The Shack: You have questions, we have propaganda
By Ross Miller 
posted Aug 4th 2009 12:27AM
posted Aug 4th 2009 12:27AM
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THE SHACK needs to recognize that referring to one's self in the third person is pretentious and annoying.
Uh... What company DOESN'T refer to itself in 3rd person? Especially in adverts?
It's not so much the 3rd person point of view (that's normal for a company) as the "The" in it. Imaging if other companies did that e.g. The Microsoft, The Apple, The Chad :P
The store is called "The Shack" though, not "Shack", just as it's called "Microsoft" and not "The Microsoft."
The Home Depot does this. What's the big deal?
Don't tell me you've never heard an ad for "The Home Depot". They've been pulling that since forever.
"The Home Depot" is a title that consists of 3 words that describe the business. "The Shack" is only 2 words and describes nothing even remotely related to consumer electronics. That is the difference.
In Soviet Russia,... the Shack is you.
(yeah yeah, i know is called the Russian Federation, but i like soviet russia better)
in soviet russia you live in shacks
What year is this? 1988? Everyone is rebranding to "The whatever". Pizza Hut is now The Hut, Radio Shack of course, and I heard rumors about Circuit City rebranding as The City months before they shut down.
They say this Shack is a bad mother--
shut yo' mouth!
I think it's kind of sad to see them lower themselves to the same level as a mall kiosk.
Yeah! I mean, Radio Shack has been synonymous with electronics and hobbies and "The Shack" seems to be like... Generic.
@Aguiluz: The whole point is they don't want to be synonymous with DIY electronics and hobbies anymore, where it's all old people walking in to buy $2 parts and batteries. They want to become more of a destination for phones and GPSes and other things that people mostly go to Best Buy or Wal-Mart for.
I understand that they don't want to be the cool guy electronics store anymore but " The SHACK is a hug for your mobile life" is going too far. As a glorified cell phone store they had better get some better/nicer salesmen because compared to the nice guys at sprint they are incredibly pushy and rude.
@sacapuntas:
Which store is being pushy and rude? Give me their phone number - I'll give them a talk.
At our store, we do everything short of sexual favors to get a phone sale. Remember when Engadget posted that article about Palm Pres being $99 at Best Buy? I called up my boss (it happened to be his off day) so that he could drive down to the local Best Buy, pilfer the ad and have one of their sales associates copy the sales tags so that we could do a price match (the only way to do a price match from a competitor is to have the ad in hand as proof).
This looks like something you'd find on Engrish.com
Do they still have the fracking annoying chime that sounds whenever you open their door?
That's why nobody wants to go in those places.
I feel like a thief everytime I enter lol
I actually make it a little game to line myself up perfectly with someone else entering, so it only dings once.
Other times, I stand near the door looking at something and just swing my leg in front of the thing.
Could you imagine if they had one of those at a best buy
Love the reference. The Shack is not Radio Shack. The Shack was never Radio Shack.
1984 FTW!
The shack is good, the shack is great, we surrender our wills as of this date.
All hail our glorious new the shack!
Yes, but it WAS Radio Shaq.
R.I.P. "Radio" Shack, 2009
*facepalm*
This is stupid by definition...
successful troll was successful
The Shack is Ignorance? Wait, let me try again. The Shack is Peace... no, that didn't work. You guys are too clever for me.
i kind of like it. am i the only one??
Yes.
sounds douchy like The Hut
You have questions, We have morons.
You have questions, we have batteries!
I thought it was "you have questions we can't answer" or was it "we have answers you can't can't question".
so... When's the Shaq going to sue them?
God damn it. I thought I was the only one to think of him.
I believe they still have a binding contract w/ Shaq. He did some ads for them in '03 because of this similar naming.
Now that Pizza Hut is also renaming itself to "The Hut," we may now have an answer to the epic question: Which is better, The Shack or The Hut?
In some places, I heard Circuit City had renamed itself, 'The City'. Think about that.
Also, instead of thinking which one of the two is the best, think, which company should rename itself in the same fashion:
Best Buy - The Buy
CompUSA - The USA (I know it's pretty much dead, but it sounded too good)
NewEgg - The Egg
Engadget - The 'dGet (pronounced 'Jet')
Albertsons - The 'Sons
Safeway - The Way
Costco - The 'Co
Comedy Central - The Central
I gots more, but I gotta go.
