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Comment by somedude895 | Hacker News Reader

> “It’s our voice, a new voice, one for the people,” said Abel Czupor, the chief marketing officer. “RadioShack’s audience used to be only an older demographic, but as times have changed and e-commerce has taken over, the old voice of RadioShack is no longer relevant.”

Everything about this quote makes me want to throw up.

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What's especially stupid is that the maker economy, as it's now called, is very much of interest to young people and Radio Shack totally missed the boat on that by becoming a phone store. The old Radio Shack (the one that made money) sold parts for people who wanted to build electronics. That field is hotter than ever.

I had hoped that maybe Home Depot would have swooped in at the last minute and bought up RadioShack as they're at different ends of the DIY market and could have had some good crossover opportunities. And maybe Home Depot could have created some maker spaces in their big box stores. Anyone who has had anything cut at Home Depot has likely seen the "No precision cuts" signs, but what if that was a premium service one could purchase? Laser cut plywood? Waterjet cut aluminum panels? Might not have been a market for it in every store but I'd like to think it could have worked at a couple of locations in each large metro and maybe trickled down from there.

Radio Shack missed a whole fleet of boats over the years.

It sounds like they hired a 19 year old Twitter influencer to be their Chief Marketing Officer.

I wonder if he is indeed this person. [1] [2]

I consider it unfortunate that Radio Shack feel compelled to hire a person from an unrelated segment and are even pressurized to pivot into a space (NFTs, general "crypto") that is being viewed with skepticism (perhaps less skepticism than it deserves).

While I myself am still studying this space, I do feel that there is a significant mismatch here.

[1] https://emamo.com/event/nftnyc/r/speaker/abel-czupor

[2] https://cryptobrowser.io/people/abel-czupor/

To me it sounds like a 70 year old talking the way they think 19 year olds talk.

We can split the difference; a 35 year old emulating a 19 year old.

Someone actually made a documentary about similar situation - The Rise and Fall of Ryan Howard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc35afiM2f4

It seems as though every product, service, media, or scam is now an “empowering community”

Can get you a cult following willing to pay more.

Seems like it's all -- and only -- about brand and image. Nothing about value or risk or profit. Who buys an investment on brand alone?

> we continue to see robust interest among gaming-token start-ups, in particular. They understand that the RadioShack brand is congruent with their own play,”

https://youtu.be/sI1SLHEC98I

I sure wish they'd hire a graphics designer to center the "R" inside the circle of their logo. It bugs the shit out of me.

I'm sure the center-left R seemed more "dynamic" or "broadcast-y" or something. It seems intentional.

It was part of the 90s revamp when they turned into a phone and remote-controlled toy store.

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