Ladies and gentlemen, after extensive counting I have found that AV has won the Gadget Club contest with 91 votes. He and his Atomo are WINNAR! And with that we close our Gadget Club contest with special thanks to Radio Shack (le Shack) and Peek for sponsoring the festivities.
So Radio Shack – AKA RadioShack – is planning to call itself the Shack. Radio Shack has been Radio Shack for 88 years. Radio Shack should not change its name.
I understand that the store is in a unique position right now. Most of its major competitors are gone and it’s going up against Best Buy. It has long been the second place you go when looking for electronics and only hobbyists hold the stores near and dear to their hearts. Radio Shack was one of the few places you could get components in a retail environment, a fairly big deal for amateur electronics hobbyists, but now I doubt any of us have set foot in the store in years. The problems, then, run far deeper than a simple name change.
UPDATE – The official Shack release after the jump. *sad clown*
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Good for RadioShack. All 4400 stores are now drop-off locations for the company’s trade-in program, which sounds like a natural fit. Previous gadget trade-in programs generally involve sending your gear away to a random website where you just *know* that you will not get in return what the website advertises. Now you just head to your local ‘Shack and the associate determines the gadget’s value right away and hands you a gift card if you accept. Sounds like a good plan to us as every community has a RadioShack and everyone has old gadgets gathering dust that can now be used to buy new gear.
Circuit City’s Canadian operations have been in question ever since the US locations started showing signs of death. CircuitCity.com had previously stated that the Canadian locations would operate normally but that doesn’t seem the case as all 765 stores are headed to the auction block this week. The Source, as the stores are called in Canadaland, were previously purchased from Radio Shack by Circuit City in 2004 and now might change hands again. Rumor has it that Best Buy wants the 765 retail locations.
We’re admittedly a little late on the uptake for this one but in case you missed it, here are some good deals from Radio Shack’s leaked Black Friday ad:
So yeah, this picture isn’t possible. Any Xbox 360 owner knows that you cannot sit the console on the HDD side. It won’t sit up and sometimes will produce a horrible, game ruining, scratching noise because it’s upside down! Oh, Radio Shack. When will you return to your random electronic parts origin and leave the low profit margin gaming stuff to the big boys?
via Kotaku
Radio Shack is gaining yet another exclusive GPS model after the Motorola and NAVIGON units. The TomTom Go 630 seems similar in specs to the GO 720 with even the same $399 price.
Side note about why Radio Shack is selling “exclusive” models after the break.
Best Buy is set to take over your local mall with small stores designed for your “life on the go”. These locations are going to be stocked with not only cell phones, but also ultra-portable notebook computers, PMPs, and of course, accessories. The upgraded Best Buy Mobile stores build on the cell-phone only model that the company started rolling out last year but will now include non-cell phone products. You know what these stores sound like? Radio Shack; well, if Radio Shack could figure out how to sell iPods and computers.
Starting tomorrow, Radio Shack will be selling the Samsung Instinct to new Sprint customers for $99. If you’re an existing Sprint customer looking to upgrade, it’ll cost you the normal price of $129. The sale is going on through Labor Day, so if you’re going to Radio Shack anyway, why not pick up a new Instinct?
What am I saying? Nobody goes to Radio Shack. What I meant to say was if you’re looking to buy a new Instinct, why not drop into Radio Shack for the first time in ten years? Ah, that’s more like it.
Since the launch of Apple’s super-popular iPhone, competing handset manufacturers have been scrambling to produce phones that at least somewhat replicate Cupertino’s device. So it should stand to reason that the look and feel of Apple’s stores, which are quite popular with shoppers, might begin to appear in competing retailers’ stores.
Case in point, it’s being reported that Radio Shack will be opening three very familiar looking stores this October, with 10 planned by the end of the year, 150 by this time next year, followed by 400 within three years. Mike Baker, a Deutsche Bank analyst, says that the Radio Shack stores will be taking a page straight from Apple’s retail playbook, but will not likely be found in dumpy malls.
Instead, you’ll find these Radio Shack locations to be standalone stores in nicer neighborhoods. No word on whether or not Radio Shack’s planning to train its employees as thoroughly as Apple trains its retail army. I’m guessing that maybe employees in the new Radio Shack locations will be dressed nicely but will still swarm you three at a time, hoping for that sweet battery commission.
[via The Raw Feed]
BGR’s “Apple ninja” is claiming that the iPhone 3G may be available for sale at Radio Shack and Best Buy, but it’s unknown whether or not this will take effect on the 11th if it happens at all. Yeah. Whatever.
Radio Shack is selling a WinMo Curve mash-up in a half-page circular it’s giving away in stores. In case you couldn’t tell this is a huge mistake and basically proves that Radio Shack should stay in the battery business.
