[HN Gopher] RadioShack's new owner plots old comeback strategy
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RadioShack's new owner plots old comeback strategy
Author : rmason
Score : 27 points
Date : 2023-09-03 20:55 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (retailwire.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (retailwire.com)
| neilv wrote:
| 504 error.
| https://web.archive.org/web/20230903205636/https://retailwir...
| bigyikes wrote:
| It's a shame what happened to RadioShack. I liked them for hobby
| components.
|
| >Items will include "more end products than the stores have
| typically sold, focusing more on cellphone products, headphones,
| batteries and adapters, for instance."
|
| I don't see this as a winning strategy. I can buy any of these
| items at a number of convenient locations, like Amazon, Target,
| Best Buy, and Walmart. Why would I choose RadioShack, especially
| when I don't have faith in their ability to price competitively?
|
| I will go to a RadioShack when I can get things there that I
| can't get quickly elsewhere.
| Waterluvian wrote:
| Wow that's their plan? To just be another overpriced cellphone
| kiosk?
| duskwuff wrote:
| > I don't see this as a winning strategy. I can buy any of
| these items at a number of convenient locations, like Amazon,
| Target, Best Buy, and Walmart. Why would I choose RadioShack,
| especially when I don't have faith in their ability to price
| competitively?
|
| Moreover, that's just doubling down on the same business
| strategy that already ran the company into the ground. I can't
| imagine it's going to work any better this time.
| yourapostasy wrote:
| _> I don 't see this as a winning strategy._
|
| I wonder if most of their storefronts are leased or outright
| carried on their books (shades of McDonald's strategy). If they
| own the dirt most of their storefronts sit upon (they have
| someone in corporate who manages real estate, but I can't tell
| if that is just overseeing corporate property like distribution
| centers and offices or they pulled a McDonald's), in some
| circles the real estate play is the asset and anything else is
| cash flow to keep the lights on.
| tyrfing wrote:
| Have you gone to similar retailers recently, ones like
| Batteries Plus?
| sixothree wrote:
| The worst part is them completely missing the entire maker
| revolution. It was perfect for them.
| rmason wrote:
| I think the best chance for RadioShack to make a comeback is to
| become the electronics store for small towns like the Dollar
| stores. If I live in the country why should I have to travel to
| the city to buy a laptop or a cell phone or even a big screen TV?
| The only success Sears had in the last thirty years were their
| small town stores which were franchised.
| mortureb wrote:
| Everyone buys these things online or at Walmart. I think the
| best bet would be to try to remain small and capture the
| hobbyist market around electronics. Michaels already exists for
| art supplies, Home Depot can supply the screws but no one can
| really supply electronic components, PCBs, 3D printers etc.
| dragontamer wrote:
| PCBs these days are like $5 per board from American makers
| like DKRed (Digikey's PCB service), with support for both 2x
| layer and 4x layer boards. Radio Shack will never be able to
| compete against DKRed (or OSHPark) from PCB making
| perspective. Even cheaper if you buy from China.
|
| Radio Shack would be best as a board-level hobbyist group:
| selling Teensy, Arduino, Beaglebones, Rasp. Pi... as well as
| wires and common components.
|
| A few wires, a standard board like Arduino, and some I2C or
| SPI components will be enough for most hobbyists, and "looks"
| far easier than a breadboard or PCB.
| smaudet wrote:
| I don't know, I think a shop that could offer both would be
| invaluable. I haven't heard of either of those PCB
| services, I'm not in the market to make them, but if I walk
| into a store and see this on offer, especially if someone
| is helping me to design etc, that could be a valuable
| service.
|
| Wholesale mfgs will always be cheaper, but there is
| something to be said for a one-stop shop experience. I
| don't have to spend time learning websites or which tools
| they accept, I can just go to the store to get my idea
| built.
| nodesocket wrote:
| I honestly don't know how Michaels is still in business. I do
| tend to think it's not necessary location that is going to
| make it for Radio Shack, but their products, and target
| market. They should focus on makers, Raspberry Pi, Arduino,
| Drones, make that their core business. Pricing needs to be
| competitive (vs online), stock should be plentiful, and
| knowledgeable employees (maybe like a Geek Squad equivalent
| "The Shack").
