Store's closing, grabbed old Nintendo sign

[kainemaxwell]

The Kmart I work at is closing soon, but grabbed this old plastic Nintendo sign from the electronics dept today!
7738

[FrankSerpico]

Looks pretty sweet. I hope you have another job lined up or will soon, though. Shit's rough out here

[Gameguy]

Still surprised to hear Kmart mentioned as existing, but that's mostly because I'm in Canada and all Kmarts here closed about 15 years ago. Keep forgetting they still exist in the US.

[Niku-Sama]

Barely existing, Wal-Mart is heading down the path Kmart started 2 years ago. I should jump ship before it gets that bad

[Tanooki]

You really think Walmart is going to go down the road Kmart has so soon? They've basically killed small town america eating up the small family businesses turning themselves into local dependency shops. Kmart pulled through this long almost failing a few years back but got some extra time by merging with Sears.

[wizardofwor1975]

It looks like RadioShack is next to go under. Really sad. 4,300 U.S. stores and 30,000 employees.

http://investorplace.com/2014/10/radioshack-stock-rsh-refinancing/#.VGWUxfnF_ng

On the subject of Wal-Mart. I'll continue to patronage my local K Mart, RadioShack, and last but certainly not least COSTCO!!!

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-06/costco-ceo-craig-jelinek-leads-the-cheapest-happiest-company-in-the-world#p1

My wife and I even buy all our gas at Costco. GameStop will be joining Costco this year and will be closed on Thanksgiving. Costco said its employees "deserve the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with their families." Hopefully Coscto's business model of high wages and excellent benefits will catch on as well.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/29/news/thanksgiving-black-friday-costco/

Costco pays its hourly workers an average of $20.89

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-06/costco-ceo-craig-jelinek-leads-the-cheapest-happiest-company-in-the-world#p1

[kainemaxwell]

RadioShack going down is gonna be a kick in the gut to us old schoolers.

[ProjectCamaro]

How Radio Shack is still around is beyond me.

[The Adventurer]

RadioShack going down is gonna be a kick in the gut to us old schoolers.

They're still the best place to go if you're looking for some random electronic hook up or component. Granted you're gonna pay a lot more they anywhere else, but at least they will still have it.

That's the trouble really, its right in their name. Their historical business model was built entirely around selling electronic components to enthusiasts. And in this solid state and disposable future of ours, the demand just isn't there for what they're selling. It really is sad.

[kai123]

They're still the best place to go if you're looking for some random electronic hook up or component. Granted you're gonna pay a lot more they anywhere else, but at least they will still have it.

That's the trouble really, its right in their name. Their historical business model was built entirely around selling electronic components to enthusiasts. And in this solid state and disposable future of ours, the demand just isn't there for what they're selling. It really is sad.

I would agree with that to a point. I know most of the Radioshacks around me have one aisle of components like that. It is mostly overpriced phones and accessories for them.

[FrankSerpico]

You can find a ton of deals at K-Mart. I think a lot of their fall-off in the US has to do with Super Wal-Marts showing up everywhere and marketing themselves effectively as both the place you can buy organic apples and a 24 pack of Mountain Dew for the cheapest price in town. Found a filter for my furnace at K-Mart for five bucks less than they charge at Wally World the other day, though. I got no love for dem Waltons :fist:

[Tanooki]

It looks like RadioShack is next to go under. Really sad. 4,300 U.S. stores and 30,000 employees.

My wife and I even buy all our gas at Costco. GameStop will be joining Costco this year and will be closed on Thanksgiving. Costco said its employees "deserve the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with their families." Hopefully Coscto's business model of high wages and excellent benefits will catch on as well.

Costco pays its hourly workers an average of $20.89


I love that place too, never go to it regularly like I was when we had to buy diapers and junk, but it's such a great place and you're right the hourly there is insanely good and totally explains why people there are so nice. If I got $20~/hr to put up with the trolls of retail I'd be happy too. And good on them for saying F U to retail stores opening at like 5pm on thanksgiving. Places doing that really I hope just eat a dick, and up boycotted, and maybe a few go out of business over it (clearly not chains, just one off places being rotten.)

I saw this bar graph in the last week or two on a business news site that showed they looked at the data from the 2013 season and it's nauseating. The 3 highest points of sale last year were Thanksgiving night, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Stunningly the 5-7~ish hours they were open on Thansgiving made the most, Black Friday was the lowest of them at a 1/3 less profit and Cyber Monday was straight up in the middle of the two. That's why you're seeing it more this year than last, that disgusting little test run paid off big time so now more stores are going to fuck their employees making them show up early-mid afternoon on Thanksgiving to prep and open at 5pm in time for the dinner they won't be having with their families. -- Clearly I won't be shopping that night, it's not right. What's next, being open Christmas morning at 5am for those who forget a present or do gifts in the afternoon or evening? Or perhaps just being open all day like 5am to midnight on Thanksgiving?

[Niku-Sama]

You really think Walmart is going to go down the road Kmart has so soon? They've basically killed small town america eating up the small family businesses turning themselves into local dependency shops. Kmart pulled through this long almost failing a few years back but got some extra time by merging with Sears.

Go down that road so soon? They have been
The whole time. I've worked at Wal-Mart, mind you a company I hate, for 3 years and in that 3 years they have been scrambling to keep their growth going at the same rate or faster. At this point there's not going to be growth until they get some quality products and stop selling the crap people have to buy repeatedly that fueled their growth to begin with.

