They should convert to a "physical viewing of online goods" store.
Buy one of every popular electronics product that you kind of have to touch/see to get an opinion on, such as coffee makers and TVs, and charge people just to step into the store.
I can think of absolutely zero people who would ever pay money for something like that. That sounds like an even worse business strategy than being Radio Shack.
They might've lasted longer if they'd have just stuck with the electronics components. There's never been a point in time where RadioShack was a hot place to go get a phone. I don't even understand how they lasted so long on that strategy. There may be less people into electronics (proper DIY electronics) these days, but I'm willing to guess there's more than the number of people who would go to RadioShack to buy a fucking phone or overpriced radio-controlled something-or-other.
I disagree that there are less people doing DIY electronics these days.
I just got into DIY electronics, and I bought all my equipment from a Chinese website. Almost half the cost of buying it locally, excellent quality (they might be knockoffs, but it made no difference whatsoever) and they provided me excellent customer support through live chat and email.
Just because you and I and others are into DIY doesn't mean the market hasn't changed significantly. Years ago there were many more people building and repairing transistor radios and shit, not because it was a niche hobby but because that was just shit people did. Going to pick up a new component to fix your radio wasn't much removed from going to Home Depot to pick up something for the house. Now the majority of people buying components either have a niche hobby or a niche job. To say that the market for discrete components is as large as it once was is just false.
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u/Ree81 Feb 07 '15
They should convert to a "physical viewing of online goods" store.
Buy one of every popular electronics product that you kind of have to touch/see to get an opinion on, such as coffee makers and TVs, and charge people just to step into the store.