WANTED: CCTV business that is for sale. / Radio Shack notes

[scorpion 0]

Wanted: Small mom n pop CCTV shop, or Spy Shop that is for sale, or if you sale electronic devices, and gadgets.

 

Please PM me with your info, or a lead that you may have.

 

Distributors, please pass this request to you customers if you would be so kind.

 

Prefer Florida, or at least south east continental USA.

 

Thank you in advance.

Edited June 20, 2009 by Guest

[jason0595 0]

[moderator edit]

Yet another spam post removed.

Please read the rules, no advertising, no spamming....

[/moderator edit]

[CCTV_Suppliers 0]

Scorp, you are not rea about this, are you? With your credentials and knowledge of websites and products, you can (or should) reconsider "buying" a business...

 

You have very nice websites... If you do not have online commerce setup, then you should... You can run a simple and yet very profitable business online and advertise for your local area if you want...

 

If you need help, let me know.

[HeadsUp 0]

unless people are wealthy and charitable , then the focus to make $$$$ would be on ;.....

 

reducing labour inputs against revenue to allow quality family time

 

and positioning yourself in the place where you believe the biggest slice of cashflow exists.

 

i dont know the US market , so i have no idea which part of the market has least risk , least headaches , lowest costs, highest consistant sales volume and profit margins.

 

has someone identified the sector where there is either small profit margins but high volume unit sales , or high margin and maybe but not necessarily lower volumes ?

 

We have choices of either selling a service , a product or both.

 

Govt sales seems to have higher profit margins and big ticket prices , but i have also seen suppliers to govt who go bankrupt through poor management.

 

With the economic cycle still showing risk of continued long term recession for many sectors , i think there is still a consumer appetite for spending in the security industry.

 

people just have to position themselves right.

 

many online CCTV stores are going great from what i can see , but you have to buy in bulk and make sure your product is going to satisfy customer requirements.

your website quality can make or break a store too , broken links and crapp information on some websites prevents me from buying there , i have seen plenty that are an absolute joke.

 

Many websites have a poor degree of information to educate and assist buyers on choosing the right products , so someone like scorpion can refine customer satisfaction by also supplying good backup information and educational articles if he was to go in that direction.

 

if setting up from scratch and doing both installations and online sales , then the business plan can be modified over time based on sales analysis.

 

.

 

.

 

whatever

 

.

just random musings ..... i had too much black ink ....

.

[scorpion 0]

I should do good with electronic sales!!

 

http://www.radiomuseum.org/dsp_hersteller_detail.cfm?company_id=734

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lafayette_Radio

 

 

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3092/is_n20_v33/ai_15819161/

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Ward

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_City

 

 

Aw the good old days

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalog_directory.html

[survtech 0]

Scorpion,

 

You must be an old fart if you remember Lafayette Radio (or as we used to call it "Laughing Idiot Radio") . I used to shop at their Syosset, NY HQ in the 60's. In fact, I bought my first stereo system from them!

 

And I worked for Radio Shack in the 70's - Store Manager and Repair Manager.

 

Do you remember the "Battery of the Month Club card"? I have a funny story about them. I was managing a store in upstate New York in the early 70's and we were open during a snowstorm because my District Manager said "We are like the Post Office, Neither Rain nor Snow....". It was around noon and we had not seen one customer all day. The parking lot had at least 6 inches of snow.

 

Anyway, all of a sudden this car comes barreling through the empty lot and stops right in front of our store. This guy gets out and comes in laughing his butt off and presents his battery card, gets a free 9 volt battery and leaves, laughing all of the while. Strange!

[Sawbones 0]

The battery-of-the-month club was one of the best things Rip-off Shack ever did.

[scorpion 0]

I am only 47. Old enough to see Laughing Idiot Radio just as they were starting to close up.

 

As a kid I loved the Battery Club, but the batteries were not alkaline so they did not last very long!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

___________________

Sent from my TRS-80

[kensplace 0]

I remember the free batteries, Radio shack was called 'Tandy's in the UK, if you had the battery card you would get a free battery every month.

 

When I was a child,I saved up my tips from my newspaper rounds and purchased a remote controlled tank (which I later hacked to control remotely from my sinclair zx81...) I got a free battery from the card, and the nice chap at the shop gave me TWO full sets of batteries free for the toy, so I could use it!

