- There are a number of articles claiming that the Playbook is on sale at RadioShack. E.g. see:
BlackBerry Playbook RadioShack price reduction in effect - SlashGear
Blackberry Playbook dropping to under $300 at Radioshack | TekGoblin
However, the online price is still $479. Is this only an in-store sale?10-11-11 09:56 PMLike 0 - The price of the 16GB playbook is indeed 479.00 but the fine print shows that there is a 180.00 instant savings discount bringing the purchase price down to 299.00 and last i heard 299 is less than 479. If you live in California the state sales tax is 7.25% so your approximate total should be somewhere around 320.00 US.10-11-11 11:31 PMLike 0
- The price of the 16GB playbook is indeed 479.00 but the fine print shows that there is a 180.00 instant savings discount bringing the purchase price down to 299.00 and last i heard 299 is less than 479. If you live in California the state sales tax is 7.25% so your approximate total should be somewhere around 320.00 US.10-12-11 02:45 AMLike 0
- Yes, it's definitely true. My son picked up his from Radio shack on Monday. BUT if you want it for the discounted price ya better hop on it as it's just a promo price across the board, not a permanent discount. Best buy site shows it's 499 again, but Staples still has the $200 discount going.
BlackBerry PlayBook Price Discounts Start ending in the US – Canadians Have Until Thursday - BerryReview10-12-11 04:03 AMLike 0 - In a recent Brookstone ad received in the mail, their PBs were all regular price.
Last edited by III 4U2NV III; 10-12-11 at 04:21 AM.
10-12-11 04:18 AMLike 0 - I checked it out on their website, Its actually 479.99, minus 180$ off instantly, good thru 10/15. So it comes out to 300 bones. Still not a bad price however.
RadioShack.com - Promotion Offer10-12-11 07:59 AMLike 0 -
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- I live in Mass. and I usually take the short drive to NH to buy big ticket items because of no sales tax in NH.10-12-11 08:53 AMLike 0
- Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business
APRIL 23, 2007 | ISSUE 46•52 ISSUE 45•01 ISSUE 43•17
FORT WORTH, TX—Despite having been on the job for nine months, RadioShack CEO Julian Day said Monday that he still has "no idea" how the home electronics store manages to stay open.
"There must be some sort of business model that enables this company to make money, but I'll be damned if I know what it is," Day said. "You wouldn't think that people still buy enough strobe lights and extension cords to support an entire nationwide chain, but I guess they must, or I wouldn't have this desk to sit behind all day."
The retail outlet boasts more than 6,000 locations in the United States, and is known best for its wall-sized displays of obscure-looking analog electronics components and its notoriously desperate, high-pressure sales staff. Nevertheless, it ranks as a Fortune 500 company, with gross revenues of over $4.5 billion and fiscal quarter earnings averaging tens of millions of dollars.
"Have you even been inside of a RadioShack recently?" Day asked. "Just walking into the place makes you feel vaguely depressed and alienated. Maybe our customers are at the mall anyway and don't feel like driving to Best Buy? I suppose that's possible, but still, it's just...weird."
After taking over as CEO, Day ordered a comprehensive, top-down review of RadioShack's administrative operations, inventory and purchasing, suppliers, demographics, and marketing strategies. He has also diligently pored over weekly budget reports, met with investors, taken numerous conference calls with regional managers about "circulars or flyers or something," and even spent hours playing with the company's "baffling" 200-In-One electronics kit. Yet so far none of these things have helped Day understand the moribund company's apparent allure.
"Even the name 'RadioShack'—can you imagine two less appealing words placed next to one another?" Day said. "What is that, some kind of World War II terminology? Are ham radio operators still around, even? Aren't we in the digital age?"
"Well, our customers are out there somewhere, and thank God they are," Day added.
One of Day's theories about RadioShack's continued solvency involves wedding DJs, emergency cord replacement, and off-brand wireless telephones. Another theory entails countless RadioShack gift cards that sit unredeemed in their recipients' wallets. Day has even conjectured that the store is "still coasting on" an enormous fortune made from remote-control toy cars in the mid-1970s.
Day admitted, however, that none of these theories seems particularly plausible.
"I once went into a RadioShack location incognito in order to gauge customer service," Day said. "It was about as inviting as a visit to the DMV. For the life of me, I couldn't see anything I wanted to buy. Finally, I figured I'd pick up some Enercell AA batteries, though truthfully they're not appreciably cheaper than the name brands."
"I know one thing," Day continued. "If Sony and JVC start including gold-tipped cable cords with their products, we're screwed."
In the cover letter to his December 2006 report to investors, "Radio Shack: Still Here In The 21st Century," Day wrote that he had no reason to believe that the coming year would not be every bit as good as years past, provided that people kept on doing things much the same way they always had.
Despite this cheerful boosterism, Day admitted that nothing has changed during his tenure and he doesn't exactly know what he can do to improve the chain.
"I'd like to capitalize on the store's strong points, but I honestly don't know what they are," Day said. "Every location is full of bizarre adapters, random chargers, and old boom boxes, and some sales guy is constantly hovering over you. It's like walking into your grandpa's basement. You always expect to see something cool, but it never delivers."
Added Day: "I may never know the answer. No matter how many times I punch the sales figures into this crappy Tandy desk calculator, it just doesn't add up."
Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business | The Onion - America's Finest News Source10-12-11 09:08 AMLike 0
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