On 1/11/2017 11:17 AM, Leon wrote:


The forth one down will cost you $6.98, 1.99 + Shipping of ""$4.99""


Prime is still cheaper with second day delivery. $5.49

On Wed, 11 Jan 2017 08:08:12 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 1/10/2017 8:15 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 10 Jan 2017 14:34:01 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 1/10/2017 12:29 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 9 Jan 2017 09:19:59 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 1/9/2017 8:48 AM, notbob wrote:


Martin Eastburn wrote:

Time will tell. Don't forget Diehard and other trade names....

Hard to forget brand names I avoid like the plague. My boss bought a
Diehard marine battery. We hadda replace it within the week.

FWIW, most all batteries are manufactured by just a few manufacturers.
No batteries are exempt from being DOA. Personally I have had good luck
with DieHard and what ever brand Toyota sells.

Sure but, just like appliances, they are made to the seller's
specifications and they are treated differently by the retailers
before installation.



Exactly! So if you are upset with the quality of a product, blame the
importer/retailer that felt that questionable quality would pass, not
the country or origin.

That leap of logic doesn't work. Well, not exactly. Quite often
Chinese made merchandise doesn't even resemble the specs that the
(Chinese) manufacturer was given. BTDT. Now if you say that the
importer should test to make sure their specs are followed... OK,
maybe. There are a lot of specs that are really difficult to test.
You can't test in quality.



Granted, importers will take what ever sells or will be tough on specs.
Chinese Buicks sold here are pretty close to specs, I would say, along
with Triton tools, Milwaukee tools, SawStop, Powermatic, etc

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.

Get into the no name stuff from China and all bets are off. This is the
stuff yo find at the discount tool stores like Harbor Freight etc.

If there is no specification the product can't fail to meet it. ;-)

On Wednesday, January 11, 2017 at 10:17:14 AM UTC-6, Jack wrote:
Sears should be where Amazon is today, based on their long history of
catalog and mail order sales.
--
Jack


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail (FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.

On Wed, 11 Jan 2017 21:01:24 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 11 Jan 2017 08:08:12 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 1/10/2017 8:15 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 10 Jan 2017 14:34:01 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 1/10/2017 12:29 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 9 Jan 2017 09:19:59 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

On 1/9/2017 8:48 AM, notbob wrote:


Martin Eastburn wrote:

Time will tell. Don't forget Diehard and other trade names....

Hard to forget brand names I avoid like the plague. My boss bought a
Diehard marine battery. We hadda replace it within the week.

FWIW, most all batteries are manufactured by just a few manufacturers.
No batteries are exempt from being DOA. Personally I have had good luck
with DieHard and what ever brand Toyota sells.

Sure but, just like appliances, they are made to the seller's
specifications and they are treated differently by the retailers
before installation.



Exactly! So if you are upset with the quality of a product, blame the
importer/retailer that felt that questionable quality would pass, not
the country or origin.

That leap of logic doesn't work. Well, not exactly. Quite often
Chinese made merchandise doesn't even resemble the specs that the
(Chinese) manufacturer was given. BTDT. Now if you say that the
importer should test to make sure their specs are followed... OK,
maybe. There are a lot of specs that are really difficult to test.
You can't test in quality.



Granted, importers will take what ever sells or will be tough on specs.
Chinese Buicks sold here are pretty close to specs, I would say, along
with Triton tools, Milwaukee tools, SawStop, Powermatic, etc

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.

Get into the no name stuff from China and all bets are off. This is the
stuff yo find at the discount tool stores like Harbor Freight etc.

If there is no specification the product can't fail to meet it. ;-)
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.

On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail (FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.


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.

On Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 6:07:00 AM UTC-5, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail (FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.


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.

On 1/12/2017 5:06 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to
say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every
mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers
and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same
reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail
(FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.


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.


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.

On 2017-01-12, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

RS was a good place if you need a diode or resistor, but not for equipment.

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

On 1/11/2017 12:00 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 10:58 AM, Jack wrote:

How do you know this for sure?

Because I looked at identical items listed as prime and not listed as
prime and the prime had higher prices. They did it, no doubt at all.
Whether they still do or not, I don't know, but I don't trust them much.


They are rather open about it and often state it may be available
cheaper from different vendors without Prime. It may or may not include
shipping and it may or may not take longer that two days even if
shipping is included.

I don't see it as a matter of trust, but the obligation of the customer
to do due diligence and select the best option for their needs.

