flechett3 wrote on Sep 14, 2014, 04:21:
The last time this happened to me it was when I was in need of a male/male audio cable to hook an ipod nano up to a car aux input. They wanted 13 dollars for the cable. Ordered it instead from Amazon and had it shipped from China for a grand total of 1 dollar.
This is the root of the issue. Radio Shack is essentially a middle man. The internet is cutting out middle men. No need for an artist to pay a label or a chinese manufacturer to use a retailer. Radio Shack buys the same connector for a dollar too. It sucks because they are the only people that will sell you resistors or other small components locally, but it is the future.
In business, you have to compete. Price is the last place you want to try that. First you want to have a better product. They cant do that because you can buy direct. Second you have to have a better "offering", like ras pi classes mentioned below. something that says "it may be a bit more, but we are worth it". Third you have to be cheaper.
Radio Shack fails all three of these tests.