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

[SEAWOLF97]

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http://www.sbnation.com/2014/11/26/7...eulogy-stories

[LowPhreak]

Nothing new really, since the U.S. retro'ed back to the Gilded Age some years ago. Now instead of 12-14 year old kids working long days in sweatshops, we have these stories of modern sweatshops. One might have imagined that people struggled, fought, and some died for labor laws and government oversight of corporations, but with a few well-placed political contributions the history books are rendered null, like it never happened. Mussolini would have been proud.

Most of Rat Shack's products have always been lackluster and many were overpriced junk, even when they were in their hey-day. Except for the odd connector, wire, meter, or antenna, etc., there was hardly a reason to go there.

Good riddance I say.

[Ducatista47]

That was a sobering read. I have used them occasionally when I needed something right away, and several times when I knew they would have a solution that no one else offered. Back in the 1970s I used then a lot.

Mainly, I still continued to think of them as a local legacy of the beloved Allied Industrial Catalog. True, but what a sad legacy of late. Sounds like they were as bad as Circuit City.

[DavidF]

Nothing new really, since the U.S. retro'ed back to the Gilded Age some years ago. Now instead of 12-14 year old kids working long days in sweatshops, we have these stories of modern sweatshops. One might have imagined that people struggled, fought, and some died for labor laws and government oversight of corporations, but with a few well-placed political contributions the history books are rendered null, like it never happened. Mussolini would have been proud.

Most of Rat Shack's products have always been lackluster and many were overpriced junk, even when they were in their hey-day. Except for the odd connector, wire, meter, or antenna, etc., there was hardly a reason to go there.

Good riddance I say.

Noting the Occupy Everything broad brush condemnation I certainly would not be so quick to apply this to Radio Shack of old. It's a dying model and I can see it when I go there on occasion. But in the "hey day" they did have quality products and, in my little corners of the world, people working there that were happy to work there. A great place to buy audio equipment especially if you were turned off or intimidated by the snooty attitude of many audio retailers. Maybe we have differing ideas of when the hey day was.

[Ed Kreamer]

Colleagues,

In the past I've spent time at RS, purchasing parts, speaker wire,VOM meters and the like. I stopped going some time ago when they became a....well I'm not sure what they became. What ever it was, Its time had come.

One other thing, I thought we were here to discuss our beloved Lansing and variations thereof rather than some political screed espoused from know nothings. There I said it.

Shalom to all

[SEAWOLF97]

I was trying to remember back to the last time that I purchased anything in a RS store , could not do it.

Back in the 90's , Tandy tried an "anti-Radio Shak" type of experience ...

Incredible Universe was the name of a chain of American consumer electronics stores in the early to mid-1990s. A typical Incredible Universe was 185,000 square feet (17,200 m²) of sales floor and warehouse, stocking around 85,000 items.^[2]
The operation was conceived by former Tandy CEO John Roach. Many internal corporate philosophies of Disney theme parks were borrowed; in an Incredible Universe store, retail departments were 'scenes,' employees were 'cast members,' uniforms were 'costumes,' and so forth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incredible_Universe

it was fun, well stocked, reasonably priced, kid friendly, sold "quality" gear ..etc. We did spend money there, but even that model did not succeed. I don't know if it was management or the takeover of the web.

that turned into Fry's ...good prices,inventory , but bare bones of a store.

in retrospect, RS had a good run. It's almost over.

also: one of the big complaints that we had was that RS changed suppliers so often that if you liked the gear that you bought last month, it would be a different producer with same model number & looks next month (and all different qualities) ... and the "look-alikes" , RS speakers were a direct rip off of the Pioneers that were popular at the time (but sure didn't sound the same)

One other thing, I thought we were here to discuss our beloved Lansing and variations ...

Ed ..this is in the General Audio Discussion forum, where it belongs

There are also threads for: old cars , jobs,weather, paypal, hurricanes, space shuttles , cats , craig's list ..etc,etc
and even for competing speakers that are NOT beloved JBL's ...

