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CNNMoney (New York) First published March 9, 2017: 7:55 AM ET
The company says it will move to close 200 of its 1,500 stores immediately and is "evaluating options" for the rest. The company has about 5,900 employees, according to a bankruptcy filing Wednesday night in federal court in Delaware.
The company first filed for bankruptcy in March 2015, and closed about half the stores it had then.
RadioShack tried to keep the brand going after its first bankruptcy by teaming with wireless provider Sprint (S). The co-branded stores had Sprint mini-stores inside. RadioShack cut operating expenses by about a quarter, but it wasn't enough to turn the business around.
CEO Dene Rogers said weak mobile phone sales and other factors left Chapter 11 bankruptcy as the "best path forward." Chapter 11 allows a company to restructure and remain in business, but it does not guarantee a company will survive.
Sprint said that it has already reached an agreement with RadioShack to convert several hundred stores into Sprint-owned stores, and that it will be able to provide jobs at other locations for any Sprint employees working at a store that closes. It said that RadioShack's bankruptcy will not have a material impact on its own financial results.
[Related: JCPenney to close up to 140 more stores]
RadioShack once had more than 5,000 stores in the United States. It bragged that there was a store within five miles of where 90% of the population lived or worked. But in an age of growing competition from online retailers such as Amazon (AMZN, Tech30), traditional brick-and-mortar stores are in trouble.
Retailers have announced plans for hundreds of store closings just this year. On Thursday morning, the office supply store Staples (SPLS) announced it was closing 70 more stores, or about 4.5% of its total, in the face of a loss and declining sales.
[Related: Sears and Kmart closing 150 stores]
The electronics field has been particularly hard hit. Circuit City filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and then went out of business. Federal statistics show that almost 6,000 electronics and appliance stores have closed in the United States in the past decade, or more than one in 10.
Follow Ups:
Worked as bag-boy to save for the SA1000 25W/ch integrated amp - mid '70s .
The store I went into had nothing but bits of fluff for cellphones lining the walls. Some electronic toys, and no parts for anything. no switches, no electronic parts at all.
I knew then that Radio Shack had died sometime in the past, and was now just some fake zombie thing.
Even at 50% off, their products are still too expensive. They have been pricing themselves out of business for years now.
I worked at Radio Shack between 68-71. I lied about my age to get hired at 16. I was also a Store Manager at 19 briefly for $700 month!
Back then Radio Shack merged with Allied Radio and became Allied Radio Shack. We had all the name brands from Sansui, Marantz, Benjamin Miracord, to Dual.
We had a pretty elaborate sound room with many of the top hi-end speakers of the time. I loved it! Alas, I was interested in a girl and needed a better paying job. So reluctantly I went off to heavy industry got my degree and married another girl.
Anyhow, Radio Shack would have stayed in business if they kept it as a niche market. But, NOOOOO they had to get in the cell phone market and basically abandoned the market that made them.
They had way too many stores. I remember at a Managers meeting in Fort Worth Texas old man Tandy saying he wanted a store on every corner!
With less stores and a parts and supply stores theme they would still be around. IMHO
Really sad.
My dad bought our family's first "quality" system there in the early 70's (STA-18, MC 1000 speakers, BSR 'table), and it was my gateway to the hobby.
As a musician, this was an important purchase for me as it opened the world of recorded music to my ears and mind, and was fine entertainment for the rest of my family.
I must be an idiot. I don't own a smartphone.
The marketplace has spoken. I think most of us have experienced the Radio Shack shopping experience. I had one clerk get all indignant when she wanted my work phone number and I told her I don't work. For a while there it was an interrogation just to buy a battery. Add to that absolutely clueless employees, cheap and limited components and questionable quality gear and you can see why the good internet vendors took their business away. They are not victims of the changing world, they designed their own failure.
Sure you could buy generic parts like resistors and capacitors, but never the good stuff.
Decades ago when I lived in Atlanta, I spent my time at Ack Electronics where I could get Dale precision resistors, Mallory electrolytic caps, Belden cable, Telefunken and Philips tubes and the like.
It was maybe the biggest gateway for non-audiophiles to become audiophiles..... It certainly played a major role for me becoming an audiophile.
