Big VEX sale at RadioShack

[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.

[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

[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.

[Bill Hornung]

You mentioned Erector set, I pulled out my old erector set from 40 yrs ago and found some great girders and parts for use with my vex starter kit. Saved me some money in parts. I might suggest some people do the same. Erector sets are on Ebay all time.

Originally Posted by 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.

[BHS_STopping]

When exactly does this sale end? I've heard that it ends on June 3, while other times I've heard April 2, even though that infromationwas gotten off of a price tag.

[MarsBOtkid]

I though that it was april2nd but when i went there on aprile secon (buying out the store on last day of sale" he told me it was extended till june 2nd.

SO JUNE 2ND

[rufu5]

[shameless, yet relevent, plug]

For everyone buying Vex parts now, I thought you might like to know that this summer at the Indiana Robotics Invitational, we will be holding the 2nd Annual Vex Challenge. We created a brand new Vex game and invited teams to compete last year and had teams from California to Connecticut. This year's IRI is July 21 and 22 at Lawrence North High School (same location). The game and rules are set for the use of only one Vex kit to make your robot, so all you need is a Vex starter kit and you are on an equal playing field with everyone else competing (no giant budget issues). The neat thing too is that the competition is open to anyone of any age, so if your a college student or adult who wants to compete, just grab your Vex kit and rock out!

If you are interested in the Vex competition, feel free to e-mail us at 447.FIRST@gmail.com (we are trying to get a feel for how many teams are interested in competing).

Cheap Vex Kits! Awesome Vex Game! You Can't Loose!

[Ryan Dognaux]

Just so everyone knows, it looks like the radioshack sale now applies online - I know the stores in the Purdue area stopped recently (I nabbed mine on the last day, thankfully I asked because they had already changed the tags back to the original prices!) However, it doesn't look like much of it is in stock. I've been waiting to get one of the powerpacks but it looks like they're all sold out. Running on 14 batteries isn't much fun

[Steve S.]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

Just so everyone knows, it looks like the radioshack sale now applies online - I know the stores in the Purdue area stopped recently (I nabbed mine on the last day, thankfully I asked because they had already changed the tags back to the original prices!) However, it doesn't look like much of it is in stock. I've been waiting to get one of the powerpacks but it looks like they're all sold out. Running on 14 batteries isn't much fun

Hmm.... Here ya go: Power Pack for VEX