[Boatanchors] RS.. was soldering/desoldering

[rayfri]

I think DIVERSITY is the thing that could save Radio Shack.   By 
eliminating everything except for computer games and cell phones and 
having very little as far as electronic components, and nothing for CB 
and shortwave anymore, they have pinned their hopes on one or two things 
and now are seeing the house fall in on them because of other companies 
that can do it better and especially cheaper.
Then throw in the dismal customer service (translated ... GREED.  Fawn 
over those who are making big buys, ignore and treat with comtempt those 
of us who come in for a 259 or a box of fuses or a cord) ... and they 
are getting what the rewards of what they planted.

They wouldnt have to invest heavily in ham gear or SW gear ...  a few 
reasonably priced pieces of equipment would help, and a decent stock of 
components like they used to have ...  along with their current 
offerings .... mixed with sales people who actually knew what the stuff 
is they sell, and they could do a lot better than losing their shorts 
this last quarter.

Last week, on a business trip ... I took my  TS 520 HF rig with me and 
discovered to my horror half way to my destination that I left the four 
pin mic at home.  When I got to the town I was going to be in all week, 
I thought "I'll run into a radio shack and get a CB microphone and a 
four pin plug and rewire it for my rig".     Checked numerous radio 
shacks in the area ... not one had a CB microphone let alone a four pin 
plug.   I ended up going to a TRUCK STOP and getting a Cobra microphone 
with plug and THEN going back to radio shack and buying a 6 dollar 
soldering iron and rewired the microphone in my hotel room and ... back 
on the air.

The point being ...  radio shack was totally useless except for the 
soldering iron, whereas I used to be able to count on being able to go 
in, find a mic and a plug and be on my way.  The salesman wasnt even 
aware that they no longer sold the mic and plugs.  When I told him what 
I was looking for, he pointed over to the corner and said .. maybe you 
can find something over there, but he didnt seem to know if they might 
have it or even care.  He was off to wait on another customer who he 
probably hoped was going to make the big buy of his day...

All I can say is that I am grateful that we have TWO electronic supply 
stores here in Salt Lake.   They supply for many electronic repair shops 
in the region and I can find almost anything I want in them at a 
wholesale price....   even old nomenclature transistors or their 
replacements ... and sometimes even tubes.   I can spend hours in there 
just roaming the aisles and seeing chassis ... projects boxes ... meters 
... caps ... etc etc etc... along with the "modern day" components for 
servicing electronic equipment, and also small electronic as well as 
surplus equipment.   It's a rare thing not to find what I need there or 
else a useable substitution.     And you know what??   They are both 
making LOTS of money ...  they've BOTH been in town for as long back as 
I can remember.  One was a former Lafayette Radio store that morphed 
into its present being after Lafayette ceased its national 
existence....  much to the sadness on a lot of hams part...

If RS has to shut down stores ... then shut them down.  But if they 
really want to keep from becoming extinct, then they should make the 
remaining store USABLE and CUSTOMER FRIENDLY in both sales people and 
offerings.

Ray  WA7ITZ


shoppa_boatanchors at trailing-edge.com wrote:

>carolew <carolew at bellatlantic.net> wrote:
>  
>
>>3. Perhaps they could have carved out a longer-lasting niche 
>>if they had stayed more involved with SW receivers, ham equipment, 
>>stereos, home entertainment equipment etc.
>>    
>>
>
>Well, I don't know of any retailer that stuck it through with SW
>and ham equipment. Radio Shack pretty much gave up on ham stuff by
>the early 70's (although they did continue to dabble in 11-meter oops
>I mean 10-meter and 2-meter stuff.) I remember when the Radio Shack
>catalog came from Boston and had Collins stuff on the back cover :-).
>
>And for stereos and home entertainment, the big box stores gobbled
>all that up years ago.
>
>  
>
>>Maybe more of an emphasis on computer stuff would
>>have helped.
>>    
>>
>
>Profits in PC-clone computer hardware vanished off the face of the
>earth in the late 90's, unless you're Dell or Compaq or Gateway.
>Oops, Gateway is no more (and they were doing damn well in the mid-late-90's.)
>
>HP of course bought Compaq and ex-Digital stuff but they pissed
>all the tech away to become an also-ran in PC-clones. Yech.
>At least Agilent split off (not that I was a big fan of HP test
>equipment in general but they have some specialty stuff that is
>still outrageously wonderful, and they still do their own
>semi fabbing for all the necessary exotic stuff, something Tektronix
>lost years ago.)
>
>Could "Tandy" have stood up against Dell or Compaq? Maybe. But
>they were right to get out of that business before all the profits
>disappeared, there's no way they could support their retail overhead
>and have stayed competitive on hardware. They could've branched
>out into software/accessories (and they already had some of the
>gizmos) like CompUSA but they didn't, and that's probably a good
>thing. Can you imagine trying to find a fuse when everything is
>stacked from floor to ceiling with PC-clone games?
>
>  
>
>>5. I think another chain making a similar mistake is Sears. 
>>Several years ago, they opened their Sears Hardware stores, 
>>which had a very large inventory of tools, hardware and 
>>home-repair gadgets. About a year ago, they went into 
>>appliances. This forced them to cut drastically their 
>>inventory of tools, hardware and
>>home-repair gadgets and the amount of space allotted to 
>>those items. When I go through Sears, I never see 
>>anyone even looking at the appliances.
>>    
>>
>
>I don't think I've ever seen a "Sears Hardware" store, but if I
>need a semi-special-purpose tool on a Sunday morning the local
>full-line Sears store is the place to go. Some will tell me the
>Craftsman brand isn't what it used to be, but I don't believe
>it ever was what it used to be :-).
>
>Home Depot is pretty bad for tools unless you want a hammer.
>
>On a weekday there are still some contractor-type lumber stores
>that have absolutely incredible tool and lumber selection. But
>the good old-fashioned retail lumber stores here have been driven
>completely out by Home Depot. That's really sad. You can't find
>anything you need at Home Depot unless you're building a deck.
>But I suppose nobody builds anything but decks anymore, huh?
>
>Tim.
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>