Radioshack is doomed to fail if they keep this up.

Mr. Frugality was an article series I did on my blog Plamotaku. It had some good advice on how to live frugally and how to be thrifty, but not cheap. I guess we can call him Mr. Thrifty now as I bring him over to my youtube channel, but he will still be there on the blog.

I have bent over for the last time for radioshack. To fix my cousin’s NES and get the cords I need for my dazzle setup, I need two AV cables (Red, White, Yellow) and three (2x female to male) AV splitters. Let’s start with my experience at radioshack.

I walked in and asked the guy where the av splitters were. He had no idea what an av splitter was. I asked him about coaxial cables, and he asked me what a coaxial was. I almost walked straight out the door as I hid my disgust and said “I’ll look around, thankyou.” I bought a potentiometer that I needed for a misc project and left. The potentiometer was $4.99. Radioshack wanted $8.99 each for two AV cables, and I wasn’t biting. I checked radioshack’s website and I couldn’t even find what I was looking for.

I checked out Amazon. Immediately when I typed in “AV cable” I got what I wanted, instead of scrolling through 8 pages of unrelated crap. I also immediately found the splitters I needed, and they were on a 20 cent sale! Combined, Amazon (the companies using Amazon) wanted $7.12, including shipping.

I eventually found the splitters on radioshack’s website, and they want $9.99 for one splitter. If we combine the total cost of purchasing my goods from Radioshack, they want $47.95 for the goods, plus $5 in gas to get to the store and home, plus 9% sales tax equals a total of $57.25.

Unrelated crap from radioshack's search. I just want an AV cable...

Remember what I said about amazon: They listed the same parts and components at a total of $7.12 with free shipping. Does Radioshack seriously expect me to pay about $50 more for a week’s convenience? Seriously? I oughta told the guy working the store to call his boss up and have me talk to him, because he didn’t know what a AV cable was, either the stereo jack type or the three colored ones. He should have been fired. For 50 dollars less, I can wait 4-5 business days and have the quality components shipped to my home. No gas spent, no mileage on the car, and a delivery driver who knows what he is doing.

Radioshack is doomed to fail if they keep this up. I, the consumer, am not dumb enough to fall for this. I, the educated consumer know where to spend my money wisely.