The more diligence required, the less trust they get. YMMV.

--
Jack
Add Life to your Days not Days to your Life.
http://jbstein.com

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 1/12/2017 5:06 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to
say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every
mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers
and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same
reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail
(FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.


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.


Exactly, IIRC theiy assembled equipment was terrible.

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.

On 1/11/2017 12:20 PM, Leon wrote:

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.

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.

--
Jack
Add Life to your Days not Days to your Life.
http://jbstein.com

notbob wrote in
:

On 2017-01-12, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

RS was a good place if you need a diode or resistor, but not for
equipment.

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


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
--
http://www.puckdroppersplace.us/rec.woodworking
A mini archive of some of rec.woodworking's best and worst!

On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:
On Wednesday, January 11, 2017 at 10:17:14 AM UTC-6, Jack wrote:
Sears should be where Amazon is today, based on their long history of
catalog and mail order sales.
--
Jack


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail (FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.

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.

--
Jack
Add Life to your Days not Days to your Life.
http://jbstein.com

On 1/12/2017 6:06 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to
say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every
mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers
and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same
reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail
(FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.


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.

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, **** off your customers. I believe they have a
pretty good online presence, in which they probably found even better
ways to **** off customers.

--
Jack
Add Life to your Days not Days to your Life.
http://jbstein.com

On 1/12/2017 9:17 AM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 1/12/2017 5:06 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to
say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every
mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers
and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same
reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail
(FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.


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.


Exactly, IIRC theiy assembled equipment was terrible.

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.

IIRC my Recorder was a Realistic but the meters were pretty decent.




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.

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.

On 1/12/2017 6:43 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 6:07:00 AM UTC-5, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail (FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.


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.

We have a small, independent electronics store in our area. Picture your old
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.

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.

--
Jack
Add Life to your Days not Days to your Life.
http://jbstein.com

On 1/12/2017 9:37 AM, Jack wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:
On Wednesday, January 11, 2017 at 10:17:14 AM UTC-6, Jack wrote:
Sears should be where Amazon is today, based on their long history of
catalog and mail order sales.
--
Jack


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to
say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every
mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers
and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same
reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail
(FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.

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.

Sears has had on line sales for most of this millennium.


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.


You have always been able to order from Sears whether by catalog or
later on line.

Jack writes:

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.

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".

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 1/12/2017 9:17 AM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 1/12/2017 5:06 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to
say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every
mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers
and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same
reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail
(FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.


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.


Exactly, IIRC theiy assembled equipment was terrible.

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.

IIRC my Recorder was a Realistic but the meters were pretty decent.




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.

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.


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.

On 1/12/2017 9:44 AM, Jack wrote:
On 1/12/2017 6:06 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to
say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every
mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers
and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same
reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail
(FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.


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.

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, **** off your customers. I believe they have a
pretty good online presence, in which they probably found even better
ways to **** off customers.



WOW! They must have been picking on you in particular, I never
experienced that.

In Houston RS opened a super store IIRC it was called Incredible
Universe. It was a very nice store that scratched all itches with
product selection. The problem was you had to have an ID card to get
in, not just to buy. They wanted all your personal info to give you a card.
They were very intrusive and there was always a line of people at 4
spots re registering because they for got their cards.

The store failed miserably and I would probably blame the PIA procedure
to get inside the store. Talk about idiots.

On 1/12/2017 9:57 AM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Snip





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.

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.


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.


Yes! Our local store was a nightmare to get into on a weekend, you
drove around looking for a parking spot.
And then suddenly too much up close parking. I do not know if your
stores are big or not but IIRC ours had about 50 registers with next in
line purchasing at those registers. On holidays I saw almost all of
those registers open. Now they could probably get by with 2~3 registers.

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 1/12/2017 9:57 AM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Snip





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.

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.


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.


Yes! Our local store was a nightmare to get into on a weekend, you
drove around looking for a parking spot.
And then suddenly too much up close parking. I do not know if your
stores are big or not but IIRC ours had about 50 registers with next in
line purchasing at those registers. On holidays I saw almost all of
those registers open. Now they could probably get by with 2~3 registers.


All the stores have the large checkout area with 50 or so registers.

I don't recall ever seeing them use the second set of 25, and in the
few years, they seldom have more than two or three registers open. But
then I go there once or twice a year now (more frequently in the past).

