RadioShack files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

It's not surprising, but still kinda sad. I didn't see this posted yet. Mods, please close if so.

I loved meandering around RadioShack and looking at all the weird electrical riff raff.



Gizmodo

The slow, painful death of a retail icon

Yesterday, RadioShack officially filed for bankruptcy, a move that was plans and rumors up until this point. This is pretty much a killing blow as RadioShack plans to sell up to 2,400 of its stores in the United States.

Now, RadioShack is like a rotting corpse being pulled apart by zombie corporations. Amazon has plans to snatch up some of the stores to give a massive boost to its brick-and-mortar presence and Sprint will keep a small shell of RadioShack alive in its own stores with Sprint selling its service and RadioShack providing all the parts and accessories.

It's a sad fate for sure, but one that's seemed inevitable considering the online boom of the last decade. To quote a now soul-crushing 2014 Super Bowl commercial, the 80s wants its store back. Maybe it's best to remember the store in its glory rather than its downfall.

Yes, it's true: after somehow clinging on for the last few years, RadioShack is finally, officially bankrupt. But that doesn't mean that every single store will be vanishing — far from it, in fact. There's now a list of all the stores that will be going in the next few months.

RadioShack has around 5,000 stores with its branding worldwide, but as Bloomberg points out, not all of those are going to vanish in the near future, regardless of what happens in the boardroom. Around a thousand of those stores are operated as franchises, which will retain the right to use the RadioShack name for the next few years (whether they want to do that, of course, is a different question). Furthermore, if a rumored deal with Sprint goes through, 1,750 stores will be co-branded as Sprint retail locations and continue to sell gold-plated connectors to unsuspecting pensioners.

One thing that looks certain, however, is the closure of 1,784 stores, as outlined in bankruptcy documents (and noticed by Business Insider). The closures will come in three waves, with the first completed by February 17th, and the latest at the end of March. BI has the full list for your morbid fascination.

Proposed RadioShack store closings

a reply to: SgtHamsandwich

Yeah, they had no business staying in business with their unmodified business model.

It was a great company back when there were few alternatives for parts despite their exorbitant prices.

In the end, electronic parts chains probably ought not to be run by religious cults.

Now where am I supposed to buy a radio? (which may have been one of their problems)

Good riddance to bad rubbish....no more overpriced and low quality electronics that don't last......
Ive always considered them to be an icon of ripoff retail establishments.....

a reply to: greencmp

I agree. Their prices were always pretty steep. Access to online shopping is killing these types of specialty stores.

Best buy is the same way IMO. I go to Best Buy to look at the things I want to buy off of Amazon for cheaper.

a reply to: Aleister

Try buying a pair of snow-shoes in a shoe store :>)

Radio Shack is purely a victim of eCommerce. It lasted much longer than I thought it would, and they did try to re-invent themselves a few times since the 60's and 70's, but this only further alienated them from their real customer, the electronic enthusiast and hobby people that relied on them for both popular and obscure parts to build and repair all types of electronic equipment.

They should have seen the writing on the wall a long time ago. Companies like DigiKey, Fry's Electronics and Mouser took over so much of their once exclusive position in this market. There was a company in Ohio called Olson's Electronics, that was perhaps the best electronics parts store I was ever in, and they closed all of there stores in the 80's as well. A further clue of the rapidly changing market conditions that required huge inventories to satisfy the needs of the hobby and professional tinkerers and inventors.

The biggest threat, and the one that broke Radio Shacks back, was online electronic commerce in China. There is no way for anyone to really compete in this market anymore with the prices they offer. It is just the wait to receive your order that is still a problem.

So long Radio Shack. It was a great run, and like I said , it remained viable much longer than I expected. Had they started to convert their company to an online presence earlier, they would probably have done much better in the later years, but with Ebay and China.... the end was always on the near horizon.

Added note: Their best years were right before the start of the WWW. Those were the days of early computing, and their TRS-80 Tandy products were true ground breakers in the cheap computer market. They own a big part in that history for sure.

They hung on a long time! We always called them "Radio Schlock" despite the fact that I used them a lot for buying IC chips and such to repair stuff back in the old days. I can't remember the last time I visited a Radio Shack.

Anybody remember these commercials:

I bought my first computer there.. Must have been 95 or 96. An IBM with a 166 pentium and 2 gb hard drive..lol

I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot more of the brick and mortar specialty stores closing their doors in the future.

It's just too easy these days to go online and get anything you want and for the most part cheaper.

I went to my local RS the other day. I thought it had closed as it was almost empty. Turns out they were going to restock the store and it had been cleared out for new items. The girl there told me they were closing a few shops but that one will stay open. Maybe it's going to be one those Sprint stores, who knows.

I still shop there a few times a year. Pieces and parts they have always been good for, mostly. I wasn't shocked to hear this but i still go there for stuff when I need to.

a reply to: stirling

Felt the same...I loved walking in there but could never find anything I needed and what i did find was always higher priced than anything I could find on amazon or at other local electronic shops. Not a fan of Radioshack at all.

