from the they-took-their-time-getting-there dept.
RadioShack filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection on Thursday, and said in a statement that an affiliate of Standard General, its lender and largest shareholder, would acquire between 1,500 and 2,400 of its 4,100 stores. Wireless company Sprint Corp said it would operate as many as 1,750 of those stores, occupying about one-third of each selling "mobile devices across Sprint's brand portfolio as well as RadioShack products, services and accessories".
RadioShack over the past year tried to avoid bankruptcy by closing 400 stores and reducing workforce by 19 percent, court documents show. It changed its logo, reduced store clutter and tried to connect with tech-savvy shoppers through brighter "concept stores" featuring interactive displays.
See also our story here from 2 days ago.
Related Stories
According to Bloomberg Amazon is in talks to buy some of RadioShack's stores:
Amazon has considered using the RadioShack stores as showcases for the Seattle-based company’s hardware, as well as potential pickup and drop-off centers for online customers, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the deliberations are private.
RadioShack is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, and according to other reports, it has also been in talks with wireless carrier Sprint about selling some of its stores. The deal with Amazon may not happen, but nonetheless, it shows where Amazon is headed.
To head off competition from Wal-Mart—one of the few retailers that could pose a legitimate threat to Amazon—and to expand its operation, the company has adopted a new hybrid business model, combining e-commerce with offline services.
Originally spotted at Wired, and also linked at HackerNews.
(Score: 5, Funny) by hoochiecoochieman on Friday February 06 2015, @07:30PM
I thought SCO held that record already.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by urza9814 on Friday February 06 2015, @07:51PM
I think RadioShack has been on life support for longer than SCO existed! RS has been dying for decades...I was really hoping they'd turn it around by moving towards the maker market, but I think that was too little, too late. Of the four RS stores I know in my area, only one actually went heavily in that direction, the other three are the same exact phone and toy store we used to have in my hometown mall in the 90s. And that one maker-oriented store seems to be the only one that's ever crowded.
I'm waiting to see what's going to happen to the ~2000 stores that aren't going to Standard General. I mean I've got at least four stores in the area, so I'm sure they won't all become Sprint. Maybe something else electronics-related will take a shot at some of those...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by frojack on Friday February 06 2015, @10:43PM
Yeah, the "Maker Market" should have been their rallying call, and if that can't revive them nothing will. They should be stocking 3D printers and printer media, and maker products by the dozens. But I don't see that in my local RS.
The internet killed them. Those resistors and transistors you used to put off buying till you had time to haunt the local RS racks looking, and waiting for the clueless clerk to help you find, can now be ordered on line, arrive in two days, which is about as long as it took to get the time to visit Radio Shack.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday February 06 2015, @11:42PM
I did see some nice maker stuff the last few years but it was sparse and expensive. Few people buy "real" arduinos and shields and prefer alternatives for 1/3 the price. The basic stamp was STILL up there too. That thing has been for sale since i was in high-school.
The trouble with their maker stuff was that it was extremely entry level. That's fine if you create an environment for entry level. What i mean is, an entry level person has zero idea what to buy, how to make it, or even what could be made. They needed to provide some project examples made using only RS parts. A poster with some sumobots fighting to draw entry level people in. Then a catalog/portfolio just below the poster with more pictures, parts lists, and instructions (with url for online version). The intermediate people are interested in dirt-cheap arduino clones because they can't keep leaving 30$ boards permanently in their projects. Anyways, i think you get my meaning. RadioShack barely made the attempt. I think they did just enough to say "Hey, we tried your idea."
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(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Saturday February 07 2015, @05:48PM
Forrest Mims like books and kits might be of help. And also displaying projects products would be pretty cool too. Might even be a contest for people to come in and build stuff and then have a ontest to see who's project is put on display. The enter those projects into a webpage for all to see become curious and head on over to RS. Too late I suppose.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Saturday February 07 2015, @12:19PM
I grew up visiting radio shack for parts in the old TTL days... however times have changed and people stopped building a lot of stuff when it became much much much cheaper to just buy an assembled one all ready to go...
