Big VEX sale at RadioShack

[Rick TYler]

From a thread on the VEX forum:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=45435

Big discounts on VEX components.

Woo hoo!

[Jon K.]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

From a thread on the VEX forum:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=45435

Big discounts on VEX components.

Woo hoo!

Since that first thread up above was moved from this forum to the VEX forum, can we please ask the mods to not move this again. Just because it has to do with Vex doesn't mean that other people on CD don't want to see it and since the Vex forum is supposed to be about FVC or so it is labeled, many people don't check it regularly.

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by Jon K.

Since that first thread up above was moved from this forum to the VEX forum, can we please ask the mods to not move this again. Just because it has to do with Vex doesn't mean that other people on CD don't want to see it and since the Vex forum is supposed to be about FVC or so it is labeled, many people don't check it regularly.

I didn't even know it had been moved in the first place. I'm all about FRC, but VEX is just too cool as a play set to pass up. We might put on a local VEX tournament in the fall as an add-on to the FRC season. I think FRC folks would like to know about this deal.

[RoboCoach]

This VEX sale is great! Radio Shack has all but a few items at 50% off.

Over the holidays I bought my son a VEX kit, and he needed some stuff for added functionality, so we went and I stumbled into this sale. Wound up walking out with a kit and accessories for myself, and another kit and some accessories for the robotics club I run at my son's school. Hopefully this stuff will periodically go on sale.....

[jeffmorris]

I think that Radio Shack isn't doing well and plans to close some stores. Is Radio Shack planning to drop VEX Robotics product line? Both Radio Shack and Vexlabs still have some items out of stock. Does the company that makes VEX Robotics run into problems?

[Billfred]

This is rampant speculation, but it may just be that RadioShack wants to drop their stock on Vex parts back a little bit during the spring and summer, when I'd imagine the demand is lower. Then, in the fall when you have the holiday season and the 2006 FVC, the stocks in stores would increase.

Made sense to me, at least.

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by Billfred

This is rampant speculation, but it may just be that RadioShack wants to drop their stock on Vex parts back a little bit during the spring and summer, when I'd imagine the demand is lower. Then, in the fall when you have the holiday season and the 2006 FVC, the stocks in stores would increase.

Made sense to me, at least.

Possibly a new version of the kit is coming out fairly soon too?

[Rick TYler]

Normally, RadioShack only does a big discount on items that are being discontinued. This is an unusual product line, though, and it's hard to tell what their plans are without talking to the product manager. There are a few reasonable scenarios.

1. Summer is the slow season in electronics. They might be dumping inventory as a seasonal reduction.

2. The product line is being discontinued due to slow sales. Two local stores report that sales have never been that great and that buyers are turned off by a "$300 Erector Set." Without a lot of marketing, this has been and will continue to be a niche product and may not need national distribution in 7,000 stores.

3. The current products are being replaced by new models. The shelf life for a consumer elctronics product used to be 12-18 months. I don't think it's more than six months these days. We might see a new VEX kit at a lower price point with a different set of electronics.

4. RadioShack may still be testing price levels. If they find a price point at $150 but not $300, they might retune the product, or just reduce the price permanently.

5. RS may have decided that VEX is not a mass-market product, but is still worth handling in a limited way. You might only find it on their Website, or in the largest stores, but not everywhere. If RS is planning to make money on VEX, I wouldn't care much for this possibility. If they can't sell 20,000 kits a year (as a guess), the product probably doesn't have a future with RadioShack. If they view it in part as a promotional item, they might still carry it.

My personal best guess is that VEX will get sold off to a smaller reseller that can stick with it despite its small (for RadioShack) sales volume.

All in all, if you want VEX stuff, I'd buy it now. Most of the possible reasons for the sale are not good for us robot people.

[GeorgeTheEng]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

My personal best guess is that VEX will get sold off to a smaller reseller that can stick with it despite its small (for RadioShack) sales volume.

All in all, if you want VEX stuff, I'd buy it now. Most of the possible reasons for the sale are not good for us robot people.

I'd tend to agree. I think RS could market this online and as an educational tool via other avenues and keep up some sales volume. But do they see this or are they looking at the current bottom line.

I'll admit that if I had kids, $300 is a lot to spend for something like that.

Of course if VEX becomes a permanent part of FIRST and it explodes similarly to FLL, then they may have a base for continued production.

[MrForbes]

Our school got a few VEX kits, so we went to RS shopping for parts...they did seem about twice as expensive as they should be! so the 50% off sale puts the price about where it should have been in the first place (if they had actually wanted the product to sell)

We scoped out 3 local stores yesterday at lunch time, 2 did not carry the VEX line, the other store which is newer, in the mall, does have them but was not marked down and the counter people had not heard about a sale.

I'll check back frequently to see what happens.

Also a friend of mine has a 10 yr old grandson who is trying to get into this stuff...my friend would buy the VEX kit at $150, but not at $300.

[MikeDubreuil]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

Most of the possible reasons for the sale are not good for us robot people.

I agree. I bought a Vex Ultrasonic Range Finder from Radio Shack and the manager was shocked I wanted one. He had moved all of the Vex stuff to the storage room. He said no one showed interest and he never sold any Vex products.

Vex needs to find a store where the customers are willing to spend more. For instance Brookstone or The Sharper Image.

[Gdeaver]

It's more than 300$ list buy in. Add the programming kit - 99$ , some more metal, servo's, motors, sensors and it's easily > 600 list. Thats a hard consumer pricing point. However, cut that in half and that looks really good. especial for First teams who are used to the cost of FRC competitions. I would like to see VEX become more ingrained in First. There are many team that for many reasons can not continue with the large robots. Vex is a method to keep them involved. Also there are many schools that just can't over come the cost and mentor hurdle but could do VEX. Radio shack held on to the Boebot for along time and lost money. I believe they thought they could overcome the problem with the VEX line. I don't think educational robotics really fits with a mass marketer. I commend Radio Shack with thier effort. The other factor is Lego is going to be making a big push late summer. If you have looked at what LEGO is up to, it's impressive. Radio Shack may have been scared away from the market by LEGO.

[Greg Needel]

Radio Shack is not doing well and i expect them to do whatever they can to increase profits. I also expect vex not to die off perhaps another company plans on buying out the vex brand

http://www.chicagotribune.com/techno...technology-hed

[MrForbes]

It's my observation that RS has mostly turned into just another cell phone dealer in a very crowded market....which does not bode well.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

I just got the starter kit, programming module, and 2 sets of omni wheels.

My initial impression: the IFI engineers made it really hard for FIRST people to use vex. They swapped all the connectors on the vex controller from male to female and vice versa, so that nothing from FRC KOP lines up. Now I have to go buy 14 AA batteries