[Coco] RadioShack closing 1100 stores

[wdg3rd at comcast.net]

I do all my hobbyist shopping at Micro-Center these days (except last year when I was leaving north Jersey for New Hampshire at 4AM and had to stop at WalMart and spend more for less on a couple things I'd found I needed), but not everybody has one of those stores only ten miles away.  (Only absolute necessities because WalMart in Jersey charges 7% sales tax, in New Hampshire they charge 0%).  (The Paterson Micro-Center has an "Urban Enterprise Zone" deal with with the state so the sales tax is only 3.5%)(of the probably $30k I've spent there on gear for me, for my late wife and for my boss [that last using his card with his permission, as Hurricane Sandy did a lot of damage around the office, and tower PCs on the floor do not react well to a foot of brackish water]).
-- 
Ward Griffiths        wdg3rd at comcast.net

<home.comcast.net/~wdg3rd>

God does not play dice with the universe: He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who _smiles all the time_.
    -- (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens)


----- Original Message -----
> From: "Allen Huffman" <alsplace at pobox.com>
> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 4, 2014 7:00:59 PM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] RadioShack closing 1100 stores
> On Mar 4, 2014, at 4:38 PM, Frank Swygert <farna at amc-mag.com> wrote:
> 
> > I don't feel for them. They haven't been a hobbyist store for a long
> > time. They still carry some parts and pieces, but few.
> 
> ...but more than anyone else. I still find myself dropping by when I
> need an adapter or connector because they still are the only game in
> town for all of us not near a Fry's Electronics.
> 
> CompUSA was also a go-to store for me -- hard drive enclosures and
> things like that. Once they were gone, so many things were just not
> available locally any longer -- though there were still a few
> independent places with banker's hours I could never get to.
> 
> We can't get through a Halloween season without a few visits to Radio
> Shack for a splitter cable or something. I guess if they shut down a
> few Des Moines stores, they will keep their flagship store at the "big
> mall" across town and we'll just be driving 25 miles to get that cable
> to keep the show going on a Friday night :)
> 
> > I don't know that they would have done as well as they have by
> > catering to hobbyists and selling computers though. Selling their
> > computer manufacturing and concentrating on retail sales was
> > probably a smart move -- they sold while the manufacturing
> > facilities were still worth something. I remember when the bottom
> > fell out of the PC market and several manufacturers closed shop. So
> > I call that a very timely move. This moving to cell phones is the
> > thing I don't understand. Carrying them yes, but concentrating on
> > them? Too many eggs in one basket!!
> 
> There was a point where Radio Shack had become THE LARGEST cell phone
> activator in America. At least, that's what I read. But, that market
> is not what it once was -- everyone is locked in to two year contracts
> now, and you can get the latest iPhone at Wal Mart. Speciality stores
> are no longer special.
> 
> But MAN does Radio Shack have a ton of cool parts and things on the
> shelves these days -- servos, IR sensors, joysticks for Arduino,
> surface mount soldering boards... Just wild the stuff that is there
> now.
> 
> -- A
> 
> 
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