I think you've done enough here.
That worked well for Circuit City
I call newegg "The egg" all the time, and I'd shop the hell out of a place called "The Co.".
Also, I am a consumer whore.
Okay, face change, image change, I get that. But, the kids (strike that) DWEEBS behind the counter are the same DWEEBS delivering pizzas yesterday? Alrighty then...
You must be talking about Best Buy or Walmart, because the Radioshacks in my city pride themselves on hiring extremely knowledgeable employees. Seriously they are really picky.
I've worked for Radioshack for the last year, and anything I didn't know coming in is taught in their required certifications. I cannot say the same for the Best Buy I worked at, where they will put someone who doesn't even own a computer into PCHO (personal computing and home office) as a supervisor.
Hmm... That'd be refreshing to find. In the last 10-15 years, I've been to RatShack's all over the country and I've never found one that was staffed with intelligence. We may be talking about different levels though.
Back in the 70's and through the 80's you could go in and have conversations with the staff about opamps and power supplies. These days the only conversation I've ever been involved in is being asked how I like my cell plan and how much I would prefer to be on Sprint. The employees are often disheveled, shirt tails hanging out, cigarette packs in their shirt pockets. I've often seen their lunch on the counter as well.
Two weeks ago I stood waiting to pay for something and had to listen to the counter talking a customer into a 12vdc car adapter because it was "faster" than the one that the guy was looking to replace. I wanted to get involved and talk about charging currents and such, but I more wanted to just get the heck out of the store.
And BestBuy... Gawd, I won't even walk into one.
BUT WAIT! THERES MOAR
Ugh, I work for these people. This entire shack thing is rediculous. Now we have to answer the phone 'Thank you for calling the Shack, your home for the best value in wireless.' I really need a new job >.
is the part "i really need a new job" part of what you have to say when you answer the phone because it really should be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
no, but i did let out a "ugh" once after a terrible attempt at being chipper when I answered the phone. Customer thought it was funny, thank god it wasnt a DM
i havent been told to say anything when i answer the phone.
I am not calling my store "the shack". I dont fry chicken FFS, I sell wire. They can fire me for all I care.
ok i will help you with that today... Give me your store number and DM name.. I'll will personally make a phone call for you. If you don't like your job QUIT. Employees like you are the reason why people hate us. When people say I hate going there because the employees don't care and don't know anything about electronics... Yeah they are probably talking about you!
SM 01-8239
Luke Kwan
Something very similar happened in the UK..
We have a chain of shops called Maplin, which was very similar to Radio Shack (which was called Tandy here), and sold all what Radio Shack sold, for hobbyists etc... Anyway about four years ago Maplin rebranded itself, but kept the same name. Once when the whole shop would be shelves of parts for PCs, batteries, everything for electronics and so on, now all that's been moved to a mail order counter, and the shelves are now full of GPS systems, RC cars, even damn subwoofers for cars!
That's not the whole story though, is it? Yes, they have introduced those things over the last few years, but you can still get a decent range of wires and connectors in any Maplin shop.
In reality, Maplin sell the same range of goods that Tandy would have sold today had they not gone under years ago. They were always had a weird balance between components for hobbyists and consumer oriented boxes that flash and go SQUEEE BLARRPP!!!
Tandy is Radio Shack.
Tandy had at least 3 electronics companies in the mid-90's and ran two of the best into the ground. I was wondering when they'd do the same with Radio Shack, err...The 'Shack.
Sorta like when "Homer Simpson's Mediocre Life" was renamed The Simpsons.
LOL!!!
its funny someone on here said radioshack was lowering themselves to the mall kiosks, its funny cause they own all the sprint kiosks in the mall, i should know i work for them, horrible company. all they did was rebrand the sprint kiosks in the mall to sell tmobile,sprint and att. radioshack also owns most of the sams club cell phone kiosks. beware if you buy form them certain models of phones are refurbs but they dont tell the customers that. I didnt believe it for my self until i went in r inventory data base and notice all the blackberry we sell for sprint all have refurb next to the item numbers i was in shock, talk about a lawsuit. i said something to my dm about it and the guy said it was an error so i went and looked on the boxs and noticed they all say blk berry curve refresh cant wait to find a new job so i can leave this company
refresh is different than refurb, a refresh is the same phone but updated somehow -- different battery, updated OS, etc. Happens a lot with blackberrys, and the first instinct (remember the problems with the first instinct? ugh)
Refresh doesn't mean Refurb, it means it is a new generation of the same phone. In this case the refresh models come with a software update and a 1GB microSD card to allow it to better compete with newer models without all the R&D and training.
