A few months ago, we covered Radio Shack’s efforts to suck less, and the Radio Shack DIY team has now come back with the top ten suggestions submitted.*Of course Arduinos make the list at number 1, which we somewhat expected for beginner projects. *Here’s the entire list in order:
- Arduino
- More kits and project suggestions
- More introduction/instructional books
- Larger LED selection
- Larger resistor selection
- TONS more capacitors
- DIY audio and speaker equipment
- HAM radio gear
- More competitive pricing
- Stronger sales force
For all the jest of the headline, we know we’re coming down too hard on Radio Shack. We tried pricing out individual components on Digikey matching what was in a 150 in 1 electronics kit, and learned the profit margin on these kits are razor-thin. That being said, we long for the days when our local, independent Radio Shack – staffed*entirely*by really weird and awesome people – was still in business. They couldn’t turn a profit because of the 3 corporate Radio Shacks less than 10 miles away.
Tell us what Radio Shack got wrong in the comments section. We’ll put “There aren’t any individual AVR and PIC*microcontrollers” down as our complaint.
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