I am afraid those days where people built things from discrete parts are gone. I still live in them, but I know I am a dying breed.
So, Radio Shack mutated into a telephone store.
You have questions? We have Phones! ( and in my case, like you say, blank stares... )
I hate to see them go, but I also know that their business model, just like mine, has gone elsewhere. I still remember building my first superhet radio from discrete parts - yup - vacuum tubes. I still remember them: 1L6 mixer, two 1U4 IF amps, two 1U5 audio amp tubes, and two 3V4 output tubes. It ran off a 90 volt battery and a Burgess "number 6 cell" about the size of a beer can.
I got some of the parts from Radio Shack although the lion's share of the parts came from donor radios found at the curb in front of the neighbor's houses on trash day.
Yeh, I know I could have just tried to fix one of the existing radios, but I wanted the experience of rolling my own design out... I was itching for more IF gain and a push-pull audio power out, but I still wanted to have it run on battery. I was trying to see how much more efficient I could make the output stage by running two audio output tubes class "B" instead of running one audio output tube class "A".
It took me months to make the thing. But I learned a lot. Incidentally, the radio was quite sensitive, but I had terrible rejection of local strong signals I never did figure out how to overcome. I had to wait until after after the local AM radio station signed off for the night to listen for far off stuff. ( I seem to remember signoff was right at sundown for my local AM station ). That was a long time ago.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by slash2phar on Saturday February 07 2015, @01:33PM
Retail electronics stores grew out of the original era of radio, when install and repair of the vacuum tube radio was almost within the scope of general household maintenance. Repair was also more cost effective than replacement.
I think the mass market for repair parts was probably far bigger than the hobbyist/'maker' market today. It also required staff that could help. I recall working on electronics projects from magazines as a kid.. I would bring the magazine into my favorite high street electronics store at the time.. inevitably, there would be a few components on the parts list that they didn't have in stock. Rather than have me back-order, the guys at the counter would study the circuit and provide alternative parts that would work instead from what they had in stock.
The corporate RadioShacks today are sort of amusing in how the staff don't really know anything about most of the items they sell (parts-wise anyway). I used to think it was silly how every single resistor, cap, etc there had its own blister pack with barcode and description... but then, if they didn't, the assistant wouldn't know how to ring them up on the till.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday February 10 2015, @01:07PM
Yup. They started getting into the Arduinos and shields and everything, but that was too little, too late.
Ah, my local RS was a ten minute walk from my house. Quite nice to take a walk down in the summer, and still tolerable to walk instead of driving even in winter. That was my favorite part about my apartment lol. Sure, the clerks were clueless ("RadioShack: You've got questions, we've got blank stares.") but that wasn't terrible because they'd see me going for the parts bin and know to leave me alone ;)
(Score: 2) by mendax on Friday February 06 2015, @08:45PM
I was just going to say that. Stop reading my mind, will you!!!!
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by el_oscuro on Friday February 06 2015, @11:13PM
Speaking of Los Angeles, you have the maker's dream there. In the 1980's used to get all my induction motors and shit at Apex Electronics in Sun Valley. For more conventional electronic parts, there is Pacific Radio in Burbank. It used to be called something else and was on Buena Vista, but it looks just like the store we use to get vacuum tubes and all kinds of other shit there in the 1970's. Radio Shack was never even in the ballpark. We don't have anything like this on the east coast.
SoylentNews is Bacon! [nueskes.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday February 07 2015, @05:05AM
well, the bay area is surely THE maker's dream. let me give you a short tour.
first and foremost (imho) is http://www.halted.com/ [halted.com] which is probably my 2nd 'home away from home' (lol), http://www.weirdstuff.com/ [weirdstuff.com] - while it used to be more than it is now, its still a pretty cool place. we have tons of http://www.frys.com/ [frys.com] in the area. there's a http://www.jameco.com/ [jameco.com] that has a will-call front desk.
we used to have a 'haltek', somewhat related to halted, but its gone. and we used to have a 'quement electronics' which was a classic ham radio and parts store for decades, but sadly its now gone, too.
