[Coco] RadioShack closing 1100 stores

[Rogelio Perea]

On Tue, Mar 4 2014, Ward Griffiths wrote:


> 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]).
>

One of the best ones close to Staten Island is Green Brook Electronics,
about half an hour away... dirty, disorganized, grumpy counter employees
but it has a lot of stuff as a well stocked electronics store should have.
Have another smaller electronics shop inside a Canal Street Chinese
trinkets store, just a hop from the subway ride home from work.

Have to note that my local RS store saved the day when my Weller soldering
station broke down in the midst of a prototype run for the MC-10 disk
controller (Darren Atkinson's design). If it had not been for that store I
would have had to mail order a replacement, ended up getting a better
Weller unit and at a not bad price. Lately I started building up my spare
parts cabinet and found a few bundled component kits on RS.

Also agree that RS should not have put all its eggs on the cell phone
basket. Back in 2006 I worked part time at an Edison NJ store - lasted only
3 months quitting a couple of days after that year's black Friday. I hated
selling cell phones and related accessories, my focus was on trying to
spruce up the components, kits, scanners and radios section which were
neglected to no end with the blessing of the District Manager... the only
thing in sight was selling cellphones no matter what. Now it is confirmed
it was a short sighted initiative from the top honchos in Texas. I remember
one of the biggest scandals that year being the one about one of the chief
officers getting caught lying about his credentials; when things are as
spoiled as they were a the top, what hope did the stores had with those
people fronting the big decisions?

These days just for kicks I will take my pocket computers and Models
100/200 to the stores whenever the time comes to buy batteries for them,
just for the oooohhhs and aaahhhs the things get from most of the employees
:-)


-- RP