Rarely does a line from a news story make me laugh out loud - but this one did.. “Radio is a concept from a hundred years ago, and a shack is a place that essentially homeless people lie in,” he said. http://marketday.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/26/14110839-radioshacks-ceo-quits-after-one-year?lite Radio Shack was the first store to do the "gathering of personal personal info" sales routine back in the 80's. I hated it then and hate it today... I remember a band in SoFlo called Damage that had a hit called "Radio Shack Sucks" They outlasted many of the big box Main Street slayers but it appears their time has come. End of an era. A sh*tty one.
I've wondered for years how that place is still in business. Prices are absurd. Service sucks. I guess they've just been surviving off that last segment of the population who haven't discovered online retailers and/or just don't know any better. I went in there about a month ago looking for a cassette tape adapter (I use it to listen to podcasts in my car, no USB input on my CD player, so shut up). They had one alright. For $26.99 LOL. Also the SUPER hilarious employee told me I "should think about getting a CD player". Knowing I could get these adapters for less that $2 on Monoprice I just rolled my eyes and walked out.
RS is now just a cell phone vendor. I went looking for an electronics part and they just told me straight up that they know nothing about electronics... they're only trained to sell phones now. Yeah, they need to die... but I still need a parts vendor... and yes, i know that their parts are the worst quality imaginable.
They're nice to have in a pinch, if you need a cable (like I do for DJing) overpriced, but immediately. Overall, there's no reason for them to exist anymore.
I won't miss radio shack, but it's somewhat of a shame that so many actual stores are going under. How much longer until only Wal Mart is left? It's coming to that. The only stores that are really necessary to have in person are grocery stores.
I agree. But it's the world we're in today. I don't mind paying more to buy from a locally owned mom and pop. But I refuse to pay more to a huge corporation when I can get the same product from a different corporation for a fraction of the cost. Stores like Radio Shack, Borders, Circuit City, etc. have no one to blame but themselves IMO. You can only gouge your customers for so long before they get fed up and realize they can get the exact same product from Amazon for half the price. As for grocery stores, even they will be drastically different in ten years. We already have the self-checkout. I'm sure sooner rather than later you will be able to place an order and pay online. Then just go pick up your groceries or have them delivered. Some stores in bigger cities are already doing the online order/delivery thing.
Blockbuster is another that went bankrupt on their own stupidity. Sure the video store was dying out anyway. But they should've jumped on the 'rental-by-mail' train WAYYYYYYYY before they actually did. They waited until everyone and their momma already had Netflix before dipping their toe in the water. Same for VoD. Guess they thought it was just a fad. OOPS!
Online grocery shopping has been around for years. But maybe it's only in bigger cities like you hinted at. We have "PeaPod" up here. They're little green trucks that go around and deliver you your groceries.
