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Radio shack files bankruptcy proceedings, link below
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...I guess I'll try Home Depot instead. ;-)
It is kinda sad though. I used to shop RadioShack as a kid mostly when I needed an electronic part, quick. They were never cheap, just convenient. I considered them to be the 7-eleven of hobby parts.
how they have hung on so long. Check out this amusing fake article in The Onion:
Thanks Larry , I got a chuckle out of that one.
I haven't been in a Radio Shack in 10, maybe 15 years.
In many major cities, small businesses have been established to take over where Radio Shack left off.
In Seattle, I can go to Vetco and find pretty much any resistor I need, tube sockets, high voltage capacitors, wire, good hand tools made in the US, jacks, NTE components, etc. All of their prices are pretty high (5x online e for small parts), but it's peanuts compared to Radio Shack (20-50x online retail).
The last thing I bought from RS was 5 pocket voltmeters. None of them worked...
too bad...
Radio Shack is not a store I've visited often in recent time, but I'll be depressed if it's gone.
I still remember the day when the place marketed decent audio gear.... The Realistic Mach One loudspeaker, in particular. With some work on the interior cabinet and crossover, I think it can still be an amazing loudspeaker.
I still have a couple of their brand, now real NOS!
A few years ago they tried to advertise "You've got questions, we've got answers." Well, I'm not sure if that worked for anything more complicated than "What day is it?" About that time I went to RS to buy an indoor/outdoor recording thermometer. Two in the display case had batteries installed so gave readings. Except the temperature shown for the indoor display was different that that for the outdoor read out, even though the outdoor sensor was coiled and lay next to the unit. The poor kid behind the counter tried to come up with different explanations why this happened, none of which made any sense. I was able to find one that when batteries were installed gave the same reading on both displays so bought that one. Of course the joke could have been on me since BOTH might have been incorrect!
Anyway, the last audio product from RS I thought had any merit was their Minimus 7 speakers, and you older Inmates know how long ago that was.
"You can’t know what the “best” is unless you have heard everything, and keep in mind that given individual tastes, there really isn’t any such thing." HP
There was a day when we thought tubes would be a part of consumer electronics forever....
There was a period of time, prior to the digital age, where solid state audio was tolerable..... Between 1965 and 1985..... If it weren't for that brief period, I think tubes would have remained strong in the mainstream. Mainly because a lot more people (not just audiophiles) would have realized it would have been essential for decent sounding digitized audio.
and turned into a cell phone store and the employees seemed younger and less knowledgeable than in the past. I was a manager from '79-'82.
E
T
I saw that this am as well. RS has done this before.
When they opened the first one in my area in the 60’s, it was a place I looked forward to going when I could get a ride.
They had lifetime tubes which they would replace for free if they failed, tinkering with tube amplifiers, I went through a good number of those tubes. They also used to have a decent selection of other electronic parts but in the last decades, they seemed to have gone away from the parts model and have not had any of the things I had needed.
Rather than continue to emphasize the DIY’r and Ham radio they focused on being in the same market as Best Buy, Mallwort and other massive chains.
Not only did I get to "play with" a lot of stuff (especially at Christmas!), but got to rub shoulders with various people- from Ham operators right through to EEs who came by to satisfy their own hobby outside of work time. I ALMOST became the manager of the store I worked at. I say "almost" because I actually quit to tour with a band. Also, a year or two later, the store (and most of the mall it was located in) was demolished to make way for... wait for it. a Wal-Mart!
Never the less, It was a great learning experience...
Dman
Analog Junkie
Worked there part-time along with a couple of buddies stationed in North Chicago area because let's face it, no one's getting rich in the military....great time we had, throughout the day I'd throw a blank hi-fi video tape into one of the hifi VCRs (connected to the store demo direct dish) and by the end of the week I'd have Over 40 hrs of blues, jazz, techno,etc...boy; kinda miss those days:)
Edits: 01/15/15 01/15/15 01/16/15
Did you eat at the Full Moon on 41 back then?
I was primarily at the Zion location inside the little strip mall, sometimes at the Waukegan store. Only food store I remember was the "Piggly Wiggly" directly across the street.
I remember a small discreet restaurant on 41(?) often frequented by M. Jordan after every home game (including his championship runs)...at least until he opened his own restaurant.
Edits: 01/15/15
I hope you recorded on a hi-fi stereo VCR - at 'standard speed'. :)Piggly Wiggly. Ha! There was one in the town where I grew up. Also a Red Owl. What was it with naming grocery stores after animals? Kinda like Ford and their Mustang, Thunderbird, Cougar, and Pinto. Anyway, Piggly Wiggly is still around. No doubt asylum member Lee M shops there. I actually bought my wife a Piggly Wiggly t-shirt last year for Christmas. She loves it!
:)
Edits: 01/19/15 01/19/15
Hi
The Radio shack in Waukegan in what was the Belvidere mall is the one I used to go to. I had been in Zion a few times, to the beach etc but I lived a bit south of there.
Jordan used to live on rt22 / halfday rd about a block west of the restaurant, the restaurant was “The highland House” which was at the corner of rt22 and highway 41.
Full Moon is another restaurant which is closer to Waukegan on rt41 which is just outside the entrance to Great Lakes navy base and has taken the place of Highland House (now gone) for the Sunday motorcycle guys.
This has happened already in Canada. Radio Shack there became The Source and IIRC, amalgamated with Best Buy or some other company. Their future isn't very rosy either...
