I dropped into a local mall where Radio Shack has held sway for
years and they were still doing business at the same old stand: the
same people, and much of the same stuff hanging on the walls. However,
the big red RADIO SHACK sign, which we loved to hate had been replaced
by a "the SOURCE by circuit city," a curious name that for now, had no
emotional response. Inside the store, all the wall cards of components
were in the same place but renamed in fresh packaging as "NexXtech."
Some new brands, never seen in the old Radio Shack, such as Acer and
Pioneer were noted as were the absence of the horrible Compaq, whose
proprietary bios has caused so much difficulty. There seemd to be a few
more radios in stock: eton, Grundig, and some Chinese offerings not
seen before including an interesting twin-speaker digtal am/fm/sw
portable for C$89. I have seen the same model branded as "the Sharper
Image" on ebay for about US$40.
At the moment, Radio Shack corp is scouting for new locations in
Canada to build a chain based on the US store offerings. A recent visit
to a nearby US Radio Shack showed that they still had some components
so there are some differences. There are hundreds of old Radio Shack
(now the Source)locations in Canada so Radio Shack will have an uphill
climb to open its new stores selling similar products but with the low
cost of Chinese imports and the huge mark-ups, there is lots of loot to
be made by savvy marketers. Maybe there will be some competition and
lower prices soon. The Source website is www.thesource.com