wrote on Thu, 26 Apr 2007 03:44:08 EDT
Radio Shack, once one of the premier suppliers to the tinkerers and
experimenters among us, and still a source of the occasional
connector, roll of solder, switch, or other item, seems to be having
an identiy crisis.
I recently saw, on the "Onion", this quotation reported to be from Mr.
Day, their CEO. I sent the email below to them, and will report their
response here.
Here's the quote: (Entire article at http://tinyurl.com/29e856 )
--------------------------
"What is that, some kind of World War II terminology? Are
ham radio operators still around, even? Aren't we in the
digital age?"
--------------------------
Pardon me for disagreeing with a moderator, but I don't quite see the
necessity for sounding any hue and cry about some alleged statement
in an alleged Internet news site. Is the "Onion" a reputable
journalistic
organization or just a refined, fancy web log?
As far as I've observed in my limited time of 60 years since first
starting to tinker with electronics (including radios), Tandy Radio
Shack was primarily a consumer electronics retailer, not necessarily
just for tinkerers and experimenters. Radio Shack (without the Tandy
prefix) continues today in that same general market area, not the
best, not the cheapest, not the one with the most of anything in
electronics, consumer or otherwise. They seem to be convenient
for the consumer of any kind of consumer electronics.
Dear Mr. Day,
Yes, we are in the digital age, and luckily for you and your company
ham radio operators are still around. Something around 650,000 in the
USA, and millions more around the world. Many of us still know
precisely how many minutes it will take us to get to the nearest Radio
Shack store for an electronic part or tool that we need to get our
station (probably running a digital mode) back on the air. (Seven
minutes from my house.)
The closest Radio Shack to my house is about a quarter of an hour
away in a mini-mall across from a giant Ralphs food market where my
wife and I shop every week. I've never timed it. That Radio Shack
used
to be next to the Burbank HRO store (which moved away to a major
street elsewhere in Burbank, a location with now-miserable parking).
There's two other Burbank, CA, Radio Shack outlets, one at a corner
location in downtown Burbank and the other in the three-story indoor
Mall built about 10 years ago. They hang on despite obvious
competition
in consumer electronics from Fry's, a huge supermarket of electronics
(over three dozen checkout stations) next to Bob Hope Airport...and
the
PC Club on Victory Blvd in a mini-mall with an OSH do-it-yourself
chain
store and a Toys R Us store (among several). Burbank has a population
of about 110K folks. If I need some kind of part in a hurry, I would
go to
Electronic City, also in Burbank for as long as I lived just across
the city
border in L.A., 44 years. There are at least 5 other parts sellers in
a 15
mile driving distance for me. Of course, this San Fernando Valley
area
has a population of between 1 to 1.5 million in a city that once had a
major industry of aerospace-electronics.
Tandy Radio Shack was once a major player in the personal computer
market with their TRS-80, then the short-lived "Color Computer" or
"CoCo."
It was a major player in home music systems back when "Hi-Fi" was the
popular phrase, before "stereo" as a generic term was in vogue. Radio
Shack still sells those...and cell phones and wired and cordless
phones
and a host of other consumer electronics, including a variety of
radios.
Broadcast band and scanner radios, mostly. In many consumer
electronics
items, they have competition from Office Depot and Office Max. :-)
Back when I first got interested in electronics (1947) the number of
places
for "radio parts" were limited to a local store, H&H Electronics on
Kishwaukee Street, one of the partners being Gene Hubbell (ex-W9ERU,
later W7DI and SK in the southwest), or "Allied Radio," the big mail-
order place in Chicago 90 miles away. By 1956 there was one more
store in my home town, smaller than H&H. Mail-order was the way to
go back then in northern Illinois in a city of 80K population.
Maybe you need to research your market a little more, and the lack of
understanding of your company which you bemoan in the "Onion"
interview can be reversed.
Hmmm...one reason why I doubt the veracity of this "Onion" article is
that Radio Shack has an obvious presence in the consumer electronics
market with periodic newspaper inserts and catalogs issued oftener
than
annually. I suspect they have long ago identified their market target
and
have managed to keep going without a significant percentage of sales
to
radio amateurs. The national population is about 300 million and the
total
number of amateur licensees is about 0.7 million (active licensees
less
than that).
And, oh-by-the-way, hams talk to each other ...... it's what we
do ..... what do you expect we're saying about Radio Shack corporate
management about now?
Offhand, I'd say it would be the same disparaging words about them
that I've heard often for the last four decades. :-) Despite the
once-catchy
title of Radio Shack (from ham origin of the 1920s and 1930s), I can't
recall any specific push that Tandy or its successors ever made to
enter
the amateur radio market. AES and HRO plus other regional ham stores
have that.
By the way, I don't think I can get some vital component needed to
keep
my radio "on the air" from the Burbank (or Van Nuys, CA) HRO store.
Lots of ready-made boxes, antennas, coax, antenna wire, etc., yes but
few switches, resistors, capacitors, or inductors. I don't know what
the
AES in Las Vegas, NV, has other than the same. [maybe lots of packing
popcorn which I got a month ago in a shipment] Las Vegas has many
other attractions besides electronics. :-)
Hans Brakob
Amateur Radio Station K0HB
1620 Weston Lane
Plymouth, MN 55447
Leonard Anderson
Amateur Radio Licensee AF6AY
10048 Lanark Street
Sun Valley, CA 91352