[Coco] Re: goodie!

[Rogelio Perea]

PaulH wrote:

> Yep, but Radio Shack is just trying to find the 'big new thing' to keep in
> business. I refer to the decline of interest in hobby electronics these 
> days.
> Many formerly busy stores are now closed or sharply reduced in outlets,
> cf Gem Electronics, Route Stores here in north Jersey, and most notably
> perhaps, Heathkit.

Perhaps the big new thing is precisely that niche market of the corner store 
with a decently stocked electronics parts bin, perhaps Radio Shack needs to 
reduce their number of stores and prop up better the remaining ones. Ideas 
like these require the push from individuals that have faith on their 
product line, and in a make-a-quick-buck business scenario that will hardly 
come about. Today's bombardment of things to do with TV (cable & satellite), 
game consoles and their portable versions and the like, it is hard to see an 
electronics hobbyist market, someone willing to spend some time building up 
something, soldering components to a board, the competition is tough so it 
is 'better' to play it safe and sell cell-phones and other overpriced stuff, 
well, news to the Shack: Circuit City, CompUSA, Best Buy and others were on 
that market first!

> RS has also disco'd their famous yearly catalog and even flyers seem to 
> have
> a rare appearance (in my area at least);  this may be in large part due to 
> their
> reliance on high expense tv advertising featuring Hollywood actors doing 
> the
> 'product pitch'.

Probably a catalog full of stuff that's always on the brink of dissapearing 
from one month to the other does not make sense...

Keeping this thread in topic, I remember sort of in a fondly manner the 
first time some clerk threw me the recently unpacked "You've gtot questions, 
we've got answers" motto back in the early 90s, this was in Nogales's 
(Arizona) lonely RS store: as soon as I walked in, the pushiest clerk 
quickly did a 'Can I help you?'... that particular days the planets were 
probably aligned so I immediately said: 'Oh YES you can!, you see, a month 
ago or so I bought a software package that was on clearance, OS9 Level 1 for 
the Color Computer... I need to get the rev 2 upgrade to use it in my CoCo 
3, would you have it?' - I was promptly directed to the counter top RS 
catalog copy to fend for myself. The move gained me a hassle/nag free window 
shopping experience in that store for a long while :-)


-=[ Rogelio ]=-

-=[ Rogelio ]=-