RadioShack files for bankruptcy

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by stg58, Feb 5, 2015.


  1. stg58

    stg58 Monkey+++ Founding Member

    Sad.
    It was handy in the heyday to be able and run down for a needed component never great prices but sometimes when you needed a cap or resistor it was nice to have them 10 minutes away.


    ................................................
    RadioShack declares bankruptcy - Feb. 5, 2015
    Nearly a century after it opened its first store and sent out its first catalog, RadioShack (RSHC) declared bankruptcy on Thursday.
    It has struck a deal to sell up to 2,400 of its approximately 4,000 stores and wireless company Sprint (S) will create a "store within a store" in up to 1,750 of those.

    RadioShack saidthat its remaining stores are expected to close.

    The company's franchise locations, as well as stores in Mexico and Asia, are not included in the deal.

    But RadioShack is not completely going away. Customers will still be able to purchase RadioShack products, services and accessories at the approximately 1,750 stores where Sprint will open shop. In fact, Sprint will occupy just one third of those locations, where it will sell devices and plans. The stores will be "co-branded," according to a Sprint spokeswoman.

    The bankruptcy announcement is no surprise. The New York Stock Exchange suspended trading of its shares on Monday. And RadioShack (RSHC)workers have told CNNMoney that some locations have already been converted to clearance stores.
     
    oldawg and Motomom34 like this.
  2. Merkun

    Merkun furious dreamer

    It looks official, even NBC says so.
     
  3. gunbunny

    gunbunny Never Trust A Bunny

    We knew it was coming, but it didn't make it any easier. Sears is next in line. Any store that caters to the middle class will be toast in the end. Welcome to wallsmart, where your chinese made, lead coated junk is cheap. Maybe tarjet will give wallsmart some competition now; 'Fifty Shades' sex toys hit Target | EW.com
    Is our country swirling faster down the toilet lately, or what?
     
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  4. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    An absolute shame.... Just couldn't compete with the internet!!!
     
  5. Mindgrinder

    Mindgrinder Karma Pirate Ninja|RIP 12-25-2017

    Least I won't have to deal with more American franchises encroaching on Canadian soil...

    Target Canada closing all 133 stores | Globalnews.ca

    Wish they'd take Walmert and Castco with'em as they head south...
     
    Brokor likes this.
  6. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    Maybe they will. Then maybe your unemployment rate can start to look like ours!
     
  7. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    Good riddance. They earned it by crapping on their customers. It used to be, I could go get any small part I needed for fixing stuff at radio shack, not any more. They carry very little in resistors, caps, or any other hobby level parts. Everything they sell is phones. I can go a thousand places to buy a phone, there are very few places I can get electronic parts locally. I now have to drive half way across town to the nearest electronics shop, and he has more business than he can handle. I pass 4 radio shacks along the way!:eek: they bloody well earned it by abandoning their base customers.
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2015
  8. stg58

    stg58 Monkey+++ Founding Member


    In many ways their customer and industry base abandoned them. In this throw away nation with surface mount components where you need a 10 power magnifying glass to see what is going on in new a circuit board even those who have worked on electronics choose not to.

    Knight kit, Dynaco Kits, Eico Kits, Hafler Kits and Heath Kit are all gone there are no more major electronic kit manufactures left so Radio Shacks market for discrete components went away.
    There are a few minor kit companies but the heydays of buying a kit and with the satisfaction of building it your self are long gone but if you do a search on Ebay un-built Heath Kits command a premium price.

    Ramesy is one that makes kits.
    Ramsey Electronics®

    And RS has some kits.
    Hobby Kits - Hobby Projects & DIY Kits | RadioShack
     
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  9. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    Why bother trying to fix it, if you can't get the bloody parts? I couldn't get a simple 5wt power resistor from radio shack, let alone the right plug type I needed. They are too busy selling phones to bother with their mainstay, electronics.
     
  10. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    [​IMG]

    What a lie this is.....

    It should read "radio shack...can you hear me now?
     
