Posted on 12/04/2014 6:59:29 PM PST by SamAdams76
Several generations of home electronics hobbyists, ham radio enthusiasts and computer nerds spent their growth-spurt years haunting their local RadioShack stores. They can't be happy about the company's long slide toward irrelevance and its looming disappearance as a feature of the retail landscape.
The chain joined the quixotic rush by American retailers to open on Thanksgiving Day, but was one of the very few outside the grocery business to be open as early as 8 a.m. A surer sign of management desperation is hard to conceive--or of management cluelessness, for that matter.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
You might also add “Gone is the nation of the technically competent and self-reliant, replaced by button-pushing, Gameboy-narcotized drooling idiots who elect people like Barack Oabama President.”
There was a movie made about someone who got into a hot tub that timewarped him back into the 1980s. I could have enjoyed that situation. I would have pooled as much money as I could into betting that Villanova would beat Georgetown for the 1985 NCAA basketball title then used that to invest in Apple then pooled the dividends into betting that Buster Douglas would beat Mike Tyson then turned around and invested those winnings in Microsoft and...
Their alkaline batteries were very good from the 80’s on. Had very good quality high bias cassette tapes. My first great stereo receiver was the Realistic 2200...with 72 watts per channel of MOSFET power....very clean dynamic power mated with a pair of optimus 10’s. Had the upstairs neighbor banging on the radiator pipes because she liked to sleep all day!
I sense that local mom and pop places will stay, but otherwise everything else will go online. Who can compete for example with Ebay?
Plus we are dealing with an aging population which will deal more with online business.
Back in the early 70s, you could buy a kit to build your own TV set. It was one heck of a Christmas gift...
The day of the big box stores is fading away. Sears is closing about 900 stores and will emphasize Internet sales. They are returning to catalogue sales where they started out
Adam Smiths “creative destruction” at work
Radio Shack pioneered what became the PC. The Trash 80 was the leading edge before IBM came along.
I learned on on a Model III in my office and a Color Computer at home. The Color Computer was the best on the market for a year or two.
My son became a certified nerd on the Color Computer and remains so today
Together, we cracked the case and made the life changing upgrade from 4 k to 64 k memory
Well, the young generation, like my 27 YO son, live virtually on-line and have no lives, so why go out of the basement and to the store/mall/WalMart when you can just point and click? He was unemployed for awhile, and everywhere he went looking for work, they steered him to apply on-line. It’s as though their world is in The Matrix.
“selling prepaid cellphones and catering to the bottom feeders.”
AW, MAN! I just equipped my machine gun nest on the portico with a Tracfone - $9.95 on sale at Walmart. Now I feel cheap.
;-)
Do you think the add is still good? :)
I found THIS interesting story by the son of the guy who developed the idea.
I also thought the ad was neat by showing dad messing around with a kit along with the kid while mom looked on with approval.
[Sidebar] Back in the '50s a teen buddy of mine bought a chemistry set and checked it out in his living room. He said he added two chemicals together in a vial and the damned thing turned purple, foamed up and started spilling all over his mom's new rug. He kept pouring in more chemicals trying to make the solution inert and instead it just foamed and spread even more. He said he felt like the Sorcerer's Apprentice in that Disney movie.
Finally, he added the right chemical but by then the stain was three feet wide and a BRILLIANT PURPLE. I think he is still grounded.
JCPenny should fold first.
Radio Shack forgot what their customers wanted.
They could have learned by early Apple and IBM working with schools.
That is pretty neat. But kids today are only interested in the latest Ipod. Most of them no longer have real interests or hobbies. They would not even think of spending the time on learning such things.
Also in a world were so much is done by specialized microchips then it is hard or impossible to create the same projects using discrete components.
One thing is for sure. The world is falling apart around them and they are not going to have the skills to survive on their own.
“Looks like the plan you initiated back in 1989 to destroy Radio Shack has worked splendidly!”
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
I’m thorough and methodical but slow!
Go ahead and add it, it fits.
One up here close to IHOP/Wal-Mart still open, but how long???
Radio Shack lost its appeal to me when it demanded my name, address, telephone number, license plate number, birthdate, and place of birth for even the most insignificant tranaction.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.