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Closest thing to the Edmund's Scientific Catalog, but local. Remember that?
and all fairness my introduction to electronic stores was with a company called Lafayette Radio which is now long gone.
At age 13, I upgraded my system using an Electrophonic T600 receiver with a pair of Utah MK17s. :)
It has been a good place to get a starter system , at least it used to be. I got my first set-up from them when I was a teen. Of course it grew from there.
enjoy,
mark
I guess the electronic geeks traded in their soldering irons for french fries.
-Rod
I think of your comment "I hear what others don't"...... I think others do hear it, but don't realize they hear it......Why? I don't think the loss of interest in music and quality sound reproduction "just happened"..... I believe people are affected by RFI and the ills of digitized audio, they've been unimpressed with the music and/or the sound quality they're hearing, and don't realize it's the digitization is what has made them perceive the music that way......
And since such sonic means is almost the only option in the mainstream, the only music that seems interesting has become bombastic pre-fabricated pop and hip-hop. But it's not the type of music that will make one want to invest in a nice audio system.....
Radio Shack is just one of many casualties of this..... And maybe the largest in sheer scale...... I remember walking into a Radio Shack, and was bowled over at the sound of the bigger systems. Although ridiculed by audiophiles at the time (like Bose), it was the ultimate gateway for your average Joes to delve into audio and music. (Maybe Radio Shack should try marketing vinyl rigs and LPs again.)
I think people today are just as smart and interested in quality music as we were then..... There is just a lack of true means of luring them into quality sound..... So much so that the concept of high-fidelity sound reproduction has become foreign to recent generations.
The "true means" I mention is simply exposure to great music to where it's perceived as great music. Whether live or via a nice audio system. It was readily accessible when I was younger (not just Radio Shacks but also most record stores), but it just isn't accessible now. I think the music going in the direction it has is largely an adaptation to the diminished enjoyment of it through digitized technological means. Engineers didn't foresee it then, and a lot of them vehemently deny such phenomena now..... But I've stood my ground here..... Not because "my hearing is better" (it certainly isn't), but merely my selfish persistence to sustain my personal enjoyment of music via what I believe are compromised facilities in recent time.
Edits: 03/09/17
I believe people are affected by RFI and the ills of digitized audio...
I remember when Sam of Stereophile reviewed their products, I think. Some loudspeakers and a portable CD player were all the rage.
Always think of it when the subject of Radio Shack comes up. Do you know at one time they sold McIntosh?
When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.- Ronald Reagan
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Seems to be following Radio Shack in making more floor space for toys and less for electronics and hardware.
I guess our last B&N store in the area didn't get the message. They have cannibalized a third of the store to make way for children's electronic toys etc. They must not have heard about Toys-R-Us and Walmart.
Used to go to Fry's quite a bit but not any more. After they botched an appliance deal with my wife and I and made no effort to compensate us, we walked out for good.
When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.- Ronald Reagan
....is 30 yo and still living with their parents in a basement room playing video games all day because they're unemployed and unemployable. "We value experiences and loathe stuff".Edit: Replace "loathe stuff" with "loathe stuff requiring payment".
Edits: 03/09/17
These people are "unemployable" because they were raised and conditioned to be unemployable. (The core fault is NOT theirs.) When the government adopts programs in giving people free or subsidized stuff, they no longer have motivation to work for a living. And when they become used to not working for a living, it becomes extremely difficult for them to start working or find work..... (Finding work is difficult enough for those who do work for a living, but lose their jobs.) This becomes painful in the long run because governments always run out of money to sustain such programs.... Then the people become distressed, and over time get angry.
I'd expound on this, but it would seem political to some here.
...during the economic downturn of 2008, but not so much today.
All of my daughters friends (26) have good jobs an don't live at home.
Before XMas my daughter went to Frys and tried out 6 different headphones - she requested the ones she liked best (Senenheiser Momentum 2.0) for XMas.
I tried them and they were terrific - she's learned well.
...apparently too subtle, the other part not so much in flyover country. Up to this point, millennials haven't been much interested in autos (might be changing), home ownership, politics, shopping in B&M stores etc. They do like eating out, throwaway clothing, free streaming and vacation experiences. When it comes to headphones, Beats rule! LOL.
GenY is overall more into renting stuff than owning.
I have a pair. They ARE terrific!
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