there are 3 http://techshop.ws [techshop.ws] tech shops in the bay area, and that, alone, is worth the high price of rent in the bay area ;)
I'm sure there are lots more that I missed or didn't mention, but being a hardware/software guy, its hard to beat this area.
radio shack? well, if I need something within 5mi of me and I'm not picky, then they would be ok. all else, its a local bay area store or for mailorder its either one of: http://www.mouser.com/ [mouser.com] or http://www.digikey.com/ [digikey.com] (or sometimes http://www.adafruit.com/ [adafruit.com] and http://www.sparkfun.com/) [sparkfun.com]
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday February 06 2015, @11:23PM
Heck, IBM has been declared dying multiple times over the last couple of decades, and yet is still around. Or look at how long Sun lasted after its Unix and target market was basically an afterthought.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Informative) by dyingtolive on Friday February 06 2015, @08:01PM
I bought a bag of butt connectors and a predrilled pcb because I wanted it yesterday, not in a week. They have all kinds of arduino stuff, and they brought back something that looks like the old school Engineer's Mini Notebook. I'm cautiously optimistic, though I'd be less cautious about it if they weren't missing half the stuff in their component drawers.
Sadly, the thing I wanted most was a SOIC socket. I'd have even settled for a SOIC breakout board with holes drilled in it. Nothing.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Megahard on Friday February 06 2015, @08:42PM
Personally, I've had it with all these tie-ins to the 50 shades movie.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Friday February 06 2015, @08:42PM
I feel like I missed something.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 07 2015, @12:21AM
I bought a bag of butt connectors
tie-ins to the 50 shades movie.
I believe they are referring to the sexual overtones surrounding the 50 Shades of Gray movie that will be released soon. </subtle>
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday February 07 2015, @02:11AM
Huh - I had no idea they even *made* SOIC sockets. Learn something new every day.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Saturday February 07 2015, @02:50AM
The only one I've seen are test sockets with this kind of ZIF plastic bracket that closes down over the chip and holds the pins against contacts. Not ideal but good enough for me at this phase. Think I saw them on makeshed or somewhere like that. I was just hoping for something by the weekend.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by tibman on Friday February 06 2015, @08:28PM
It shows that RS was actually profitable for most years. RS squandered its' money on stock buybacks. Checkout this table (code font for the table):
Year Net Profit Stock Buybacks
2000 $368.0 $400.6
2001 $166.7 $308.3
2002 $263.4 $329.9
2003 $298.5 $286.2
2004 $337.2 $251.1
2005 $267.0 $625.8
2006 $ 73.4 $0
2007 $236.8 $208.5
2008 $189.4 $111.3
2009 $205.0 $0
2010 $206.1 $398.8
2011 $ 72.2 $113.3
2012 ($139.4) $0
2013 ($400.2) $0
Totals $2,144.1 $3,033.8
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(Score: 2) by buswolley on Friday February 06 2015, @08:42PM
I was unfamiliar with why a company might do this.
http://www.zacks.com/education/articles.php?id=33 [zacks.com]
So why were they doing it?
subicular junctures
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Daiv on Friday February 06 2015, @08:54PM
It's a straightforward and relatively risk-adverse way of making their books look better for a buyout. Buying a company saddled with debt doesn't lead to easy profits. Buying a company with lots of cash just isn't easy. Buying a company with less debt, but low cash reserves is magnitudes easier.
My money is on the higher ups making their books look better, fishing for "investors." The highest-ups get a payday, the company gets turned over and either gutted or raped ala Bain Capital.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 07 2015, @12:15AM
> Buying a company with lots of cash just isn't easy.
Why? My understanding is that having a ton of cash on hand is a risk for a hostile take-over because the cash makes a leveraged buy-out much easier. [aw.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by gnuman on Friday February 06 2015, @09:26PM
1. When you buy back share, it tends to increase share price as total number of shares is reduced (bought shares are canceled).
2. Very often executive money is tied to share price via options.
Now, connect the two dots?