    Seawolf1090 likes this.
  11. azrancher

    azrancher Monkey +++

    If we could only be the CEO or CTO of some of these companies that aren't going to make it... Montgomery Wards... Radio Shack... Sears... KMart... Target is not far behind.

    Radio Shack screwed up by not realizing that hobbyist are where the money was. They should have partnered with Digi Key, and the Nut & Volts Magazine which started up in the mid 80's as competition to Radio Electronics, and Popular Electronics, and '73...

    I saw the handwriting on the wall when Nuts & Volts offer me a lifetime subscription for $50.00 in 1987, one of my only good investments...
     
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  12. gunbunny

    gunbunny Never Trust A Bunny

    I thought about that for a minute after I read it. You should be a CFO, as that move would be genius. Digi Key is great, if you have a commercial account and can afford to buy a 500 pack of resistors when you only need ten. A partnership such as that would be beneficial to most.

    That is, to the people that actually play with electronics. I bet you can count the number of people who do, in your area, one one hand.
     
    Brokor, 3M-TA3 and Mindgrinder like this.
  13. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles, Coupons and More | eBay

    RC planes on eBay.

    Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles, Coupons and More | eBay

    OK, planes range from $ 12,000 -$50.00
    16,000 assorted as a complete kit for less than $200.00 , say $50.00 for a Good soldering gun (if you don't have one already. A $20.00 solder sucker, and for about $270. 00 or less, (most likely far less) you could be repairing radio boards on RC planes, which happen to be a big local sport.
    DYR 2001 Dynam 7 Channel 2 4 Gig Radio Receiver for RC Helicopter Plane | eBay for a simple radio about $40.00, so $15-$20. For a repaired radio would be a rock bottom repair cost.
    By the time you have repaired @15 radios, you have paid for everything, and are in the black.
    I work on other machines with burnt resistors, and I already have the tools, each board I fix is good for about $50.00 in my pocket. And resells for more, but my partner covers the shipping, and selling. I just fix them. So, yes, if i can get what I need, I can make some money doing it. If I can't I lose too much time, shipping, and lose the sale.
    Why don't I do more repair work? Because I can't get the parts through RadioShack, and my only other local supplier is quite busy with larger clients, and he jacked up his prices when radio shack stopped being a real electronics store.
    I used to be able to buy what resistors I needed, and just what I needed, but now I have to buy much larger packages, to do the same work. (Online) so less profit, more wait, more waste. Why? Because RadioShack failed to fulfill its primary purpose, an "electronics superstore"
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 30, 2015
  14. Big Kahuna

    Big Kahuna Monkey++

    You couldn't even buy a soldering iron at our local Radio Shack. But you could buy a cell phone skin, which you can also buy at a million other places. They're getting what incompetent management deserves. Glad to see them go.
     
    kellory likes this.
  15. Clyde

    Clyde Jet Set Tourer Administrator Founding Member

    About every 5 years Radio Shack files for bankruptcy. They can't decide if the are an electronics retailer or a mobile phone store
     
  16. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    I have a good electronics store half the distance from me as the closest Radio Shack. RS is dead as far as I am concerned. I either go to the store I mentioned above or I order what I need online. And the local RS stores would change their locations so often, I never knew just where the store was any time I needed something. I'd have to search for their current location. The store I deal with now has been at the same location for at least thirty years.
     
  17. HK_User

    HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

    Yes, even a local Pawn Shop/Hobby Shop was able recently to take on the old Tandy Line of leather products. Radio Shack was once an off shoot of Tandy or vive versa, I forget

    Any way it saves me time and a combo of Pawn and Hobby shop brings back old memories when many places had more than one flavor, it has the General Store feeling and a more personal appeal since the owners actually greet you and help you get what you need.

    I once purchased a TEMP repair item for a Mil product from RS. Out of pocket and fixed on time.

    HK
     
  18. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    [​IMG]
     
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  19. Mindgrinder

    Mindgrinder Karma Pirate Ninja|RIP 12-25-2017

    I had a Tandy 1000.....it was pretty high tech compared to the commodore vic 20, then 64 then atari computers that I had before it...
     
  20. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    "RadioShack, a Tandy corporation."
     
    3M-TA3 likes this.
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