Their lazy, intrusive marketing practice backfired over time to the point where they had to post a smarmy notice at the registers from the company president about why they did it - but they still asked for the data (!?!). The mind boggles. I support free enterprise but some of the decisions made in the boardroom vacuum are insane.
In the end, it cost them more customers than it retained since Radio Shack became synonymous with tedious data entry of personal details.
Radio Shack is now trying to be Best Buy in 10% of the floor space so you can imagine how that’s going. Pricing on many computer accessories, cables, etc. is highway robbery and they are obviously going for the ‘over a barrel’ customer whom they can gouge.
Service Merchandise was one of the forerunners in harvesting intrusive information for marketing purposes (phone numbers, home addresses, etc.). Started that in the 70’s I think. They always touted their strict privacy policy. Until the late 90’s when they were careening towards bankruptcy. Then they abruptly issued a policy change and sold everything but the kitchen sink to third parties.