RadioShack no longer sells refurbished phones of any kind in 1 out of 100 stores i.e. only 48 stores will have refurbs out of 4800 and they are always repackaged in a plain white box that says "RECONDITIONED" in big words as well as the phone is marked under the battery as "RECONDITIONED" right infront of the serial number.
The shack is a big pile of shit.
Agreed.
Ever since I worked at RadioShack as a teen back in 2000-ish I wondered what role they really had in the marketplace. They had about 6 models of cell phones, three RCA TV's, some RCA receivers, two computers, a guitar amp... basically just a collection of bullshit. They excelled at absolutely nothing and were lacking an identity. This hasn't changed and doesn't look like it's changing with this stupid rebranding.
I don't know how these guys outlived Circuit City. Can the Black Friday profits from RC car sales really propel you through an entire year?
Yes, they can... apparently...
The profit margin isn't really on the RC car sales, it's on the 70 cent battery/pack of batteries that they sell for $4.69- $7.99, and the $6 cable that they sell for $40. That kind of profit margin is usually reserved for drug dealers!
The place has got to be a front for some sort of money laundering operation - these guys and GNC. Put the clues together - A) No one ever shops at these place, they are always abandoned B) They sell nothing that a Target/Walmart/Kmart or hell, even grocery stores these days don't sell C) They've been around forever and have not gone bankrupt.
70 cent batteries? I got 100 button cell batteries from DealExtreme for about $3 shipped, and all but 3 of them tested over 1.6v, with the other 3 still above 1.55! I saved myself $497 compared to buying them individually at Radioshack, and the whole pack was cheaper than just 1 at RS. Sure, shipping took a few weeks, but I didn't need them right away.
Hardcore, come back and read your comment when you actually worked at Radioshack for a couple of years. You'd find your comment hilarious for several reasons:
A) Radioshack's name carries a lot of weight with people over 60, immigrants, and people looking for a good deal (ha ha). Not a day goes by that I've sold five travel adapters to Europeans visiting from overseas and at least three telephone batteries. On occasion I'll even sell one of those replacement Laptop chargers for $100, and the other day I sold a couple of Samsung Impressions for $120 (doesn't make up for the $8.00 an hour though)
B) Not many people know this, but we phased out cassette tape players and vcrs. The only place you'll find them now is online. It's all bluetooth accessories, blueray players, and iPod cases. A hobby shop, the Shack is no longer - but hey, you gotta follow the money. Which leads me to my next point:
C) Radioshack has been around forever because it adapts. Sharper Image had high overheads and smaller profit margins. I don't know why Circuit City tanked, but I know that Radioshack will do anything and everything to keep in the green - sell batteries/cables at triple their cost, make their own MP3 players, gain yet another cell phone service provider (looking at you, T-mobile) - so long as there's an electronic product out there, Radioshack will find a way to make money off of it.
So actually do some research before you spout off like that. It just looks asinine.
The Shack says these are not the droids you are looking for.
THE SHACK'S GETTIN' ANGRY
United States of Eurasia, anyone?
First of rule of The Shack? YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT RADIO SHACK
And the eighth, and final rule of The Shack is: if this is your first night at The Shack, you have to The.
The Shack is....
Sounds like a perfect candidate for the "And I'm a PC" treatment. http://andimapc.com/
THE SHACK excels at newspeak. DoublePlusUngood.
maybe the radioshack stores are different from the kiosk they own, some of the tmobile phones we get have stickers over one side of the boxs were the orginial imei and sim card were, i pilled back one of the stickers, and the imei was the same, but the sim card id was diferent, that to me looks a little fishy, but then again, they dont have radio shack on r kiosk cause were in a sams club so maybe they feel they can get away with it
Hey, what district are you in?
I've only just gotten used to not calling it Tandy.