Been 2 1/2 years since I've been back to Canada to visit, so I may be out of the loop on this...
Dman
Analog Junkie
'The Source' was born from the Canadian version of Radio Shack. It has mimicked the unsuccessful Radio Shack business model of moving away from part & DIY supply to finished goods including, heavily, smart phones and gimmicky devices. It is currently owned by Bell Canada which has pretty deep pockets.
Their price are generally uncompetitive except during sales. I never shop there except for any of the relative few parts that they still stock. It's rather sad.
From Wikipedia, ( HERE ) ...
" The Source, (legal name The Source (Bell) Electronics Inc.) formerly known as RadioShack and later as The Source by Circuit City, is a Canadian electronics retailer with over 700 locations across Canada. Originally part of the American RadioShack chain, The Source is now owned by Bell Canada, which purchased the assets of InterTAN from bankrupt parent U.S. retailer Circuit City Stores in 2009. The company is a unit of 4458729 Canada Inc. and is based in Barrie, Ontario. "
I love the music of ... ... Gustav Mahler
I do not mean to state that Radio Shack will not file, but there are two things I think it important to point out. First, obviously, they have not yet filed, but a source said perhaps as early as early February they will. So, I think your subject line was accurate but your body text was a little hasty. No big deal, this is not the Spanish Inquisition.
Second, they are trying to arrange a "prepackaged" filing wherein they would present the Court with a buyer at a fixed price for some assets, free and clear of liabilities, and they would have a schedule ready of how that money will be distributed to creditors.
So there is no need for any procedures other than approval, if the court finds that the prepack gives debtors something more than a straight liquidation. Keeping in mind that the transactional costs of adversarial proceedings come off the top. And the judge of course knows that.
A buyer who acquired some assets without previously associated liabilities, such as shopping-mall and shopping-center leases, could reinvent the business, hoping that the name recognition would drive consumer traffic.
So in that scenario, the name would not disappear.
I would not pay $5 for the trademark, but, I never had warm feelings about the shopping experience there.
jm
How about Sears?Compare Sears to places like Target or Walmart, both of which get lots of traffic.
Sears is like a morgue with bright lights.
sad, isn't it?
I think the only thing keeping Sears somewhat afloat is Craftsman tools, and Kenmore appliances.
I would not be suprised if the chain went broke, and Kenmore and Craftsman survived.
Serving up content-free posts on the Internet since 1984.
Edits: 01/15/15
Sears owns Allstate Insurance, so they have a decent cash cushion to stay in operation.
I did hear that they did away with lifetime tool warranties, so I stopped shopping there.
nt
..just read that Target is closing operations in Canada
JC Penney is next.
Too many shoppers heading south on the QEW on Weekends to shop in Buffalo, I guess. The traffic is murder.
At the request of the Moderators,
This space has been deleted
Edits: 01/15/15
Target is packing up in Canada? They just put one here fairly recently.
Perhaps they were a little late to the party. There is a lot of competition between Walmart and Costco, not to mention all the niche box stores popping up.
Although I will note that the Target moved into the old "Zellers" storefront attached to the old mall. In hindsight their lack of commitment to a new detached storefront may have shown some insecurity.
As to Radio Shack, what can you say. As far as a once was niche company, the had a pretty good run.
I'm of the age where it was very rare that I could walk into Radio Shack (theSource) and actually come out with a useful part. The parts section was only 8'-12' of wall space that shrinks a little bit each year.
It's obvious that people don't purchase parts like they used to, I understand that. However the rest of the product line is somewhat obscure 2nd rate re-badged gadgetry. You can't get a potentiometer, but you can buy a iPod speaker cube available in eight different colours, in stock.
A digital BBQ fork-yep, 1/4" phone jack-nope.
The computer, stereos and TV selection is ho-hum, some decent things might be available, but never in stock, sure you could order it, but why when it's available down the street, probably in a fresher version.
It's kind of an anomaly. It's a store that I've tried hard to spend money at over the years, but they get very little of it.
I think I fit the demographic, IMO the store inventory just sucks.
70% of parts that I have bought there over the years was discount stuff they put in a bin when they were culling inventory. Not particularly useful parts at the time, just the kind of impulse purchases you may make because they are cheap.
The market is there, they just failed to capitalize on it, I suspect it has been an ongoing identity crisis within the corporate office.
They tried to dabble into a little bit of everything, hawking cell phones etc. but they just don't have the logistics to move that much product through relatively small storefronts to stay competitive.
I think there is still some value to the name, maybe that is why they clung onto it for so long.
I must admit I have fantasized about them going bankrupt so that I could purchase the name for a new business with a similar but better quality product line. Strange dreams. lol
There's always Burger King. They seem to be big on Canada.
Cheers,
Al
There have been articles of store closings for quite awhile. Apparently the nail in the coffin was their big push to offer phone service for all the major providers. Customers felt more comfortable going directly to the carrier's outlets. They simply can't stay alive selling remote control toys and being a parts bin for a very small population interested in such things.
Just as one observation point, a Verizon store just opened near my house last year and their parking lot is jammed 7 days a week. The competitor's locations see similar traffic. Who even knew Radio Shack was an option?
Their business model has not made sense for the last 15 years or more. They should just liquidate. The brand recognition just aint what it used to be. In fact, most people associate the name Radio Shack with crappy little stores that serve no purpose other than to demonstrate what retailing desperation looks like.
nt
Dman
Analog Junkie
Nt
N/T
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
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