Each store has a "theme". The Brokaw store is Mayan themed, the Burbank
store looks like a crashed spaceship from a 50's SF movie. The Palo
Alto store is a wild-wild-west theme. The Campbell store is Egyptian
themed. I haven't been to the Anaheim store, but it is based on the
Space Shuttle.

Houston looks like it's oil (suprise!) themed.

http://www.frys.com/template/isp/ind...tore%20History

On 1/12/17 9:17 AM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 1/12/2017 5:06 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:

RS was a good place if you need a diode or resistor, but not for
equipment.


Exactly, IIRC theiy assembled equipment was terrible.

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.


Scott is partly correct. :-)
Some of that stuff was excellent for consumer electronics.
Obviously, RS didn't have a factory where they were cranking out this
stuff. They were a stencil brand that contracted out their
manufacturing and had the manufactures stencil their brand names on it.
In fact, there was a good amount of time in the 90s when Sony was making
a LOT of RS audio gear and they weren't skimping on quality. There were
a lot of models that were simply Sony boxes with Realistic badges.

I still have a RS audio/video receiver/amp I bought at lest 25 years ago
that sounds and works great. It's been a while since I was "in the
know" but because of some relationships I had in the professional
broadcast video industry I knew what companies were making all of RS's
gear and which models they were patterned after and if and/or what
inside was any different from the name-brand stuff.


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

On 1/12/17 9:48 AM, Leon wrote:
On 1/12/2017 9:37 AM, Jack wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:
On Wednesday, January 11, 2017 at 10:17:14 AM UTC-6, Jack wrote:
Sears should be where Amazon is today, based on their long
history of
catalog and mail order sales.
--
Jack


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to
say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every
mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers
and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same
reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail
(FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.

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.

Sears has had on line sales for most of this millennium.


But like Walmart, for most stuff they are simply redirecting to "partner
vendors."


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote in
:



WOW! They must have been picking on you in particular, I never
experienced that.

In Houston RS opened a super store IIRC it was called Incredible
Universe. It was a very nice store that scratched all itches with
product selection. The problem was you had to have an ID card to get
in, not just to buy. They wanted all your personal info to give you a
card. They were very intrusive and there was always a line of people
at 4 spots re registering because they for got their cards.

The store failed miserably and I would probably blame the PIA
procedure to get inside the store. Talk about idiots.


They probably read about how important knowing your customer was in some
trade rag and interpreted it wrong. You don't get to know your customer
by forcing them to give you their personal information, you just talk to
them:
"Did you see this was an N scale part?"
"Oh yes, I've got both HO and N at home."

Hey, you just learned something about your customer! Your customer just
learned something about you, too.

Guess who you'll see next week because he happened to be in the area?
Not the guy you forced to give his address, social security number,
mother's maiden name, car history, license number, and the names of his
first three girlfriends.

Puckdropper
--
http://www.puckdroppersplace.us/rec.woodworking
A mini archive of some of rec.woodworking's best and worst!

On 2017-01-12, Puckdropper puckdropper wrote:

order 100 of them from Digikey and pay shipping than it was to get a
couple from Radio Shack.

I'll agree on that.

Likewise, they charge $7 fer a phone cable union, which I can buy at
Walmart fer $2.50 and Ebay fer about 47¢.

nb

On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 03:43:02 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 6:07:00 AM UTC-5, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail (FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.


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.

We have a small, independent electronics store in our area. Picture your old
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.

Radio Shack is now Sprint store here, they still carry electronic
components. But any electronic components I need I will get online
cheaper, but if I need it fast.

On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 11:59:31 -0600, Markem
wrote:

On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 03:43:02 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 6:07:00 AM UTC-5, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail (FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.


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.

We have a small, independent electronics store in our area. Picture your old
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.

Radio Shack is now Sprint store here, they still carry electronic
components. But any electronic components I need I will get online
cheaper, but if I need it fast.
We lost the "shack" stores in Canada LONG ago - ended up as "the
source" with no components. Basically a cell phone and R/C toy store
with a bit of radio and electronics equipment thrown in.

On 1/12/2017 10:53 AM, -MIKE- wrote:
On 1/12/17 9:48 AM, Leon wrote:
On 1/12/2017 9:37 AM, Jack wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:
On Wednesday, January 11, 2017 at 10:17:14 AM UTC-6, Jack wrote:
Sears should be where Amazon is today, based on their long
history of
catalog and mail order sales.
--
Jack


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to
say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every
mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers
and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same
reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail
(FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.

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.

