Slashdot Mirror
RadioShack Near Deal To Sell Half of Its Stores, Close the Rest
mrspoonsi sends a Bloomberg report about a possible endgame for RadioShack. The company will reportedly sell half its store leases to Sprint, and the remaining stores will simply close. Negotiations are still underway, and the deal could fall through — but as it stands, the stores still open will likely change to Sprint's branding.
Sprint and RadioShack also have discussed co-branding the stores, two of the people said. It’s also possible that another bidder could emerge that would buy RadioShack and keep it operating, the people said. The Chinese backers who took the Brookstone chain out of bankruptcy, Sanpower Group, also have been in discussions about bidding for RadioShack assets, one person familiar with the talks said. ... The discussions represent the endgame for a chain that traces its roots to 1921, when it began as a mail-order retailer for amateur ham-radio operators and maritime communications officers. It expanded into a wider range of electronics over the decades, and by the 1980s was seen as a destination for personal computers, gadgets and components that were hard to find elsewhere.
I was so upset when Tandy closed up shop in England, they had the best gear in - not to mention the Battery Club which kept me in PP3s for a decade.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
a la Circuit City.
It's a shame, Radio Shack was so early in the PC game with the tape drives, 16KB of RAM, no hard drive, peek and pokes...they catered to the true tech junkies and with just a bit more business acumen, they could have ruled the computer world.
But then Commodore 64 came out with color and games, then came the the 8086 etc., but for a while the real eggheads knew how to play with the machine that looked like it came straight from the Star Trek bridge.
"Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
but they just don't have anything to offer anymore. Sears will be next.
Maybe putting out another Super Bowl commercial this year would have helped.
C'mon you clowns with the offshore cash, bring it home, SAVE THE SHACK, dammit!
Please have respect for people with different abilities, especially children.
... if I'm sad or happy about this.
Back when I was a kid, Radio Shack was a place where you could buy electrical components. Sure, they sold RC cars and stuff at the front, but at the back you could buy breadboards, wires, resistors, capacitors, microchips, etc. it was great.
In the past 15 years, most of that good stuff is gone: Radio Shack is nothing more than a non-denominational mobile phone store.
So, since they aren't much different than, say, Best Buy, or any number of other similar retailers, it's no wonder they are going under.
If they still sold components, I'd mourn their loss. Since they don't, I'm not sure I'll be shedding any tears.
and the new Sprint places will dump all of the non cell phone stuff. So radio shack is now a shity cell phone store and will be come a full one.
Radio shack is in a hurt, a pruning is good, you dont need one in every mall and every freaking po-dunk town
After talking with the manager of my local shack, who is staying open the one's all in our area are in mall's where no one goes and the rent is obscene, then there is the self competition, Radio Shack A doesn't stock X but Radio Shack B does stock X but not Y, its a fucking pain in the ass, now 3 stores are consolidating into 1, which is good cause I am sure as hell not chasing radio shack to give them money, and my manager buddy doesnt have to send customers away to another fucking Radio Shack hurting his sales.
Now they need to quit competing with the retail stores online, Radio Shacks own website does special sales that are not honored in the stores, hint hint guys... I am not going to pay for your overpriced walmart junk online! I go to radio shack cause its 4:30 on a Sunday afternoon and I cant finish something without a few extra diodes, or its noon on a Monday and I need a simple switch for work and I happen to be out to lunch, not cause I think to myself "gee I really use a wall wart that's marked up 20 bucks and wait a week for it"
Time to board up that Shack and go home. Where once you excelled as a mail order company, you have fallen victim to E-Bay, mail order and big box stores, not to mention your own hubris. How long did you think you could charge outrageous prices for that substandard product to the hobbyist? I can get cheaper cables from Amazon and electronic parts from Dig-Key (and others) in just a few days, and I won't have to throw out 60% of the parts for being out of spec.