| lancesells wrote:
| The thing with Michaels is there are a lot of products that
| are nicer to experience in offline instead of online. For
| electronic components I'm not sure that's the case. I know
| very little about electronics but I would much rather go to
| adafruit.com and look at tutorials, specs, etc. and then
| order. I personally don't need any sort of tactile feel or
| quality control on breadboard compared to if I'm buying
| yarn to knit something.
| bbarnett wrote:
| _The thing with Michaels is there are a lot of products
| that are nicer to experience in offline instead of
| online._
|
| I agree, and even wonder what's up with bed bath and
| beyond's implosion. Many people, mostly but not only!
| women, tend to really really care what pillows look and
| feel like.
|
| I think the only reason Amazon works here, is the crazy
| free return shipping.
|
| But still, how is that the same?? I don't care about
| pillows, but I know if I did, I'd want to choose! To
| touch! To see how fluffy, how they look..
|
| Hrm. Maybe I am harbouring an unknown pillow fetish.
|
| Anyway, I don't get it either. If Michael's can't
| survive, can anything?
| bombcar wrote:
| Bloodbath and beyond was just insanely overpriced. Kohls
| is surviving because they have billions of coupons, but
| they also are encroaching on things like BB&B sold. They
| were finally killed in my opinion by the wedding registry
| options at other stores getting better.
|
| Michael's survives by having way more art supplies than
| other places and people who do art wanting it NOW and not
| later.
| troupe wrote:
| Frames, both custom and premade, tend to be harder to order
| online because of shipping and because you often want to
| actually see it...or someone has to made it for you. Many
| of the craft or home decor items are similar. Michael's
| markup on those types of things is probably pretty high, so
| even the stuff sold on sale after the season is probably
| making good profit.
| bsder wrote:
| > Everyone buys these things online or at Walmart.
|
| Most people need in-person, tech customer support--especially
| in small towns. Radio Shack could find a nice niche by being
| that.
|
| The problem is that while it could be profitable, it won't be
| a "growth industry". And that seems to be a gigantic problem
| given the MBA management mindset in the US.
| notatoad wrote:
| "people will pay more to shop in person because they want
| the in-person support that our staff provide" is written on
| the gravestone of every dead retail company.
| fsckboy wrote:
| sell linux phones, etc
|
| i spent my teen years studying and selecting electronic
| components from radio shack.
| easton wrote:
| I mean, Micro Center exists in some areas of the country (the
| one near to me is literally next to a Michaels). The reason
| it's not everywhere is probably because there's not as much
| demand outside of big cities.
| bsder wrote:
| _Cries in Fry 's_
|
| Austin, of all places, really could use a Microcenter. I'm
| suprised they haven't put one there given they have them in
| Houston and Dallas.
| bigyikes wrote:
| Ha, we posted nearly identical comments at nearly the
| same time.
|
| (Sorry, this comment doesn't add anything, but it was too
| synchronistic to not point out)
| bigyikes wrote:
| Begging for a Micro Center in Austin. They're in Dallas and
| Houston, so it surprises me we don't have one in the tech
| capital of the state.
| hellotheretoday wrote:
| I moved 2 years ago but before that I lived about 10m from
| a micro center for a decade. The hobbyist section in that
| time progressively got smaller and the selection was
| overtaken by branded expensive tools and kits. Like instead
| of just selling the cheap Chinese screwdriver set you could
| buy on Amazon for 9.99 they'd sell ifixit branded
| screwdrivers which appeared to be of the same build quality
| but with the branding and micro center markup were now
| 24.99 for the exact same set in terms of features. Or the
| solder practice kits where you could make a blinking heart
| from an op amp but for $20 when you could get it online for
| half that. Raspberry pis and arduinos and such were usually
| priced well but not always although sometimes they'd be on
| sale for very good deals. They'd sell hats, sensors, and
| such for them and those would be marked up considerably.
