RadioShack Closing 1,100 Stores as Troubles Grow

ABC News/AP ^ | March 4, 2014 | CANDICE CHOI and MICHELLE CHAPMAN

[kingattax]

There will soon be about 1,100 fewer places to buy batteries.

RadioShack said Tuesday that it plans to close up to 1,100 stores, or about a fifth of its U.S. locations. The news came as the retailer reported a wider quarterly loss after a disappointing holiday season. Its stock tumbled 16 percent in afternoon trading.

CEO Joseph Magnacca said the closings would leave the company with more than 4,000 U.S. stores. That's still far more than Best Buy, which has roughly 1,400 U.S. locations, and makes RadioShack stores nearly as common as Wal-Mart.

RadioShack didn't immediately identify which stores will close or how many jobs would be affected. A call to the company, based in Fort Worth, Texas, was not returned.

The closings represent just the latest setback for RadioShack, which is fighting to update its image and compete with the rise of online and discount retailers.

Long known as a destination for batteries and obscure electronic parts, RadioShack has sought to remake itself as a specialist in wireless devices and accessories. But growth in the wireless business is slowing, as more people have smartphones and see fewer reasons to upgrade.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I’d think one could recoat those earpiece foams using a swab-on vinyl compound.

[SamAdams76]

So yes, maybe somebody out there can explain this whole "Radio Shack" thing to me. How can they possibly still exist in the year 2014? When I think Radio Shack, I think mid 1970s when Elton John and The Bee Gees ruled the radio.

Around 1975, I got one of my first radios from that place. It was one of those "multi-band" radio (as they called them back in the day) that had AM and FM but also a "weather" band, a "police" band and something called "SW" which I eventually learned stood for shortwave.

There were a couple other bands you could switch to as well, I think "Air Traffic Control" was one of them in which you could spend hours listening to some disembodied voice through the crackle of static say something like "Four one-niner, you are cleared for landing on runway four right, maintain heading of one-zulu and proceed according to flight plan" - or something like that.

Weather band was a joke. Just a bunch of beeps and whistles and some monotone voice telling you the 4pm temperature in Chatham, Hyannis and on Martha's Vineyard. Even though it was now 6:30.

Don't think I ever picked up anything on the Police band. Had to purchase a separate police scanner for that. Also available at Radio Shack. Then you had to buy "scanner crystals" separately to get the really good stuff.

I do remember that multi-band radio taking 8 size-D batteries and it really sucked those batteries down quick so you basically just had to plug it into an outlet. Than you had that long retractable "whip" antenna that invariably bent after a while. Then it eventually just broke, forcing you to stick a coat hanger down in there.

So anyway, as we moved into the 1980s, the Radio Shack started stocking computers (before most people even thought about getting a computer for the home) and those hand-held electronic "video" games which was basically a bunch of blips chasing each other around on a 3-inch screen which you had to move around with a few buttons at the bottom. By the time you figured out how to play the game, it was time to change out the 9-volt battery.

Back in those days, the Radio Shack people made you give your address and phone number whenever you bought something. Even if it was just that 9-volt battery so that you could play your "blip" hand-held football game.

I'm not kidding either. It would take almost 5 minutes to check out of the store because they would invariably whip out that carbon form and take all your personal information so that you could be on their mailing list. Didn't matter if you told them you gave your information last time you in the store. They had to each and every time get that carbon form filled out, with the white copy going on file, the pink copy going to corporate and the yellow copy going who knew where.

Radio Shacks used to always be in malls too. Back when the mall was actually a place that people wanted to hang out. You had your Orange Julius, the movie theaters, a "gift shop" that had all kinds of racy items with swear words on them or images of half-naked women. This was before the Internet and before cellphones. Instead, they had banks of payphones everywhere which gum-snapping teens would use to call their parents to come pick them up (by the video game arcade where people would put quarters into machines that played Space Invaders and Pacman while songs by Journey and REO Speedwagon played over the loudspeakers).

[GeronL]

bump

[GeronL]

Sounds like nerd heaven

[Iron Munro]

[jwalsh07]

Should be good for another 200 point rise in the DOW.

[xp38]

Well in Canada they sold their stores to circuit city who then renamed them The Source. When Circuit City in the US went down in flames in 2009 the Source was sold to Bell Canada and continue on in a somewhat shadow of the old Radio Shack but I think they are following the pattern of becoming a cell outlet too as one noted in a post above.

[folkquest]

I wanted to buy a radio for a friend this past summer. I went to the local RadioShack to see what they had. The employee looked at me like I was nuts. He said that he didn’t think they ever sold radios, just parts for radios. I left. Ended up buying an Internet radio on Amazon. Time for a name change I guess.

[dragnet2]

becoming just another cell phone HQ was a stupid move, really really stupid.

Cell phone stores are everywhere....They blew it and deserve to shut down...

[SkyPilot]

Lol. So true.

[Calvin Locke]

That's true, but the OEMs design stuff just the teeniest bit off to throw off the generic copycats.

Back in the heyday of Western Electric, they'd make some really uniquely odd voltage and ohm parts to discourage repairs by competent people running out to RS and the like.

[hoosierham]

The magazines filled with construction articles are also gone.Radio row is gone. The time when the average person with ordinary tools could build or repair the radio.automobile or just about anything is gone.

Not saying this is good but it is reality.

[lado]

It’s really hopeless for RS. It was always a hobbyist store for competent electronics folks, and one of the first places to sell computers. With very few exceptions, this young generation doesn’t build crap anymore and has no need for a store like that. Why bother trying to fix a circuit board for something when you can just buy a brand new Chinese version of practically anything for cheap? And there’s nothing RS carries now that you can’t get anywhere else.

[Iron Munro]

he’ll take down what’s left of Great Britain, too, if he can.

Right after he destroys Dinesh D'Souza.

[Dalberg-Acton]

I bought a grundig shortwave from them at a bargain. They carry more than one model.

[dragnet2]

No problem, I find any electrical components easily via the Internet and have it delivered to the door.

RS cut off it’s roots and died...

[usconservative]

Yup, "back in the day" I could walk in and buy whatever transistors, resisters and project boxes and breadboards I needed to build a project. I remember when they even carried tubes for my amplifier! "Lifetime" tubes that they replaced every 6 months FREE when they burned out!

The good old days when Radio Shack was actually relevant. Now they just sell everyone elses junk cellphones and stupid RC junk.