RE: goodbye to 2002

["Aaron [Bishop] Read" <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 09:49 AM 1/2/2003, SteveOrdinetz wrote:
>Of course many automakers have gotten wise to this and have designed their 
>interiors so that either the radio is odd-shaped or integrated into the 
>dash.  While factory stereos generally have fewer bells & whistles, they 
>also seem to be less flimsy than aftermarket ones.  Not having 87 dinky 
>little buttons to deal with is a plus, too.  Also, if you want to listen 
>to AM, forget about an aftermarket one.
>
>Sales of aftermarket stereos must be down...there are fewer & fewer places 
>that carry them anymore...Rat Shack for one has discontinued car stereos.

Possibly, but my guess is that it's more that car stereo sales have become 
more the domain of major chains like Best Buy and Circuit City that have 
come to dominate the electronics/media/computers field...."smaller" chains 
like Radio Shack can't compete because they can't offer installation and 
the radios themselves are not "fancy" enough to compete with all the 
mini-TV-like-display units that Best Buy loves to show off (don't get me 
started on how unbelieveably stupid and potentially distracting those 
radios are).

I've noticed Radio Shack has, over the past few years, seriously 
restructured themselves in terms of what and how they sell things.  A hefty 
chunk of the really geeky stuff they used to have is gone.   Home theater 
and cellphones are very much in.  Most recently all the Radio Shacks around 
Boston (and in New London, CT) have moved a large portion of their parts & 
connectors into a more space-efficient drawer system.  I like the drawers 
with the handy pictures (sounds lame, I know...but it does make "scanning 
the shelves" a little easier) but I've noticed that the drawers have far 
smaller parts stock in them.  Oh well...guess if I have an urgent need for 
20 XLR male connectors then I'm either YDI or I'm SOL  ;-)    Point is, 
though, that by and large, if something isn't selling with brisk volume at 
RS - they stop selling it.  I've noticed that their sales of whole 
computers must be down as their computer display kiosks have gotten a lot 
smaller.


____________________________________________
Aaron "Bishop" Read     aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Technical Consulting / Boston, MA
www.friedbagels.com   AOL-IM: ReadAaron