It's been a fine run, right up to the part where your customers left you and you started to try pump the bilge water selling Cell phones and overpriced accessories of all things... Say WoHo for the bean counters and MBAs who did you and Circuit City the same...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
If anyone has gone to the shack over the last decade can attest. Radio shack used to be my go to place for all my wired and wire adaptor needs, anything a DYI splicer or electronic hobbiest needed (at least for most general stuff).
I saw the end was nigh when store stocks dwindled down to cell phones, cheap as seen on tv gadgets, and alarm clocks.
Went to one just a few weeks ago looking for volt meter....it was just pethetic looking in the store. Like almost no stock of anything DYI related. Sad....
I would love to see an Actobotics parts playground in every Radio Shack!
Sent from my ENIAC
But what of the underemployed American electrical engineers who were working at Radio Shack because there aren't any skilled jobs in America anymore? What will they do when they're fully unemployed and overskilled for any job anywhere? Whatever will they do? Curl up and die?
Most of you probably don't remember back in the sixties when Radio Shack was the retail distribution arm of Allied Radio (yes, it was known as Allied Radio Shack), a major components distributor. It was a real parts store the. Eventually Tandy picked up the chain, began selling branded parts, and it was never quite the same. The reality is that the advent of the personal computer, the death of manufacturing in the U.S., and an educational system that no longer valued engineering skills combined to kill the electronics hobbyist market that the Radio Shack depended upon. Their change of focus to consumer electronics was a reflection of that new reality, but unfortunately that is a saturated market. This was, alas, a long time in coming.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Remember in Short Circuit 2 when Johnny 5 was able to repair himself by grabbing parts from a Radio Shack? You go in there now looking for electronic components and you find a dusty pack of alligator clips and maybe a sun damaged 4xAA battery holder. It's sad.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
I was a teen in the glory days of Allied and Lafayette catalogs when Radio Shack was nicknamed Rat Shack but everybody else died and Radio Shack remained as the place to get many components.
Went to a store today, which was closing. It was mostly full of toys, antennas, and batteries.
Anyway.. my first job in 1988 was Radio Shack. I was privileged enough to be able to take their portable cell phone on weekends while in high school. Tandy 3000. Robie the coin bank. Pirates and Ultima 6 in the back room on a laptop. Realistic amplifiers and cb radios. TI 555 timers and led bars. Coco. Forest Mimm's books. My first exposure to unix though xenix. A working light pen over joystick port for my C128
A chubby girl in the back room...
I'm not sure I could create any of this for my offspring, at least not easitly. Those were fun times..
Went to one just a few weeks ago looking for volt meter....it was just pethetic looking in the store. Like almost no stock of anything DYI related. Sad....
Don't go to Radio Shack for a volt meter. You can get better volt meters from Harbor Freight... Usually for free with coupon. (I know I have a drawer full of unopened meters from them.) Unless you want one that's accurate, then hit up E-Bay for a fluke...
Actually, don't go to RS for even a cell phone, unless you already know exactly what you want and they can make you the best deal on it (unlikely).....
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
So, nothing changes except they wall off the back 1/3rd of the store?
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
a function of the chubby girl in the back room?
Sent from my ENIAC
You're both wrong. The market exists and is doing well. Just look at Fry's electronics. A good quarter of the store is devoted to things like packs of resistors. They do have things like appliances, cameras, and TV's as well.
Radio shack could never decide if they wanted to go 100% geek or 100% consumer electronics. So they just kinda did both and neither well.
ars technica makes the point that neither radio shack nor sprint are willing to comment on this story, let alone confirm it.
http://arstechnica.com/busines...
I'd typically shop there for unusual form factor batteries (like pencil batteries), or international plug adapters, or the sort of things one doesn't usually find in a normal hardware store. Although a few months back, I did buy a computer mouse from there
Or does one have to use DigiKey, Avnet, Arrow, Amazon, etc. and wait a couple of days. In California, we do have Fry's, but they too seem to be following in the Shack's footsteps.
