"ONCE!"
Posted on 01/15/2015 6:29:03 AM PST by Red Badger
Struggling to raise enough cash and credit to stay alive, RadioShack is reportedly preparing to file for bankruptcy as soon as next month.
The filing could come the first week of February, according to the Wall Street Journal. RadioShack declined to comment for this story.
The company had a deadline of Jan. 15 to come up with $100 million in combined cash and available credit, or its major creditors can pull the plug on the long-term financing it needs to survive. RadioShack only had $63 million available heading into the Christmas shopping season.
The struggling electronics retailer has been trying to close 1,100 of its 5,000 stores since March, but it's an expensive undertaking. It only came up with enough cash to close 175 stores through the end of October.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
I hope the check to Al cleared. :)
If they purchased from DigiKey and Mouser and other mainstream suppliers they would have access to a wider variety of components at a better price.
“With the internet and places like eBay and Amazon there is no need for a brick and mortar store selling electronics and other DIYs parts.”
Radio Shack has been worthless regarding DIY parts for a decade. That used to be a big part of their business...
...or the lack thereof.............16k!.......................
Quite frankly, their supply of small pieces and parts has been very limited for several years.
And if you went in there to get a resistor, the clerk would gaze at you with wonderment, as if you were a time traveler from a distant past...and once he figured out what a resistor looked like, he would one by one shove them in your face and say ‘is this it’.
And after you gave up and decided to walk past the RC cars to leave, the clerk would dutifully harangue you about changing cell phone plans.
Radio Shack got ‘weird’....and my ‘hit rate’ on finding things I need right away started to drop around a decade ago. The internet killed them, and they didn’t react in any way, other than switch to minimum wage teenagers to save costs. Oh, and decided to sell cell phones.
I interviewed for a job at Radio Shack once.
Afterwards I had never felt a stronger urge to immediately
race home and take a shower.
"ONCE!"
RS started selling junk. Everything I had from RS either didn’t work at all or died within a year.
When I was in High School I did work at Radio Shack for about a year. The one thing I remember most is how I was always ALWAYS to ask customers if they needed batteries.
Color me shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
Not.
Spot on. We had to build a power supply/signal generator to use in the labs. The build of the unit was graded; had to function, clean looking solder joints, workmanship etc. One of my roomies jumped right on it and built his the 1st night, he thought he was all that when it came to electronics. The only problem was he didn’t have a firm grasp on the difference between an electrolytic capacitor and a standard cap. When he put the power to it there was a real cool pop followed by smoke. Radio Shack saved his butt, only problem was the replacement they sold was a different color and the professor new right away what happened.
They did it to themselves. I can buy a cable I need for $2.00 on ebay that the stores list for $19.00.
Others were more helpful, definitely, but no over-the-top stories in that direction spring to mind.
Arduinos. They sell those and Grundig shortwave radios.
About time. I have never been able to find anything in there. Nothing was ever stocked and never wanted to wait around to order from their catalogue.
It was all about "the drawers".
The drawers held all the little electronic components that RS was known for.
Back when I was poor I'd build my own lights for my mountain bike, and the drawers were of pivotal importance to that task. On/off buttons, LEDs, etc: they were all in the drawers.
Now when I go into an RS the drawers are hidden way in the back, and the salesperson has no idea what is in them. Why? Because they were hired to sell phones solely. They would not know a diode if it poked them in the eye.
IMO this lack of electronics knowledge (or even curiosity) in todays' youth is one of the reason we are losing our exceptionalism.
They have good cheap batteries.
Time to hunt yard sales with anything made by Radio Shack.
You should upgrade to Prodigy; I hear it's gonna be the next big thing!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.