Radio Shack - Was:[geeks] Octane light bar

[Michael Schiller]

> On 9 Sep 2002, Chris Hedemark wrote:
> Yeah, but can you escape RS without the sales drone trying
> (over-)enthusiastically to sell you batteries, blank video tapes, cell
> phone service, and satellite TV?

I have a friend that works as a 'sales drone' for Rat Shack. From things
I've learned from him I've lost ALL respect for a company I used to think
was pretty good. (I was in the family leather machinery business, and the
original name of RS was Tandy, as in Tandy Leathercraft, and I used to sell
some of their hand tools as an independent dealer) Technically all their
employees are commissioned sales people, but with a base minimum of
$5.00/hour, and apparently there are very few sales persons that are always
paid on commission, it's more like an occasional thing. They also get
bonuses from either the company itself, or the cell phone companies, etc.
(they call them spiffs), this is why they're so enthusiastic about selling
those high ticket items.

Another practice they do that I don't understand, is they (the corp. office)
wants the store manager to be the best sales person in the store, and while
I can understand a manager being a good salesperson, I don't think they
should be so pressured into being the best, as they should be more concerned
with managing the store. I've heard of times when the store manager has been
in 'competition' with his own sales persons, and I just think that's
ridiculous. I think the manager of a store should be more concerned about
the stores overall sales, not his/her personal sales.

There are other things I find really stupid about how they run their stores,
but I don't remember them off hand. I try not to buy stuff from RS, but
unfortunately where I live it's often the only place to buy some stuff
locally, and when you need something NOW you can't do mail order.

--
-Mike
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