RadioShack to close 500 stores.

[tufsu1]

Not surprising. I had forgot that they were still around. I haven't been inside of a Radio Shack since the early 1990s. I think I stopped in to look at the price of pagers then and I walked out because they were too high.

I actually shopped at one twice this holiday season

[spuwho]

RIP: Radio Shack

The Jacksonville regional sales office for Radio Shack is at the corner of Beach & University next to the retail store in the same building facing Virginia College.

Sprint is attempting to pick up some of the retail store leases on the cheap.

Amazon is also bidding for some of the assets as well, though its not clear why.

The beginning of the end of Radio Shack occurred when they sold their computer business to AST and spun off their big box concept store Incredible Universe. At the time they were years ahead of what was CompUSA, Circuit City, Best Buy and others. When BestBuy rose up, many people were baffled as they thought Radio Shack should have the niche. The final straw for the hobbyist crowd was when they started charging for the coveted catalogs.(long before the internet came along)

Like Blockbuster, Sears and other retailers that couldn't adapt to the new trends, Radio Shack held on (barely).

The Tandy Corporation, which bought it from Allied, became so risk adverse in the early 1990's, they flat out refused to embrace anything new after that. It was the only chain that could open new stores while the others barely broke even. In fact the majority of the stores had flat sales for years.

I even stopped using their website after my credit card company called after I made an online purchase. They said radioshack.com was the worst source of fraud and they had to validate all the purchases made there.

I laughed out loud when I recently bought a $2.99 audio cable and they tried to sell me an extended warranty!!

I remember going to Radio Shack when it was owned by Allied Industries in 1965. It was one of the few places where you could get replacement vacuum tubes for your TV.

I still have my Radio Shack Single Side Band (SSB) CB radio from 1978 with the power supply. (back when 23 channels was normal)  Most people don't even know what a CB radio is anymore.

[Charles Hunter]

The store just north of Regency Mall is on its way out - going out of business sale underway.

[coredumped]

Like Sears? You know they're still on business right? I'll admit Sears is having a rough time, but they have a MASSIVE amount of assets, including real-estate. I think they need to dump Kmart, go back to making all their craftsman tools in the USA and advertise that.
I don't think you can put Sears in the same breath as RadioShack and Blockbuster.

[spuwho]

Like Sears? You know they're still on business right? I'll admit Sears is having a rough time, but they have a MASSIVE amount of assets, including real-estate. I think they need to dump Kmart, go back to making all their craftsman tools in the USA and advertise that.
I don't think you can put Sears in the same breath as RadioShack and Blockbuster.

Sears Holdings has assets, but they are dying slowly, just like Radio Shack.

They peter off a few more assets every so often to fund some remodeling or new marketing effort, but later, end up the exact same way.

Merging with KMart was a bail out for KMart management and a stopgap reach for more assets by Sears.

They had a chance to line up with Target and Walmart with Sears Grand Central. The test markets for it were rated some of the best, but shareholders refuse to let management invest or take any long term risks, so they completely dumped the concept and wrote it off. One large strategic mistake. They were going to push the Craftsman Tools and Auto Stores into Grand Central along with grocery and low end clothing. Keep high end clothing, appliances and furniture at the mall based Sears.

The idea was to go after Walmart and others where they have a weak market, tools and auto service. Go after Target in dry goods and clothes.

It was going to cost Sears many millions to get the brand split in two and re-positioned. But it meant institutional shareholders were going to have to give up some dividend for awhile until the split was completed.

Sears also looked at a Home Depot style appliance/tools/home improvement big box layout. Same issue. Not willing to invest. Institutional Investors were unwilling to accept the risk.

So Sears will gradually over time, continue to pare down their assets to prop up the retail stores and the dividend until they either sell out or die out.

[Lunican]

Dec 25, 1989:

[ChriswUfGator]

Yeah, that ad shows pretty well how they lost their way.

Every time I've been in there in the past decade, they never had some battery, a capacitor, or really anything else I was looking for, that  you used to be able to get there. One of the last times I went was to get a small sized stereo for my office back in 2011, and they don't sell those anymore. It was basically nothing but a cell phone store. If I wanted a cell phone, a cell phone charger, cell phone car charger, cell phone case, cell phone anything, it was overflowing with that but not much else.

At some point awhile ago they decided to become a cell phone store. Sorry to see a brand I associated with fond childhood memories fade out, it used to be exciting to go in there, there was always something cool inside. Usually you'd go back and visit it until it showed up for your birthday or Christmas. I got my Atari and my original Nintendo from there. I'm giving my age away. Cell phones were a big deal even in the 80s/90s, yet those were always just one smallish display. If the whole store had been nothing but cell phones, it would have been as boring then as it is now.

[Radio Man]

The ONLY reason I have been in a Radio Shack in the last 10 years has been for fuses, fuse blocks, solder, or dial lamps for radio repairs. The capacitor selection is awful, but the higher voltage ones can be found online.

The salespeople seem friendly enough, though geared towards selling cell phones and chargers, as many in this thread have already pointed out. Sadly, I think Radio Shack's time has come and gone, regardless of the business model they followed.

Cool story...I remember checking out the progress of the preparations for demolition of the Robert Meyer Hotel downtown in the 90s, and the workers had opened up the former storefronts on the south side of the building as they were gutting the place. There must have been a Radio Shack there at some point, as the walls of one section had the "TRS-80" logo painted on it. I wish I had taken a picture. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the hotel closed for good in 1982, so that section must have been left "as is" until final building demolition.

[TheCat]

Not quite...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/lauraheller/2014/05/30/why-radioshack-is-bumming-me-out/