If share price goes down, executive stock option plants are worth $0. If the stock price goes up, those options are worth the difference. So instead of Radio Shack looking 10 or 20 years down the road towards profitability, the executives are just looking for the next quarter to bump the stock price.
Also, some Radio Shack stores are franchises too, so not all will disappear. They may get a new name though.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/05/news/companies/radioshack-franchises/index.html [cnn.com]
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Saturday February 07 2015, @12:20AM
Makes the EPS (Earnings Per Share) higher, thus makes the stock more attractive to buyers who aren't sophisticated enough to drill deeper into the balance sheet.
/ visited my childhood RS this morning to say goodbye
// didn't even recognize the place
/// Grossmont Center Radio Shack, RIP
Relationship status: Available for curbside pickup.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 06 2015, @09:49PM
I think the issue is that they are just making a couple hundred bucks a year.
</sarcasm>
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Friday February 06 2015, @10:43PM
Actually, if you define the success of the company as providing value to the shareholders, this stock buy back program is perfect for a store that saw its business model wane away (particularly to online retailers).
Imagine, you run RadioShack, and wake up one day realizing that your company is on its way out. You could take your profits and invest them into the company in an attempt to gain new business/rebrand. This could increase the longevity of the brand and make it a major player again, however it is a risky proposition. Or you could admit defeat and pay everyone who is invested in the company. These buybacks did just that, and now the store is closing its doors. I would be inclined to say that this is the more correct option, compared to a prolonged death as demonstrated by the American automakers since the 80s, or Kmart, or Borders.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday February 06 2015, @10:58PM
But, to each their own : )
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(Score: 2) by richtopia on Saturday February 07 2015, @03:59PM
That is the human intuition. But as a company your morality system revolves around your customers, employees, and shareholders. Depending on how you value these aspects for your business, closing your doors is a valid option.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Saturday February 07 2015, @12:41AM
A MicroCenter opened on 31st st and 3rd ave in brooklyn recently and it's much more maker friendly than radioshack. They have consumer electronics but most of the store is geared toward people who build and mod what they have. it's a real pity radioshack couldn't do the same, since the crowds in microcenter prove there's a demand. also, there was a radioshack a block away from me. I tried so hard to patronize them but they couldn't figure out what the heck they were trying to be. their stocking of components was spastic resulting in scores of resistors in one range, but nothing in any other. They tried to sell whackass brands of batteries that were 3x more expensive than what you can get at riteaid. ultimately they settled on trying to be a cellphone store with full-on ghetto bling cases.
It's really sad. I got my first computer from radioshack back in the day, the kind that used cassette tapes for memory. to go out as a ghetto cell phone store is the worst.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 07 2015, @12:45AM
A MicroCenter opened on 31st st and 3rd ave in brooklyn recently and it's much more maker friendly than radioshack. They have consumer electronics but most of the store is geared toward people who build and mod what they have.
Fry's like that, but even bigger.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Saturday February 07 2015, @06:12AM
Microcenter is pretty awesome. We have one in STL. It's good for tools and stuff, but it's missing (at least, ours is missing) the ala carte electronic components. If I need a single capacitor to fix an lcd screen, they can't help me, but Rat Shack, at least for now, usually can. There's not many other places around here that I know of that actually carry stuff like that.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday February 07 2015, @02:55PM
in the bay area, we LOST our microcenter and it created a hole that was never properly filled by anything else.
given a choice, I would much prefer MC over frys, for example.
now, a wallyworld is there where the MC used to be. yeah, like we need more walton stores in the world and in this area (sigh...).
MC claimed the rent was too high and they closed down. doubtful if they will ever return to the bay area. sucks...
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 07 2015, @03:57PM
I've been working at RadioShack since last February and still work there(for now). For what it's worth, the thing I noticed while working there this last year is they had horrible logistics. Even if the cell phone or tablet etc. sales could have supported the stores that were open; half the time(more like all the time for phones) we were out of stock of the model you want. When I don't have something you want in stock, I'm supposed to get you to order it from us and wait a week or longer for what you can leave my store and get 95% of the time the same day at any other electronics store usually for less than I'm charging. That's what killed RadioShack.