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RadioShack Expanding to Target Stores with Kiosks

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Smart RadioShack

eliasarcade

Jul 30, 2010, 4:56 PM
RadioShack's subsidiary, Retail Services, is the division of the company responsible for Sam's Clubs, Targets, and a few Kmart Kiosks. Their main source of revenue has and still is Sam's Club Kiosks (SCK). They began operations in Q4 of 2004 and have managed to build a steady business, building upon year over year numbers consitently since they opened shop.

However, as many employees of Retail Services know, the contract between Wal-Mart and RadioShack allows WM to purchase up to I believe 15% of the SCKs every year. Many people have expressed concern that because of that buying allowance, we would eventually go out of business. Well, RS is not dumb, I can assure you of that.

I wouldn't be surprised if the strategy behind SCKs was to ...
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muchdrama

Jul 30, 2010, 5:46 PM
eliasarcade said:
RadioShack's subsidiary, Retail Services, is the division of the company responsible for Sam's Clubs, Targets, and a few Kmart Kiosks. Their main source of revenue has and still is Sam's Club Kiosks (SCK). They began operations in Q4 of 2004 and have managed to build a steady business, building upon year over year numbers consitently since they opened shop.

However, as many employees of Retail Services know, the contract between Wal-Mart and RadioShack allows WM to purchase up to I believe 15% of the SCKs every year. Many people have expressed concern that because of that buying allowance, we would eventually go out of business. Well, RS is not dumb, I can assure you of that.

I wouldn't be surpris
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eliasarcade

Jul 30, 2010, 8:46 PM
lol. Before about two months ago, I hadn't been to a RS for years. The last time I was there batteries, circuits and RC cars were what they showcased. Now it's all about mobile solutions. The take an aggressive approach to greeting customers and immediately seeking their needs about mobile phones. This approach is not exclusive to RS. In fact, as mentioned in the news article, RS is ramping up their footprint in order to take some of that market share from Best Buy.

Electronics stores can't survive without a valuable cell phone store/kiosk as a part of their line-up. Phones are very profitable, with an industry gross margin average of roughly 50%. Plus, it's a great way to build clientele with upgrades, pre-paid refills and such. It's no...
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muchdrama

Jul 31, 2010, 1:20 AM
eliasarcade said:
lol. Before about two months ago, I hadn't been to a RS for years. The last time I was there batteries, circuits and RC cars were what they showcased. Now it's all about mobile solutions. The take an aggressive approach to greeting customers and immediately seeking their needs about mobile phones. This approach is not exclusive to RS. In fact, as mentioned in the news article, RS is ramping up their footprint in order to take some of that market share from Best Buy.

Electronics stores can't survive without a valuable cell phone store/kiosk as a part of their line-up. Phones are very profitable, with an industry gross margin average of roughly 50%. Plus, it's a great way to build clientele with upgrad
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ELawson87

Jul 30, 2010, 5:55 PM
Putting kiosks in Target makes more sense than Sam's Club or Costco, especially in a business where employees rely almost entirely on commission. SC and Costco require customers to buy a membership, so the customer base is severely limited. I once had an interview at an independent wireless kiosk in a Costco. It paid something like $6.25 per hour and a flat rate of $10 for each new activation, $5 for each uprgade. I couldn't run away fast enough.

Good for Radioshack, though. I always went to Radioshack for my Sprint upgrades.
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eliasarcade

Jul 30, 2010, 7:26 PM
When RS purchased the kiosk program for SC from Wireless Retail in 2004, they introduced a similar pay plan, with the exception that it was $50/activation. They soon found out that was far too lucrative, because they had associates making over 100k a year. They then adopted a sliding productivity-based compensation structure, which not only encouraged sales associates to sell more (because the more an associate sold, the higher the commission was payed per activation during the pay period), but it also increased their gross margin due to declining payroll costs.

As far as Costco goes, a company by the name of Wireless Advocates (WA) operates those cell phone kiosks. I don't see them doing big things because, unlike RS, they don't have hun...
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