What makes Sears different from Amazon is that Amazon has a huge advantage of not having to have actual stores. Any retailer with actual stores will always be at a disadvantage to Amazon in that respect.
The key with dealing with the Chinese is that you have to have someone watching over their shoulder, every second. You can't just give them a spec and expect them to ship something that even resembles the spec.
If there is no specification the product can't fail to meet it. ;-)
Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to say Ra dio Shack should be exactly where Best Buy and Dell combined are today. In the 1970s and 1980s Radio Shack was the computer store. Everything electr onic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every mall back then so they h ad presence everywhere in the country. All the new computer buyers of the
1970s, 1980s, and into the 1990s should have bought from Radio Shack. But the Shack is now about gone. Why didn't the people at Radio Shack predict the prevalence of computers and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything i n the mail (FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.
The small Tier2 computer manufacturer I worked for 20+ years ago used to import a lot of parts from both Taiwan and mainland China. We had a Taiwanese connection that was supposed to assure quality - emphasise "supposed to"
The first order of a particular part, the whole shipment exceded spec. By the second shipment you'd be lucky if 75% met spec, and the third shipment half were junk. - and were quite likely to be a totally different design.
Radio Shack did predict it and figured they would be selling computers to the world. They thought they could sell them at full retail price while others were selling them for 30% less.
RS was a good place if you need a diode or resistor, but not for equipment.
y Radio Shack should be exactly where Best Buy and Dell combined are today. In the 1970s and 1980s Radio Shack was the computer store. Everything el ectronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every mall back then so th ey had presence everywhere in the country. All the new computer buyers of the 1970s, 1980s, and into the 1990s should have bought from Radio Shack. But the Shack is now about gone. Why didn't the people at Radio Shack pred ict the prevalence of computers and online everything that came 30 years la ter? Probably the same reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everythi ng in the mail (FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.
We have a small, independent electronics store in our area. Picture your ol d neighborhood hardware store, but for electronic components, CCTV, soldering irons, etc. As far from fancy as you can get.
The Radio Shacks are closing down, but that store seems to be doing fine.
Exactly, IIRC theiy assembled equipment was terrible. I bought a cassette stereo tape recorder in 1974 and paid a small fortune for it. The sound deteriorated quickly after about a week. Returning it for repairs meant a 4 week wait.
After they bombed on computers, they switched to phones and RC toys. Cell phones, land line peripherals, RC helicopters, etc. They still failed. Those "diodes and resitors" were not enough to sustain the brick n' mortar crowd, specially after the industry switched to surface-mount-technology (SMT).
We still have a single RS (privately owned) store between two towns. They keep having a "sale". ;)
nb
The more diligence required, the less trust they get. YMMV.
The Tandy and Realistic brands were actually reasonably good in quality and performance. Particularly their radio gear. I still use three Radio Shack scanners on a daily basis, and the oldest is about thirty years on at this point.
We have a lot of Fry's electronics superstores in the area which still carry components and sell computers. They've been significantly undercut by Amazon and NewEgg for computers, so they've cut way back on computer stuff (although they still support the build-it-yourself crowd reasonably well); they've expanded into home appliances, but still the stores aren't what they used to be.
You know that, I know that, Sears sure as heck should know it. Sears did massive catalog sales in the past, the shift to on-line sales should have been a piece of cake. They let the business go, and now it is about toast. Their management has been blowing it for at least 30 years, amazing they lasted at all.
notbob wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:
Digikey beat Radio Shack out on diodes and resistors. It was cheaper to order 100 of them from Digikey and pay shipping than it was to get a couple from Radio Shack.
Puckdropper
It's not hindsight, it is now. Sears could have easily shifted to online sales at any time, but my guess is management had their collective heads where the sun don't shine.
Amazon started from scratch, Sears had a long history of catalog sales. They blew it big time by ignoring the CURRENT trends. How on earth could a retail store with a history of catalog sales IGNORE Amazon? Brain dead is what I think.
Every time I went into Radio shack I had to give them my name, address, phone number, wife's maiden name, first born's name, favorite dogs name and other assorted stupid crap. I once tried to buy without giving them the info and they wouldn't sell to me until I did. There's a great marketing strategy, piss off your customers. I believe they have a pretty good online presence, in which they probably found even better ways to piss off customers.
IIRC my Recorder was a Realistic but the meters were pretty decent.
How is Fry's holding up there? About 10 years ago a Fry's was built near wher I used to live in SW Houston. That store was great for several years but in the last 3 or so years it appears to be turning into a "dollar store". Software selection is way down, isles have very few choices, and there appears to be a big push toward Chinese made kids toys.
I was about to say that one of the things (among a few) I didn't like about radio shack is their stores are/were way to clean and bright (sterile) I'd feel way more comfortable with old wooden floors, lower lights and so on. The old hardware store feel.
Probably an old guy, woodworker thing.
Sears has had on line sales for most of this millennium.
You have always been able to order from Sears whether by catalog or later on line.
I'd tell them no[*], and they'd still sell to me. Your experience seems unusual, I frequented radioshack in several states throughout the
70's and 80's.In any case, you could certainly have lied.
[*] "My name is cash".
The Brokaw store was almost deserted the sunday before xmas when I went in to get a new SATA drive to replace a crashed drive.
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