Went to an RS for batteries cuz I was desperate. Found out later said batteries were 50% less on Amazon with prime shipping. Fuuuuuuuu RadioShack.
Maybe, but that 10-pack probably costs the same or less than RS was charging for 2 of 'em...Yea, but is anyone selling a 2-pack of butt connectors?, you'd probably have to buy 10
This guy doesn't get it.
1. Microcenter...uh what, in its 3 convenient locations?
2. NOT ordering online and getting it NAU was kind of the point.
Of course, like mentioned, they stopped having much good stock years ago.
Some of it, but ICs still need various surrounding parts in order to work. They would have had to adapt, maybe offer something more like Sparkfun offers.Integrated circuits eliminated so much need for electronics parts that RS could not survive on that business.
....huh, I didn't know that Frys had left the west coast.I'm less than 30 minutes from Microcenter and Fry's. I'm privileged, what can I say.
Some of it, but ICs still need various surrounding parts in order to work. They would have had to adapt, maybe offer something more like Sparkfun offers.
But that still might have the problem of customer density. Sparkfun can serve the entire US. Then there's also the issue that Best Buy has: Being Amazon's showroom. Shop at the local Radio Shack for only what you really need, but buy the rest online from Sparkfun.
The closest thing that comes to mind is a small hole-in-the-wall hobby shop several miles away. It's owned and staffed by one guy, and you can buy just about anything in there at online hobby retailers.
But it also serves as a hang-out for the local RC airplane gang, and naturally while they're there, some money tends to change hands. That's probably what keeps them going: A niche market with a very loyal group of customers.
....huh, I didn't know that Frys had left the west coast.
Still none anywhere near me though. :\
Yes, or anything like that.Geek robot building is HUGE now. If they would have carried things like actuators and controller boards, that alone would have gave them huge sales.
Exactly. And you need to be adaptable. A lot of businesses don't want to do that, because it means change, and we can't have that. Just keep doing the same thing you've been doing, decade after decade. (The market for mechanical telephone ringer bells will never dry up, right? It's not like people are ever going to stop using phones in the future.)You need to specialize in something unique to make a business work, not try to copy what everyone else does.
What makes me mad is Radio Shack would have been a completely viable business if they would have stuck to what they were founded to do: sell electronics parts. Instead, they tried to be a mini Best Buy/Toys R Us and sell overpriced TV's and remote control cars.
They could have did things like latched on to the Raspberry Pi craze and made awesome kits and accessories for it. How about modifications for things light lights or power control kits for home automation? There's a zillion things they could have did as a niche parts provider...but noooooooooooooo.
Yea, I realize they were a dinosaur as a Co but it just sucks if your a hobbyist and you need some wire, solder, connectors, capacitors, ect. Yea, I know you can get all that at Mouser but you have to order and wait, that part sucks.
Depends where you are, maybe, and how clueless the robot builders are. They did have that stuff in quite a few of their stores here (and there was a ludicrous number of them in the city - there are still like 20 of 'em even now), but like everything else they sold/sell, it was really expensive, never discounted, never on sale, etc. compared to online sources...Geek robot building is HUGE now. If they would have carried things like actuators and controller boards, that alone would have gave them huge sales. You need to specialize in something unique to make a business work, not try to copy what everyone else does.
Especially when it's almost done and a 12V wire grazes across something it shouldn't, causing three passives and an IC to be smoked in an instant.Yup, all true. Look at the craze surrounding quad-copters, people have been building custom jobs and doing mods for years now. RS had enough buying power and outlets to bury any website but Amazon in pricing and you didn't wait. People who fuck with electronics in any way/shape/form are notoriously impatient. If I wanted a new SSD for example and RS had one but $10 higher than Newegg I'll forfeit the $10, I want it now!. They could have been the "Harbor Freight" version of electronic components but were too busy trying to sell you a crappy cell-phone plan.
First, not everyone is that impatient. I'm certainly not, and neither were a lot of the guys (98% guys, anyway) I'd run into rummaging through the component drawers at the stores. But more to the point, it wasn't the equivalent of $10 on a $100+ SSD, it was (quite literally) twice the online price for most things, and several-to-many times the price for little stuff like discrete components, ICs, patch cords or, God forbid, batteries (where even (gasp) Staples wiped the floor with them as far as pricing went)... (And if you were willing to wait a couple of weeks to get the same stuff direct from China via Ebay, you could buy 50 of 'em for the price of 1 or 2 at RS.) And then to top it all off, even if you were willing to fork over the cash, the parts weren't very good quality, inventory varied wildly from store to store and there was (absolutely) no guarantee they'd have the part you'd need (forget asking someone to check, over the phone) and you could just totally forget about asking anyone (except maybe another customer) there for help with just about any product in the store - 90% of what were basically (just) cashiers were totally clueless and you were lucky if they knew which end of a grossly overpriced charging cable to plug into an Iphone. It frankly amazed me that they managed to hold out as long as they did...If I wanted a new SSD for example and RS had one but $10 higher than Newegg I'll forfeit the $10, I want it now!.
Here we have Fry's Electronics. Granted there aren't a ton of them but if you're in the LA/OC area, you're within 30min of one.
Depends where you are, maybe, and how clueless the robot builders are. They did have that stuff in quite a few of their stores here (and there was a ludicrous number of them in the city - there are still like 20 of 'em even now), but like everything else they sold/sell, it was really expensive, never discounted, never on sale, etc. compared to online sources...
ETA: Maybe things were different in other places, but "historically", NYC was the sort of place where people, especially "geeks", expected never to have to pay list price for anything, and certainly not big premiums over typical prices. Until even as recently as 20 years ago, we used to have quite a few little "junk"-type electronics/parts shops where you could pick the sort of things RS sold for too much money, and be able to ask the owner/employees for help/comments/suggestions/substitutions. Sadly, even the last diehard hangers-on (with long leases) were all rent-hiked out of existence during our most recent spurt of "development" and those little storefronts now house shitty little souvenir and black-market knockoff-handbag sellers down on Canal Street... (sigh)
HarborFreight, Little Caesar... Just because they ask doesn't mean you have to comply. I don't give my number frivolously. Manual spyware is the easiest to defeat ;^)
Where else could you go to purchase an AA battery and they must have your phone number? Only Radio Shack.
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I'm spoiled. I live a couple of blocks away from a Microcenter. And not far from where I grew up, a "You-Do-It" Electronics Center (http://www.youdoitelectronics.com/) which is a radio shack on steroids x10.