|
| So it was the same problem as RadioShack; anyone who knew
| what they were doing would plan out a project and order
| what they needed online to save a considerable amount. What
| you'd buy would be if you forgot or broke something and
| needed to grab something asap and didn't want to wait. That
| didn't justify the space I suppose so they kept shrinking
| it down
|
| What was really annoying was the stuff that would really be
| handy would be like small packs of passives. Like when I
| went to akihabara in Japan there was a market that sold
| small packet of things like resistors, capacitors,
| transistors, etc. in little baggies for few yen. And when I
| went to shenzen it was even better, you could get basically
| anything, smd or throughhole, in any quantity, but that's
| kind of cheating ha. Micro center didn't do this at any
| point I lived near it. They would only sell the big
| assortments so if you just needed a 100ohm resistor for an
| arduino project you had to spend $20 to buy 300 assorted
| through holes. Frustrating and pricey so id rather just go
| online and spend less to get a better and broader
| assortment.
|
| Maybe if we actually do some real right to repair there
| might be some demand to justify but as is I think it's just
| one of those niches that cannot compete with the internet
| and warehouse/logistic companies like digikey and mouser.
| There's just too many skus
| spiritplumber wrote:
| how do you live 10 meters away from a micro center? next
| building?
| themerone wrote:
| You say that as if people in the country can't shop on line.
|
| I live close to big electronics stores and I buy all that stuff
| online.
| wizerdrobe wrote:
| I live in the country and frequent the Dollar General for those
| little daily things. Jug of milk, a freezer pizza, some cat
| litter, a pack of beer and some hot dog buns.
|
| I don't but these all at once in a single trip, I go there 3 or
| 4 times a week as I find I need them and forgot to purchase
| them at the grocery store a good trip away. That's what a DG
| operates on, those daily needs close by. Closer than a Wal-Mart
| or an Ingles would ever get.
|
| Maybe the next best analogy for what a Radio Shack could be is
| like an Ace Hardware. The small town Aces are often better than
| anything I've seen in the city competing with a Lowe's and Home
| Depot. However, I have a hard time seeing the volume to work.
| If I'm on a project getting that extra tube of caulk and backer
| rod or can of primer paint an Ace is great and closer than the
| Big Town Box Store 25 minutes away so they win my routine
| business and the routine business of folks nearby be they DIY
| or professional.
|
| I just have a hard time seeing enough consumer electronics use
| that it would matter. The most routine thing would be a cell-
| phone and for most that really means driving to the ATT store
| to see what my upgrade elegibity looks like this season.
| [deleted]
| spiritplumber wrote:
| They should've gone full maker-movement in the 2010s. I remember
| for a job I had building barge controllers, one of the design
| requirements was to use as many Rat Shack parts as possible, and
| space them out, so that the technician could do a quick repair if
| needed. So the PCB looked like a corner with modern components on
| it, and then 30 square centimeters of, well, rat shack part
| sitting in sockets :)
| bitwize wrote:
| Micro Center seems to be doing well, doing what Radio Shack and
| Fry's did in decades past without being trashed in the retail
| space. So it _can_ be done. They just need the right mix of
| consumer, enthusiast, and "prosumer" marketing strategy.
| causality0 wrote:
| It would be really cool if there was a Radio Shack in my area I
| could go to get electronics components, 3D printer filament,
| maybe rent time on a laser engraver or vinyl cutter.
| exabrial wrote:
| Radioshack needs to jump on the Maker movement, Right To Repair
| movement, and science education movement. Offer everything from
| 3d printing classes to how to fix classes. By educating the
| masses, you create demand for your products you're selling.
| PM_me_your_math wrote:
| I just need a single 100uF 100V Electrolytic NP Capacitor
| mananaysiempre wrote:
| Nobody will really sell you less than a dozen of those, they
| are just too cheap :) But if there really nobody in the US
| selling components retail for like 3x Mouser (which can
| already be 10x to 100x wholesale for the cheap stuff, mind
| you), somebody does need to get on that.
|
| (Just looked at Micro Center, and their selection looks a bit
| pitiful compared to what I used to be able to get in Moscow
| when I lived there. They only have 46 kinds of caps _total_
| --in particular, no 100uF 100V ones at all. Mouser has those
| for $1.50 apiece, but if that's all you want then of course
| they'll kill you on shipping.)