As far as radio shack is concerned, with this rise of the age of the "maker" with arduinos, raspberry pi's and basic stamps they will recover. They have already shown improvement but not enough to stave off store closures bit at the same time.... I don't think we need 3 in the town I live in. I only ever go to one each time and the second I go to is in the mall so it has longer hours if I miss the good one

[Einzelherz]

Radio shacks are specialty shops (in principle) so I think they'll stay around, albeit severely downsized.

[RP2A03]

The problem with Radio Shack is that they almost never have the part I am looking for.

[8-Bit Archeology]

The problem with Radio Shack is that they almost never have the part I am looking for.

The only part I found in stock I needed was a voltage regulator for my Sega master system. Lame.

But on the topic of the post.

That's a sweet sign. It's cool thats it's simple so it fits on a wall for retro and modern. Very nice find.

[celerystalker]

Sweet Nintendo sign.

Wal-Mart is a lot different from K-Mart, though Wal-Mart's international business has been a huge source of growth in the last decade, especially in South America. In the US, the small format stores in metro areas and Neighborhood Markets have penetrated a new market that has helped the stock price to climb about $15 a share in the last few years. Wal-Mart.com has also grown revenue by a large margin. Oh, and they pay me a bunch of money, so, um, save money and live better and all that.

[Steve W]

Tandy Corporation, the parent of Radio Shack, tried a lot of other stores around the early '90s, like McDuff's (I bought my original Sega Genesis there) and after that place went under they opened Incredible Universe in the old McDuff's warehouse. That place was amazing and was always packed full of people buying big screen TVs and stuff, and yet it wasn't doing well according to an article I read around the time they were talking about selling the chain off. The article said that the Incredible Universe stores lost money, but the company was propped up by sales at Radio Shack which was a "cash cow" for Tandy. I have never understood that statement, considering the volume of sales at Incredible Universe I not only witnessed but contributed to, and all the times I've ever gone into a Radio Shack it's virtually empty. Then Radio Shack decided to badger everybody about buying a cellphone there along with wanting your name and address even if you just wanted a $1.29 headphone jack adapter. I rarely go into Radio Shack now, after so many annoying experiences there. And I still miss Incredible Universe.

[Gamevet]

Tandy Corporation, the parent of Radio Shack, tried a lot of other stores around the early '90s, like McDuff's (I bought my original Sega Genesis there) and after that place went under they opened Incredible Universe in the old McDuff's warehouse. That place was amazing and was always packed full of people buying big screen TVs and stuff, and yet it wasn't doing well according to an article I read around the time they were talking about selling the chain off. The article said that the Incredible Universe stores lost money, but the company was propped up by sales at Radio Shack which was a "cash cow" for Tandy. I have never understood that statement, considering the volume of sales at Incredible Universe I not only witnessed but contributed to, and all the times I've ever gone into a Radio Shack it's virtually empty. Then Radio Shack decided to badger everybody about buying a cellphone there along with wanting your name and address even if you just wanted a $1.29 headphone jack adapter. I rarely go into Radio Shack now, after so many annoying experiences there. And I still miss Incredible Universe.

I'd bought a lot of Atari Jaguar software from Incredible Universe. It was a great store to shop at. Fry's pretty much took over 2 of the older Incredible Universe locations in the DFW area and opened up another 2 locations in Plano and Coppell. I think they are pretty much a replacement for Incredible Universe.

[ZeroCool]

Isn't Target losing money as well? I read a few months ago that they were in trouble cause of the lackluster launch in Canada. I think the problem is they expanded too quickly. Their prices aren't much of a difference from Walmart, their stock is much of the same as other stores. There was hope that some products not available in Canada would be in Target. I'm also not a fan of their layout. Of course that is just my personal opinion. Zellers which was a canadian company was a bit of a mess was more enjoyable. They had more different stock. I also probably would of not gotten Metroid Prime Trilogy for cheap cause the video games section was mostly ignored

[celerystalker]

Target took a big hit about a year ago when they got hacked, and it was unsafe to use credit and debit in their stores for about a month. Totally not their fault, but it took away a huge revenue stream and damaged customer trust fot awhile. Also, like you pointed out, they really overreached in expansion when they decided to get into the grocery business before building the logistical structure to support it. Grocery, especially fresh grocery, is regulated so differently for shipping and storage compared to their core business, and in one huge swoop they had to build a ton of new distribution centers, buy trucks and outsource additional transportation and fueling, take on company-wide building and remodeling costs to support it, create new signing and labeling programs, and pay to train their management staff in food safety all in just a matter of a couple of years since their approach wasn't gradual. It's a marvel that they aren't in worse shape, really.

I don't think they're super at-risk just yet, though, for a couple of reasons. One, they dominate market share in fashion apprel for discount retail. While apparel is nowhere near grocery for volume, which Wal-Mart owns, it is super high profit margin, and that has kept them from bleeding out, and also why they've refocused their recent advertising on apparel. Two, their customer experience tracks way, way better in all female demographics for cleanliness and presentation compared to the competition. Wal-Mart tried to compete a few years ago by removing all action-alley stackbase features in order to attract that business, and while customer experience ratings did climb a bit, the sales dropped severely from the unused impulse space that the expanded capacity endcaps could not replace in volume of revenue or capacity, not to mention that buyers continued to purchase featurea in formats such a large shippers that the fixtures no longer supported, creating additional storage and labor cost issues for merchandise handling. So, they ended up ceding that to Target, which is still to this day the #1 experience for soccer moms aesthetically.