Rat shack discontinuing selling D* service

[bills976]

This requires a paid subscription (which I do not have), but the gist of it is right on the front page:

http://www.internalmemos.com/memos/

Radio Shack $ DISCONTINUE SELLING ALL DIRECTV SERVICES
DATE : 12/31/2003
TO : All Store Managers and Associates (List F1 - Except PR & HI)
FROM : RadioShack Communications 3438 1/1/2004

Thoughts?

[spanishannouncetable]

Just more evidence that Radio Shack is run by morons :p

[Steve Mehs]

Since Radio Shack started selling/leasing Dish, DirecTV fell to the back burner. I see it as a move benefiting both companies. Radio Shack can concentrate on E* and DirecTV doesn't have to be in a retail store where they’re not wanted anymore. Sad news though, DirecTV has been a part of Radio Shack since it first came about.

[jwwahly]

Well i wasn't going to respond to this but atleast i'll probably start getting more work since radio shack used their own installers. And now i wont have to fix most of their untrained and uncared about installs. THANK GOD!!!!

[BobMurdoch]

Also, I'm sure the Pegasus nightmare hit a lot of their rural installs as well, as they had to explain why they were second class citizens based on their zip code.

Also, E*'s low price strategy is right up their alley as well.

It will be interesting to see how this impact's subscriber growth for D*. Anyone know how many D* adds were due to Radio Shack in 2003?

[CivilizedAnarchy]

Don't know about how many Directv activations Radio Shaq was responsible
for in 2003, but Radio Shack was number 2 on the recent list of E* retailers
activations for 2003. I forget how many radio shaq stores there are, but the
average for them was one activation per store, per week.
It's huge numbers. Fricking huge.

And most of the Radio Shaq employees i have ever dealt didn't know
jack squat about Dish Network.

Wierd.

Lata, C.J.

[jwwahly]

Dish net pays radio shack more per activation than dtv. as well as more per item sold. so on an economic standpoint this was a good move. also i'm sure that them selling both didn't fair to well with either company,and this goes back to who pays them more per activation. Smart move in that aspect.

[bills976]

My personal opinion:

Radio Shack never did DirecTV any favors at all. More often than not, the sales reps at the Shack have absolutely no clue what they're talking about, even to the point where one rep insisted that I must use a Dish500 to get the D* 119 and 110 slots, and that the triple LNB dish was only for Spanish programming; it couldn't receive anything in English. The famous multiswitch = splitter debate confuses them even more.

Personally, I don't see many people buying a satellite system from Radio Shack when Circuit City and Best Buy give more choice with regards to receivers, TiVo, and the like. I can't imagine this will dramatically hurt DirecTV's subscriber growth rate, both in the short and long term.

[BobMurdoch]

Don't underestimate the reach of Radio Shack. Where Circuit City and Best Buy tend to stick to population centers in either cities or well populated suburbs, Radio Shack covers both those areas as well as the rural areas ignored by the others. Add that to E*'s decision to target small markets for local channel additions and it made good sense. Also, once again, Pegasus isn't involved. Combined with E*'s low price strategies, it adds up to continued subscriber growth.

921, 811, 522, 322.... All of these will enable E* to regain the lead in subscriber additions. The only wild card will be Rupert. Will he try and take the company to profitability first, or will he get into a brass knuckles match with Charlie? Which path he takes will dictate whether E* continues to grab market share, or whether D* can reclaim the momentum they haven't had since the late 90's.

[Mike123abc]

Radio Shack is probably in every town with a population greater than 10,000. Circuit City and Best Buy tend to be in towns over 100k.

[Steve Mehs]

There's also the occurance of multiple RadioShacks in the same township. There is a suburb of Buffalo that is home to three RadioShacks. One in a mall, one in a shopping plaza around the corner from the mall, and one at the other side of the town. Meanwhile if you want to go to three Best Buys around here you'd have to span from Erie, PA to Rochester, a distance of about 200 miles.

[music_beans]

Funny. There is a Radio Shack where I live, and while I was there, they still has Pegasus stuff up.

[Mike500]

There are some Radio Shacks that are not company owned. Granted, there are not many so called "associate stores" but they are in small towns. They are not allowing any new ones, but these are from they early '60s or '70s, when Radio Shack was starting to expand.

[SamC]

My rule is that Rat Shack is great for parts, but never actually buy anything that plugs into the wall there. If you do, make 100% sure you know exactly what you want, because the clerks do not.

In my area (about 400K spread out over two cities) there are over 40 Rat Shacks, but only two CCs and one BB.

I happened to be in my local Rat Shack this morning, buying parts, and they were pushing DISH. The clerk there is a good knowledgable guy (exception to the rule) and I was talking to him about it. The were very much UNDERPLAYING the just launched "locals" because of a shortage of multi-bird dishes. Now how do you justify that.

[Kenster]

This requires a paid subscription (which I do not have), but the gist of it is right on the front page:

http://www.internalmemos.com/memos/

Radio Shack $ DISCONTINUE SELLING ALL DIRECTV SERVICES
DATE : 12/31/2003
TO : All Store Managers and Associates (List F1 - Except PR & HI)
FROM : RadioShack Communications 3438 1/1/2004

Thoughts?

Last week I stopped in to a Radio Shack in small town in central Texas where my father-in-law lives. I've finally convinced Dad-in-law to get a PVR. He currently has a Dish 301. I thought the easiest thing for him was to get a Dish 510, even though I am a happy Directv customer with Ultimate TV. Anyway... the Radio Shack owner said that he no longer deals with DISH due to a long history of poor customer service. He now only sells Direct Tv products, including DTivo. He was offering a full install on a Directivo for $150 after a fifty dollar rebate.

[bigrick]

one sell per store per week, yeh maybe on a huge average. I install for 13 stores and am lucky to get 4 a week from those. Kinda like beating a dead horse. Those clerks couldn't sell water in the desert but they sure do annoy you when you go in for parts.