So I take it their Superbowl commercial last year didn't save them?
The store by me turned into a "clearance" center, which means they are closing I guess. Got an Arduino Yun + LCD touch shield for close to 50% off. Gonna go back for more...
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
There are loads of independent parts stores around me, but I live in job-shop-land (small companies that do short production runs of industrial control panels / tools / etc...) There's a store, still in business, where I grew up that still has a tube-tester. They're more like the REALLY old-school Radio Shack. There's one on the other side of the city that carries nearly every component you could want.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
The old RadioShack stores in Canada are now owned by Bell, and they're still going strong-ish... Could work...
Last time I went to RS for an HDMI cable, they wanted $45 for one cable. I turned around and got a 5 pack of them from Amazon for $7.
Where's my drone delivery?
I'd agree the market quickly expanded, but Radio Shack did a poor job of maintaining it's supremacy in it. Frys and Microcenter kick butt for brick-n-mortar tech hobbiest stores. Digi-key is great for 2-3 day delivery. Even a small town like Anchorage, Alaska, supports a big-box store full of electronic components called Frigid North. http://store.frigidnorth.com/ I don't feel sad. They all represent what Radio Shack was well-positioned to be, but blew money on NFL Superbowl ads instead of revamping their tech line-up.
I used to work at RadioShack as a youth 20+ years ago. I really enjoyed that store at the time, it was a hobbyists playland. They used to send us to certification classes of sorts. We would go over the inventory we sold, how it worked, all the specs. We had cable spools of varying types and any one of us could make you a cable of any type, any length that you needed. We could walk you through the entire setup of a sound system, speakers, amp, tuner. Bring in a scanner? We could program the channels for you (and hell, even give you crystals for the non-digital scanners/radios).
It was really a different era, we had regulars that would come in and shoot the breeze with us, talk about their latest electronic project, ask for pointers, and share ideas.
It makes me sad when I go into one today, with specific parts in mind, and have to explain to the folks there what they are, what they are for, and then usually just get pointed in a direction because they have no clue what I am talking about.
tl;dr
OFF MY LAWN!
In Canada, Radio Shack (The Source) sold all it's stores to Bell.
Funny how the local FRY's resembles the Radio Shack I once knew and loved, more than actual Radio Shack does.
For anyone in the greater Seattle area looking for a good brick-and-mortar electronic components store, check out Vetco Electronics in Bellevue. Lots of great stuff...
Its ironic that they are selling to Sprint given that its the cellphone crap (and their stupid requirement that everyone who enters the store has to be given the cellphone hard-sell BS) that has caused so much of their problems.
Washington, NC store has a couple of component cabinets but the Greenville, NC store has figured out what the corporate hacks couldn't. They have a section with RC parts and components and another section with Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc.
I do not block ads. I do block third party scripts.
...a sick twisted solitary misfit might run to."
Lisa: "'ll start with Radio Shack."
For the electronics lab kits and the TRS-80 that got me started in a very successful career.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Springfield, MO... Dallas, TX... Tampa, San Francisco all have caps, resistors, lamp sockets and piezos.
Maybe your market is a dumping ground for dusty Tandy DIPs, I don't know. I'd like to be there for it, if so.