 

Shame there are no more of them in the UK., they all closed down afew years ago...

[scorpion 0]

I remember the free batteries, Radio shack was called 'Tandy's in the UK, if you had the battery card you would get a free battery every month.

 

When I was a child,I saved up my tips from my newspaper rounds and purchased a remote controlled tank (which I later hacked to control remotely from my sinclair zx81...) I got a free battery from the card, and the nice chap at the shop gave me TWO full sets of batteries free for the toy, so I could use it!

 

Shame there are no more of them in the UK., they all closed down afew years ago...

 

What do you have as the "equivalent" nowdays?

 

The one thing that stands out for me in the early days were the fact that most of the employees were retired electrical engineers, or they were ham radio operators, or most had a basic understanding of electronic.

 

When you went in with a tube, and used the tester you could get help with cross replacements, or you could walk in with a resistor, and they would actually know the color code, and if they did not have the part in stock, then they could tell you what two resistors to put in parallel to get to the desired value. I do not dare try asking the clerks nowadays about values, and circuitry!!

 

It was great banter talking with this guys if even you were just chit chatting.

 

Nowadays I go in, and start talking, and I get a glazed eye effect, and I imagine that I am hearing the sounds of cricketts in the background.

 

I think when they broke away from this approach to customers is where they started to unravel.

 

Back in the day most "day to day" people really did not have a need for Radio Shack as they did not need parts, or test equipment, or 30 varietys of hand held walkie talkies.

 

With all of this new technology you would think they would have "come in to their own".

 

I could see Radio Shack being a combination of stores all under one roof. I could see them being a "gaming store" such as Game Stop, and I could see them being a Dell computer vendor, and Ipod, and Iphone vendor, and have ATT cell service.

 

I go in today, and I do not see the parts that I used to see, and the "latest cutting edge technology that you would drool over to take home as you save up your money.

 

I was not to impressed with the home electronics on display. They have always been entry level products, but price for price, they were always good equipment.

 

I think HD antennas would be a good product line to "push", but I don't see much going on there.

 

I can see why Radio Shack has slipped as products have evolved from being high dollar ticket items to "cheaper to buy new, then repair" mentality.

 

Someday someone is going to have to start an electronics club similiar to the 4H program where children learned agricultural discoveries.

 

http://4-h.org/b/Pages/Layouts/GroupPage87f1.html?SiteId=2317&PersistentTheme=4H

 

Do you think that will ever happen?

[Sawbones 0]

I know exactly what you mean, Scorpion; I loved Radio Shack as a kid. I actually dreamed of working there once I got old enough to work.

 

I ended up mowing lawns and cleaning offices instead (that's probably for the best... I would have spent every dollar I made at Radio Shack on gear).

 

Their parts selection used to be top-notch... and you could get all those great electronic project kits (the 100-in-1 was my favorite... I made all kinds of cool stuff with that thing).

[scorpion 0]

I loved the 100 in 1, and thought I died, and went to heaven witht he 300 in 1 kit!

 

I miss the good old days when I would be putting some kind of project together, and I could do "one stop shopping" at Radio Shack.

 

Blank PC boards, and etching solution, or wire wrap boards, and socket, and project boxes.

 

As kids, I used to make my sister mad because of all of the parts, and chassis that I kept in the garage, and the bedroom.

 

Nice to be able to salvage a needed part, and not have to pay for it!

 

My dad used to say our house was easy to find becayse it was the only house on the blocked that hummed!

 

At an early age I figured out that I could stuff my walkie talkie with a rubber band around the push to talk switch, and stuff behind the TV, and when I "got sent to the bedroom with no TV for the night" I could still listen to the show from my bedroom, or at least in till I got caught, and he figured out what was going on. He seem mad at the time, but thinking back about it now, I bet he was laughing his butt off on the inside.

 

As a kid my dad seemed impressed that I could take things apart, and put them back together with no missing pieces. I must have spent him broke with him buying hand tools, and alligator clip leads, and hobby parts!

[survtech 0]

Unfortunately, the days of the electronics "techie" are long gone. That is why Radio Shack remade themselves into a different kind of store. There are a number of reasons why we have disappeared - a major one being the complexity of modern electronics circuitry.

 

Back in the day, with a little knowledge and a few parts you could build something yourself that actually performed a usable function: an AM radio or a Theremin, or whatever. Kits could be assembled that performed a wide variety of useful functions: test equipment, stereo amplifiers, even ham radios and musical instruments.

