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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.
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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.
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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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.
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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
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...
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.