"The Shack Jumps the Shark" [Broadband @ The Big Money (Slate)]
]]>If they think "Radio Shack" sounds too retro or whatever, why not change their name to something like "Tandy Electronics"? Or, simply, "Tandy"? Then they at least can leverage an existing brand.
Not that there's much confusion over what Radio Shack actually sells anyway. Their name isn't the problem. The problem is their service and what they carry. They used to carry lots of offbeat stuff, but these days there's very little they sell that I can't buy at Kmart for less money and less hassle. Changing their name isn't going to change that.
Kind of like a couple of IT departments I used to work for. They had bad reputations, so they changed their names. The upper management kept on screwing people though, so if anything, the reputation only got worse. The change just made the place look even more sleazy.
]]>@Nicole: To me it makes it more dorky. The nerd in me is angry about it.. but the "normal female" side doesn't watch that stupid channel anyway.
I mostly watch it because my husband insists at times.. I think that insistance will become less and less.
]]>@Arc: Ah, but the sails will tear and the hull will spring a leak the moment their 30-day warranty expires, and you have to give them your address, SSN, and your firstborn child to even try to return it.
]]>It would be amusing if more companies renamed themselves based on what people actually call them. For instance, Circuit City would have become Circuit S***ty. Best Buy would be called Worst Buy. Linen's & Things would be called Bed Bath and Beyond...
This who thing is rather stupid though if you ask me. Boston Chicken is now "Boston Market". Um. So...now I know where to go if I need a really good Boston? At least "Baskin & Robbin's 31 Flavors" getting shortened to BR sort of makes sense but everyone still calls it "31 flavors". But how do you go from "Radio Shack" to just "Shack" or "Pizza Hut" to just "Hut"? they're dropping their main identity in a horrible attempt to look cool, which just makes them lamer than ever.
What's next? Burger King to be renamed "King"? (probably will officially change its name to "BK") Or, I know, rename the Big Mac to "Big" or better yet "BM". Yeah, the McDonald's BM. You know you want one! Located between Hut and Shack on the corner of Street and Road.
]]>Exactly!
]]>Sure, but it started out as street slang. In other words, customers came up with the knick-name, not a McDonalds marketing drone.
]]>Radio Shack: You've got questions, we've got shrugs!
You know I am indignant about the name change in many ways. But the downfall of Radio Shack is a microcosm of America's shift in technology in the past 25-30 years.
We've gone from a country of consumers, builders and innovators to a country of just consumers. I am not against the tech changes themselves. But just that it was something uniquely American in execution. You could go to the local Radio Shack and get their electronics kits, or build your own speakers... Buy your own breadboards and components and learn or do something as a foundation of learning. I'm kinda sad to see that go.
]]>i'm not bitter - i just get frustrated seeing a company miss the mark. think about it: there's a RS in virtually every town in america. 4600 stores vs. best buy's 1400 (& that's not counting the kiosks & dealers). despite that, their brand image results in people driving past one (or two or three) radioshacks to shop at a best buy instead.
i don't really have any problem with their sales model, but they do have some serious issues with inventory management, product purchasing, transportation management, product development, store support & sales marketing. i can elaborate on any one or all of these areas if you're really interested. revamping some or all of them could save the company millions & increase revenue substantially, but it would involve investing some time & a bit of money - significantly less than this b.s. campaign (which i'm guessing will set them back $5-10 million).
]]>@HogwartsAlum: Rotten Ron's.
]]>I worked for Radio Shack many years ago. Employees have been calling it "The Shack" since day one.
]]>Perhaps they could rename themselves to "Compuserve" instead? :)
]]>(All $CDN)
4 D cells (Alkaline) were $0.49 at Future Shop after price matching the same package on sale @ $0.99 from Best Buy last month.
Also, 8 packs of AA cells (Alkaline again) for $0.99 at Best Buy the month before.
I, of course, bought 10 packages.
HA! :^) RedFlagDeals in Canada FTW!
]]>Doesn't surprise me that the sales person didn't know. They've gotten rid of anyone who knows anything about stuff other than cell phones. If it ain't a phone, they're dumb as wood posts. The company doesn't want anyone knowing anything other than phones now. Gotta figure that the CEO came over from KMART/SEARS and he brought some of his buddies. The rest came from Blockbuster. We ALL know how those 2 companies are doing. Stands to reason that Shack won't be around much longer with the stupidity in FW now.@sljepi:
]]>I see the marketing gurus at Circuit City have been hired by Radio Shack and are working their brand distroying magic there too.
Radio Shack would be smart to fire their marketing department and sue their agency for taking a damaged retail chain and almost certainly sentencing it to slow death.
]]>@TheFlamingoKing: Now if "The Shack" could get "THE_REAL_SHAQ" to be its spokesperson you might be successful at rebranding.
Picture The Shaq walking out on to a white background (ala an Apple Commercial):
Hi, This is The Shaq for The Shack here to tell you that if you need a cell phone you should talk to The Shack, no, not The Shaq, The Shack
As he speaks, brightly colored graphics and the RS logo pop up on the screen. Cut to the announcer telling the viewer about the latest sales or deals. Cut to The Shaq who says the tag line "Only at The Shack"
Radio Shack, if you want to take this idea, feel freee to do so, I simply want to get free lifetime batteries and be able to buy Audio/Video cables at cost.