Even their electrical parts areas were dwindled down to a few draws where in the past it was a much larger chunk of shelves, but yes, everything can be bought on line and cheaper.

a reply to: SgtHamsandwich

Ho Boy,

I thought I had prepared myself for this moment, but I'm still getting a little verklempt.

Very sad.

P.S. Priceless avatar, wish I'd thought of it.

originally posted by: SgtHamsandwich
It's not surprising, but still kinda sad. I didn't see this posted yet. Mods, please close if so.

I loved meandering around RadioShack and looking at all the weird electrical riff raff.

Gizmodo

The slow, painful death of a retail icon

Yesterday, RadioShack officially filed for bankruptcy, a move that was plans and rumors up until this point. This is pretty much a killing blow as RadioShack plans to sell up to 2,400 of its stores in the United States.

Now, RadioShack is like a rotting corpse being pulled apart by zombie corporations. Amazon has plans to snatch up some of the stores to give a massive boost to its brick-and-mortar presence and Sprint will keep a small shell of RadioShack alive in its own stores with Sprint selling its service and RadioShack providing all the parts and accessories.

It's a sad fate for sure, but one that's seemed inevitable considering the online boom of the last decade. To quote a now soul-crushing 2014 Super Bowl commercial, the 80s wants its store back. Maybe it's best to remember the store in its glory rather than its downfall.

Yes, it's true: after somehow clinging on for the last few years, RadioShack is finally, officially bankrupt. But that doesn't mean that every single store will be vanishing — far from it, in fact. There's now a list of all the stores that will be going in the next few months.

RadioShack has around 5,000 stores with its branding worldwide, but as Bloomberg points out, not all of those are going to vanish in the near future, regardless of what happens in the boardroom. Around a thousand of those stores are operated as franchises, which will retain the right to use the RadioShack name for the next few years (whether they want to do that, of course, is a different question). Furthermore, if a rumored deal with Sprint goes through, 1,750 stores will be co-branded as Sprint retail locations and continue to sell gold-plated connectors to unsuspecting pensioners.

One thing that looks certain, however, is the closure of 1,784 stores, as outlined in bankruptcy documents (and noticed by Business Insider). The closures will come in three waves, with the first completed by February 17th, and the latest at the end of March. BI has the full list for your morbid fascination.

Proposed RadioShack store closings

It's a shame, truly. Smaller retailers (those without the captital to buy-out or starve-out as in this case) can't compete with Big Box stores.

It's not only mom and pops, but ever increasing sizes of business that just can't survive. And we, the consuming public (we aren't people anymore - as that designation goes to BIg Business interests today) lose out on the lack of competition.

You never hear Austerity Hockers talk about competition and that is the very mechanism by which the magical invisible hand of the almighty market is alleged to operate.

I recommend everyone read the appendix or last chapter in Fritoj Capra's book "The Hidden Connections". It speaks to the operating prinicpal of our dominate economic systems (systems can have only ONE core operating or organizing principal.) The core prinicpal of this system is Accumulation of Capital, and the spiral will continue, if unchecked and changed, until all the Capital available is in a single pool - or hand. The last 40 years supports this idea and only a radical change in economic system will stop all capital from flowing into a single pool - what happens then I wonder - perhaps a birfurcation. Hmmm.

a reply to: FyreByrd

It's not only mom and pops, but ever increasing sizes of business that just can't survive. And we, the consuming public (we aren't people anymore - as that designation goes to BIg Business interests today) lose out on the lack of competition.

I tend to disagree a bit with this statement. I feel that because of the easy of online shopping there is more competition than ever for the consuming public. That's why these places are dying. They can't afford to charge the prices required to pay the overhead of retail stores.

Online shopping is cutting out the middle man and allowing us to purchase goods from a multitude of sources all over the world at wholesale prices.

It's a no brainer for me as a consumer when I can sit on the toilet at home and order a $2 usb cable that I need right from my phone as opposed to getting dressed, driving to where ever, using gas, to such and such store to pay $15 bucks for the same cable. That saves me $13 buck to put towards my ever increasing grocery bill.

a reply to: FyreByrd

However, I do agree is terrible for the economy. We won't last long going in this direction. A lot of jobs will be lost due to this trend and that's no good for anyone.

If you are too stupid to change with the technology, you deserve to go away. We missed you about 15 years before this. You didn't listen. You picked a loser in cell phones. You should have devoted your time to what people wanted.

It's only surprising it didn't happen sooner. The last half-dozen times I went to Radio Shack they didn't have the items I was looking for (not even speaker wire!) and they were staffed with people who were clueless and provided poor customer service.

originally posted by: Tangerine
It's only surprising it didn't happen sooner. The last half-dozen times I went to Radio Shack they didn't have the items I was looking for (not even speaker wire!) and they were staffed with people who were clueless and provided poor customer service.

Are you sure you weren't at McDonald's by mistake? Because that sounds just like McDonald's and I'm pretty sure they don't sell speaker wire.