 

Today, most of the electronics products contain complex VLSI chips on multi-layer PC Boards and both building and repairing them are beyond the scope of an amateur; in many cases whole modules must be replaced to repair an item.

 

Also, most electronics equipment uses surface mount parts which require specialized tools to install and replace, if they even can be replaced. Even standardized replacement parts like resistors and capacitors are becoming less standard. Look in a DigiKey catalog, for instance, and you will see pages and pages of capacitors of every imaginable size, shape and mounting style. The advent of custom chips for most equipment makes stocking generic replacement parts like transistors and "DIP" chips obsloete.

 

Then you have the increasing specialization of electronics equipment. Where would Radio Shack concentrate their marketing? I believe that is their major problem. Forget about competing with the "big box" stores like Best Buy for Consumer Electronics. And forget about competing with on-line stores for specialty items. That doesn't leave much for poor old RS to sell!

 

My uncle owned an electronics (mostly TV) sales and repair shop. I bought much of my early stuff from or through him. There were no Radio Shacks or Lafayette Radios. There were a number of "electronics" stores in many cities, including where I grew up. Lafayette Radio and Radio Shack came around the latter 60's/early 70's.

 

By the way, I have you beat, Scorpion! When I was 15 or 16 (early 1960's), I assembled a precursor to the modern (now obsolete) VCR. I had a Bell and Howell reel-to-reel tape recorder that I hooked up to a lamp timer to record TV when I was not home. I had several shows and movies "taped". I can still lip-synch nearly every line of the original The Day the Earth Stood Still.

 

Klaatu Barada Nikto!

[scorpion 0]

By the way, I have you beat, Scorpion! When I was 15 or 16 (early 1960's), I assembled a precursor to the modern (now obsolete) VCR. I had a Bell and Howell reel-to-reel tape recorder that I hooked up to a lamp timer to record TV when I was not home. I had several shows and movies "taped". I can still lip-synch nearly every line of the original The Day the Earth Stood Still.

 

It must have been a black and white Reel to Reel if it was that far back!!!

 

LOL!!

 

 

I do not know why, but I have always wanted to be an "electronics shop" teacher. Does that sound weird?

 

I would love to teach kids the basics, and then turn them loose on alarm panels, structured wiring panels, audio, video, cctv, radios, automation, and let them tear in to a pinball machine, and a video game.

 

Pinballs are great to learn electronics with. light control, solenoid control, audio, or speech boards, cpu, contacts (I/O) and power supply, and you have their undivided attention!

 

All I need to do now is gain 100 pounds, go bald, and grow a mustache, and shop teacher here I come!

[survtech 0]

It must have been a black and white Reel to Reel if it was that far back!!!

 

LOL!!

It was audio only. That's why I know the dialogue by heart. I modified our TV so I could record the sound directly by adding a cutoff switch to the speaker and attaching a cable to the speaker wire wire that plugged into the input of the tape recorder. I could record the sound without waking up my parents. The timer turned both the TV and the recorder on and off.

 

 

They didn't come out with VTR's (reel-to-reel Videotape recorders) until the mid-to-latter 60's and the first ones cost as much new as a VW Bug at the time ($2,000).

 

I bought a used B&W Sony CV2100 1/2" reel-to-reel VTR in 1972:

 

http://www.labguysworld.com/Sony_CV-2100.htm

 

In 1973 I bought a floor model Panasonic NV3020C non-standard color 1/2" reel-to-reel VTR from Arrow Electronics during their Washington's Birthday Sale (I miss those - great deals):

 

http://www.labguysworld.com/Panasonic_NV-3020C.htm

[scorpion 0]

My dad was in the Air Force, and he was with AFRTS in the early years.

 

He used to be sent all over the world, and he would blow people's minds when he first arrived.

 

He bought a tape cutter / splicer out of his own pocket at the time, and would splice tapes by hand. He would create "echos", and "stutters", and custom cuts, and fade ins.

 

It does not sound to impressive in todays world as any kid can create these effects in 5 seconds on a computer.

 

I would not want to be splicing tape today, that is for sure. Lining up two separate tapes, and then putting "audio scotch tape" on to the splice, and hoping that the splice is "mechanically" lined up together must have been a pain in the day.

