RadioShack Gone Wild 😳😂

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Comparing-the-Size-of-The-Worlds-Rockets-Full-Size.html

Once Starship is operational, then SpaceX can make that claim. As an aside, I find it amazing that they can drop a rocket from 135 km in space and land it dead center of a platform smaller than a football field in the middle of the ocean.

First of all, I haven't seen that company name in years--one of the most incompetently run companies ever, yet it was responsible for getting several generations of kids (and adults) interested in technology.

Secondly, this is not the world's first Radio Shack parody account. At least a decade ago, someone took advantage of the company's lax legal approach to start a parody Facebook page or something (my memory is not so good these days). Anyway, I think they were able to keep the page up for at least a couple of weeks--which included mass media exposure--before the lawyers made them an offer they couldn't refuse. Radio Shack really "showed their ass", as the kids say, with that little adventure. Out of touch, to say the very least.

This was probably five or six years ago. I needed an HDMI cable to hook up a laptop to a TV. I figured I'd stop by Radio Shack near my job at the time. They wanted $28 for the thing. For a cable.

Busted out my phone and looked at Amazon. $6 with free two day delivery.

And that was the end of that.

You know, Monster Cable and the like. $28 is kid stuff! Don't even get me started on "audiophiles"! (Actually, I'm an old-fashioned vacuum-tube audio/recording enthusiast, but I definitely will call bullshit on the nonsense around cables. Some of these nuts even think they can hear a difference in their power cables. Yes, the things that plug into the wall).

I remember it looked like it was gold plated or something. I just wanted the very simplest plug possible, but they didn't offer any.

It was always kind of that way with them. If I needed something quickly, I'd pop in there and would quickly realize I could wait.

The more I think on it, the more I wonder if I ever did end up buying anything there. It feels like my handful of trips over the past fifteen or so years always ended with, "Oof. Nevermind."

...most stores charge ripoff prices, because that's where they're making all their money. You need to go to a specialized cable store (or visit one online) to get better deals, at least if you're looking for rock-bottom prices. Most big cities have at least one specialist cable store. If you're not near a big city, however, you'll have to do business online if you want the best deals.

My father and I assembled a metal detector from Heathkit in the late 60s.

One major problem was that RS required a profit margin significantly higher that just about any other retailer in their market. That was one of the things that doomed them, along with a company "culture" that was decades ahead when it came to the psychopathic nature of big business we see today. They treated all their employees, even management, like shit. So there's that.

What sucks about Amazon is that it's a lot harder for kids to learn technology today. RS and others (Heathkit, etc.) made it a much easier learning curve. But that never made huge money for RS, so it's not surprising that as big business got harder and meaner in the late '80s, all that gradually went away.

...especially while the world is still in the middle of a pandemic and now probably in at least a mild recession. It's a tough field to be in. The big profit drivers now are things like phones and other mobile devices. In a decade, who knows where the big money is? That's why it's a tough field.

As for Target, they just missed some major...er...targets...this past quarter--down close to 50%. They've also had big legacy technological problems for a long time which have made stocking their stores...challenging. During the pandemic, their stores looked like Soviet-era supermarkets. But even when the supply chain improved, they still had problems while others bounced back. There are "culture" problems there, apparently. There are whispers of it in the business pages. I don't really care that much, because I hardly shop there, but there seem to be long-standing problems.

RS made huge mistakes decade after decade. I've spoken with several people who worked for them at the R&D level. Their profit margins were completely unsustainable as a business model. And that's just one of the problems they had. It's hard to believe they lasted as long as they did.

Or a rogue intern having fun? It’s trending.

I can’t even put some of them here they are so explicit

Link to tweet

I always think of crypto as RW shadiness.

(Many of the crypto Twitter accounts I see espouse RW talking points)

Twitter needs to take away the blue checkmark.

See post #5.