so prefacing this with the fact that I know that the fun is sorta taken out of this by me translating, but not everyone will have the energy to look it up themselves, so I figured I’d help out.
Morse code: AEEEEE FELL DOWN AND TROKE MY PENIT TODAY YEOWCE OUCH YOUCH!!!! SENT FROM MY TELEGRAPH
Does anyone remember what happened to Radio Shack?
They started out selling niche electronics supplies. Capacitors and transformers and shit. This was never the most popular thing, but they had an audience, one that they had a real lock on. No one else was doing that, so all the electronics geeks had to go to them, back in the days before online ordering. They branched out into other electronics too, but kept doing the electronic components.
Eventually they realize that they are making more money selling cell phones and remote control cars than they were with those electronic components. After all, everyone needs a cellphone and some electronic toys, but how many people need a multimeter and some resistors?
So they pivoted, and started only selling that stuff. All cellphones, all remote control cars, stop wasting store space on this niche shit.
And then Walmart and Target and Circuit City and Best Buy ate their lunch. Those companies were already running big stores that sold cellphones and remote control cars, and they had more leverage to get lower prices and selling more stuff meant they had more reasons to go in there, and they couldn’t compete. Without the niche electronics stuff that had been their core brand, there was no reason to go to their stores. Everything they sold, you could get elsewhere, and almost always for cheaper, and probably you could buy 5 other things you needed while you were there, stuff Radio Shack didn’t sell.
And Radio Shack is gone now. They had a small but loyal customer base that they were never going to lose, but they decided to switch to a bigger but more fickle customer base, one that would go somewhere else for convenience or a bargain. Rather than stick with what they were great at (and only they could do), they switched to something they were only okay at… putting them in a bigger pond with a lot of bigger fish who promptly out-competed them.
If Radio Shack had stayed with their core audience, who knows what would have happened? Maybe they wouldn’t have made a billion dollars, but maybe they would still be around, still serving that community, still getting by. They may have had a small audience, but they had basically no competition for that audience. But yeah, we only know for sure what would happen if they decided to attempt to go more mainstream: They fail and die. We know for sure because that’s what they did.
I don’t know why I keep thinking about the story of what happened to Radio Shack. It just keeps feeling relevant for some reason.
i find the way europeans call summer a “heatwave” very cute
yeah nah it’s not normal. we usually barely get two weeks over 20°c here in northern germany. now it’s been over 2 months where it hasn’t gone below 20°c even at night and we’ve been scratching at 30°c for 2 weeks. and it’s dry as fuck, it hasn’t rained in weeks. farmers are seeing the worst harvest in a century because of it, they’re expecting a loss of at least 50% compared to last year.
I find the way people are mocking Europeans for not being used to extreme heat (yes it is extreme for them considering their normal climate) and making light of actual deaths from heatstroke/exhaustion, pretty fucking disgusting actually, OP.
it’s not just a heatwave. In February, we had -20°C - five months later, same place, it’s close to 40°C. That’s 60°C difference - 140°Fahrenheit. That’s not cute.
just some selected effects of this europe’s heatwave:
denmark: more than 1,000 wildfires in july alone, which is a typical yearly total
france: white storks suffering from malnourishment, and, unable to fly, they get injured when falling from nests
germany: 10,000lbs of fish suffocated in hamburg because rivers are unable to release heat efficiently
greece: the attica wildfires were the deadliest in living memory, with 90+ confirmed to be dead
poland:outbreaks of toxic cyanobacteria, which only formed due to the warmer weather, forced beaches to close
portugal and spain: saw almost record-breaking temperatures of 46C+/115F+ which contributed to several deadly wildfires
sweden: the government issued 1.2 billion krona (approx. $191million) in aid for farmers, as the droughts made crops and livestock at serious risk
netherlands: asphalt roads melted all over the country, which caused long-term damage as car tyres peel it away from the road
united kingdom: manchester and several other areas burned for three weeks, with effects estimated to last for 15 years
our infrastructure isn’t designed for this. stop belittling countries you know nothing about
Europeans don’t call summer a “heatwave”. Summer is summer and is normal. We call a heatwave a fucking “heatwave”.
Also please consider most Europeans don’t have AC in their houses because it’s not normal for temperatures to go so high.
This ticks me off the same way asshole northerners we’re mocking Texas during their blizzard. Yes, we in MN have that weather every year but we HAVE PLOWS FOR THAT. We have mandated insulation that can handle it. We have annual coat drives. Why would Texas have any of those things when this has never been their normal?
Weather that is outside the range that a place has infrastructure for can be dangerous, no matter what that is. Hot cold dry rain wind whatever.
Don’t be assholes to ppl who don’t have the infrastructure for what they’re experiencing.
Anonymous