[BMWCCA]

One other thing, I thought we were here to discuss our beloved Lansing and variations thereof rather than some political screed espoused from no nothings. There I said it.

Shalom to all

I'm guessing you meant "know-nothings"?

Go ahead, discuss-away! Anything holding you back??

[LowPhreak]

Noting the Occupy Everything broad brush condemnation I certainly would not be so quick to apply this to Radio Shack of old. It's a dying model and I can see it when I go there on occasion. But in the "hey day" they did have quality products and, in my little corners of the world, people working there that were happy to work there. A great place to buy audio equipment especially if you were turned off or intimidated by the snooty attitude of many audio retailers. Maybe we have differing ideas of when the hey day was.

Apparently in your haste to associate my post with OWS, which is polarizing, you missed that I didn't post this about Radio Shack/Tandy Corp. only, and not going back to the 70's (except for their products, not how they treated employees then) which is before most of corporate America became as myopically greedy as it is now. Should I do the favor in-kind and label your viewpoint as Tea Party or other such?

It seems no one can voice an opinion, or even put out facts, without it getting instantly categorized into one camp or the other and derided if it doesn't sit well with another's political view, even if it's the truth. Whereupon all reasonable discussion stops, partisan mudslinging or paralysis begins. However, there is something called common ground which we all might realize if some wouldn't let the trees get in the way of the forest. But I suppose that depends on how one makes their living, among other things.

Yeah, it's the economy, stupid, and politics = 'who gets what'.

But more toward the topic - I went to school with a few people that became MBA's/economist-types, a couple of whom I've spoken with recently and even they've said that back then it was taught that yes, corporations have a responsibility to shareholders (profit), but they also have an obligation to their employees, customers, and the communities in which they operate. Somewhere in the 80's-90's it became about dividends every 3 months and exec comp, the rest be damned, and has only gotten worse. I think this story about Radio Shack illustrates that to an extent, and RS certainly is not the only one.

Radio Shack products IMO have been acceptable at best, mediocre usually. I always thought they were overpriced too, the main advantage being you could get something quick in most small cities because there was a RS branch.

[Ed Kreamer]

Colleagues
I can recall when Altec went under, and how surprised I was. Perhaps I shouldn't have been. As it turns out Altec's parent company was skimming the profits from Altec, and as a result Altec was unable to create new products and then quality control went down the tube and we all know the result. My source for this was an Altec sound contractor who was pretty ticked off with the situation. It seems that a lot of company's with parent/holding company's holding their paper wind up being run by people who know nothing about the business, and we can be thankful that JBL is held by Harman. ( I actually met Sidney Harman. A very interesting man.) Even though some may wonder of the wisdom of some of their actions.

The market place changes and those unwilling to change will most likely fail.

Regarding Exec pay: Yeah many of them are overpayed . That is up to the company's board of directors.
Economists? There is a reason why it's called the dismal science.
no-nothings? Yes I did mean know-nothings

I'm sorry to see RS go. It was great to find an L-pad when I needed one

Shalom to you all

[LowPhreak]

I guess we should content ourselves with Mr. Kreamer's platitudes while he drafts his enlightenment of the "no nothings".

[hjames]

I guess we should content ourselves with Mr. Kreamer's platitudes while he drafts his enlightenment of the "no nothings".

Well, its a darned shame none-the-less. I am from the era of multiple local shops for electronic parts and supplies
(Allied, Heathkit, Lafayette, RS, etc) so to see the last local electronics convenience store circling the drain is a sad affair,
whatever the reason ...
I've waited in line many times of late for connectors or fuses or similar
as they sold a cell phone to some couple of indeterminate ethnicity -
and I get it - there's certainly more money in a cell phone sale and contract than in my $6 pack of fuses ...
but if I didn't need them NOW, I'd certainly use an internet source ...

