“Names, like fashion trends, often don’t age well,” notes Chadwick Matlin over at Slate’s The Big Money. In this week’s “Broadband” video segment, he looks at Radio Shack’s weird rebranding effort to get people to call it “The Shack,” even though it’s not changing its name, and even though “The Shack” isn’t any better. “Radio Shack has hedged its bets,” Matlin writes, “Splitting its identity in two and not choosing either. What’s worse, neither is especially impressive, or especially modern.”

They didn’t even pick a cool Twitter handle, opting for “the_shack” since the “theshack” was already taken. Our advice: rename yourselves The Battery Closet or Gadget Wagon, advertise in Grit and Parade, and go for unapologetically retro instead of cutting edge. Then your high prices will just seem like some form of retail dementia instead of a rip off.

“The Shack Jumps the Shark” [Broadband @ The Big Money (Slate)]

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