]]>@Preyfar: ""The Hut" and "The Shack" changed their name to reflect their "nicknames" (of which I've never heard anyone refer to them by)"
At my old employer, we used to refer to Radio Shack as "The Shack", but we were a bunch of electrical engineers and we were running to Radio Shack every other week to puck up cables or components or connectors for whatever strange project we were working on at the time. That said, I have never refered to Radio Shack as The Shack outside of any conversations I had at work with that employer.
]]>If they called themselves Vanderlay Industries, I would shop there.
]]>S**T SHACK
Good news is the nickname still fits the re-branding name.
]]>They did it because they couldn't trademark "SciFi," thus they couldn't make any money off the name. With SyFy, they can.
Still-- how very stupid (and insulting).
]]>Just bought some on Monday at Home Depot.
]]>@Preyfar: I noticed recently that the Scifi channel changed it's name to SyFy.. which is just.. weird.
]]>But I think that's too long for marketing or promotional materials.
]]>Yes, that's part of it. The other part of it is that Circuit City is stupid. They wanted to have "real" Circuit City box stores in Canada someday, so they didn't want to call it Circuit City.
But, the idiot execs wanted to "associate" the store with the Circuit City brand. Hence giving the store the stupid name "The Source By Circuit City" rather than just "The Source" (as it appears Bell has renamed it, again) or, better yet, "InterTAN" or "Tandy" (Which is what they *should* have called them).
The "Tandy" name does work for RS stores, because that's what Radio Shack is called in Europe.
Heck, they could have even used the name "Battery Plus" (which InterTAN owns) instead of "The Source by CC". Anything is better than that stupid name. :)
Another fun fact: InterTAN tried to divest themselves of the "Radio Shack" name well before they sold out. In the early 90s they changed the name of some stores to "Genexxa" for a short while. It was about as successful as McPizza.
Why do I know so much about this stupid company? I don't know, it's been about 10 years since Radio Shack sold anything you remotely repair a radio with, never mind anything else electronics related.
People from the US: If you're ever in Canada and extremely bored, check out a "The Source". They haven't changed much from what Radio Shack always was in Canada. And then ask yourself why they suck so much more than a US "Shack", and why my city has about 1 store per 25,000 people.
]]>Nowadays they're just another cell phone store. You don't even really want to go there to buy batteries, because you'll end up stuck behind someone having a cell phone contract explained to them.
]]>their ultimate goal is to sell the same crap but in a different box (meant both literally & figuratively) to make the shopping experience "fresh" for their customers. if you think about it, it's an ingenious idea - it allows the store to save money by revitalizing tired production lines instead of spending money on new product purchases.
too bad they really have no idea how to run that company. it has a lot of potential (imo), but they squander it at every turn. throwing out (arguably) the most well-known brand name in CE is a perfect example of that mismanagement.
]]>@GMFish: the first rule stands. the problem is, the kid on this playground didn't like the nicknames it's been given already:
-the shit shack
-the rat shack
-radio shit
-hell
But then, the thought process was probably warped into a certain context by the comment itself.
]]>OOH! OOH! OOH!
]]>"No, it's T-BONE!"
]]>And begin to exclusively sell the Jitterbug.
]]>@TinkishDelight: Why? Chromosomes determine gender. Two X chromosomes determine the female gender.
]]>I'd maybe take their advice a little more seriously if Slate hadn't named it's female-centric spin off "double X". That comes with it's own heaping of WTF.
]]>@GMFish: Are you sure about that? "Mickey D's" is trademarked, and I know of no adult human being who refers to McDonalds by that name. I'm pretty sure it's just a corporate snow job.
They haven't closed their doors, only about 700 stores. Radioshack specializes in selling low end RC cars, stereos, phones and highly overpriced connectors and electronics parts. Their inventory has a very limited amount of appeal to a number of people, though some of it *is* valuable. As an untrained professional with no business knowledge, it's my professional opinion that the only thing that kept Radio Shack afloat was their cellphone sales. I know of nobody who goes there except for phone issues.
]]>Funny thing is that I still often call it RadioShack, even 4 years after the name change - some habits die hard, I guess. Not much chance that I'll accidentally call it The Shack, though.
]]>@Telekinesis123: The internet > The Radio Shack.
]]>What? Too long?
]]>Well, I still listen to the radio every day.
But "The Shack?" That's modern? What "The Shack" (and also, that pizza place's "The Hut") conveys to me is: a place where 1960's era college kids would go to eat hamburgers and listen to beatniks read poetry and play the bongos. Or where a clean-cut young lady just out of the suburbs might have gone and discovered for the first time that she wanted to smoke dope, stop taking a shower, and become a hippy.
When you say "The Shack," I think about a place my mom with her long black wig and my dad just back from Vietnam might have gone to in "the Fan" in Richmond, Va., while he attended school at VCU.
I think of the B-52s.
I think of the basketball player referring to himself in the same way Donald Trump calls himself "the Donald."
There's absolutely nothing hip or modern about "The Shack."
]]>@pecan 3.14159265: You should look up a man named Ted Sheckler.
]]>Companies seem to be abandoning their traditions to appeal to a bunch of kids with cellphones. Not that change is bad, but this seems like change straight out of the movie Idiocracy.
]]>Anything with "Emporium" in the name gets my vote. Gadget Emporium and Electronics Emporium would be adequate. Electronics Emporium is too long to pronounce, but imagine the allterative logos!
]]>"THE SOURCE by circuit city, a division of Bell Canada"
Yup.
]]>The first rule of nicknames is that no one gets to pick their own nickname.
People didn't start calling McDonalds Mickey-Ds because some marketing drone told them to.
]]>"We have more generic no-name electronics than any other retailer that isn't located in NYC and owned by Pakistanis".
]]>