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According to Bloomberg Amazon is in talks to buy some of RadioShack's stores:
Amazon has considered using the RadioShack stores as showcases for the Seattle-based company’s hardware, as well as potential pickup and drop-off centers for online customers, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the deliberations are private.
RadioShack is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, and according to other reports, it has also been in talks with wireless carrier Sprint about selling some of its stores. The deal with Amazon may not happen, but nonetheless, it shows where Amazon is headed.
To head off competition from Wal-Mart—one of the few retailers that could pose a legitimate threat to Amazon—and to expand its operation, the company has adopted a new hybrid business model, combining e-commerce with offline services.
Originally spotted at Wired, and also linked at HackerNews.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday February 06 2015, @04:19AM
A lot of people do like to prototype a circuit on a breadboard. That calls for axial components.
Digikey has more stuff, but they have nothing at all I can place my hands on in the next hour.
Agreed that RS long ago got rid of any salesperson who had any advice on electronics to offer even to children just learning it. They used to do fairly well with a combination of students and retired engineers but working conditions got bad enough that either can do much better.
It's the olf story again. First they downsized, then they "rightsized". Finally, they have capsized.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Friday February 06 2015, @04:42AM
A lot of people do like to prototype a circuit on a breadboard. That calls for axial components. Digikey has more stuff, but they have nothing at all I can place my hands on in the next hour.
Those people can buy a resistor kit [digikey.com] at Digikey for $15. The kit contains 72 values, total 360 pieces. How many resistors of the same kind can you buy at RS for that money, packaged two or three per box? Digikey has RS not just defeated, but hammered a mile down into the ground, as each part in this kit costs only 4 cents to you - and Digikey still makes profit on it. I don't think that $15 is a significant expense today. I have several kits of passives that I need for alignment of circuits. They work great, and they are available to me not within one hour but within one minute. A reasonably stocked lab is a necessary condition for efficient hardware work, and anyone can buy enough kits for that for the cost of a few pizzas. The absolutely worst disservice that you can do to yourself is to buy parts one by one as you need them. R and C kits, plus a couple of BJTs and MOSFETs will be sufficient to build pretty much any analog circuit of shortwave and lower frequency range. If you need ICs, it's extremely unlikely that RS has what you need anyhow.