks as a Fortune 500 company, with gross revenues of over $4.5 billion and fiscal quarter earnings averaging tens of millions of dollars.

"Have you even been inside of a RadioShack recently?" Day asked. "Just walking into the place makes you feel vaguely depressed and alienated. Maybe our customers are at the mall anyway and don't feel like driving to Best Buy? I suppose that's possible, but still, it's just...weird."

After taking over as CEO, Day ordered a comprehensive, top-down review of RadioShack's administrative operations, inventory and purchasing, suppliers, demographics, and marketing strategies. He has also diligently pored over weekly budget reports, met with investors, taken numerous conference calls with regional managers about "circulars or flyers or something," and even spent hours playing with the company's "baffling" 200-In-One electronics kit. Yet so far none of these things have helped Day understand the moribund company's apparent allure.

"Even the name 'RadioShack'—can you imagine two less appealing words placed next to one another?" Day said. "What is that, some kind of World War II terminology? Are ham radio operators still around, even? Aren't we in the digital age?"

"Well, our customers are out there somewhere, and thank God they are," Day added.

One of Day's theories about RadioShack's continued solvency involves wedding DJs, emergency cord replacement, and off-brand wireless telephones. Another theory entails countless RadioShack gift cards that sit unredeemed in their recipients' wallets. Day has even conjectured that the store is "still coasting on" an enormous fortune made from remote-control toy cars in the mid-1970s.

Day admitted, however, that none of these theories seems particularly plausible.

"I once went into a RadioShack location incognito in order to gauge customer service," Day said. "It was about as inviting as a visit to the DMV. For the life of me, I couldn't see anything I wanted to buy. Finally, I figured I'd pick up some Enercell AA batteries, though truthfully they're not appreciably cheaper than the name brands."

"I know one thing," Day continued. "If Sony and JVC start including gold-tipped cable cords with their products, we're screwed."

In the cover letter to his December 2006 report to investors, "Radio Shack: Still Here In The 21st Century," Day wrote that he had no reason to believe that the coming year would not be every bit as good as years past, provided that people kept on doing things much the same way they always had.

Despite this cheerful boosterism, Day admitted that nothing has changed during his tenure and he doesn't exactly know what he can do to improve the chain.

"I'd like to capitalize on the store's strong points, but I honestly don't know what they are," Day said. "Every location is full of bizarre adapters, random chargers, and old boom boxes, and some sales guy is constantly hovering over you. It's like walking into your grandpa's basement. You always expect to see something cool, but it never delivers."

Added Day: "I may never know the answer. No matter how many times I punch the sales figures into this crappy Tandy desk calculator, it just doesn't add up."

RADIO SHACK:
....... you have questions
....... we have dumb looks on our faces

[KN4DS]

Dug deep into The Onion for this one, eh?

[WS2L]

Even though the article is from the Onion many things are true. In the last 6 months the Radioshack stock price went from $35 down to $15 which is todays opening on the stock market.

Visit & register for my website to learn more: RadioShackSucks Website

[WG7X]

If you want to bash Radio Shack, by all means, do so, but try to get some original material, OK...

We all know there's enough after all.

If a company has offended you in some way, just vote with your feet.

Simple, easy, effective.

73 Gary

[N8YX]

Quote[/b] (WS2L @ Jan. 11 2008,08:42)]Even though the article is from the Onion many things are true. In the last 6 months the Radioshack stock price went from $35 down to $15 which is todays opening on the stock market.

As Cramer would say:

"BuyBuyBuy!!!"

[KL7AJ]

Quote[/b] (wg7x @ Jan. 11 2008,08:43)]If you want to bash Radio Shack, by all means, do so, but try to get some original material, OK...

We all know theres enough after all.

If a company has offended youin some way, just vote with your feet.

Simple, easy, effective.

73 Gary

I think this is original....and moreover it's absolutely true.

From the Opus.....read it and weep.

Now, this brings us to another modern-day dilemma. It’s not as easy to find radio parts as it once was. For example, a certain well-known chain of “electronics” stores whose very namesake arose from their historic dedication to radio amateurs and other electronics enthusiasts now carries zero basic electronic components. Notice we said “historic” dedication. Nowadays, if you were to walk into one of these particular electronics outlets whose very namesake would seem to indicate that they have radio amateurs and electronics enthusiasts in mind, and ask the proprietor thereof for a capacitor, you would be greeted with a deer-in-the-headlights response.
Recently, I entered our local electronics store whose very namesake would indicate that their business is dedicated to the radio amateur/electronics enthusiast, and asked the sub-minimum-wage “salesman” behind the counter for a microammeter, an extremely common instrument. He went to the back room, rummaged around for a while, and came back with some kind of portable battery tester. “This is the smallest ammeter we’ve got,” he announced. The tragic, horrifying part was he wasn’t trying to be witty.
Needless to say, that was the very last time I entered our local electronics store whose very namesake would seem to indicate that their business has something to do with radio amateurs/electronics enthusiasts.
Now it could be that in your particular neck of the woods, your local electronics store, whose very namesake would seem to indicate that they would cater to your needs as a radio amateur/electronics enthusiast, is staffed by an army of informed, considerate, helpful, and consummately professional electronics experts.
Fat chance. In all likelihood the person behind the counter will have a brain that can be quite adequately duplicated with three transistors and a relay...except for the fact that they don’t have three transistors and a relay anywhere in the store.

[KA4DPO]

Radio Shack is a nitch market, sort of a toy store for grownups. There are millions of people who love techno gadgets ( even the worthless ones) and Radio Shack provides them at a higer price in convenient locations.

If they still catered to the amateur radio and experimenter market they would have gone belly up a long time ago.

[KI4BNC]

"Radio Shack-You've got questions"

"Now we've got questions.."

(and dumb looks)
they should change the name to cell phone shack.
just my opinion.

[WA7KKP]

Tey make a small tidalwave fortune on the cellphones . . . contracts, phones, accessories. And the markup on the few components they do have ( compared to the big boys like Mouser, Digi-Key, etc ) isn't exactly pennies either.

Most of that stuff is sold at triple digit markups. For example, I bought a DC charging cord for my cellphone for $10. Rat Shack and other "authorized agents" would charge $20-30 for the same thing.

You know what's inside? About a buck's worth of parts, which they probably have five invested in labor/shipping, etc.

That's why you see cellphone storefronts on every corner with Starbucks Coffee. They have money to burn.

Gary WA7KKP

[W2VW]

Quote[/b] (kl7aj @ Jan. 11 2008,09:25)]

Quote[/b] (wg7x @ Jan. 11 2008,08:43)]If you want to bash Radio Shack, by all means, do so, but try to get some original material, OK...

We all know theres enough after all.

If a company has offended youin some way, just vote with your feet.

Simple, easy, effective.

73 Gary

I think this is original....and moreover it's absolutely true.

From the Opus.....read it and weep.

Now, this brings us to another modern-day dilemma. It’s not as easy to find radio parts as it once was. For example, a certain well-known chain of “electronics” stores whose very namesake arose from their historic dedication to radio amateurs and other electronics enthusiasts now carries zero basic electronic components.

Huh? It's easier than ever to get parts. Any parts. Use the internet Luke.

Plan ahead. Build around the stuff USPS is delivering after your last click.

I used to be able to shop at 3 different electronics vendors here in N.J. 1 always had a lot of olde stuff. Only 1 of hose vendors is around today and they are pretty well stocked. Even so, I find myself not having to travel the 80 mile round trip. I would not trade yesterday for today as far as ham radio parts are concerned.