wanna know something really crappy?

[Keatah]

No corporation ever gives up profits willingly.

[_The Doctor__]

The thing I find fascinating concerning shipping something now days is if you think back a few years you'll probably remember as gas prices were rising up to meet $5+ a gallon, we were told that shipping companies needed to raise the price to ship something to compensate for this. But then the gas prices dropped, and have been hovering between $2.25 to $2.85 for the last couple of years with the fluctuation being determined by what season it was (Winter being the lowest, Summer being the highest). So logic would have it that when the gas prices came back down, so should have the cost to ship something. Is this what happened? I'll let you answer that.

 

- Michael

in case anybody didn't get the answer yet... it is NO.... the price did not drop. The profit was surely eaten, for certain Buffet or George Soros like people ate it up... and another lecture will come from them how we need to join hands blah blah blah... a Pink Floyd song comes to mind....

Edited May 23, 2017 by _The Doctor__

[adam242]

In their boom years, they were very much a electronic hobbyist store, and yet were successful enough to expand everywhere, even the highest-rent malls.. let that sink in second, because it's unthinkable today! The old mall across the street from the high-rent mall probably had a Radio Shack too, and the strip mall down the road, so it's not like the hobbyist had to flock to the busy mall to shop there, they had options. And despite that, those mall stores stayed for decades, indicating they didn't make a mistake opening them only to close them in a few years because they couldn't justify the rent. I guess for a hobbyist store, it was pretty mainstream.

 

 

That describes, very accurately, the situation with the two RS stores in northeast Detroit in my youth. There was the fully-stocked, full-service RS in Eastland Mall, and the smaller, hobbyist oriented RS in a strip mall on the other side of 8 Mile road, right across from the mall. Guess which one I preferred. Also guess which one survived (slightly) longer....

[_The Doctor__]

Bill Hogue (Miner 2049er) learned to program while he was a clerk at Radio Shack. just a fun factoid

Edited May 29, 2017 by _The Doctor__

[snicklin]

5 dollars a gallon! I wish it was that cheap everywhere!

[+DjayBee]

In part this shipping problem is US-home-made by greedy shipping services.

 

I sent a few floppies from Germany to Farb for dumping and paid some 6-7 US$ for registered mail. Shipping them back to me cost twice as much.

And I doubt that Germany is a class-3 country.

 

When Bryan sent me an UAV Video Upgrade he had to send it as a boxed package and paid some 10 US$ for it. The UAV is so small it could easily have been mailed in a small jiffy bag for probably a fraction of the price but he was not allowed to.

[+mytek]

5 dollars a gallon! I wish it was that cheap everywhere!

 

Not to make you feel bad, but its only $2.87 a gallon where I live, and last year it was as cheap as $2.25. But several years ago it was pretty close to $5 a gallon, and that's when the shipping companies raised their prices. Seems like it's been on a downward trend ever since, although it does increase a bit in the Summer (vacation travel).

 

- Michael

[SignGuy81]

 

Not to make you feel bad, but its only $2.87 a gallon where I live, and last year it was as cheap as $2.25. But several years ago it was pretty close to $5 a gallon, and that's when the shipping companies raised their prices. Seems like it's been on a downward trend ever since, although it does increase a bit in the Summer (vacation travel).

 

- Michael

 

 

$1.95 for me(we talking a gallon of gas right?)

[+mytek]

$1.95 for me(we talking a gallon of gas right?)

 

Yep the cost of 1 gallon of regular gasoline. So you must not be in California. over here it seems like the closer you get to San Francisco the more expensive it gets, which is rather odd since some of the big oil refineries are just across the bay.

 

- Michael

[sl0re]

Now that I have watched the video, I agree,that yes, the free shipping from China was certainly part of the issue, at least with online sales, but that doesn't account for people like me who would rather take the trip to town and buy what I need directly from RS to get it that day, and shipping doesn't even come into the picture. I stopped buying from Radio Shack not because I could get cheap Chinese crap for less, I'll pay more for quality American made any day of the week, but because they dropped their main customer base of do-it-yourselfer's, like me, because I'd walk into an RS looking for electronic components and only find cell phones and batteries, and they weren't even cell-phones you could just buy and use with any service, you had to get the contract with Sprint or whatever. They went down because they lost sight of who they were and who their customers were, plain and simple. Shoddy management from the top for many, many years killed RS. Period.

 

They dropped it when they were already in decline.

 

I worked there for a few years 25 years ago (at 5 or six locations) and even then I was surprised at how few do it yourselfers there were. This was pre China... less do it yourselfers definitely hurt them.

 

One thing I noticed was that they hired a CEO from outside. They started new ventures (incredible universe, computer city) that would then hire managers without Tandy experience (something the old promoted from within CEOs would not do). This lack of institutional continuity really hurt them (incredible universe and computer city both failed). I also worked at computer city for awhile and was surprised at how little the managers knew about how Tandy worked (what budgets to charge extended warranty repairs to) or how to use its services (look up lost receipt info for customers with warranties).These were managers at a large store who didn't know things that every Radio Shack store manager and some employee (re: me) knew. There were other examples... but it was a long time ago and those two are off the top of my head.... It also seemed like this started getting over to the RS side. Going to RS and having employees who couldn't get you what you needed because they didn't know how or how their company worked would just push you to buy from somewhere else.

Edited July 2, 2017 by sl0re

[accousticguitar]

I used to work for a vitamin manufacturer which employed over 200 people. Every 2 years they would hire a new CEO from the outside. The new guy would come in and change a bunch of things like shift schedules. We went from 10 hour shifts to 12 hour shifts for example (the machines should never stop running, he said). The weekend shift was eliminated and people were moved randomly to the other shifts without even being asked where they wanted to go. Many other changes were made too but production didn't go up. In 2 years he was gone and someone else came in from the outside and started making his own changes. Is this really how most companies are run? If so, it's a wonder any of them succeed.

[+mytek]

I used to work for a vitamin manufacturer which employed over 200 people. Every 2 years they would hire a new CEO from the outside. The new guy would come in and change a bunch of things like shift schedules. We went from 10 hour shifts to 12 hour shifts for example (the machines should never stop running, he said). The weekend shift was eliminated and people were moved randomly to the other shifts without even being asked where they wanted to go. Many other changes were made too but production didn't go up. In 2 years he was gone and someone else came in from the outside and started making his own changes. Is this really how most companies are run? If so, it's a wonder any of them succeed.

 

I think what the deal is, each new CEO feels he needs to make his mark and/or prove his worth. And what I've noticed in this process is that they rarely ever take their time about doing this, or bother to interview the managers and/or production workers about what works and what doesn't in the system they are about to change. Now I'm not saying all newly hired CEO's are like this, but from what I've seen at least 50% of the time they are. Some of this stems from insecurity on the part of the new CEO, and probably some of it is pure ego exerting itself. And then there is also incompetence, because sometimes the only reason they got the job is that they are a long time buddy or related to the owner, and really don't possess the knowledge required for the job.

 

But when you do get the right CEO... it is amazing what can be accomplished, and how much happier the employees are. Because when the employees are actually heard, they are truly grateful, and reciprocate by striving to do their jobs even better. Basically a win, win

 

- Michael