RIP: Radio Shack

My thoughts exactly.

Costco works for me.

WHO?

RadioShack files for bankruptcy, sell up to 2,400 stores | Reuters

Who will buy their stores will be interesting. They do have premium locations (leased).

Sprint and Amazon have both been in talks to acquire a portion of their stores. There's also the chance of rebranding / cobranding some of the existing stores with Sprint.

I was a store manager for many years out of a decade long stint with the company. Back in the mid 90's handheld cell phones were getting really popular and going through some inventory I found one model was reduced so far in value that I could give it away free as long as the person signed up for service. Since that wasn't fully legal, I had to charge 1 penny for the phones. For 2 months I contacted every region and got every remaining phone that was complete enough to sell into my tiny store. Had back to back 50% sales gains and the awards to prove it.

Ironically, that was as close to anything else that signaled the death of the stores. The move towards pure services instead of products was too enticing for the idiots at the top. We did sprint long distance signups, credit card signups, extended warranty sales, DSS dish sales, Dish network, Primestar, oh and don't forget pagers and ADT alarm system.. All of these are services that you make pure profit from because you don't have to carry a single piece of inventory when you get right down to it. Sign people up for the service and you made money. Stupid, stupid people.

The core of that company was always the small pieces and parts that you don't get with your name brand product. Then RS started trying to carry name brands too. Terrible product buyers never made a good buy, not even once! From square zero, RS could not sell name brands because their own cost to the stores was higher than the competitor was selling to the consumer. As soon as shit would come in with an IBM, RCA or other label, it was a loss leader! Stupid, stupid people.

The manager trainee course used to be highly valued by head hunters from other companies too. As silly as it sounds, the employees all had to pass certifications so they could hold a real conversation with customers and actually help them buy what they needed. When Best Buy came to my home area for the first time, the stores were flooded by BB managers looking to recruit!

This is what they get for hiring a CEO from outside the company back in the early 90's.
I recommend Tandy's Money Machine for anyone interested in other early day info about the cash cow of Tandy corp. Did you know that some of the first "Tandy" computers were literally purchased IBM's with the case changed? People did time in jail for that but it was gutsy shit that made them who they were. Was a good company for a long time. RIP

Not surprised about this at all. They tried to maintain being a boutique electronics store in 2015 while nearly every product they carried was 20-50% cheaper purchased online.

Radioshack's customers were dumbasses who didn't bother doing any research and pricing around, impatient folks who needed it on the spot, or people who were desperate to purchase something in the last minute.

If they were smart they would've began stocking refurbished/used electronics with deep discounts or lower-end or imports if they couldn't get better deals with their volume.

That's too bad, but surprised here either.

I used to LOVE Radio Shack when I was a kid. I used to go every Friday night after school to play and learn to program a TRS-80 that they had on display there. People used to gather around looking at this nerdy kid and that new fangled contraption.

I used to build electronic kits of all kinds and Radio Shack was usually my first stop for all the parts I needed. I think I must have built over 50 things between the ages of 8 and 12.

Thanks for the fun Radio Shack! I will miss you!

Surprised but not really sad.

They're not going to be gone completely. Does anyone read?

thanks again, internet.

This is why I haven't been in one in many years. Some say it's sad to see them go but I'm happy that they will re-purpose a lot of them with Amazon. Maybe I'll finally step in one of their past stores.

I'm all for brick and mortar family businesses but I'm not going to go to a franchise store that charges 50% more (sometimes even more).

Costco...

they made the model work in canada so who knows what will happen The Source (retailer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thank god the few times i ever bought anything there my things would stop working or would break

I never noticed Radio Shack being a "boutique" store.

Matter of fact, here in recent years...they were trying to do what the market called for: selling mobile devices. I bought CM's last phone there for a lot cheaper than at the Verizon store.

And a lot of y'all are too young to remember when we all would have to upgrade our car stereos. Cars in the 1970's & early 1980's usually came with a pretty shitty sounding factory stereo.

But you could always go to radio shack and get a good cheap stereo, equalize, power booster, some 6x9's, and wire to hook your ride up and make that kick drum on AC/DC's "Back In Black" sound like it was in concert.

My dad built my first P.A. and light show for my band in 1978 with 15" speakers from Radio Shack (he built the cabinets for them to go in) for the P.A. and an empty electronics box, switches, and outlets for the light show.

It was always the cheap place to go.

And as I said...even in recent years it had some pretty good deals. And was damn convenient as opposed to having to drive out to a Best Buy. It was always so much faster to run into Radio Shack and grab a HDMI cable or a digital cable, etc. and be back home in 5 minutes.