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| They just need to be a mini Micro Center. That would actually
| differentiate them rather than being a run of the mill cell
| phone store.
| johnjones4 wrote:
| This exactly!
| kmeisthax wrote:
| Correction: needed to jump on the Maker movement 20 years ago.
|
| In fact, they used to be right in the center of that!
| RadioShack _was_ the maker movement back when makers were
| really into amateur radio and CB. Then they branched out into
| home computers (TRS-80, Tandy PC clones, etc). Then someone had
| the bright idea to completely divest themselves of their
| computer lineup[0] and just sell mobile phone service plans and
| satellite TV subscriptions... which nobody bothered with,
| resulting in the company becoming a zombie.
|
| Had RadioShack stayed with the original hobbyist user base they
| courted (and somehow remained profitable) they'd absolutely be
| selling microcontrollers, 3D printers, and PC parts. Actually,
| that's just a Micro Center. The only thing is that Micro Center
| doesn't fit in the tiny store footprints that most RadioShack
| locations had. So... I mean, Micro Center isn't in a lot of
| states, so if they wanted to literally just clone Micro Center
| but with the Radio Shack branding I feel like there's places
| they could do that.
|
| [0] Tandy was sold to AST who was then bought up by Samsung and
| then shuttered when Asian stock markets collapsed in the
| mid-90s. 8-Bit Guy talks about it here:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hdazA-VUf0
| bbarnett wrote:
| Can they compete with direct sellers, who sell their own
| products via shopify or some such, or with amazon selling those
| products?
|
| I don't think so, maybe they could do well with local stores
| though. It seems weird to me though...
|
| In the 80s, small towns of even 5000 people might have a radio
| shack. And more than 1/2 the store was parts and electronic
| supplies.
|
| I can't think of who would buy from them, even though I did.
| Was it local appliance repair people? What made them profitable
| back then, in such small towns??
|
| It may be hard to compete with amazon and digikey, for that
| part of their business.
|
| But back to your thing, maker and right to repair, I think they
| might be OK in higher density population areas?
|
| I don't think the dust has settled, amazon is sort of flailing
| about, has endless issues, and 5 years from now, direct Chinese
| sellers at Amazon could vanish.
|
| What then?
|
| So much change, so fast.
| pg_bot wrote:
| There are a couple of operators who seemingly have a decent
| amount of money but are atrocious at running businesses.
| Radioshack's previous owner Retail Ecommerce Ventures has the
| reverse Midas touch. It shouldn't be surprising that trying to
| transform into a crypto hub fell flat as they were two years too
| late to the game and all of the smart money has left that market
| entirely.
|
| I don't see much value in the brand anymore. The only pivot I
| could see is switching to an online only store, but even then
| you're competing against the entire internet for selling
| commodity parts. This does not seem like the most profitable use
| of money for investors. It's ok to let it die.
| ars wrote:
| If they had a highly curated/organized website with tons of
| components ready to ship in small quantity and fulfilled by
| Amazon, I think they would succeed.
|
| Their differentiation would be a focus on small, hobbyist
| quantities, high speed Amazon shipping, and a very well organized
| website where you can quickly find the component you need without
| hours of searching.
|
| For extra credit they could add in a special order section: write
| in what you are looking for and they give you a price including
| shipping.
|
| Most of the big sites Digikey, Mouser, etc are focused on large
| quantities. They would be competing with Adafruit, but I think
| there's room for more than one company here.
| soared wrote:
| > The former owner Retail Ecommerce Ventures, which acquired
| RadioShack in 2020, relaunched RadioShack last year as a crypto
| exchange called RadioShack Swap as the cryptocurrency market was
| crashing.
|
| > "We will continue to offer a robust innovative product
| portfolio that makes the life of our customers easier, along with
| an extensive benefit program that adds value to every purchase,"
| Unicomer's Siman said in a statement. "Our challenge is to
| continue innovating in both directions and remain on our
| customers' top of mind."
|
| This really doesn't sound like it's going to end well.
| Spooky23 wrote:
| As long as they refocus on obtaining every zip code possible,
| there's no way they can lose.
| piker wrote:
| One of the better Onion takes: https://www.theonion.com/even-ceo-
| cant-figure-out-how-radios...
|
| Probably some sound advice for the new owners hidden in there.
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