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A eulogy for RadioShack, the panicked and half-dead retail empire
SB Nation ^ | November 26, 2014 | Jon Bois

Posted on 11/29/2014 3:51:16 PM PST by SamAdams76

RadioShack won't be the only store to open on Thanksgiving Day, but it might be the only one of its particular makeup to do so. This isn't Walmart or a call center, in which volunteers who want overtime pay can be chosen first. Most RadioShack stores have just a handful of employees, most or all of whom will work Thanksgiving whether they want to or not. Retail employees have very, very little in the way of perks, of things that are understood to be sacred. Having Thanksgiving Day to themselves was one of them.

RadioShack is a company of massive real estate, and is peddling a business model that is completely unviable in 2014. It's very likely to go extinct soon, and I doubt there's anything its operators can do about it. In scenarios like this one, there aren't happy stories or easy answers, and if this were any other company, I'd concede that, perhaps, opening on Thanksgiving is a regrettable but necessary stab at saving the company, employees and all.

RadioShack is a rotten place to work, generally not a very good place to shop, and an untenable business to run. Everyone involved loses.

These are stories from my three and a half years as a RadioShack employee.

(Excerpt) Read more at sbnation.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: economy; radioshack
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To: SamAdams76

Ironic that they were THE electronics store for a couple of decades but that the ubiquity of the semiconductor in later years actually killed them off.

But they also earned their karmic fate with their cloying, incessant demand for personal information, going as far as a placard near the cash registers with the smiling company president attempting to justify the invasive practice. Of course they irresponsibly sold the data to anyone and everyone.

They also actually tried to turn mobile phones into add-a-sale items - even when buying a small item such as a $10 cable. Oh yes - let me add $300 to that tab! Idiots.

Best Buy is currently on the corporate-weenie track to the boneyard by annoying its dwindling foot traffic with in-store hard-sell DirecTV pitches etc.

They can moan about Amazon et al but in most cases retailers have been digging their own graves for years with or without the Internet.


21 posted on 11/29/2014 4:15:55 PM PST by relictele (Principiis obsta & Finem respice - Resist The Beginnings & Consider The Ends)
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To: Dr. Sivana
I got one those radios for Christmas when I was about 12! FM? what was that? AM ruled the mid 1970s. It came with one of those white earphones that always got tangled up. I'd go to bed listening to the Boston Red Sox or the latest Top 40 tunes of the day.
22 posted on 11/29/2014 4:18:33 PM PST by SamAdams76
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To: Steely Tom

Is that a bipolar or unijunction transistor.?


23 posted on 11/29/2014 4:19:03 PM PST by raybbr (Obamacare needs a death panel.)
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To: SamAdams76
In the 70s I would get the coupon from the Radio Shack brochure in the Sunday paper and go get my free 5 D-cell gray plastic flashlight. With any luck and lots of care, it would last until the next coupon came out a month later. I also had three free battery of the month cards and would hit three stores to keep the flashlights going.

There is one near here that is combined with a tire store. A friend needed a memory stick and we went there a while back. They had a 500Mb for $129.00. We passed. Checked online and he ordered a 2 gb for about $10.

24 posted on 11/29/2014 4:19:06 PM PST by eartrumpet
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To: raybbr
Is that a bipolar or unijunction transistor.?

It's a very common NPN (bipolar) signal transistor, the successor to the 2N2222.

I used to use them for LED drivers, among other things.

All obsolete now. Who needs to drive an LED, when for a less than two hundred dollars I can get a plastic rectangle containing a few million of them?

25 posted on 11/29/2014 4:23:22 PM PST by Steely Tom (Thank you for self-censoring.)
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To: SamAdams76
For those who remember the salad days, here are some vintage Radio Shack catalogs to reminisce with. Looking at the 1979 one brought back many fond memories.

Cool! Thanks for posting.

26 posted on 11/29/2014 4:24:36 PM PST by Drew68
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To: Steely Tom

2N3904 is a good basic NPN transistor, the kind electrical engineering students use to build their freshman and maybe sophomore level projects. I’d probably go mail order in a pinch.


27 posted on 11/29/2014 4:28:13 PM PST by Yardstick
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To: SamAdams76

I DID NOT appreciate Radio Shack asking for personal information EVERY TIME I wanted to buy something.

That put them last on my list for buying things and with the Internet, that was the end of them for me.


28 posted on 11/29/2014 4:28:18 PM PST by BobL (I'm so old, I can remember when most hate crimes were committed by whites - Thomas Sowell, 2014)
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To: ansel12

I always figured they must be laundering drug money.

How they could continue to open store after store with no sales or customers seemed to defy the laws of economics.


29 posted on 11/29/2014 4:33:54 PM PST by Rome2000 (SMASH THE CPUSA)
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To: Tijeras_Slim
Heathkit

I was just using my Heathkit tune-up meter on my 67 Chevy the other day.


30 posted on 11/29/2014 4:35:37 PM PST by nascarnation (Impeach, Convict, Deport)
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To: SamAdams76

31 posted on 11/29/2014 4:37:33 PM PST by Brother Cracker (You are more likely to find krugerrands in a Cracker Jack box than 22 ammo at Wal-Mart)
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To: Brother Cracker

CB radio!
Breaker 1-9......


32 posted on 11/29/2014 4:39:51 PM PST by nascarnation (Impeach, Convict, Deport)
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To: Steely Tom
Where will I go when I need a half dozen 2N3904s in a hurry?

I know! I don't know where I'm going to get RF Chokes an .010pf ceramic capacitors anymore since the RS by me closed up for good this week! They closed up for good before Thanksgiving even!

33 posted on 11/29/2014 4:41:04 PM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: nascarnation

34 posted on 11/29/2014 4:44:32 PM PST by Brother Cracker (You are more likely to find krugerrands in a Cracker Jack box than 22 ammo at Wal-Mart)
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To: Brother Cracker

Man I remember cruising the interstates in Ohio back in the 55mph limit days, and trying desperately to outfox the “bears”


35 posted on 11/29/2014 4:46:46 PM PST by nascarnation (Impeach, Convict, Deport)
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To: Rome2000

HA HA- I have it figured out!!-

They WILL not let you out of the store without getting
your ADDRESS and phone number!!

I refused- once the clerk called another employee then
the manager- of course I was laughing (buying Batteries)
told them I was homeless-

I Think they SELL the names and addresses!- they do not
really want to sell anything!- LOL


36 posted on 11/29/2014 4:48:47 PM PST by mj1234
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To: usconservative
.010pf ceramic capacitors

0.02 pf?

Twist two pieces of insulated wire together. Trim the twisted part to a length of about 1/4".

37 posted on 11/29/2014 4:50:39 PM PST by Steely Tom (Thank you for self-censoring.)
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To: eartrumpet
You've come a long way baby.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

38 posted on 11/29/2014 4:51:23 PM PST by ansel12
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To: ansel12

That looks like the ones I had, but it is throwing a whole lot more light than mine ever did.


39 posted on 11/29/2014 4:55:53 PM PST by eartrumpet
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To: nascarnation

Heathkit was the coolest. When Zenith bought them out it was the end of them.


40 posted on 11/29/2014 4:57:49 PM PST by Revel
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