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Radioshack is an unexpected one. Supply destruction ? (circuit city bankruptcy) People fixing stuff instead of buying new gadgets? Discounts & Deals? -
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Burger King Up, Jack In The Box Way Down. :confused:
But I'm not an aficionado of either
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Burger King hands down, just ask my aficionado 12 year old ;-)Originally posted by don View PostBurger King Up, Jack In The Box Way Down. :confused:
But I'm not an aficionado of eitherComment
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I've thought about shorting Radio Shack several times in the past year. I don't know exactly what their niche is, thought between cheap toys/batteries at Walmart and cheaper large gadgets at Best Buy, they'd have no place. Anybody know what keeps them in business. Has it been the digital conversion requirements?Originally posted by aaron View Post
I'm short Build-a-Bear by the way. My kids just got gifted 2 "stuffies" from there for $10 each. These things were $35 2 years ago.Comment
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http://www.zacks.com/commentary/1103...ck+Corporation
Converter boxes are a government bubble. RadioShack has been selling AT&T and Sprint wireless and in March signed a deal with Verizon.While many other retailers struggled, RadioShack managed to increase revenue by 5.6% in the first quarter on the strength of the wireless business, flat-panel televisions, and sales of digital converter boxes.
http://www.radioshack.com/family/ind...goryId=2032170
They're selling relatively inexpensive flat-panel LC televisions. 33 sets on that page and three of them are priced above $399.99.
I'm going to guess that part of the relatively inexpensive flat-panel market is a result of the converter box bubble.
The calm before the storm...Comment
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Near me Wal Mart is selling their floor model tvs for great prices.Originally posted by babbittd View PostComment
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From the business page of The Onion:Originally posted by ax View Post
Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business
April 23, 2007
FORT WORTH, TX—Despite having been on the job for nine months, RadioShack CEO Julian Day said Monday that he still has "no idea" how the home electronics store manages to stay open.
"There must be some sort of business model that enables this company to make money, but I'll be damned if I know what it is," Day said. "You wouldn't think that people still buy enough strobe lights and extension cords to support an entire nationwide chain, but I guess they must, or I wouldn't have this desk to sit behind all day."
The retail outlet boasts more than 6,000 locations in the United States, and is known best for its wall-sized displays of obscure-looking analog electronics components and its notoriously desperate, high-pressure sales staff. Nevertheless, it ranks as a Fortune 500 company, with gross revenues of over $4.5 billion and fiscal quarter earnings averaging tens of millions of dollars.
"Have you even been inside of a RadioShack recently?" Day asked. "Just walking into the place makes you feel vaguely depressed and alienated. Maybe our customers are at the mall anyway and don't feel like driving to Best Buy? I suppose that's possible, but still, it's just...weird."
After taking over as CEO, Day ordered a comprehensive, top-down review of RadioShack's administrative operations, inventory and purchasing, suppliers, demographics, and marketing strategies. He has also diligently pored over weekly budget reports, met with investors, taken numerous conference calls with regional managers about "circulars or flyers or something," and even spent hours playing with the company's "baffling" 200-In-One electronics kit. Yet so far none of these things have helped Day understand the moribund company's apparent allure.
"Even the name 'RadioShack'—can you imagine two less appealing words placed next to one another?" Day said. "What is that, some kind of World War II terminology? Are ham radio operators still around, even? Aren't we in the digital age?"
"Well, our customers are out there somewhere, and thank God they are," Day added.
One of Day's theories about RadioShack's continued solvency involves wedding DJs, emergency cord replacement, and off-brand wireless telephones. Another theory entails countless RadioShack gift cards that sit unredeemed in their recipients' wallets. Day has even conjectured that the store is "still coasting on" an enormous fortune made from remote-control toy cars in the mid-1970s.
Day admitted, however, that none of these theories seems particularly plausible.
"I once went into a RadioShack location incognito in order to gauge customer service," Day said. "It was about as inviting as a visit to the DMV. For the life of me, I couldn't see anything I wanted to buy. Finally, I figured I'd pick up some Enercell AA batteries, though truthfully they're not appreciably cheaper than the name brands."
"I know one thing," Day continued. "If Sony and JVC start including gold-tipped cable cords with their products, we're screwed."
In the cover letter to his December 2006 report to investors, "Radio Shack: Still Here In The 21st Century," Day wrote that he had no reason to believe that the coming year would not be every bit as good as years past, provided that people kept on doing things much the same way they always had.
Despite this cheerful boosterism, Day admitted that nothing has changed during his tenure and he doesn't exactly know what he can do to improve the chain.
"I'd like to capitalize on the store's strong points, but I honestly don't know what they are," Day said. "Every location is full of bizarre adapters, random chargers, and old boom boxes, and some sales guy is constantly hovering over you. It's like walking into your grandpa's basement. You always expect to see something cool, but it never delivers."
Added Day: "I may never know the answer. No matter how many times I punch the sales figures into this crappy Tandy desk calculator, it just doesn't add up.Last edited by ASH; June 01, 2009, 03:07 PM.Comment
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Ah -- that's the Onion. That Radio Shack CEO article is a spoof. No doubt ASH knew that all along, but some of us out here in the hinterlands are a bit slow on the uptake.Most folks are good; a few aren't.Comment
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The best part. LOL!"Every location is full of bizarre adapters, random chargers, and old boom boxes, and some sales guy is constantly hovering over you. It's like walking into your grandpa's basement. You always expect to see something cool, but it never delivers."
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The Onion article sums up my feelings exactly. Maybe now that digital conversion is almost complete they'll fall off a cliff. I did buy batteries for my Easy Pass there once I think...Originally posted by dbarberic View PostThe best part. LOL!Comment
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The best of the bunch? For me, CommArts’ FutuRetail 2020, a dynamic proposal that provides a spot-on identification of the powerful forces shaping a retail renaissance, is presented in an eye-grabbing graphic novel form. What better way to reach Generation Z, oft-defined as being “very active consumers, with a high degree of influence over their parents’ purchasing decisions”? As CommArts partner Richard Foy explains, “Surviving places will scramble to remake themselves. Internet, social networking, women, food, energy, sustainability factors will determine their functionability, form and location. Exciting times!”
CommArts’ Crossroads City doesn’t offer a fully realized design for the mall of the future, but it does lay the groundwork for what that mall will consist of. Malls will not only generate sales, they will “grow food, create crafts, manufacture products, generate energy, and provide education.” As an antidote to time spent online, argue the CommArts folks, the mall becomes a social center, a “spectacle of hands-on demos, lectures, performances, classes, tastings, parties, and shows.” Further, the national sameness we now experience (Gap? Check. Victoria’s Secret? Check.) will morph into something more one-off, more local, more cause-oriented.
Utopia? Perhaps, but with dried-up financing, minimal consumer demand and the Chapter 11 filing last month by the second largest mall-operator in the country, it’s time to think differently.
http://arieff.blogs.nytimes.com/2009...king-the-mall/Comment
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