In mother Russia "The Shack talks to you" sorry I couldn't resist.
But seriously though why is it that they always have to get my damn phone number and address information when paying by credit card? Cant they just look ID and swipe it like everyone else?
Interesting bcoz as far as I know they never took my phone# unless i was purchasing something over 100$......they do take the name and add when returning something though....
Reminds me of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXv8rMIFrxg
Johnny-Five would never rebuild him self at "The Shack"....
kovidog r u gay? Cuz dat has nothing to do wit radio shack!
The shack...is an even worse name than "Radio Shack."
Why is everyone so freaking negative? Why can't they rebrand? It's not like you shitheads can think of a better way for them steer away from "Radioshack". Is it such a crime to make a profit off of a sale? Cheap bastards that are always looking for a discount or are always complaining about the profit margin are the reason that so many retailers are closing. Don't forget about payroll, shrink, fraud, and the other costs of running a business. Get over yourselves!
Get over yourselves! Buy cheap shit for a 900% markup! Go ahead, waste your hard-earned money! Enjoy poor customer service! Dont be cheap, get over yourself!
Keep being cheap. Sooner or later, all of the Brick and Mortar retailers will close down because they can't make rent. Then the online prices for the same cheap cables and components will skyrocket because the competition isn't as fierce. Suck it holmes. You know nothing of running a business. Poor customer service? That is a case by case basis and you can't let your own experiences speak for an entire company. People are more likely to complain about poor customer service than they are to share their good experiences.
Oh now I understand. The way to prevent "skyrocketing internet prices" is to keep shopping at overpriced radioshack.
Thanks for the economics lesson
Where am I going to go for my Shortwave and Amateur Radio needs now? :(
Exactly. Honestly, I think they would have been better off going to the opposite extreme and branding themselves as a physical digikey/mouser electronics components store.
Best Buy and other stores already meet consumer electronics needs much better than "The Shack". They really don't have a market. Maybe the market for hobby/diy electronics is smaller, but it has almost no competition in physical stores. They could have downsized and focused, but instead decided to apply a lot of marketing BS, compete directly with better stores, and hope for the best. Good luck with that.
agreed witht he digikey.
things like DIY hackaday, instructables/make are coming in stronger now, they could have gone in a direction that everyone is sort of now looking for. instead they'll just be yet one more place to buy an over priced bluetooth headset. thanks but no thanks. if I want that shit I'll go to a big box like bestbuy because I know it'll be cheaper because they can afford to house more stock.
Im pretty sure they are not phasing those out since i recently saw some new models come in........plus one of the store managers i visit in Grosse Pointe, MI told me that roughly 1 out of 50 cust. would actually come in for actual DIY parts.....believe it or not but most of us DIY'ers go searching online b4 heading to radioshack or should i say the shack..
Seems our local THE SHACKS always hire a mix of child predators and people too stupid to work at Best Buy. It always amazes me how much they know about the contents of the store, but have no idea what any of the technical stuff in the back actually does.
"The Shack"? it should be called "The Roach"
Think about it. Circuit City went down CompUSA went down GM Ford are in trouble Banks have gone down and were going through an economic recession and "Radio Shack" is still alive! How does that happen? How does Radio Shack even make money? They never have more than two customers in there and I know nobody goes in there to buy a TV or make any kind of big purchase.
So its agreed "The Roach".
Batteries and cables, m'boy, batteries and cables. And whatever low-cost, high-profit accessories you can find in there.
I swear, there's a website with all this insider's info on Radioshack, and all you need to do is a search to find it.
its some new signs. and an ad campaign. OMG. like a million other businesses havent tried a rebranding to drum up interest. and look. its totally working. media coverage and people (YOU ELITIST PEOPLE) talking about marketing that hasn't even been rolled out in its entirety. looks like its been pretty damn successful already. thanks for boosting my employers' sales.
I give them a year before they end up exactly like CompUSA and Circuit City.
Say what you will, but Radioshack sells 6 foot 3.5mm stereo extension cables for 6 bucks, whereas even walmart wants upwards of $15 for the "premium" belkin 3 foot ones.
Not to mention splitters, converters, adapters etc.
Shit, they should just cut a deal with and rename their stores to Monoprice! The cable sales alone would probably bankrupt Best Buy :D