Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!ditto
From: ditto@cbmvax.UUCP (Michael "Ford" Ditto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.tandy
Subject: Re: Old peripherals
Summary: Where-is-as-is sale
Keywords: 100 102 200 disk video controller
Message-ID: <4867@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 29 Sep 88 07:45:22 GMT
References: <284@pte.UUCP> <177@toybox.UUCP>
Reply-To: ditto@cbmvax.UUCP (Michael "Ford" Ditto)
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 40

In article <177@toybox.UUCP> msa@toybox.UUCP (Mark Anacker) writes:
>DON'T COUNT ON GETTING ONE!  The so-called "Sale" appears to be a way to
>get people into the stores.  I tried 14 Radio Shack stores in this area,
>both on the phone and in person.
 [ ... ]
>Personally, I consider this a form of bait-and-switch.

In "large, friendly, letters" above the discontinued items section in
the flyer is printed "Where-is-as-is Sale", with several sentences (in
admittedly small type) explaining what that means, and why the items
in that section are being practically given away.  This is something
Radio Shack does quite often, and I love it.  Other companies just sell
discontinued stuff to surplus stores which mark it back up to almost
full price.  The DVI lists for $500, R/S is willing to give them away
for $99 so that they won't have to keep paying people to count them
in each month's inventory, or worry about rounding them all up to sell
as surplus.  When something like the DVI goes in the Where-is-as-is
section, you can bet they won't be around long.

Disclaimer:  I used to work for Radio Shack.

Side note:  On most discontinued items, R/S gives a bonus ("spiff") to the
salesperson (not the store or the manager) for each one sold.  If you have a
friend who works there, you can ask him to check the "spiff list" and maybe
find some recently discontinued stuff that hasn't been in the flyers yet,
buy it for almost nothing and get your friend a bonus as well.  I just
mention this to show that R/S really DOES want to sell that stuff; I don't
think it's bait-and-switch.

I'd make a random guess that the spiff on the DVI is $5 or $10, so any
salesman should rather sell you the $99 DVI than the $250 portable disk
drive.  The manager might also prefer it that way since discontinued items
count as a loss on the inventory.
-- 
					-=] Ford [=-

"The number of Unix installations	(In Real Life:  Mike Ditto)
has grown to 10, with more expected."	ford@kenobi.cts.com
- The Unix Programmer's Manual,		...!sdcsvax!crash!elgar!ford
  2nd Edition, June, 1972.		ditto@cbmvax.commodore.com