Sears has had on line sales for most of this millennium.


But like Walmart, for most stuff they are simply redirecting to "partner
vendors."




I see that as an increasing trend. Best Buy too.

On 1/12/2017 10:18 AM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 1/12/2017 9:57 AM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Snip





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.

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.


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.


Yes! Our local store was a nightmare to get into on a weekend, you
drove around looking for a parking spot.
And then suddenly too much up close parking. I do not know if your
stores are big or not but IIRC ours had about 50 registers with next in
line purchasing at those registers. On holidays I saw almost all of
those registers open. Now they could probably get by with 2~3 registers.


All the stores have the large checkout area with 50 or so registers.

I don't recall ever seeing them use the second set of 25, and in the
few years, they seldom have more than two or three registers open. But
then I go there once or twice a year now (more frequently in the past).

Each store has a "theme". The Brokaw store is Mayan themed, the Burbank
store looks like a crashed spaceship from a 50's SF movie. The Palo
Alto store is a wild-wild-west theme. The Campbell store is Egyptian
themed. I haven't been to the Anaheim store, but it is based on the
Space Shuttle.

Houston looks like it's oil (suprise!) themed.

Yes that is the north side store, the theme for the sw store is ghetto.
;~) They say, South Houston honors the city's rich pioneer heritage.


http://www.frys.com/template/isp/ind...tore%20History

On 1/12/2017 6:06 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to
say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every
mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers
and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same
reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail
(FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.


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.

RS spun off computer city. Which was a lot like a big box store.
The problem was price. They offered rebates on their own branded stuff
to lower the price. The problem was they didn't pay out the rebates w/o
hunting them down. Repeatedly we found that to be a problem and they
offered all types of excuses. But we knew it was BS because we even used
my father inlaws name and address for a few items when we bought more
than 1. Same issue. So in my mind, The offered high price, low service,
and low trust. The perfect reason to stop buying from them. Which we did.

--
Jeff

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

On Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 9:37:06 AM UTC-6, Jack wrote:

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.

--
Jack

You seem to believe everything is so easy. Back in August Wal-Mart paid $3 BILLION for Jet.com online sales company. After spending years trying to increase online sales at Wal-Mart. Did all the fools at Wal-Mart have their head up their behinds? Why couldn't they just make online sales magically? Why? Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. How could they not know how to sell online?

As for comparing catalog sales to online sales. Maybe they are similar, maybe not. Catalog sales for Sears started dying out in the 50s, 60s. They had physical stores so no need for catalog sales. And the US became far more urban, not rural, in the second half of the century. Today everyone almost lives in a city or near a city. So today almost everyone is close to a physical Sears store. Why would they use a catalog? Online sales you have 50 choices and prices. Catalog you have 5. Are they the same? I have a tool catalog from Acme Tools on the shelf. I doubt I would order anything from it. I'd go to the store in town or use the internet. Is a catalog the same as online ordering, even in philosophy?

On Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 10:57:42 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
On 1/12/2017 9:44 AM, Jack wrote:
On 1/12/2017 6:06 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to
say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every
mall back then so they had presence everywhere in the country. All
the new computer buyers of the 1970s, 1980s, and into the 1990s should've
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 in the mail
(FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.


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.

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, **** off your customers. I believe they have a
pretty good online presence, in which they probably found even better
ways to **** off customers.



WOW! They must have been picking on you in particular, I never
experienced that.


They weren't just picking on him, they picked on me too. I hated answering the same
questions over and over again. It's a frigging electronics store. Shouldn't just a phone
number bring up everything they needed? Even Harbor Freight can do that.

I used to make stuff up just to screw with them.

On Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 8:46:04 PM UTC-5, woodchucker wrote:
On 1/12/2017 6:06 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to
say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every
mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers
and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same
reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail
(FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.


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.

RS spun off computer city. Which was a lot like a big box store.
The problem was price. They offered rebates on their own branded stuff
to lower the price. The problem was they didn't pay out the rebates w/o
hunting them down. Repeatedly we found that to be a problem and they
offered all types of excuses. But we knew it was BS because we even used
my father inlaws name and address for a few items when we bought more
than 1. Same issue. So in my mind, The offered high price, low service,
and low trust. The perfect reason to stop buying from them. Which we did.


Let me see if I understand this...

You cheated their system by using other people's names on the rebate forms
and then stopped shopping there because *they* were untrustworthy?

Interesting.

