Radio Shack - Radio = The Shack

As long as I can remember, Radio Shack has been around. In fact, my first real computer came from Radio Shack. That machine that started my love of things geeky and digital. Radio Shack was once a place to go to get radios I guess. As long as I can remember, you could get all sorts of odd electronic components and questionably useful toys there.

Apparently most consumers are like me and have no idea why the company is called Radio Shack so the company is rebranding itself to something different. The store will reportedly be called The Shack. That name is questionable in my book. The Shack doesn't sound like a place I want to go and hang out and worse, it makes me think of the B-52's (damn it Love Shack is stuck in my head now).

Engadget reports that the company will continue to be called Radio Shack corporately. One thing that is likely is that the rebranding has a lot to do with the fact that Radio Shack is becoming more of a mobile phone and computer place today than it ever has been. Radio Shack was the first in America to offer a subsidized netbook and the company recently signed an agreement to offer T-Mobile phones in its stores.

Supposedly, The Shack will be having a celebration to kick off the new name in San Francisco and New York with 14-foot tall laptops to stream images from webcams to and from each city. Sounds like a shindig.

Will they ever stop asking me for my phone number when I buy crap there?

I worked there in the early 1980s (back when they asked for your name and address each time.) It was a firable offense for an employee to not ask. If a customer declined to give it, you were expected to badger him/her in order to get it. All of that, just to generate a mailing list! (I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if they sold the mailing list to other companies.)

Pizza Hut is also renaming several storefronts "The Hut." No joke.

I worked there in the early 1980s (back when they asked for your name and address each time.) It was a firable offense for an employee to not ask. If a customer declined to give it, you were expected to badger him/her in order to get it. All of that, just to generate a mailing list! (I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if they sold the mailing list to other companies.)

Pizza Hut is also renaming several storefronts "The Hut." No joke.

Yeah, that Radio Shack "What is your phone number thing" annoys me. I suppose it's no big deal, but it just annoys me.

The other thing that annoys me recently is when various charities call me up and ask for money...which is OK in many cases, because they are charities I've given to before and I don't mind doing so again. But they've taken to asking me at the end, "And, Mr. Beach, can we be assured that you will send you pledge back on the same day that you receive it in the mail?" ...and this annoys me. I'm going to send them money for free, and they have to annoy me with such a question. What does it matter if I send them the money at a time convenient to me (sometimes I take care of mail once a week). Does this make me evil? And if I tell them I will send it back at my earliest connivence, they argue with me "But we'd really like to have you send it back immediately." This is a mistake on their part, however, because I don't put up with that anymore, and I just cancel the contribution and give it to some less annoying charity.

So... if you have connections with a charity, tell them NOT to ask that annoying question at the end.

But they've taken to asking me at the end, "And, Mr. Beach, can we be assured that you will send you pledge back on the same day that you receive it in the mail?"

Will they ever stop asking me for my phone number when I buy crap there?