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Posted on 04/07/2017 10:23:08 PM PDT by PittsburghAfterDark
INDIANAPOLIS — Consumer electronics chain hhgregg Inc. is going out of business and shutting down all its stores.
Founded in 1955, the retailer had 220 stores in 19 states selling major appliances like washers and TVs, as well as computers and home theater systems. As of May last year, it had about 5,000 employees.
Just days before announcing its bankruptcy protection filing last month, hhgregg said it planned to trim down by closing three distribution centers and 88 stores. But the move was not enough to salvage the chain.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
It just seems that every speciality retailer is now just Amazon's showroom. Look at it there, but it from them.
The exception being Costco and I've bought a 48" and 32" TV there in the past 3 months.
I'm surprised they bit it before Best Buy.
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Radio Shack is gone, stores closed here, as well .... may be on line only. Allegedly Chapter 11 twice in a very short time.
Retail is a tough slog now with only those with the best business models surviving.
“The exception being Costco and I’ve bought a 48” and 32” TV there in the past 3 months. I’m surprised they bit it before Best Buy.”
My last four TV’s have been from Best Buy and Costco.
Don’t forget Sam’s Club.
Years ago America depended on catalogs for choice. Now, it’s online. The wheel keeps on turnin’.
Never even set foot in hhgregg once. Blip, gone.
Next, home 3D printers will eliminate the need for online retailers.
I walked into a Worst Buy abut two years ago and had a list of like 6 things I needed. I couldn’t find ANY of them. I had to look for a manager who gleefully told me “It’s online only, but we can ship it to you!”
I asked hm why he was so proud of that and he started extolling the virtues of their vast online selection and they could ship it to me in between three and 10 days. I told him that these were things I needed tomorrow. He continued on about how vast their online selection is and how they could ship anything to me...for a delivery charge, of course.
I stopped him and said, “Are you listening to yourself? When a customer shows up and nothing he needs is in the store and you crow about shopping at home online (they won’t order it for you in the store), how much longer do you think they’ll keep coming back?”
“Well, sir, that’s why we have such a huge online selection.”
“And how much longer do yo suppose they’ll be needing retail store managers?”
I thanked him for his time and left him to think about how quickly he’s putting himself out of a job.
Funny thing is that the big catalog houses that should have been first to embrace the internet and online shopping world, that had all the infrastructure to dominate that arena have all utterly failed at it. Sears should have been able to crush Amazon utterly - but even now they have a terrible, nearly unusable website that often fails at basic functions and they still don’t understand why they’re failing online. Service Merchandise failed out in similar fashion.
News flash - you can 3D print food now.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/06/tech/innovation/foodini-machine-print-food/
Also, you can 3D print a 1911 now. If you wanted to pay for it, yes, you can actually print a toaster oven.
It takes many hours and feedstock changes, and it’s not price competitive with a conventionally manufactured one, but you can actually 3D print a toaster oven.
I run UNIX applications on cygwin, using various applications like "bc" ( extended presicion calculator ) and C language compilations which are just crazy-fast. People just don't know what they have these days.
3D printers for plastics or metals do the same thing. The former squirts molten plastic, the latter squirts (or sputters) molten metal.
It very much is printing.
It takes many hours and feedstock changes, and it’s not price competitive with a conventionally manufactured one, but you can actually 3D print a toaster oven.
Prove it.
3D printed 1911: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_Concepts_1911_DMLS
Let me ask you this - what part of a toaster oven do you think could *not* be made by 3D printing?
Paneling and door? Metal slabs, easily printed.
Heating element? You can print those, even on micro and nano scale. https://3dprint.com/135079/graphene-3d-print-heating-elements/
Timer? People make far more complex clocks than is needed for the timer on a toaster oven. https://3dprint.com/109956/zmorph-hybrid-clock/
The switch? Simply printed knife switch if you want to go primitive, metal printed parts mounted on a plastic printed base.
So, what part do you think can’t be printed?
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