A eulogy for RadioShack, the panicked and half-dead retail empire

[Mr. Widget]

As an original fan of Google back before most people knew of it, I’m seriously getting worried about how much they’re getting into our lives.

Yeah, remember: "Don't be evil."


Widget

[LowPhreak]

Yikes! Don't say that!

As an original fan of Google back before most people knew of it, I’m seriously getting worried about how much they’re getting into our lives.They’re assembling every piece of information (including this rather conspiratorial sounding post) about us that they can and they’re getting into every aspect of our lives.

Posting this may come back to haunt me in the future when they run the government.

Oh no, here they come……

It's not "conspiratorial" or a "theory", it's actually true. As Snowden showed us, everything is tracked, recorded, spied on now and it's not just Google but Google is one of the biggest, along with AOL, Microsoft, Apple, etc. working with the government. It's been going on and gradually perfected for over a decade.

Search whistleblowers such as William Binney, Tom Drake, J. Kirk Wiebe.

[SEAWOLF97]

.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/featur...otion-collapse

"Roberts negotiated deals with carriers that gave RadioShack not only a cut of the initial device sale but also payments from customers’ monthly wireless bills. A longtime executive who left the company in the mid-2000s compared the wireless business to a narcotic, with the company bingeing on phone sales while ignoring the other parts of its business. The addiction had consequences. Signing someone up for a mobile contract took about 45 minutes, and many stores were staffed for long stretches by a single employee. Customers in search of help regularly left in frustration, and foot traffic began dropping, says Claire Babrowski, who in 2005 and 2006 served in various executive roles at the company."

"Attempts to squeeze maximum value out of each person who walks into one of its locations has made shopping or working at RadioShack an irritation. Employees have always been asked to make the hard sale. In the past, they were reliably aggressive about getting a customer’s name and address, so they could flood mailboxes with circulars offering specials on batteries. Hill, the former Phoenix employee, says he was required to offer insurance plans to customers for each item they purchased—and told to keep pushing until a customer said no three times. Another former employee says that managers at the location where he worked in Columbia, Md., would allow employees to claim commissions on phones only if they also sold at least one accessory. Otherwise the manager took the sale. He says he left because he felt awful pushing customers to buy things they didn’t need."

[Donald]

Let's Buy RadioShack

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...buy-radioshack

Like the stores, the project is not doing well.

[Lee in Montreal]

It's not "conspiratorial" or a "theory", it's actually true. As Snowden showed us, everything is tracked, recorded, spied on now and it's not just Google but Google is one of the biggest, along with AOL, Microsoft, Apple, etc. working with the government. It's been going on and gradually perfected for over a decade.

Anyone with Samsung's Smart TV?
http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/10/sma...cy/#wPBzvq:eHr

[LowPhreak]

^ Yes, I've recently seen similar articles about smart TV's.

[DavidF]

Let's Buy RadioShack

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...buy-radioshack

Like the stores, the project is not doing well.

Huh, still another social (sub)culture building amongst us of which I was totally unaware. Makers Faire.

Not that I'm necessarily against the premise of this project, just the simple minded approach of the idea. Kinda like and Andy Hardy movie..."hey gang, let's put together a musical and everyone will come!"

[Ducatista47]

I checked out the local fallout tonight. Of four stores the mall location is closed, the one across the river is closing and the two remaining will live on for now with Sprint sections inside them.

The flagship store was worried because they weren't getting any product to restock with, but now they are flush with shipments from closed locations. Retail cannibalism.

I actually went in to buy some of their unique items in case they were leaving the area. Not to worry yet. They carry small tins of a powder that melts onto soldering tips and dramatically increases their lifespan. I asked if they knew where to get a two into four balanced junction box and they kindly suggested a guitar shop in town. Nice guys!