Having read many times about the imminent collapse of Radio Shack (which from their website does seem to still be trading), last week the UK equivalent, Maplin went bust and is closing down. A couple of hours I went in one of their shops and got a Numark Stereo IO phono preamp at 40% off, which looking at online prices was actually a bargain. Just round the corner from Maplin was a big Toys R Us which was already closed with signs outside saying the shelving and fittings were for sale. Up to about 20 years ago we did have Tandy (Radio Shack) in the UK but they were bought out by Carphone Warehouse who wanted the shops rather than the business. I used to joke that Maplin turned into Tandy but my guess is they over-expanded with lots of large stores. A few years ago we lost Comet while Dixons and PC World have all been absorbed into Currys where far more floor space is devoted to Dishwashers than gadgets and the ones they do sell are quite mediocre. You might have seen some of the old Dixons adverts I posted. In the past there was always something new and exciting to lust after. Looking around UK High Streets today they seem to be dominated by Pound Shops, Coffee shops selling Coffee at several Pounds a Cup and Mobile Phone shops usually full of people discussing Contracts and Insurance. Having gone in to ask questions as a PAYG customer you won't get much help there. Cheaper areas will have Charity Shops (I believe the USA call them Goodwill) where you might find something interesting. Anyway that's the UK. Do any other Countries still have interesting Gadget shops or does everyone all over the world just get the latest iPhone or Samsung Galaxy on a Monthly Contract and have no interest or money left for anything else ?
It’s because everything is cheaper on the web...mostly at least. I can’t remember the last time I bought something from a high street electrical store. I check reviews online and find the cheapest. I might go into a store to have a look and check it out but then I’d buy it online. I certainly wouldn’t take the advice of someone who worked there. I guess toys are the same, people buy them online. With Amazon Prine stuff turns up next day so you don’t even have to wait
On many items I agree. For something I will soon post about I needed a 2.5mm to 3.5mm stereo adapter. I got two from China for 99p including postage ! They took about a fortnight to turn up but I could wait. Having said that in the last year I have bought both an iPad and FitBit in John Lewis. After spending two minutes in the overly busy Apple store where they weren't even displaying prices I went to John Lewis and spent an hour comparing the 10.5" and 12.9" side by side before buying the last 12.9" they had in stock. Quite a few years ago I bought a large TV in Sainsburys. I'm glad I didn't get that mail order as it packed up after 2 months (if you know about reliability you will have heard of the "bathtub curve"). I took it back the day after it bust and they swapped it for another without any quibbling.
Lets be honest here, the high street is surely dying. Every week you hear another big company is closing down or on the brink of closing. Few years time, all you will see is opticians and coffee shops. I went to Horsham recently and even some of the charity shops had closed down! All these companies blame the internet for their downfall, not entirely true in a lot of cases. Toys 'R' us for example was saddled with £7billion of debt as they were bought by a company that used the company as security to buy them! How does that work? How can you secure a loan against something you don't own to buy that item? Hmm.... Maplins just didn't move with the times, things were often overpriced, stores not always in what I'd call 'prime locations'. The Brighton store is miles outside the main shopping centre for example. I will miss them though, always handy to be able to buy that connector or a battery you can't get anywhere else. When you look back at pictures of shops from the 80's, how many do you think 'ahh I wish they were still around'? Woolworths? Tandy? Comets? Zodiac Toys? Gamleys? Just my 2ps worth!
As you suggest, a lot of the time the problems are caused by management over-confidence (and thats putting it in a polite way). The first time I went in Wilkison's which was probably only a decade ago I thought: this is exactly like Woolworths used to be forty years ago. I guess there will always be a market for washing up bowls, detergent etc. I do think that the proportion of money that people spend on Big Ticket items like stereos has reduced a lot over the years. Nowadays you take out a contract with someone like Sky and the equipment you need (including a TV if they have an offer on) gets thrown in for free. Even things like iPads can be had on a monthly contract. A bloke I used to know always used the expression "I decided to invest in ... insert latest gadget such as DVD recorder here". Things like that, Boomboxes, Walkmen and even tapes and CDs were actually an investment. You paid a lot of money up front for them then hopefully got years of pleasure from them. A few threads such as http://www.stereo2go.com/forums/threads/ten-reasons-why-i-love-my-walkman.2480/ have made me wonder what youngsters get for presents these days. I am sure most of us are of an age where we have received a record, tape or CD we requested as a present, or maybe a compilation; I would guess a large proportion of the "Now" series are bought as presents. A large part of the Vinyl revival seems to be based on the novelty of actually having something to show for the Money you have spent. In contrast I feel that unlimited streaming services like Spotify remove any value from individual artists work, reducing music to the same level as Council Tax or Life Insurance.
There is a future for bricks and mortar shops, they just need to change their philosophy. People going into a shop to see and try a product then going to buy it online are not helping either. If I go and try something in a shop and like it and want it, I buy it from that shop. When you buy from a shop, you get after service should you need help. I like to see how much help you get when you buy online and then want help later.
Its Amazon who killed many businesses including bricks and mortar shops. several years ago there were some electronic stores called " Good Guys" with excellent customer support. They were the first to go out of business and circuit city stores came next. Amazon offers excellent customer support and a wide variety of goods that makes it difficult for smaller businesses to survive.
Longman....It isn`t just the cheap areas that have charity shops. I used to work in Weybridge (one of the most expensive place in Surrey but also in the UK) and the High St must have had about 10 charity shops of various nature
As a big follower of retail and internet business, I've identified several reasons why business go under and I don't buy the internet killed us as the main reason. Yes there are some exceptions but for me personally I want to buy local, I want a good price, I want a good selection and I want good customer service. The internets biggest advantage over here, starting 20 years ago, was not having to charge sales tax, which averages around 7%. Boodokhan mentions the Good Guys Stores, we have Best Buy up here. They were the biggest jerks if your equipment stopped working after the sale. For some reason their inventory looked identical to everybody elses but the products didn't seem to last. After buying a few big dollar items that just quit working after a few months I gave up on them. They had no interest in helping me out and I had no interest in ever shopping there again, of course I could have bought the "extended warranty" plan but that would have doubled the price. Hobby or repair electronics as a whole is a dead industry, we have a few "specialty" shops and they seem to do ok and a few old-school repair shops. Repair guys are for the most part pretty old and there is not a lot of youth going into that field and they are the big buyers for electronic repair, one of the reason why Radio Shack got away from electronic parts as their core buyers were getting older. I think the main reasons we see the local shops disappearing is that when they opened, the property taxes were pretty reasonable, but now, several years later, the taxes are huge, taking a big chunk out of the small store's profit. Property taxes are based on the value of the property which seems to keep going up every year. Just to have a local shop the owner might be at a huge disadvantage due to the local taxes. Throw in that the internet guys are given all kinds of incentives to build and operate in the host city and they are exempt from the small guys crushing property taxes. I look at some of our neat boutique stores and wonder how they can afford to be in business knowing they have the big tax bill at the end of the year.
The reason you find so many Charity shops in the UK is that they get an 80% discount on their rates (property taxes), and various other perks such as claiming the donators income tax back. If I (as a tax payer) donate a book which they sell for £10 they can claim £2.50 Gift Aid from the Government). https://www.charityretail.org.uk/how-charity-shops-work/
Here in Canada, we've had a few large retailers closed doors like, Future Shop, Sears, Target a while back, Zellers and Radio Shack. I really don't know if we can blame on line shopping, Walmart or what not? what I can tell you thought is that, even though I have bought on line, I still like to see some items in person to get a feel for them.
