Know Why Your Customers Are Buying

I walked into a Radio Shack the other day, and the clerk asked me if he could help me.  Considering I haven’t been in a Radio Shack in over a decade, why not.

I told him that I was looking for a USB mic to hook up to my MacBook Pro.

He tells me that there really any such thing.

He made two mistakes.  First, he should have said they don’t carry anything like that.  That’s true.  That particular Radio Shack didn’t have a USB mic compatible with a Mac.  However, the Apple Store (and Amazon) does have one.  They have at least two that I can think of:  The Snowball, and the Yeti.  So this clerk didn’t know what he was talking about.

His biggest mistake, however, was not asking me why I needed a USB mic in the first place.  Had he asked me that, he would have found out that I wanted to record some audio for a podcast.  He could have the provided a nice workaround solution, like selling me a regular mini-jack with some kind of adapter.

Instead, I ended up leaving the store empty handed, and headed to the Apple Store instead.

It is still a mystery to me how Radio Shack stays in business.