[TriLUG] Radio Shack: was Old Dog In Need of New Trick - Digital TV Recording

[Bill Farrow]

On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 11:17 AM, Brian <lugmail at cheetah.dynip.com> wrote:
> source for components.  They'll have to stop charging $1.99 for a single
> ordinary 5mm LED to get there, though.

Opening a retail store to sell electronics components in this area
would be very risky financially. Sure, there is demand from the local
makers and do-it-yourself-ers, but you would have to charge a lot more
than the mail order places to cover rent and payroll. You would need
to carry a large amount of stock, some of which won't turn over for
very quickly at all.

How would you structure this type of business to make it profitable ?

I think that local hacker spaces could fill some of this niche. They
could stock kits and basic essential parts, with a self serve honor
system for purchasing at the space. I think Splatspace in Durham
already does this for electronics kits.

Bill