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RadioShack May Close Half of its Retail Locations, Sell Other Half to Sprint [Updated]

I remember as a kid going to Radio Shack with my dad to purchase a tube for the TV or the Radio. I grew up alway thinking about them as my first choice when I needed some electronic piece to fix something. In these days where everything is sealed and you really cand fix it yourself, I really had no need to go to Radio Shack. I have gone three times in the last year. Once to purchase a digital rabit ear for my TV (no cable in my house). The other two times I went looking for something and they did not carry it anymore.

Its the unfortunate reality and now I turn to Amazon more and more.

Hope the staff is taken care of, but who knows what Sprint or other will do with the stores.
 
Unfortunately another name to add to the list of dying brands and names. Managements stinks and did to little to late
 
LucasLand said:
do people still buy Ham and CB radios? what the status of those hobbies these days?
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Who wants to use/buy a 2 way radio that is free to use forever after you pay for the transceiver, when you can be locked into a $150/month 2 year phone plan with pages and pages of limitations, fees, and taxes.

Oh right, you do have to learn a little bit about radio waves and frequencies, and that is so geeky.
 
Will miss Radio Shack

My first computer was a Radio Shack color computer with a casette tape;later I bought a single sided floppy disk.

I'll miss the company largely because my son worked there several years.
Haven't bought much from the company in a long time; it was nice to know they were there .. but not much longer.
 
Unless Spring it planning on using the real estate to build cell towers or set up WiFi networks in strip malls across the U.S., I think it is a bad idea for them to buy Radio Shack stores.

Focus on improving you network, Sprint. Forget about opening retail stores in areas where you don't even provide 4G service.

One caveat, if Google is actually behind this move, then it absolutely does make perfect sense for all involved.
 
Aw man. I'm not old enough to have bought my first computer at Radio Shack, but my dad went there with me when I was five years old to get simple parts and teach me about electricity. Maybe they could have saved themselves selling computer parts for hobbyists and gamers like Fry's does.
 
Radio Shack had a good run. It's a different world now. What was unique in the old days that Radio Shack fulfilled is no more. So Radio Shack morphed into any me-too small electronics chains.
 
Amazon should've bought them and used them as pickup locations for most commonly purchased items based on each location.
 
reden said:
Amazon should've bought them and used them as pickup locations for most commonly purchased items based on each location.
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i think they planning the opposite. they want to have their own fleet of vans to deliver packages to people who live near a warehouse
 
I sure hope the one in my community does not close down, it comes in handy from time to time.

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I hope the one in my community stay open, it comes in handy from time to time.
 
I'm surprised they've lasted as long as they have. I hoped they could establish some partnerships that would keep them in business.

Their Superbowl ad last year promised a modernization effort that was apparently too little too late.

 
R.I.P. Radio Shack. "video killed the "Radio" star..."

Another casualty of innovation. Understandable, but this one when first hearing about their final long and painful death...made me sad. Many of techies that are about 45 years and up have a special place in our hearts for Radio Shack. Sounds funny, but for some, the brand's death is related to the end of some of our fond childhood memories.

Radio Shack WAS the place for anything and everything "back-in-the-days". How many people have said sometime in their life, "Radio Shack will have it..." Anything you needed regarding electronics, they had it. I always remembered if i needed anything, i would first go to Radio Shack. Then some years ago, i went into Radio Shack when i needed something quickly and to my surprise...it wasn't there and the employee said, "you have to order it.." Then i had to run to Fry's to finally find what i needed..

Rest in peace Radio Shack. Reality has hit. Everything dies sometime. Almost 88 years on the earth for a company now adays is a good run...
 
Remember going in there to play the $700 3DO and Madden. Never saw anything that looked that good.

Only reason I ever go in there is to buy a resistor or some other item BB won't have.
 
LucasLand said:
do people still buy Ham and CB radios? what the status of those hobbies these days?
Click to expand...

They do. But not from Radio Shack anymore. There are lots of online dealers and a few brick-and-mortar that often catering to truckers. I went to The Shack to get a CB antenna a while back, but was told they no longer carry them.

IMO, when Radio Shack abandoned hobbyists, they lost sight of who they are. Are they a smaller Best Buy? Are they a local Sprint store? Are they Brookstone? Are they Sharper Image (R.I.P.)? No one goes there because no one has a reason to. They're not about lower prices. They're not about all of the latest gadgets. So just who are they? I'm not sure they know.
 
I still have my Radio Shack sales associate's name tag, from many years ago. (I was just out of high school) Some of you will remember the free battery of the month cards that people would religiously come in for.

In my opinion, the problem with RS was it sold mostly mediocre products. The markups were high, especially on cables and parts which was 500%. If they had cultivated a high quality image like Sony or Apple did, they may have had a chance today. But the brand was tarnished from way back.
 
RS sold many unique products. People will realize the need for RS once they are gone It's really unfortunate that they weren't bigger in cellphone sales as that might have saved them. Problem was they never had the inventory
 
Doctor Q said:
I'm surprised they've lasted as long as they have. I hoped they could establish some partnerships that would keep them in business.

Their Superbowl ad last year promised a modernization effort that was apparently too little too late.
Click to expand...

This version of the Radio Shack Superbowl ad from last year may be more accurate...

 
Unfortunate that we are loosing an institution that sustained if not led innovation years ago. Many are too young to remember the personal computer innovation RS brought to the consumer. RS was the go to place for electronic components. Online vendors, due to their lower overhead, will continue to erode the brick and mortar stores unless we decide that it's still important to have community presence and are willing to pay for it.
 
I walked into a RS a few weeks ago to pick up a headphone adapter (the idiots at BB didn't even know what a 1/4" to mini plug adapter was), and RS had one. I was surprised, though, to see the store had a very small section (VERY small) for electronic components. The rest was a potpourri of various crap.

It's understandable, though. What an electronics hobbyist can do these days is very little, considering the high integration of advanced IC's, multi-layer PCB's, etc. It's not like the good ol' days. I made plenty of project back then, mostly with resistors, capacitors, LED's and small IC's that you could actually solder or socket the pins. Nowadays, it's impossible.

Anyways, yes, it will be a shame when they close. It's a shame they can't find a new niche.
 
nt5672 said:
Who wants to use/buy a 2 way radio that is free to use forever after you pay for the transceiver, when you can be locked into a $150/month 2 year phone plan with pages and pages of limitations, fees, and taxes.

Oh right, you do have to learn a little bit about radio waves and frequencies, and that is so geeky.
Click to expand...

I'm familiar with how these things work. I'm disinterested in having one because nobody else I know knows how they work.
 
illegalprelude said:
More than anything else, heart always goes out to the employees who are affected by these huge closures.
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Anyone employed by businesses which are obviously dead should have looked for employment elsewhere. That's like being excited you got a job at K-Mart or Sears. Dead stores walking.
 
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