Isn't that the one that moved from lower downtown? That pissed me off. I hate Bellvue.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I worked for Radio Shack back in the early 90's I thought it would be such a cool dream job, Within 6 months, I was promoted to a store manager and given my own store. Sadly, I soon learned the harsh reality of corporate marketing, sales gains, profits, and other related BS. Imagine having to ask your customers to sign a document saying that you tried to sell them a Tandy service plan! What a joke. I don't know what the Hell John Roach was thinking. I used to have small time hobbyists as customers that came to my store because I knew something about electronics and could help them out with whatever project they were working on. I loved it, and they loved it. I know it didn't make for huge profits, but it sure made for a loyal, steady, customer base. Radio Shack demanded double digit sales gains every quarter. No way that was going to happen when the customers knew they could buy the same TV or VCR at WalMart for half the cost, But my best memories were of the old time HAM's and retired tinkerers would come in and chat about designing a speaker cabinet with the best volumetric efficiency and frequency response, or some other electronic project they were working on. They could chat for hours! and they would willingly spend money with you because they trusted and confided in you. Too bad it just didn't jive with "profits", and "shareholder value". I understand the reality of it. But it still sucks. I miss those old guy's bringing in coffee and snacks, talking for what seemed like hours. My part timers eyes would glaze over after about 5 minutes of our conversation. It must have seemed to them like a conversation with Stephen Hawking LOL! But they knew all those old folks, as my store was located in a rural community, and they knew that it was the highlight of those old folks day to come in and talk tech with somebody who enjoyed it as much as they did. I will always remember those days.
I think you might be thinking of Radar Electric that used to be on Elliott in lower Queen Anne. Vetco is worth the hassle of going over to the Eastside though... Much better than Frys (maybe we'll have that resistor you need, maybe we won't) Electronics.
"by the 1980s was seen as a destination for personal computers, gadgets and components that were hard to find elsewhere."
It is still the place to find computers, gadgets and components... from the 1980s...!!
...since I knew it was coming for years, but it still will be hard. The first computer I ever programmed was a TRS-80. I used to book programming time at the local library on their Model III. I worked there in the summers in college after the store manager overheard me giving advice to a fellow customer and offered me a job on the spot. When the manager wasn't looking, I'd read the ham radio and electronic books by Forrest Mims and write down important scanner frequencies from their police scanner books.. The original handwritten "Getting Started with Electronics" sits proudly on my shelf, and I have an electronics project kit I still haven't finished. I still use some of their best items, like their stereo speakers, a duophone speakerphone that is still the best item they ever made, the mini amplifier which may be the second best, CB radio and scanner antennas, and countless parts, adapters, soldering irons, solder, etc. I even still use their 1980's era pocket computer! People say that digikey is good enough for the pieces parts, but that web site is extremely difficult to use and confusing. I feel like I'm losing an old friend. I will miss Radio Shack very much, especially at Christmas time where I'd buy their electronic and RC toys and kits as gifts. You can't find that stuff anywhere else.... not the same stuff at least.
It's not surprising, of course. It's more of a surprise that Radio Shack lasted this long, because they always ignored their core customer... us. Maybe not ignored, but treated us like second class citizens, even though we were keeping them afloat with their 400% market up pieces parts (and yes, I could see on the computer when I worked there what the actual cost was on each part, and the markup was as bad as everyone suspects). They admitted to that the pieces parts kept them in business, but you could tell that they only accepted that reality very grudgingly. If they could have become Best Buy, they would have in a heartbeat. They kept trying, and now that even Best Buy is hurting, too, their little sister Radio Shack had no chance of trudging along anymore.
Radio Shack brought the first microcomputer (PC's for you young'ns) to nationwide retail, beating out Apple and Commodore by a few months.. and now they are gone. :-(
"Then in the back, nestled in a corner are the Arduinos, Maker Kits and littleBits DIY items of fun. They’re next to the wires, transistors and soldering guns.
The items that could have made RadioShack the darling of the Maker movement are shoved in the back and ignored. A layer of dust settles on the boxes."
http://thenextweb.com/opinion/...
... but I admit its all nostalgia
I cant think of how many times I thought "I will just go to Radio Shack and get that cable/adapter/thingy I need"
Now I just use Amazon prime like everyone else or a dozen others. Their prices always sucked because they knew they were the only choice you had.
It used to be the coolest store at the mall. Realistic audio gear, CB radios and all things cool and very geeky.
I'll miss you Radio Shack. It was a good run. You just couldn't stay relavent long enough. R. I. P.