DerbyDad03 wrote:

They weren't just picking on him, they picked on me too.

I didn't like it either.

I used to work across from one in Sunnyvale. It was a place to eat
lunch and look at the new tech books and buy the odd thing needed at
home. Then at Christmas - the kitchen area was large and I found plenty
of presents there when I wanted.
That was in Y2k and thereafter.

Martin

On 1/12/2017 10:18 AM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:
On 1/12/2017 9:57 AM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Snip





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.

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.


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.


Yes! Our local store was a nightmare to get into on a weekend, you
drove around looking for a parking spot.
And then suddenly too much up close parking. I do not know if your
stores are big or not but IIRC ours had about 50 registers with next in
line purchasing at those registers. On holidays I saw almost all of
those registers open. Now they could probably get by with 2~3 registers.


All the stores have the large checkout area with 50 or so registers.

I don't recall ever seeing them use the second set of 25, and in the
few years, they seldom have more than two or three registers open. But
then I go there once or twice a year now (more frequently in the past).

Each store has a "theme". The Brokaw store is Mayan themed, the Burbank
store looks like a crashed spaceship from a 50's SF movie. The Palo
Alto store is a wild-wild-west theme. The Campbell store is Egyptian
themed. I haven't been to the Anaheim store, but it is based on the
Space Shuttle.

Houston looks like it's oil (suprise!) themed.

http://www.frys.com/template/isp/ind...tore%20History

Martin Eastburn writes:
On 1/12/2017 10:18 AM, Scott Lurndal wrote:

All the stores have the large checkout area with 50 or so registers.

I don't recall ever seeing them use the second set of 25, and in the
few years, they seldom have more than two or three registers open. But
then I go there once or twice a year now (more frequently in the past).

Each store has a "theme". The Brokaw store is Mayan themed, the Burbank
store looks like a crashed spaceship from a 50's SF movie. The Palo
Alto store is a wild-wild-west theme. The Campbell store is Egyptian
themed. I haven't been to the Anaheim store, but it is based on the
Space Shuttle.

Houston looks like it's oil (suprise!) themed.

http://www.frys.com/template/isp/ind...tore%20History

I used to work across from one in Sunnyvale. It was a place to eat
lunch and look at the new tech books and buy the odd thing needed at
home. Then at Christmas - the kitchen area was large and I found plenty
of presents there when I wanted.
That was in Y2k and thereafter.


*top posting fixed*

Which sunnyvale store? There have been three, if I recall correctly.

On 1/12/2017 9:56 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 10:57:42 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
On 1/12/2017 9:44 AM, Jack wrote:
On 1/12/2017 6:06 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to
say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every
mall back then so they had presence everywhere in the country. All
the new computer buyers of the 1970s, 1980s, and into the 1990s should've
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 in the mail
(FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.


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.

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, **** off your customers. I believe they have a
pretty good online presence, in which they probably found even better
ways to **** off customers.



WOW! They must have been picking on you in particular, I never
experienced that.


They weren't just picking on him, they picked on me too. I hated answering the same
questions over and over again. It's a frigging electronics store. Shouldn't just a phone
number bring up everything they needed? Even Harbor Freight can do that.

I used to make stuff up just to screw with them.



I never had any issue, just gave them my telephone number. If you were
making stuff up they probably got several extra hits on your reference
and then had to narrow it down to which one you were going to pick for
that day.

On 1/12/2017 10:55 AM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Jack writes:

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.

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".

Point is it was/is annoying as all get out when the sales clerk is more
interested in getting your info into the computer than selling you
something.



--
Jack
Add Life to your Days not Days to your Life.
http://jbstein.com

On 1/12/2017 10:48 AM, Leon wrote:
On 1/12/2017 9:37 AM, Jack wrote:
On 1/11/2017 9:47 PM, wrote:
On Wednesday, January 11, 2017 at 10:17:14 AM UTC-6, Jack wrote:
Sears should be where Amazon is today, based on their long
history of
catalog and mail order sales.
--
Jack


Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. And it would be just as accurate to
say 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 electronic was at Radio Shack. Radio Shack was in every
mall back then so they 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 predict the prevalence of computers
and online everything that came 30 years later? Probably the same
reason Sears did not see everyone ordering everything in the mail
(FedEx and UPS are a big part) fifty years later.

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.

Sears has had on line sales for most of this millennium.

After a thousand years of on line sales you would think they would be
better at it...

--
Jack
Add Life to your Days not Days to your Life.
http://jbstein.com