I’m returning after a week of travels and spending time with friends at the Winter SWL Fest in Plymouth Meeting, PA. I’m also catching up on a few news items! Many thanks to a number of SWLing Post contributors and Fest attendees for sharing this news regarding electronics retailer, RadioShack:
(Source: Chicago Tribune)
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.
The bankruptcy would deal another blow to the RadioShack brand, an almost-century-old source of electronics that struggled to compete with online merchants and big-box retailers. The General Wireless venture was designed to help the RadioShack name live on following the demise of the original chain. But pressures on the business, including sluggish foot traffic at shopping centers and a shift to e-commerce, have persisted.
RadioShack Corp. filed for bankruptcy in 2015. The company closed about half of its 4,000 stores and sold 1,700 to creditor Standard General LP, which teamed up with Sprint to form General Wireless. The deal created 1,400 co-branded locations with Sprint, plus several hundred franchised units.
I concur with Mario and Jim and others. Growing up in a small town in northern Michigan, the Radio Shack store that was within walking distance of where I lived was somewhere I went every couple of weeks. Batteries, wire, plugs, cables, tools, parts, radios – it was all there. I now live in Seattle – the last time I went to the RS store that is nearest me, well – lets just say you could almost hear the tumbleweeds blowing through the door as you entered. It is the end of an era that has been becoming slowly sadder and sadder. The writing was on the wall by the late 90’s in my opinion – more often than not I had poor results finding what I needed at the store and I resorted to internet dealers.
Yes, I for one am sorry to see an old friend slowly wither away. Was a card carrying member of their battery of the month club. So much of what was good is now gone.
For a walk down memory lane see: http://radioshackcatalogs.com/
Not surprising. What is surprising is how long this ultimately took. Radio Shack’s road to ruin is well known and documented.
But it is said for many old radio enthusiasts. I grew up in the late 60s and 70s. Radio Shack is where I first saw shortwave radios and scanners. When I got interested in electronics and wanted to build things, they were the place to get all of the parts. And back then, advice from the knowledgeable folks who worked there .
During the 70s and 80s, it was was good day at my house when the weekly RS ad flyer got delivered. Don’t get me started about the yearly catalog. I pored over each of them for hours.
I’ve owned most all of RS’s shortwave and scanner radios from the 70s onward. Still have more than a dozen of them. They opened me up to a world beyond my small hometown, and I’ve had a rewarding career and life, thanks in part to that.
I doubt today’s young people will have the opportunity to tell the same tale.
We have a Sprint/Radio Shack store in Fremont, NE.
Very rarely see cars in their parking lot.
I have been in there for my Sprint cellphone, which they have fixed my iPhone probs to my delight.
The store is ~600 sq-ft store, with minimal parts (really tiny).
Every time I have been in there, the store person always descended upon me and I just wanted to be left alone to see what was there.
I didn’t go in there because of that.
I accessed their website and they never had anything I wanted.
Not surprising they are going under again.
RIP RS!
Buster Brown
Being taken over by a “wireless” company (read another cellphone company) is the symptom. Radio shack deviated from their origin of electronic parts and components to a communications service company. That is part of the trend. The electronics widgets like camcorders video accessories, audio recording and editing, sound systems, tapes media, all have been integrated as software in cellphones and “apps” and clouds. dominated by Apple and Samsung. What is there to sell?
I saw a related article this weekend and decided to stop at the Radio Shack / Sprint Store in Sarasota, FL on Saturday. The going out of business signs were already hung and items were 30-60% off. The Radio Shack side of the store is going to close in 1-2 weeks, which is more aggressive than the previous closings.
Radio Shack in Canada (operated as a Master Franchise) became The Source many years ago then was purchased by Bell Canada. Over time it became a cellular phone store and less and less what it used to be (few parts, no scanners or shortwave, no Cb and no Maker Movement). Target took a shot at expansion in Canada and left quickly. Canadians shop at Radio Shack and Target as they travel to US border towns and interestingly enough Amazon has picked ip the slack.
I ama not terribly surprised. The store lacks some identity, cannot really compete with the big box stores or with online retailers, and doesn’t even sell radios any more. I was at one this weekend and the store was empty except for me and they didn’t have what I was looking for. That being said in San Antonio with no Fry’s I would definitely miss them because they do occasionally have what I need occasionally and I don’t have to wait a week for it to arrive from an online purchase.
Radio Shacks failure was they went from electronic geeks to hiring just cashiers. Our RS employees will admit they no nothing about electronics but do know how to run a register.
Mostly your right, but I recently went in there and there was a working mom who knew how to build circuits, she built them with her kid. She saw the writing on the wall and jumped ship.