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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 $2,000,000, and you're not trying to pivot.
Almost nobody will shop at RadioShack anymore because in the 90's they decided that annoying people at the cash registers to buy extra batteries and later to try to switch their cell phone plans was worth alienating the customer base, just as the Internet was coming along to offer people other options.
Meanwhile, retailers like Walmart picked up most of their commonly useful inventory and made mint while not harassing customers with upsales. Apparently Walmart isn't driven by quarter-on-quarter-driven MBA's.
On the other hand, they probably left with big bonuses and nobody knows who they were, and two bankruptcies later they're not black-balled.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
"...The beleaguered company, which does business as RadioShack, operates outlets that share space with Sprint's retail locations"
Let's be honest- today's RadioShack is little more that a Sprint store with a small shelf in back where you can buy 9-volt batteries and red-and-black colored wire for $8.99 a roll.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
It takes an ocean liner a lot longer to sink than a dinghy.....
love is just extroverted narcissism
I moved to a fairly rural area about four years ago. Before that, I don't think I'd been inside a Radio Shack in at least 10 years. Now that there are no large electronic stores locally, RS is the only place that I get get electronics. I've probably been there more in the last four years than the entire rest of my life. The selection isn't great, but it's better than nothing if I need something today.
Germans?
Forget it, he's rolling.
More than any other? Perhaps you forget video rental stores. An entire industry is gone. RadioShack sticking around this long is actually quite noteworthy!
Not exactly. Good assets got spun off into a "new" company while the bad assets sank with the "old" company in bankruptcy court. Those good assets weren't enough to save the new company from being bankrupted. Someone will buy the Radio Shack IP and try again in the future.
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.
I think RadioShack's problems predate turning themselves into a cell phone store. In the 1980s RadioShack was, at least in my town, the center of the community's technical world. The manager was a great guy who would lead teenagers like myself muck around with the latest Model 100 or Model 4, and indeed my first three computers were all Tandy/RadioShack computers. RadioShack was sort of a geek cultural center back in the day, but by the 90s it was trying to transform itself and I remember the stores became a lot more "corporate", with management that was far less friendly. Yes, the slow degradation of the components section of the store had its effect in reducing the hobbyist traffic, but it was also that the soul of the place seemed to die out. Where in the 80s and early 90s you actually had staff who knew something about the products they were selling, by the early 00s, you had kids who could barely read a script.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I don't think it was the internet that killed radio shack. The internet is nice and all, but what if you quickly need an electronics component and don't want to wait for it to ship? Having a local components store nearby is useful. Unfortunately, radio shack decided to really limit their stock of components and shift to being more of a consumer electronics store, thus becoming just another less interesting version of a best buy, circuit city, compusa, etc.
Other big box stores picked up where radio shack left off by holding a bigger selection of components while also doing a much better job in that consumer electronics role. Namely, stores like Fry's Electronics and Microcenter, which do really well at both components and consumer electronics, whereas radio shack was crappy at both.
RadioShack sticking around this long is actually quite noteworthy!
It was also quite mysterious. I could never figure out how they did it. When I would walk past the Radio Shack in the mall, it was always empty, except for the two guys working there. Maybe a few times a week they would sell an overpriced battery. Yet despite paying salaries and high mall rents, for year after year they stayed in business. It made no sense.
I remember what they were 45 years ago, when I was a teenager just getting my feet wet in electronics. You could walk into one, talk to the store clerks about what you were building and they would offer suggestion, different things about electronics. I went into one about a year ago, looking for a 100uf 25volt electrolytic capacitor, and the clerk had NO IDEA what I was asking for.
The problem is it didn't keep to its roots. With the maker movement it could had positioned itself a place for makers to quickly get parts, and also as a place to do 3D printing. As well to get replacement electronic parts. Where you can get parts faster than waiting for shipping. But for the most part they just focused on selling stuff you can get at other retail stores.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I can explain why Sears is still open, lawnmowers and washer/dryer combos. You get those from some place like Walmart or Lowes it doesn't matter how much money you spend its still gonna be junk that will be lucky if it lasts a year and a half, but you buy those at Sears? They cost a little more but you get 5 year warranties that you will never need because it'll easily last past that with seriously heavy use.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
It's interesting, but they do seem to be thriving in lower income and rural areas.
I haven't seen a videos store on my side of town, but at a recent medical appointment for my daughter, I heard another family telling their kids they could go to the video store if they were good.
So I pulled up a google map of Indianapolis, and sure enought, there are plenty of Family Videos. Just not around the North Side. I think more affluent areas, where people have CC's, are mostly served by redbox. They also tend to have decent internet and you can get almost any video rental from Amazon.
It's easy to forget that not everybody has access to credit or debit cards. This makes kiosk services like redbox useless, and prevents them from purchasing online, even if they have reliable internet. Even Netflix is difficult to access, although you can get prepaid cards now.
I wonder how access to credit and debit cards affects piracy rates?
Cheap storage VM.