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kane · 01-03-2008, 03:06 AM

I used to work at radio shack back in 1990-1991. Back then we sold a lot of little parts. The store I worked in made about 75% of its total income off those parts because the profit margin on them was huge. They would pay 50cents for a cable that they sold for $7 and would sell 15 of that one cable a day whereas they would pay $200 for a VCR that they sold for $225 and they would sell one of those a month.

I did see some pretty shady stuff though. One of things the store I worked at sold a ton of was hand held CB walkie talkies. They were normally $99 and would go on sale for $79 and we would sell everyone we could get our hands on. The manager of the store I worked at had about 4-5 returned because they didn't work. We ran out of them one weekend during a sale and instead of sending the customers to another store he sold them the bad radios and told them they were new. Afterwards he tells me that it is okay because by the time the people come back to exchange them we should have more in stock. That kind of stuff happened all the time.

The management treats the employees like shit (or at least they did in the district I worked in) so they have a high turnover of sales people. They also used to pay either minimum wage or 6.75% commission, but with such cheap stuff the only time you ever made commission was at Christmas and then they would lower it to 5.5%.

The best story ever though was just before I quit the store I worked for hired a guy that dressed like a mobster. He didn't know shit, was pushy and generally sucked. One day the manager was dumb enough to trust him to close, do the books and make the bank deposit. He did the books, took the night drop lock bag to the bank then got out of his car in the bank parking lot, took a hatchet from his trunk and hacked open the bag. He took the cash (around $2000) and threw the bag and the checks in the dumpster. He then rammed his head into his car a few times and called 911. He told them he had been mugged. What he didn't know was there was a guy standing at the ATM who saw the whole thing. So the manager fired him and a week later I went on my vacation. As I left for my vacation I told him I was using my vacation as my notice and that I wasn't coming back.

I worked there about 2 years. About 9 months after I quit I went in to buy some little part. I had a kick ass job and was doing well and the manager told me he has had 9 people come and go since I left and that I was the best person he ever had and asked if I would ever come back. I told him if he had treated me like that before I might have actually stayed and maybe he needed to be a little less of an asshole and people would stay. It felt good to see the look on his face.

I was in a store about 6 months ago getting an audio cable and they have changed. They used to only carry Realistic brand audio/video components and Tandy computers. Now they carry name brand stuff so they have become more like a regular store than used to be. I think that is how they have survived. We have become a name brand culture. If they hadn't made that switch they would have gone under years ago.

Sorry for the long post. I could give a two hour monologue about the shit that Radio shack is (or at least used to be).

01-03-2008, 03:06 AM
kane Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: portland, OR Posts: 20,684	I used to work at radio shack back in 1990-1991. Back then we sold a lot of little parts. The store I worked in made about 75% of its total income off those parts because the profit margin on them was huge. They would pay 50cents for a cable that they sold for $7 and would sell 15 of that one cable a day whereas they would pay $200 for a VCR that they sold for $225 and they would sell one of those a month. I did see some pretty shady stuff though. One of things the store I worked at sold a ton of was hand held CB walkie talkies. They were normally $99 and would go on sale for $79 and we would sell everyone we could get our hands on. The manager of the store I worked at had about 4-5 returned because they didn't work. We ran out of them one weekend during a sale and instead of sending the customers to another store he sold them the bad radios and told them they were new. Afterwards he tells me that it is okay because by the time the people come back to exchange them we should have more in stock. That kind of stuff happened all the time. The management treats the employees like shit (or at least they did in the district I worked in) so they have a high turnover of sales people. They also used to pay either minimum wage or 6.75% commission, but with such cheap stuff the only time you ever made commission was at Christmas and then they would lower it to 5.5%. The best story ever though was just before I quit the store I worked for hired a guy that dressed like a mobster. He didn't know shit, was pushy and generally sucked. One day the manager was dumb enough to trust him to close, do the books and make the bank deposit. He did the books, took the night drop lock bag to the bank then got out of his car in the bank parking lot, took a hatchet from his trunk and hacked open the bag. He took the cash (around $2000) and threw the bag and the checks in the dumpster. He then rammed his head into his car a few times and called 911. He told them he had been mugged. What he didn't know was there was a guy standing at the ATM who saw the whole thing. So the manager fired him and a week later I went on my vacation. As I left for my vacation I told him I was using my vacation as my notice and that I wasn't coming back. I worked there about 2 years. About 9 months after I quit I went in to buy some little part. I had a kick ass job and was doing well and the manager told me he has had 9 people come and go since I left and that I was the best person he ever had and asked if I would ever come back. I told him if he had treated me like that before I might have actually stayed and maybe he needed to be a little less of an asshole and people would stay. It felt good to see the look on his face. I was in a store about 6 months ago getting an audio cable and they have changed. They used to only carry Realistic brand audio/video components and Tandy computers. Now they carry name brand stuff so they have become more like a regular store than used to be. I think that is how they have survived. We have become a name brand culture. If they hadn't made that switch they would have gone under years ago. Sorry for the long post. I could give a two hour monologue about the shit that Radio shack is (or at least used to be).