Reuters:
> Electronics retailer RadioShack Corp (RSHC.PK) filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection on Thursday and said it had a deal in place to sell as many as 2,400 stores to an affiliate of hedge fund Standard General, its lender and largest shareholder.
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> Wireless company Sprint Corp (S.N) would operate as many as 1,750 of those stores under an agreement with Standard General, Sprint said separately.
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> RadioShack’s bankruptcy, which has been expected for months, follows 11 consecutive unprofitable quarters as the company has failed to transform itself into a destination for mobile phone buyers. But its sale agreement with Standard General could spare it the fate most retailers suffer in Chapter 11, liquidation.
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> RadioShack said in a statement that the Standard General affiliate, called General Wireless, would acquire between 1,500 and 2,400 of its 4,100 stores.
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> Sprint would occupy about one-third of each RadioShack store, selling “mobile devices across Sprint`s brand portfolio as well as RadioShack products, services and accessories,” Sprint said in its statement.
Well, it’s official. Sigh.
As a card carrying member of the original Battery-of-the-Month Club, I has a sad. B^(
Radio Shack has been irrelevant for 35 years. After they abandoned the hobbyist market, they filled their store with house brands (usually OEM’d by Toshiba.
They aggressively sold their Tandy computers in the 80s and 90s and were some of the most hostile of the anti Mac naysayers throughout this period.
They had an aggressive Customer Relation policy, requiring data for even the most trivial of cash purposes.
Laster, they tried to reinvent themselves as a cell service one stop.
The only question is, “why did it take so long?”
Good riddance.
Completely agree. People say things like “But if they’d gone after the maker market…” but that market didn’t exist in its current form more than a few years ago. There was an electronic hobbyist market but I don’t see that as something that could have sustained 5000 stores.
Bluntly, they didn’t serve any purpose and haven’t for a long time.
Can’t argue with any of that.
They had their place in the sun, and then got pushed out of it. I did a good bit of my programming homework online while on my employer’s TRS-80, and was grateful to have it. But it wasn’t long after that when I realized it was just another kludge running DOS that I wanted no part of.
Skating where the puck, used to be, is the dinosaur way. I think Radio Shack could have survived… their stores could be very convenient. I would occasionally get cables or thumb drives – or cheap head phones. They had stores close to my house – around the town and close to work.
I even worked at one – one summer – maybe 10+ years ago. It was interesting seeing the dinosaur in action. Maybe they should have rebranded, “wireless” shack … or something.
As far as cables, thumb drives, cheap headphones, or even contract-free cellphones are concerned, the convenience you’re describing is also obtainable at a CVS or Walgreen’s.