Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.misc > #1243 > unrolled thread

Radio Shack to close 1,100 stores

Back to article view | Back to comp.misc

Contents

  Radio Shack to close 1,100 stores 2phar <none@example.com> - 2014-03-04 14:37 -0500
    Re: Radio Shack to close 1,100 stores Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2014-03-04 21:48 +0200
      Re: Radio Shack to close 1,100 stores 2phar <none@example.com> - 2014-03-04 14:52 -0500
    Re: Radio Shack to close 1,100 stores RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-05 12:41 +0000
      Re: Radio Shack to close 1,100 stores 2phar <none@example.com> - 2014-03-05 10:06 -0500
      Re: Radio Shack to close 1,100 stores Jerry Peters <jerry@example.invalid> - 2014-03-05 21:24 +0000
    Re: Radio Shack to close 1,100 stores David Harmon <source@netcom.com> - 2014-03-06 16:59 -0800

#1243 — Radio Shack to close 1,100 stores

 From the you've-got-questions-we've-got-blank-stares dept.

"http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26427093"

The question is.. when is the fire sale for the liquidation of the 
components cabinets?

[toc] | [next] | [standalone]

#1245

2phar <none@example.com>:

> The question is.. when is the fire sale for the liquidation of the
> components cabinets?

What would you like to build from the components?

I started electronics as a hobby as a teenager, but then I was
disillusioned. Apparently, the only thing there was to build had to do
with audio, and I wasn't into that. More importantly, while books and
magazines had lots of circuit diagrams, I never could have come up with
those circuit diagrams myself. I didn't see a point in building other
people's designs and the hobbyist books I got my hands on didn't even
try to explain why this capacitor was supposed to be 22 pF instead of
100 pF or 10 nF.


Marko

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#1246

On 3/4/2014 2:48 PM, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
> 2phar <none@example.com>:
>
>> The question is.. when is the fire sale for the liquidation of the
>> components cabinets?
>
> What would you like to build from the components?
>
> I started electronics as a hobby as a teenager, but then I was
> disillusioned. Apparently, the only thing there was to build had to do
> with audio, and I wasn't into that. More importantly, while books and
> magazines had lots of circuit diagrams, I never could have come up with
> those circuit diagrams myself. I didn't see a point in building other
> people's designs and the hobbyist books I got my hands on didn't even
> try to explain why this capacitor was supposed to be 22 pF instead of
> 100 pF or 10 nF.
>
>
> Marko
>
Audio and radio stuff has always been interesting. The advent of SMT, 
DSPs, microcontrollers and FPGAs has kinda made a LED flasher project 
look a bit lame though :)

I agree though.. there's a point where construction for the sake of it 
has to give way to really getting into the theory.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#1259

On Tue, 04 Mar 2014 14:37:45 -0500
2phar <none@example.com> wrote:

>  From the you've-got-questions-we've-got-blank-stares dept.
:)

Love the tag line.  I used to find RadioShack full of interesting and
amazing things, any of which could drag you into a new world of
learning - projects, heathkit stuff (they did sell heathkit, didn't
they? Or am I conflating memories?), radio, tv, walkie-talkies,
shortwave, etc.

These days it's a glorified ipad accessory and cellphone plan store.
Boring!  I actually have bought two shortwave radios in the past ten
years and have on both occasions given Radio Shack first bite at the
apple.  In both occasions, even though the store had a shortwave radio
for sale, the salesperson had no idea what I was talking about, or if
they had anything like that to sell me.  Ridiculous.

In a way, this is more the demise of a market and a culture than just a
store.  This isn't fun anymore, people don't do it, and the stuff is
manufactured in a way you couldn't repair it even if you wanted to.  If
your ipad's wireless stops working because your son dropped it one day,
guess what your recourse is?  Buy a new ipad.  The only tool you "need"
anymore is an extended warranty plan.  That's good or bad news for the
consumer depending on how you look at it, but it certainly doesn't bode
well for a consumer society more than marginally aware of how their
technology works.

Meanwhile, good riddance, "Shack."  Your time has come and gone.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#1269

On 3/5/2014 7:41 AM, RS Wood wrote:
>
> In a way, this is more the demise of a market and a culture than just a
> store.  This isn't fun anymore, people don't do it, and the stuff is
> manufactured in a way you couldn't repair it even if you wanted to.  If
> your ipad's wireless stops working because your son dropped it one day,
> guess what your recourse is?  Buy a new ipad.  The only tool you "need"
> anymore is an extended warranty plan.  That's good or bad news for the
> consumer depending on how you look at it, but it certainly doesn't bode
> well for a consumer society more than marginally aware of how their
> technology works.
>
> Meanwhile, good riddance, "Shack."  Your time has come and gone.
>

Yup.. it's a problem with almost all stores based on skills/expertise 
(if they actually had experts) - people will come in to ask questions, 
then go to some big-box / online to buy the stuff.

We're a tiny minority that realize the staggering engineering complexity 
and power within a smartphone. For most people, it's just disposable 
magic. What NASA could have done in the 1960s with that 
last-years-smartphone toddlers amuse themselves with in the playpen 
today, eh?

Some Radio Shacks are independent franchises though.. there's one in the 
city of Orlando, FL that is wonderful. Owner operated.. a guy who knows 
his stuff, and a much more interesting stock. I picked up a TV antenna 
there - I wonder how many of the typical franchise rat shack teenagers 
would know the location and bands of all the local TV transmitters off 
the top of their heads like this guy did.

Even the idea of the average 'consumer' putting up a TV antenna is being 
marketed away as advanced. You just need to know how much the monthly 
bill is for your cable provider, right?

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#1273

RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 04 Mar 2014 14:37:45 -0500
> 2phar <none@example.com> wrote:
> 
>>  From the you've-got-questions-we've-got-blank-stares dept.
> :)
> 
> Love the tag line.  I used to find RadioShack full of interesting and
> amazing things, any of which could drag you into a new world of
> learning - projects, heathkit stuff (they did sell heathkit, didn't
> they? Or am I conflating memories?), radio, tv, walkie-talkies,
> shortwave, etc.

Not Heath, maybe Knight-Kits after they absorbed Allied. Heath had
their own retail stores.

> 
> These days it's a glorified ipad accessory and cellphone plan store.
> Boring!  I actually have bought two shortwave radios in the past ten
> years and have on both occasions given Radio Shack first bite at the
> apple.  In both occasions, even though the store had a shortwave radio
> for sale, the salesperson had no idea what I was talking about, or if
> they had anything like that to sell me.  Ridiculous.
> 
> In a way, this is more the demise of a market and a culture than just a
> store.  This isn't fun anymore, people don't do it, and the stuff is
> manufactured in a way you couldn't repair it even if you wanted to.  If
> your ipad's wireless stops working because your son dropped it one day,
> guess what your recourse is?  Buy a new ipad.  The only tool you "need"
> anymore is an extended warranty plan.  That's good or bad news for the
> consumer depending on how you look at it, but it certainly doesn't bode
> well for a consumer society more than marginally aware of how their
> technology works.

In one of the local malls there's a kiosk that repairs Icrap.
Interestingly it's almost across from Ripoff Shack.

> 
> Meanwhile, good riddance, "Shack."  Your time has come and gone.

Cell Phone Shack?

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#1322

On Tue, 04 Mar 2014 14:37:45 -0500 in comp.misc, 2phar
<none@example.com> wrote,
>The question is.. when is the fire sale for the liquidation of the 
>components cabinets?

Mostly in the 1980s.

[toc] | [prev] | [standalone]

Back to top | Article view | comp.misc

csiph-web