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Sounds like Sprint’s looking to heavily increase their retail presence. Bloomberg is reporting that RadioShack is in such bad shape that they are considering selling off and closing all of their stores, half of which could go to Sprint.
An apparent source tapped Sprint as a buyer of up to half of RadioShack’s fleet — around 4,000 stores currently — and that those stores would be rebranded under Sprint’s banner. The rest of the stores would simply close, and RadioShack will effectively cease to exist.
For now the deal is considered to be “on the table” with no clear commitment made (meaning RadioShack could sell the stores to someone else or find a buyer to take control of the brand and keep it alive). The report also goes on to suggest RadioShack wants the name to live through co-branding, though there’s really no incentive for Sprint to attach the RadioShack name to their business.
It’s always a sad day to see electronics retailers having to succumb to the pressure put on them by big box names like Walmart and Best Buy. Circuit City and CompUSA suffered similar fates a few years back.
Circuit City still lived on in the form of online storefronts, but were mostly shells of the same warehouse operation known as Tiger Direct (the stores have since been consolidated under the Tiger Direct brand). We wouldn’t be surprised to see the same happen for RadioShack if this effort to bow out of the electronics retail scene falls through.
It’s even tougher to see this happen to RadioShack considering the humble beginnings and nature of the store. What once started off as a small-time local business blossomed into a national hotspot for new technology, and although it never reached the heights of Best Buy it remained a primary electronics destination for many people.
Still, this is a business and it’s hard to stay open when you’re losing money for 11 straight quarters. That performance has caused RadioShack’s stock to hit the lowest point it’s been since it began public trading, and there’s nothing to suggest it will ever recover.
Looking back toward Sprint’s side, this new fleet of retail space would help bolster an already decent brick and mortar presence, which — combined with an improved network, edgy marketing and value-packed features — should go a long way toward shortening the gap between them and their competitors.
To bad. I grew up shopping there. But, in the last 10 years “maybe” only in emergency as it is so much easier to find items on the web and have them shipped tax free with free shipping right to me. Hard to beat that and it seemed like they were slow to evolve and even today, if you go into a RS store, it still “feels” so out of date and touch with current times. Even the people working there seem stuck in a RS time vortex.
are u following me? haha jk. Glad someone shopped there, they have survived this long for a reason I guess….its just always empty, but i guess i dont see the people that run in for quick things.
Where will I take my kid when they get in to soldering and electrical work. It’s where I was taken to take my first steps in that world
To the web. How sad is that?
But the feeling of waiting ⚁-3 days for a package doesn’t equal well we can try ourselves and go right to the shack
Couldn’t agree more.
Used to work at a Radio Shack store (several, actually) over 20 years ago. Even back then they were starting to feel out of touch – stuck in the past and slow to keep up with the changing marketplace. Sad, but I’m not surprised.
Still a good place to go to get a VCR.
What is this? The 90’s?
always a good backup plan since it simply works.
Exactly.
I live within 3 miles of 2 Radio Shacks….I’ve never been in one. All I see in the window, is cell phones and 2 guys “working”. that is it, literally no one is ever in them. Its a wonder how they survived this long. Circuit City is a different story, the one by my house was busier than the best buy thats across the street when it randomly closed back in 06. I still dont get why they closed up shop.
Circuit city made some terrible investments in factories in China and got stuck with tons of outdated inventory mostly flatscreens they couldn’t sell. Then they tried to compete by offering price match plus 10% and people took advantage so what they did sell was zero profit
oh wow, I did not know that….every time I went in there, it was friggin PACKED. I guess they had a very bad business scheme. Still miss going in there. Cant stand to walk in a best buy anymore.
Circuit City had a really nice set up. The aisles weren’t too tall so you could look up and see an employee from a distance. Things were organized well and they had the cheapest CD’s back then. A new album at Target or Best Buy would be like $12 or $14, but at Circuit City it was like $8 – $10. I bought my first laptop and my first car stereo deck at Circuit City.
yeah I used to buy CD’s there, had my car audio done there, my camera’s were always purchased there. And people who talked to you, actually knew what they were talking about. Not like at Best Buy, where they run away from people or give you half ass answers. not that it has anything to do with Radio Shack selling haha
They don’t have the parts of the past. (probably because they finally finished off
La Fayette’s inventory) but I’m glad they found a way.
I don’t think their downfall has anything to do with Big box. They changed their core and the customers like myself who used to shop there constantly found that the reasons we had for going weren’t there anymore. PITA to find any parts that I needed, stupid requests for my telephone number (dude, I just picked up batteries today…) and they turned into a cell phone shop. When the markup on small, quick hit items rivaled Best Buy and their ripoff prices, I never set foot in one again.
RadioShack
Sad to see this happen even though it was inevitable. The Shack was the place to get cables and splitters for every stero/video need. It started to suck when you would go in and the only employee was selling some poor shmuck a cell phone contract.
Amazon is reported to be interested in some of the locations not being grabbed by Sprint. They plan on using them to display their own branded products as well as pick up/drop off locations.
Have to add this. Radio Shack had to sell hundreds of thousands of those little square box weather radio’s. While my parents were never that far advanced in technology, everybody else’s parents had one.
It is sad when you couldn’t even walk into a RadioShack and get parts for an actual radio anymore….
SprintShack?
aww, still go to my local ones on a regular basis, many thing there you can’t find elsewhere (not including online stores, since that requires wait time and shipping) mine still has drawers and walls of parts and pieces for anything i could need.
Great place for those odd batteries you need in a hurry.
Money Sprint could be investing in their network instead, Spark isn’t even in some of America’s biggest cities yet which is just sad.
If Sprint starts selling car remote batteries, I might actually give them a look…. Oh, wait.
That’s too bad. I remember when Radio Shack was the place to go when you needed anything tech related. I had a really expense car stereo years back with the main power cable wired directly to the car battery. In that line was a fuse that I could only get at Radio Shack. I had to drive 30 miles every time I blew it.
I stopped going there when I walked in asked where the laptop ram was and the girl had the most confused look on her face. She then said she didn’t know what that is my response was computer memory. Then the other guy there tried to show me SD cards. All they seemed to care about is selling phone contracts and have no knowledge of electronics.
I bought my first computer