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RadioShack Is Preparing to File For Bankruptcy Again (bloomberg.com)
BarbaraHudson writes: Bloomberg is reporting that the "new" RadioShack is preparing to file for bankruptcy. From the report: "General Wireless Operations, the RadioShack successor created by a partnership between Sprint Corp. and the defunct retailer's owners, is preparing to file for bankruptcy, according to people familiar with the matter. A filing could happen within the coming days and will probably result in liquidation, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the process isn't public. The beleaguered company, which does business as RadioShack, operates outlets that share space with Sprint's retail locations, as well as franchising the name to other stores." Investors had thrown $75 million in lines of credit and term loans at the business, which was used for "renovated locations and updated inventory." That's less than $60,000 per store -- chickenfeed in today's world, where renovating a McDonalds can run between $500,000 and $2,000,000, and you're not trying to pivot.
More than any other? Perhaps you forget video rental stores. An entire industry is gone. RadioShack sticking around this long is actually quite noteworthy!
People tend to think that the video rental business disappeared just because Blockbuster is gone. But their demise was mostly due to bad business decisions. There's a video rental store a short distance for my house, and judging by their parking lot, I would say they are still doing quite well.
Blockbuster was bought by Viacom. A few years later Viacom decided that they didn't want Blockbuster anymore so it was spun off as a separate company, a process that left it deeply in debt. Blockbuster was always profitable but couldn't generate enough money to pay down the debt so they filed for bankruptcy. The same thing happened to the Borders book stores (bought by K-Mart and then dumped). Massive debt cause by bad management has killed far more businesses than the Internet.