 

My dad would do voice overs for commercials by taking a mic, and recording it to all channels of a quad recorder. This is where he would get multiple "samples" to chop up, and splice back together. I would love to see the reactions from people the first time they would hear a commercial with the stutter effect.

 

All of the people in the radio station, or the TV station would bum rush his office trying to figure out how he created this mind boggeling magic!

 

He would hand rewind tapes to get the backwards effect while he recorded to another recorder.

 

The commercials would be transferred to carts. If you do not know what they are then think of an 8 track tape although these were only single track cartridges. The machine would take carts, and it would automatically play as many carts as you needed, and you could play 4 carts in sequence, and everyonce in a while a standby cart would get thrown in.

 

What he would do is take a public anouncement tape of a low priority, and create all of these wild effects, and then wait for the "emergency" cart to be used.

 

These were not used in rotation for the commercials, but they were set aside to fill odd dead spaces such as a show ending early on a time schedule, or some technical glitch, or if a late night DJ, and to "extend time" while he took a "long" bathroom break.

 

All of a sudden this wild cart would pop on to the air, and people were like "what the hell"?

 

Later in life while I was setting up a teen club, and looking for some sound effect for a long entrance way to the club, and I stole one of my dads ideas.

 

I used to hand held Radio Shack tape players to play the sound in to a quad amplifier. I had these mounted to a board with velcro tape.

 

As you walked down the hall you would here some strange sound effects, and then you would here "I want to know" (Pure Energy) behind you then you would here it jump in front of you, and then behind you again, and then the last speaker at the end had a record spun backwards creating an eerie sound effect.

 

The club was located in the very back of a racquet ball court complex. You came in to the front entrance, and then you had to go up a flight of stairs, and this was the walkway above the courts. You would see courts to your right, and to your left. We placed the four speakers above this walkway. The lights were turned out, and the hallway was lit up with blacklights. We bought 8 Radio Shack Strobe Lights, and placed one strobe in each racquet ball court room. As you walked down a dark walkway and listening to the sounds from above, and these random rooms flashing from the strobes was a very economical effect, but the WOW factor was over the top!

 

The first recorder had the first speaker, and the last speaker, and the second recorder had the second, and third speaker. The song "I want to know (Pure Energy)" was panned back, and forth between the right, and left channels to create the traveling sound effect.

 

The odd thing was this was a DJ 12 inch mix that was given to us as a promo. We made the tape, and opened the club, and right at that moment it blossomed up the chart. The locals for some reason thought that we had something to do with creating the popularity of the song. We went along with that train of thought, but in all honesty is was just random chance. Of all songs to pick we were lucky to hit it big with that one.

 

OK! Here is where it gets wild! The club had a 6 foot track light with 4 lights on the track in each corner of the dance floor ceiling. We put different colored gels on the front of each track light for color. There was one mirror ball with a rotator, and 4 Radio Shack strobe lights hung on the ceiling pointed straight down, and then we had two revolving police lights from Radio Shack. One was red, and the other was blue.

 

We used electronic relays to control the lights. We had wooden panel that had 4 buttons for each track light, and a button to turn on the lights that were aimed at the mirror ball, and a button for the revolving police lights, and a button for the strobes. The buttons were from arcade games! We had a guy sit there, and press the buttons in sequence to create a pattern, or to dance the lights to the music!

 

Hip hop, and house music was just coming in to it's own, and we were the only club playing it at the time. We did so good that we actually were over run with people as people started coming in all the way from Orlando to "be seen".

 

If you loved to do wirewraps, and projects then you were in heaven in this club!

[Sawbones 0]

 

Holy cow... I was a small-time electronics geek compared to some of you gentlemen. I thought I was ate up...

[scorpion 0]

My favorite past time was pulling electrolytic capacitors out of "curb side service", and placing them in to the end of an extension cord in the middle of my back yard, and then plugging the cord in, and watching it go off like a fire cracker!

 

In the dumpster of a local TV shop I found a whole bag of caps with wire leads. It was like the fourth of July! Atleast until my dad came home, and found all of the foul guts from caps all over the back yard, and burn marks in the grass!

[Sawbones 0]

Hah! Blowing up capacitors was great fun. We used to do that in my basement... until one of the metal caps hit the overhead light fixture hard enough to break the flourescent tube.

 

That was the end of that.