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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
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."
... 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.
Agreed. Craftsman used to be a great brand: I have power tools from my grandfather that still run AND for which I can still get parts (from Sears!). I have bought a few mysef over the last 5-10 years the the quality is rubbish. It's possible for them to turn around, though, should they care to do so.
Kenmore as a brand is actually just a private-label of other "real" brands like Whirlpool. So generally speaking, you can get decent appliances for not a lot of money.
Both of these brands are usually a great deal less expensive than their name-brand competitors.
Losing Sears means losing these two brands that will definitely be a loss for American consumers.
When I first saw the commercial last year the beginning made me think they were going back to their roots, back when they were relevant. I was thinking they'd have things like everything you need for a diydrone, 3D printing, various electrical components and such.
Instead they tried to be a cell phone store....I think.
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.
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Sears might make it to see 2016, but it would surprise me tremendously if they made it to see 2017. A couple months ago a couple of us in the office were talking about the stock market and we were betting if RadioShack would see 2015 or not...I was thinking they'd made 2015 but probably not Q2 2015.
Sears I'd place probably as a Q2 2016 failure.
but they just don't have anything to offer anymore
First Radio Shack sold radios, which enabled technically-savvy people to communicate.
Then Radio Shack sold simple computers, which enabled technically-savvy people to run applications to improve their lives.
Now, everybody carries an advanced radio/computer in their pocket, they're sold at RadioShack, and the nerds declare a tragedy.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
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
None of that stuff was ever on clearance when the place was closing. They stuck sale tags on everything and kept prices the same. Every store does this.
Not exactly true. I purchased some stuff in the last two weeks that was actually marked down at Circuit City, Same at CompUSA. But you have to know the going street price of something, be willing to wait for them to mark it down and be standing there when they do.
Personally, there isn't anything at Radio Shack that would make me want to hang out there to wait for the sale...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
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.
Sears will be next.
And I won't be the least bit surprised when it happens. Last year I ordered a drill press from Sears online, to be picked up and paid for at the local store. No confirmation of the order via email, and when it was supposed to have arrived, the store said they hadn't received it but would call to make sure it was delivered the next week when they received their regular shipment from the warehouse. Called the next week, still not there. I went out and bought a press from another place, and never heard back again from Sears.
When someone orders several hundred dollars' worth of product and you can't even be bothered to follow up on that order (or even deliver it), you don't have a sunny financial future ahead of you. Sears used to be a great store, but management at all levels seems to be a pack of idiots hell-bent on driving it into the ground.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
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...
They do sell Arduinos and gear. The problem is the markup is way too high, so the only reason you go there is because you need it RIGHT NOW and don't want to wait/pay for expedited shipping.
Craftsman used to be a great brand: I have power tools from my grandfather that still run AND for which I can still get parts (from Sears!). I have bought a few mysef over the last 5-10 years the the quality is rubbish.
Indeed. Craftsman used to be American made, too. Now >90% of all the Craftsman merchandise at Sears is made in China or Taiwan. The quality went away with it. The warranty is still there but that doesn't help when there are fewer stores open shorter hours than there were back in the 80s.
If you're wondering how this happened, just look at the Sears/KMart CEO. He's a devout Randian who is turning Sears into Lord of the Flies as he tries to abolish "collectivism" from his stores. To keep his employees in constant fear he is also known to phone in to company meetings and scream at people from thoussands of miles away on a video screen.
It's possible for them to turn around, though, should they care to do so.
The only way they could possibly do that would be by shit-canning their idiot CEO. Unfortunately when he took control he also made it nearly impossible to fire him. He'll ride that ship down and then find some clever trick to cash out.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
He also pitted the different sections of the company against each other. Rather than cooperatively working as a whole unit to make profits, he seems to think that making the online regular store compete with the brick-and-mortar store, and making the online outlet store compete with the brick-and-mortar outlet stores is a good idea. It's not. It just pisses off customers when they attempt to buy something they saw on the website by going in to get it, and find a different price on it and a store unable to match that price even though they can pull it up on their own computers.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Sigh, and I posted without realizing I wasn't logged in. Dementia is coming on fast.
Used to be the TRS-80 go-to guy in highschool, owned a Tandy 1000HX (It was a giant leap from my TI-99/4A, but the TI still works), that developed random floppy read/write errors, I solved it by gluing pennies to the read head of the drive, eventually it would go south, and I would glue another penny on, then one day, I sheared the head off when I put a disk in, because the spring had suddenly decided to stop holding those pennies up.
The saddest thing of all is that Sears was in a position to be what Amazon has become, but with an even better distribution chain and at the time, far more product. The Sears Catalog was the gold standard for catalog sales in the United States for decades, and Sears screwed the pooch when they discontinued it without having a good Internet-based catalog to replace it. Given the ubiquity of Sears locations, I bet that more than 90% of the population of the United States was within a reasonable same-day delivery period too, as opposed to Amazon's Prime not being feasible in many rural areas due to a lack of nearby fulfillment center.
Sears could have used their warehouses, their parts centers, their service centers, and even square footage that had been retail floorspace or the auto center or such to warehouse items for distribution to reach that huge number of people it had ready access to. Instead it launched a poorly-executed, nearly impossible to use online catalog and let it stagnate for years before adding a broken marketplace and a halfhearted facelift to make it somewhat work.
And then came K-mart...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
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.