From: lhawkins@olaf.wellesley.edu (Lee Hawkins)
Subject: Re: Big Brother Radio Shack
Keywords: competition, free market, monopoly
Organization: Wellesley College
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 21:58:05 GMT

In article <BxBzJK.BqK@news.udel.edu> bew@brahms.udel.edu (Ben Williams) writes:
>
>I've just read this thread containing 50+ complaints about Radio Shack.
>What I would like to know is:  Why do we have to shop at RS to get
>electronic supplies?  Why aren't there other electronic stores in
>competition with RS?  Well, maybe there are in your area (let me know)
>but where I live they are the only thing going.  And boy is that ever
>frustrating!  Aren't there laws about monopolies?  Aren't we living under
>a competitive free-market economy where stores that customers do not like
>to go to will be competed with by other stores?  Isn't that the way it's
>supposed to work?  I mean, RS does seem to usually have what I am looking
>for, but I still would like the option at least to do business elsewhere.
>You know, like maybe an electronics store where the salesmen know what
>they are talking about...

	Well, folks, if you think the service is bad and the prices are
high at Radio Slack, you obviously have never been into a You-Do-It
(YDI) electronics store.  My complaints (at least about the store in 
Needham, Mass):

	1) High prices.  Some examples:

	1 74LS193 for the low, low price of $3.97.  When I asked if this
	was the correct price, I was told "Yes, but we can order that
	part from another supplier for a lower price, and have it here
	in two weeks or so."  My answer: "No thanks, I can do that
	myself."

	1 74C08 for $2.11. I could go on, but you get the picture.

	2) POOR service.  I probably wouldn't mind the high prices as
	much if the service was good.  I have at least twice had to 
	stand around for over an hour before I could get someone to 
	wait on me.  Unfortunately, I had to have those things that
	day, and going into Boston would have taken a bit longer (but
	not much!).  Also,I have observed on salesman who I won't name
	(suffice it to say he is an older gentleman) let the phone
	ring for many minutes(while standing within 10 feet of it) until
	he was finally paged by the back office to pick it up.  He then
	proceeded to put the person on hold and walked away, never to
	come back.  The phone would then begin ringing again, and this
	whole scene would repeat.  When pointed out to the cashier, I
	was told (in a very beligerant (sp?) manner that it was busy
	and they were doing the best they could.  Right. There were
	about 20-30 people in the store and about 8-9 sales people.

With all these problems, you may ask why I ever went there more than 
once!  Well, they do sell one thing, their $5 'mystery grab boxes' that
are well worth the price.  So I check every couple of weeks to see if
they have any of these, but otherwise steer clear.


Cheers,
--Lee
________________________________________________________________________________
R. Lee Hawkins					 lhawkins@annie.wellesley.edu
Department of Astronomy				 lhawkins@lucy.wellesley.edu
Whitin Observatory
Wellesley College                                   Ph. 617-283-2708
Wellesley, MA 02181                                 FAX 617-283-3642
________________________________________________________________________________
Newsgroups: sci.electronics