Month: February 2015

The Demise Of RadioShack

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So another one-time major retailer bites the dust. Long-running electronics company RadioShack, which filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, will see the closure of 1,784 stores across North America by March 31, the company confirmed in court documents. RadioShack was good for grabbing all those little bits and pieces you needed for those electronic projects, and for plugs, cables, various other connectors and the like.

radio shack_cr

In the UK RadioShack was known as Tandy. There was some guy with a store on Finchley Road in London that had the Radio Shack name, and despite being offered a large sum of money back in the 80’s, he refused to sell the name.

Anyway, Tandy, who had 270 stores in the UK, sold out to mobile phone company Carphone Warehouse around the turn of the century, and then concentrated on mobile phones and accessories, as Carphone Warehouse does.

Personally, I found most of their larger items too expensive, such as their hi-fi and computer offerings in the 80’s.

Apparently some of their North American stores are being purchased, similar to the UK operation, by a mobile phone company. However, Sprint, who are looking to transform 1,750 stores into a RadioShack/Sprint combo set-up, are, of course, a wireless service provider, and not just a retailer.

Vote? Does It Matter?

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Green Tea

Politics. Don’t fall out with your friends about it. Don’t talk about it. Thing is,  at varying levels, we all do. Most of us are talking from a point of little real knowledge of what is going on at the seat of Government. We tend to have our own, often ill-informed ideas, and we tend to read or listen or watch the media channels that reinforce our political views and values.

Winston Churchill once said “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”  It’s a valid statement, in that in democracies, we often feel that we don’t get any real say in what happens; that the politicians that are supposed to represent us don’t; that said politicians say one thing, and do another; that it really doesn’t matter who we vote for, or even if we vote at all, as nothing ever really changes anyway.

What are the alternatives? Perhaps the best one would be that which doesn’t exist – a truly benevolent dictator, who had everyone’s best interests at heart.

Still it is important to vote, even if we end up with pretty much the status quo. By not voting, not only has the individual greatly lessened their own claim to whine about the state of the nation, but also increased the possibility of letting in an extreme fruitcake instead, who is usually even less likely to represent their interests!

My Thoughts on Superbowl Sunday

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IanI’m not a sports fan. Period. Occasionally, I’ll watch a bit of F1 or cricket, but it’s barely more than a fleeting glance. Why am I writing this post then? It’s really in response to a friends Facebook posting in which she bemoans all the disdain exhibited about the event.  Yes, Superbowl is Superhype. One of those things that the American media excels itself in.

It’s full of over-commercialism. Everyone and their dog that can make a buck or two goes all out for it, to the point (and beyond) of tacky.

Some make more of the Half-Time Performance than the game itself.

The players arguably make way too much money. Of course, the money comes from all that commercialism, in various ways.

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But wait a minute…

Many folks actually enjoy following their team, and for them to appear at the Superbowl is THE big event of the year. Possibly bigger than Christmas even. It’s like one big national party. Even people that don’t follow football enjoy the party atmosphere, or at least the beer and snacks.

Talking of too much money, if some football players earn too much, what about some actors and musicians?   Lets not forget those at the top of those huge faceless corporations. Heck some of those CEOs really don’t seem to deserve their pay given their lacklustre performances!

So, I don’t watch these big sporting events, because it’s really not my thing, but I certainly wouldn’t look down on those that do.