Posted on 02/04/2014 12:52:54 PM PST by illiac
Edited on 02/04/2014 12:54:41 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. electronics chain RadioShack Corp is planning to close about 500 stores within months, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Some of y'all might like to have another source for yer atomic bits:
I went to Best Buy over the weekend looking for a kids’ LCD tablet. The guy looked at me like I was from another planet. He called over two other employees just as clueless. I finally asked could they PLEASE look it up in their store inventory database? Jeepers, that should have been their first thought! They didn’t have it. Went to RS, the guy knew what I was talking about, knew where to find it, knew how to use it. I was impressed.
Oh YES! That brings back memories!
in our town, the local lumber/home improvement dealer bought the franciise just as the RS store was about to close...he dedicated a decent size portion of his store for the franchise and it seems to be doing just fine...
IIRC They had a decent color set kit. Know how to solder, test and take your time!
radio shack lost their way.
they don’t sell pieces parts
they don’t sell unique hard to find products
they are waaaaay overpriced.
Due to the wonderful and ever improving economy of B.O.
It was from a kinder, gentler time.
My niece was a “manager” in one of their stores for several years. It seemed like an awful job. I think her true rate of pay per hour was barely 4 bucks taking into account all the unpaid hours she had to put in.
She quit and got a job with the govt. Now her true rate of pay for the hours she actually works is stunningly high, LOL.
“...Rumor floating around was that they were required to report your component purchases to the FCC if it looked as if you were in the process of building a pirate radio station.”
Did you say Pirate Radio Station?
20 Watt FM Transmitter - less than $300.
Kind of off topic but do you or anyone else remember “wordless workshop” in...Popular Mechanics or another similar guy mag?
Often stupid projects but kids like me learned lots of skills not to mention the kiss at the end...
That’s a great memory! I wonder if they are online somewhere?
Sad to hear for this old RS hired hand. What most people do not understand is RS never looked to hire geeks they wanted sales so hired sales types to push stuff out the door. The name and address thing was for the flyers their main marketing tool at the time. I worked through the transition from the old paper handwritten tickets to the first POS systems where they asked for the last 4 of your phone number. They used to grade us on the legibility of the hand written tickets. Every floor employee except the manager was paid on commission so the talented ones sold computers, tv’s, and stereo’s. I liked hitting a lot of nice singles and did fairly well got good at drawing up the loop and selling the components so one could record one show on VCR while watching a different one on your TV appx $35 worth. The manager on the other hand was paid on the store’s profit and the profit was in the small pack stuff resistors fuses etc every $1 sale was about 95% profit vs computers at maybe 5% profit.
IC = Integrated Circuit
Dx = Short wave radio - LONG distance transmitting and/or reveiving.
I’m younger than you...
Thanks! I’ll keep one in my basement till the day comes when Rush Pirates are necessary.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Family-Handyman-Wordless-Workshop/dp/0895778750
http://www.flickr.com/photos/denisgoulet65/5048637558/in/photostream/
If it isn’t online someone could make a lot doing something similar on a monthly basis and taking reponses.
Must’ve been when I was out of the country.
I still like Tandy, Big Blue in Texas and the pre windows Deskmate. They folded quite suddenly.
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