Glad to see it make another go at it. With the death of Radio Shack, I'd like to see them perhaps expand into electronics, boards, drones, maker stuff, etc. I wanted to say adult toys, but that has an obvious connotation, so not sure what the proper term is.
Or Fry's, which definitely does carry a lot of that sort of stuff (and also price-matches online prices, including Amazon's; I saved quite a bit on my Threadripper build thanks to that).
Yep. Micro Center in Marietta (and Fry's in Duluth) saved my bacon a few times when I was running a small scale hardware startup. They have parts that you just can't get anywhere else without waiting a few days for shipping.
Really? Mouser is my go-to (DigiKey used to be, but they're feeling a little more sparse than Mouser nowadays).
Arrow is quite amazing if they have it. And for "real" hardware, McMaster-Carr can often deliver on the weekend within hours if you're willing to pay for it.
I don't RS could make a business of selling drones -- they'd become a showroom for online drone makers who would sell much cheaper than Radio Shack could afford to sell.
I'm convinced that cell phones are the only thing that's kept most Radio Shack stores afloat since there's decent margin in cell phone accessories and plans.
> I'm convinced that cell phones are the only thing that's kept most Radio Shack stores afloat since there's decent margin in cell phone accessories and plans.
They were. Source: A friend of mine worked for Radioshack between 2008 and 2012. He had no idea why his store was still in business.
The only thing he ever sold at any volume was cellphones.
Besides phones, there'd also be the occasional lunatic who would wander in, convinced that the end of the world was nigh, who wanted to buy a battery-powered off-the-grid television, while talking about his stockpile of guns, and how the country was heading towards civil war.
It was never entirely clear what kind of television broadcasts he was planning on watching after the fall of civilization.
Radio shack was able to expand - profitable - much larger than their hobbies base could support on cell phone sales. They had a reputation of being the goto place for electronics, so it worked well when phones were new and a little scary... Then phones become common and they had too many stores for the rest of their products. Their business model from 1980 probably would still work if you want to try it - but that won't get you rich.
Selling consumer electronics is a tough business to survive in, ask Circuit City... oh, you can't, they are out of business.
The hobbiest electronics business seems even harder, it's hard to sell a 4 pack of resistors for $3.99 when you can buy a 300 pack on e-bay for the same price. But they couldn't afford to stock a useful variety of parts and sell them for much less than that, a decent size metro area can support a few electronic component houses that have enough volume to have good inventor, but not 27 neighborhood Radio Shack retailers. Though even then it's hard to compete when national online retailers like Digikey have a catalog of 8 million items and can ship most of them the next day -- whether you need 1 or 10,000 components.
Make Magazine found out that that the entire Maker movement is not really enough to sustain a business.
Once the company re-established itself online, Shmoel said at the time, then they’d be able to consider a move back into the physical retail space in the form of Circuit City Express stores, and a potential store-within-a-store model
With the ongoing decline of brick-and-mortal retail in general, it seems unlikely that they'll ever have a significant physical presence.
Yes, that is why I went back to 1980 for the pre-phone model. In 1996 phones were expensive and unusual. Many people wanted one, but only the rich could afford to use them much (a typical plan was 30 minutes of voice a month and high per-minute rates after that).
By 1996, phones were already being subsidized, so you could get a “free” phone, but we got paid a commission based on the total price. The non subsidized price was around $300-$400.
I think my first phone plan had 100 minutes a month.
> I'd like to see them perhaps expand into electronics, boards, drones, maker stuff, etc.
I was thinking the same thing.
Those categories are the perfect way for brick and mortar stores to differentiate themselves from online retailers. They're accessible enough that the average consumer may be interested in them, but complex enough that you'll probably need advice from someone knowledgeable before buying.
I'm really surprised Best Buy hasn't devoted much (if any) floor space to those things. I bet they could sell truckloads of things like micro FPV drones if they just demonstrated them for customers.
Problem is, unless you're in a hurry, you can get most of this stuff much cheaper on Aliexpress. Components and boards for DIY electronics are actually one of the few things that seem to be safe to buy there - it's really hard to botch an electronic component or an Arduino board so badly for it to matter in typical maker applications, and there probably isn't much money to be made in doing so.
(I wouldn't order power supplies or flash memory from Chinese retailers, though.)
> you can get most of this stuff much cheaper on Aliexpress
You're thinking of an entirely different market.
People who shop for something like a drone in Best Buy are never going to order one directly from China. First, they don't trust Chinese websites (and I've ordered from them all, so I completely understand why). Second, they probably don't know exactly what they want, so they need to talk to someone first. Third, even if they do know what they want, 99% of the stuff you see on sites like AliExpress is actually toy-grade junk, even when the price is $100+. Finding something that's actually worth your money is like finding a needle in a haystack.
I think there's a ton of potential in selling these types of hobby electronics to consumers, but it's only possible with salespeople who can demonstrate and explain the products. Fast shipping (or pickup) and easy returns/exchanges/repairs would just be icing on the cake.