---- "Logoff! That cookie shit makes me nervous!" - A. Soprano
They should've turned into a computer boutique store. There are tons of them around where I live, all start ups. There is definitely a market for computer repair and/or parts, if they're remotely competitive with online prices they could definitely have something. Computers are a hobby now days, it really sucks they actually got out of it. The shift in focus went from pure 'electronics' to computers, which is why they don't have a target base anymore. Most people aren't doing custom solder jobs while tinkering, but tinkering with their computers.
Um... most folks can't remember that, because it never happened. Tandy bought Radio Shack in 1972, and then Radio Shack bought Allied Radio in 1970 and merged them. (Prior to that, Allied Radio had been a subsidiary of Columbia and a competitor to Radio Shack.) They were only briefly known as Allied Radio Shack, before Allied was spun off by court order and it subsequently died. On top of that, Allied pretty much followed the same path as Radio Shack - it started as a parts and components dealer, but by the 1960's it had long since become a consumer electronics dealer with a strong sideline in parts and components.
The reality is, Radio Shack hadn't been wholly dependent on the electronics hobbyist market since the 1930's - when it entered the hi-fi market. In 1954, the Realistic brand was introduced as it began to move into the more general consumer electronics market. By the early/mid 1970's, though the product mix varied by store (especially if your local store was independently owned), the transition company wide was largely complete - viewed as a whole they had become a consumer electronics store with a modest sideline in hobbyist parts and components. The advent of the personal computer was a decade away.
There are many causes to Radio Shack's decline and fall, but moving away from the electronics hobbyist market played no significant part.
They were called "TANDY" in Europe and Asia. You would take your electronic course with them to get your qualifications through the post. You would build a functioning home computer system keyboard and everything. You would build a power supply which was the size of a house brick. You would receive your magazine through the post every two weeks telling you which component you needed to buy from "TANDY" to complete your course. They also did a ( do it yourself ) build a "ham radio" and build what they now call a drone aircraft. Camera and circuitboard and components were all supplied by TANDY" which you had to buy from their catalogue magazine to complete your course. Long time ago 80s and I think they finished late 90s and become RadioShack briefly in Europe, and then disappeared. So it was a U.S. company? To earn a living then everybody wanted to be a "television repair man" televisions were shit them they used to break all the time. Television repair man were self-employed.
If Radio Shack had stayed true to their original concept by selling electronic components and kits, they might still be in business, albeit not have as many stores as they did.
As a ham-radio enthusiast I remember the days when I could go down to the store and pick up a few bits and pieces I needed for some project or another, or at least get advice from a staff that knew their electronics fairly well.
The last few decades Radio Shack has steered themselves away from single components into cheap do-nothing kits, doohickeys and gizmos, then transitioning into selling low end computers at top-notch prices and cellphone cases to the masses, something that every "electronic" store does.
In Canada, the Radio Shack name was sold off years ago to Circuit City, and then when CC went under, bought up the Bell telco conglomerate, rebranding the stores as 'The Source' as another place to sell their cell phone packages and accessories. It looks familiar to Radio Shack, without any of the glory day components available for sale, selling cheap RC cars, computers and terrible audio equipment. The majority of stuff was labelled under a knock-off looking "Nexxtech" brand name. Again, inferior quality, but top-notch pricing.
If they had stayed true to their original purpose, ham radio enthusiasts young and old, as well as anyone with a thirst for knowledge of the electronic kind would have a place to go. And Radio Shack could still have that niche market for the go-to components, and electronic advice.