[speakerdave]

Radio Shack:

--the last local seller of electronic bits in my small city
--kept their tube testers on site and an ever shortening shelf of tubes until sometime in the late 70's.
--always a good spot for browsing fish finders
--never again ahead of the curve on anything after the TRS80
--a good source for toys that would almost certainly be disappointing
--at one time sold an excellent cast frame 5" full range/mid range driver by Utah that was identical to the one sold by Trusonic.
--always staffed by very earnest people, usually quite young
--tried to make a business of 'me too' products
-- for a number of years apparently required their clerks to ask the customer's name and address at least four times even though he may be buying one small thing for cash. Very irritating.
-- in recent years so grossly overpriced their wires, connectors etc. that it seemed evident they were aware they were the last resort and only immediate source of the thing. They in effect notified their customers to plan more carefully and allow the three day lead time to get the thing from parts e____ss.
--failed to respond to cultural and market changes, as witness the business name. Very few people would now know what it originally meant.

[Rapidan]

This.

My son is an EE and works for a startup electronics kit company called LittleBits. They just inked a deal with RS, who are apparently engaged in a last ditch effort to get back to their "roots" (remember the 50-in-1 electronics kits?) I told him to make sure they don't overextend credit terms.

As an adult, I never found their offerings in any area compelling, especially hi-fi. Although they did offer a PZM mic for a while, licensed by Crown apparently, of which we bought tons at 39.95 and rewired them for balanced operation and phantom powering, they sounded great and were practically disposable, a great thing for the punk bands of the day.

Radio Shack:

--the last local seller of electronic bits in my small city
--kept their tube testers on site and an ever shortening shelf of tubes until sometime in the late 70's.
--always a good spot for browsing fish finders
--never again ahead of the curve on anything after the TRS80
--a good source for toys that would almost certainly be disappointing
--at one time sold an excellent cast frame 5" full range/mid range driver by Utah that was identical to the one sold by Trusonic.
--always staffed by very earnest people, usually quite young
--tried to make a business of 'me too' products
-- for a number of years apparently required their clerks to ask the customer's name and address at least four times even though he may be buying one small thing for cash. Very irritating.
-- in recent years so grossly overpriced their wires, connectors etc. that it seemed evident they were aware they were the last resort and only immediate source of the thing. They in effect notified their customers to plan more carefully and allow the three day lead time to get the thing from parts e____ss.
--failed to respond to cultural and market changes, as witness the business name. Very few people would now know what it originally meant.

[jerry_rig]

I bought a TRS80, my first computer in 1984. I think I paid more for that thing than I did for my latest Mac Pro. Maybe lasted me two or three useful years.

It's clear that RS is long for this earth. Blame it on whatever you want.

Regarding some of the comments below, I am a Ph.D economist. Most economists teach, a large number work in government and a relatively small number are in business or on Wall Street. We're generally much different animals than MBAs. So please go easy. Thanks!

Jerry

Radio Shack:

--the last local seller of electronic bits in my small city
--kept their tube testers on site and an ever shortening shelf of tubes until sometime in the late 70's.
--always a good spot for browsing fish finders
--never again ahead of the curve on anything after the TRS80
--a good source for toys that would almost certainly be disappointing
--at one time sold an excellent cast frame 5" full range/mid range driver by Utah that was identical to the one sold by Trusonic.
--always staffed by very earnest people, usually quite young
--tried to make a business of 'me too' products
-- for a number of years apparently required their clerks to ask the customer's name and address at least four times even though he may be buying one small thing for cash. Very irritating.
-- in recent years so grossly overpriced their wires, connectors etc. that it seemed evident they were aware they were the last resort and only immediate source of the thing. They in effect notified their customers to plan more carefully and allow the three day lead time to get the thing from parts e____ss.
--failed to respond to cultural and market changes, as witness the business name. Very few people would now know what it originally meant.

[JeffW]

Wasn't long ago I was in Radio Shack to get a connector of some sort, and noticed they had something I'd been wanting to buy that I'd never expect to see in RS. An Arduino Uno! Got a breadboard and jumpers - and then went home to order the EEPROM and other circuit elements from Digikey or someplace.