Electronics hobby store? That’d be cool. It would probably only exist in high density locations and would have to have knowledgeable employees otherwise it’s not better than an online store where things could be cheaper.
If you could go in and ask questions and get knowledgeable answers to technical things, it might be helpful. Like early radio shack, not like right before it died.
If it's a chain, it will never reliably have knowledgeable employees in all of its locations. Nobody with electronics knowledge is going to work for a dinky salary racking up capacitors on the cash register of some little store, unless they have life-long personality problems.
It basically has to be a family business with a knowledgeable owner, who passed some of it on to the kids.
Instead of knowledgeable employees, I think it would be much cooler to have free wi-fi and QR code stickers next to most products so customers can get quick access to data sheets, project suggestions, calculators (especially applications of Ohm's law), and online forums. In today's world, electronics shops can't compete on price, but they can be faster than shipping and they can provide trustworthy online knowledge.
> Grr; I know what I'm doing, and found the parts I need in three minutes. Can I pay now? Nope, some dolt is explaining some cockamamie project idea to the clerk, asking for suggestions that add up to half of the design.
This could easily be solved with the McDonald's model: Provide self-service kiosks where you can order what you want and pay and have a "pickup" register which also serves as the hub for online orders.
> Guy behind him brought a toaster and wants to ask how to get it working again. Has zero troubleshooting skills.
That one can be solved by integrating a "maker space" into the store, with either volunteers or paid staff. Even better: combine this concept with an entirely automated warehouse so that online, in-person and "maker space" orders can be served basically 24/7.
All electronic components, from tiny SMD resistors over huge electrolytic condensators to processors, are available on machine-feedable spools anyway for mass production... so it shouldn't be that hard to automate anyway with existing components!
We shouldn't need a sales person to check out anymore. Self checkout (perhaps with employee verification for expensive items) should be fine. That frees up people to talk shop and the rest of us can just scan our items and leave.
Cost isn't the only issue, time is the bigger one in my opinion. When working on a project and I need capacitors or whatever, they're like $.10/piece online. But I want them now. Would gladly pay $1/piece to be able to drive over to the store and get them today. There is nowhere like that around me, its so frustrating. I don't really care how knowledgable the employees are, maybe some do though.
A lot of people in the retail space don't seem to realize this. I know several locally that maintain only their best sellers in stock (and only hire people willing to put in hours for the lower wages), and aren't even maximally using their shelf space despite having the capital to keep that much product on hand if they thought it was worth it. If I go into a store and they neither have what I'm looking for nor can answer any questions about their products, I just don't see any reason to stay there. They'll offer to order what I'm looking for for me, but if they don't have meaningful advice to offer about exactly what I should get, I don't see why I wouldn't walk out of the store while reading online reviews for a cheaper vendor.
Maybe it really isn't worth it to keep more product in-store or pay for better qualified sales reps, I don't know. But if it's not worth it, then yeah: I don't see why I should buy from a brick & mortar store except just to keep them in business for when I do need them.
Note that auto parts stores have exactly the business model you want. Thousands of obscure parts in stock. Not too far away is a large warehouse with tens of thousands more obscure parts which they can get in just a couple hours at no cost. Most of the time the people working know their products well and can give useful advice on your problem.
I wonder if the business model is only viable because auto parts tend to be much more expensive. It's probably easier to justify shelf space for an item that's $50-$200 than using that space for several $0.03-$0.50 components.
In part. I used to work parts. They are absurdly marked up, but protected almost in a cartel like manner. New parts typically had a 100 percent markup, others much more. A rebuilt alternator, for example, cost us around three dollars. Depending on the vehicle, they sold for between 30 and 100 dollars.
I think it is viable because there is a lot of demand for parts. There are a lot of cars around and they all will need fixing at some point in their life. This large demand ensures it will be filled well.
Radio Shack used to have a similar markup: charging $.70 for a $.03 part.
From a purely selfish perspective, it's usually cheaper and easier to keep a healthy stock of components to hand. If you've made the jump to SMD, I can highly recommend these sample books.
The way to sell low-volume things like electronic parts might be to have regular scheduled deliveries of requested parts, perhaps every few hours, from warehouses to small storefronts or vending machines.
1. You order online.
2. The parts go in a delivery truck.
3. The truck drives for a few hours.
4. The parts get loaded into a vending machine.
5. You go there to get the parts.
This makes it possible to supply a small city with parts that are always available within 4 to 6 hours. You only need to drive a mile or two.
How about "advanced amusements, gadgetry, builder kits, and hobbyist supplies"?
One wouldn't want to inadvertently age-box anything by implying any particular position on the toddler-geezer age axis. Kids of sufficient skill can think of themselves as "advanced", and adults of sufficient budget won't think they're blowing it all on "toys".
Yep. It'd be odd to call many of them "adult toys" anyway because often they are really intended to sell to kids, even when these companies are aware of the adult fanbase
They should, I don't know why they stopped. They used to sell computers and electronics when I was young (yes it was a long time ago). That's actually where I bought my 1st computer, a Commodore VIC-20.
