Rumors of Radio Shack's demise may be premature. At least according to CNBC's websitehttp://goo.gl/AY5hnR
For those of us who soldered together Heathkit crystal radio sets and constructed multi-stable flip flops on breadboard, Radio shack was a great place to visit for all those electrical and electronic parts needed to build those devices. For those who don't know a flip-flop from a inductor coil, you may not think so highly of Radio Shack these days.
Somewhere along the way, Radio Shack seemed to lose its way. Over time personal computers, boom boxes, Walkman knock-offs and cell phones pushed electronic parts and tools to the low traffic confines of the back corner of the store. Computers were sexy. Commodities were not.
But what really killed of Radio Shack for me was the silly insistence on giving up personal information in order to make a purchase. 'The system requires you tell us this in order to ring the sale', a clerk once told me. Well, one phony name, address and phone number later I was allowed to go free with my two dollar battery purchase vowing to never return.
Whatever the Radio Shack Big Brains expected to learn from gathering phony data from unwilling customers is still a mystery.
Point of sale systems could surely provide deeper information about hot items and not-so-hot items, or sales per square foot of sales area. But tracking someone who was already in the store contributed little to getting other non-customers to show up, as well. It was a stupid program and hurt the company in many ways.
I just hope that the new owners of the brand elect to not repeat this ugly piece of marketing history. Now, back to my ham radio set.
#radioshack #bankruptcy #micromarketing
For those of us who soldered together Heathkit crystal radio sets and constructed multi-stable flip flops on breadboard, Radio shack was a great place to visit for all those electrical and electronic parts needed to build those devices. For those who don't know a flip-flop from a inductor coil, you may not think so highly of Radio Shack these days.
Somewhere along the way, Radio Shack seemed to lose its way. Over time personal computers, boom boxes, Walkman knock-offs and cell phones pushed electronic parts and tools to the low traffic confines of the back corner of the store. Computers were sexy. Commodities were not.
But what really killed of Radio Shack for me was the silly insistence on giving up personal information in order to make a purchase. 'The system requires you tell us this in order to ring the sale', a clerk once told me. Well, one phony name, address and phone number later I was allowed to go free with my two dollar battery purchase vowing to never return.
Whatever the Radio Shack Big Brains expected to learn from gathering phony data from unwilling customers is still a mystery.
Point of sale systems could surely provide deeper information about hot items and not-so-hot items, or sales per square foot of sales area. But tracking someone who was already in the store contributed little to getting other non-customers to show up, as well. It was a stupid program and hurt the company in many ways.
I just hope that the new owners of the brand elect to not repeat this ugly piece of marketing history. Now, back to my ham radio set.
#radioshack #bankruptcy #micromarketing