Seriously, MBAs continue to destroy companies. The only thing that they can do is part them out, rather than re-build them.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I built a lot of Radio Shack kits. I built a pixe tube clock, an atomic clock radio, I bought a Realist Navaho Base Station when I was 12 years old. Radio Shack sold one of the first home pcs too. In the 70s and 80s Radio Shack actually designed, manufactured, and sold products. The TRS-80 is one. One of the first home pcs. lot's of software. I have a Tandy Pocket PC that I kept for a soveinier.. I bought it around 1983. I was a college student then in my freshman year. When I was a kid Radio Shack was one of the only electronic stores that you can bring your television or radio tubes in to test, and buy a replacement. They also had their own stereo line of products. The equipment was great. I still have a pair of Minmus-7 spears. I have them attached to my hd tv on the second floor. They still sound great. I remember to elelctronic magazine rack. I would always buy the latest electronic experimenters book by Forest M. Mimms. I'd take circuits in the lab and combine them to build my own gadgets. Radio Shack actually ceased to exists when they stopped building Realistic Navaho CBs, Minmus line of Speakers, stopped innovating the home pc market, eliminated the book shelf, stopped selling original kits based on the components they sold, and became a cell phone shop. It's too bad. I believe my time spent in Radio Shack as a kid kind of steered me into the career I got into.
I used to think that losing Radio Shack would be somewhat a negative. Because where else can I run out and buy certain parts, batteries, and other electronic devices. At one time I though Radio Shack to be the savior of all things electronic. But not anymore, and I doubt that when Radio Shack's finally do close, I will ever realize they actually did.
Did you know that MicroCenter sells oscilloscopes and other things from TekTronix on occaision?
Arduinos, R-Pi's, and 3D printers too. They are the new RadioShack. And they don't cell cell phones either.
Yea, I used to find their products of good quality. But lately, all they sell are poor quality Chinese crap. Its not even good stuff from China. Yet, Radio Shack put's a price on them like they are. I can't remember the last time I bought anything at a Radio Shack? I can remember a time when I belong to their Battery Club, and had plenty of reasons to shop there. Used to buy scanners, shortwave radios, personal radios, solder, wire, antennas. But that was back in a day when all these items were of good quality. I think my last purchase was a hand held scanner that was discounted after the holidays a few years ago. I guess for me, I just don't think of Radio Shack when I need anything electronic. Mostly because their stock was always low, the one person working was always spending time selling phones, fixing phones, or activating phones. It became too annoying to buy anything at a Radio Shack.
When I was little, I had this robot like thing. It was line an RC car, except it was controlled with a wired controller (which used a ribbon cable, no less!), and instead of a car, it was more of a platform with a giant robotic arm. Actually, it was somewhat similar to those UFO catcher games, except you could have it go around the room and pick stuff up, etc.
Nobody sells awesome stuff like that anymore for kids :(
Agreed. They've spent years pissing on the one guaranteed audience they had. When I was a kid, I recall the employees having a reasonable understanding of their product. Now, it's a bunch of young minimum-wage types who insist on knowing what I'm looking for when I walk in but are invariably stumped and often annoyed if it's anything that lives in the tiny 'electronics ghetto' still tucked away in the back of most stores.
From the Model 1 with Dancing Demon to the AMD386 powered clones: https://archive.org/details/ep...
Not surprised. Radio Shack has become a relic. Everything they sell is available on-line for a lot less. Sad they weren't able to transform themselves. I feel bad for their employees.
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author.
Seriously, for four decades Radio Shack has been the place that USED to have the stuff I need right now. But every time I go there, for forty years, the thing I need is always no longer carried, sold out, waiting on reorder, available online with the exchange of detailed personal information, whatever, it's never actually there. My father is the same way: "they used to have great model plane gear," he once told me, and he means like back in the 1940s. For him, Radio Shack has sucked for 70 years.
If they liquidate the VEX Robotics stuff I'll be first in line. I love it!
No tears from me.... I have not been there in years. But they were, at one time, the place to go..... not anymore!
If you find yourself needing that ethernet cable when you're helping Grandma with her new computer, and you can't use Prime Fresh, or go to Best Buy, or wait for mail order, try the local PC repair shops, or maybe you'll even get lucky and find an old school mom-and-pops electronic store in the area. They often have everything you'd walk into Radio Shack for, minus the pitch for an extended warranty.