[TriLUG] More on Radio Shack

[Scott Chilcote]

On 03/10/2014 01:49 PM, Steve Litt wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> We had a discussion on Radio Shack in February, and now Cringely has
> chimed in:
>
> http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/rip-radioshack-we-dont-know-how-good-we-had-it-238006
>
> SteveT

I worked at Radio Shack while paying my way through college in the late
eighties.  Even as employees, we couldn't wait to see what new computer
related stuff would arrive each year.  I spent far too much of what I
earned keeping my Color Computer addiction going.  But in the retail
sense, learning the ropes of working there was a lot like Oliver Twist's
introduction to Fagin and his gang of happy pickpockets.  And I had
already worked in retail for five years at that point.

Working commission against a draw, the shack monitored every aspect of
your earnings: dollars per hour, dollars per ticket, add-on sales,
extended warranties, feature item sales, and so forth.  Employees were
given daily metrics for their performance, and endlessly pushed to sell
more or find alternative employment. 

Employees who did not compete near the top by whatever means possible
were shifted from store to store, and given increasingly less lucrative
hours and locations until they left.  And their district frequently
stacked the deck by having them work in non-sales roles like store
inventories, remodels, relocations, and new store openings.  All of
these non-sales hours paid only "draw", and were therefore performance
reducing - unless you bit the bullet and worked them for free.  This was
very commonly done.

I also got to see how store managers rigged the books.  One of the more
visible hacks was to never, ever take a markdown on a display item, or
an item that was returned damaged.  Customers never understood why
haggling for a display item pretty much never worked.  We (as
salespeople) were given a litany of things to say when all that was left
was the display model (very, very common) and the customer wanted to
dicker.  Everything from "this unit has already burn-in tested, if it
was going to have any problems it would have had them by now" to "sorry,
we already have a customer who is coming to pick this one up at the
regular price." 

The reason for this is surprisingly simple: the store manager's
performance was based on turning inventory into sales at full retail. 
They were not penalized for an item that was still on inventory,
regardless of the condition, even for years.  The moment they sold an
item at a markdown, their store took a loss, reflected on their annual
bonus.  So most stores would have a lot of trashed old stuff in the
stockroom going on inventory as new.

Thinking back on all this I could probably write a couple of articles,
but that's all digression.

I still like having the shack around, even if about 2/3 of the time I go
there they don't have what I need.  I like being able to pick up some
solder or a useful looking adapter cable.  I agree with Cringley that
when you like to make stuff, sometimes you need to take a close look to
discover that an item would be fun to tinker with.

I'm not going to miss Staples though, even a little.  It is the only
place where I've had a salesperson tell me, face to face, that he would
not sell me a digital camera - unless I bought an extended warranty to
go with.  And that his manager would back him up on that. 

It was the last day of a sale, and I walked away feeling strangely
liberated.

   Scott C.

-- 
Scott Chilcote
scottchilcote at ncrrbiz.com
Cary, NC USA