RadioShack may be preparing for bankruptcy

CNN Money ^ | 14 Jan 2015 | By Katie Lobosco and Chris Isidore

[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.

[Red Badger]

Sad, but it has been coming for years. They had a good thing going until the management killed it..................

[goldstategop]

Its the end of an era.

Radio Shack is no more.

[C19fan]

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.

[RayChuang88]

I’m not surprised, considering people are buying electronic parts mostly from Amazon.com, Newegg.com, and other online retailers nowadays.

[Alex Murphy]

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.

They managed to scrape up enough money to afford Weird Al Yankovic for their Christmas commercials.

[lysie]

Sad, yes. Loved their stores back in the day hubby and I would go there. No clue what he was buying, but it made me happy when he found it. :-)

[Lou L]

I think they simply lost their vision of what their company was and is. Are they a place to by electronic components? Phones? Batteries? Electrical gadgets? There’s a lot of competition that sells nearly all of those things. And what I can’t find at a brick and mortar competitor, I can find online. How many can really say, “I shop at Radio Shack for ______ because they do it better than ______ (named competitor.)”

[Blood of Tyrants]

Electronics tinkerers used to be able to go to Radio Shack for electronic supplies but now all it they sell are odd watch batteries and cell phones.

[Sherman Logan]

More likely there business model became no longer practical.

Sharp management might have been able to move into a different business model, but I don’t think anybody could have kept this one going.

Sort of like Kodak and film, or Blockbuster and video rental. When your market goes away, even brilliant management can’t bring it back.

[KoRn]

Pretty bad when you don’t even have enough money to close stores. lol

Radioshack has been a TERRIBLE store for years. I remember it being ‘ok’ back during the 80s when I was very young, and during the 90s they started going downhill and FAST. Their inventory reduced to where you couldn’t really find anything when you needed it, and what they DID have was WAY overpriced, ‘off brand’ junk.

Just for the hell of it, I went into one last year. I noticed they had an ‘off brand’ 4GB USB Flash drive on sale for around $30. LOL (you could probably get one of those from Walmart for under $10)

[cuban leaf]

I still have some of their old catalogs from the late 60’s and early 70’s. I went into radio shack about a year ago and they were basically a cell phone store. And getting service was next to impossible. Now I do mail order through parts express or MCM electronics - or hit Fry’s when in Chicago or Seattle.

[Yo-Yo]

Not to mention their Super Bowl Ad last year.

[ontap]

Radio Shack is still in business?????

[rarestia]

I can buy solder and all of my basic electronics needs from Amazon and have it on my doorstep in 2 days. Most of the stuff Radio Shack sells anymore is bargain basement Chinese knockoff crap.

[4yearlurker]

Are there any more 1 Hour Photo Huts left? I remember my Uncle Hank in the early 1970s. “I’m going down to the Radio Shack for some battrees.” (South Jersey slang)

[pepsionice]

As a kid in the 1970s....I can remember going over to buy a 8-track player, a CB radio, and a loud-speaker for my car. I haven’t been inside of a Radio Shack since 1989 (I bought my first PC there).

I think the key here....is that they really didn’t change. Same style....same thinking....same advertisements...as they had in the early 80s.

[Lisbon1940]

It’s the place for antennae and DTV boxes for cable cutters.

[virgil283]

As a kid I would go thru RS catalog as if it held all the things I could wish for... .....

[Fester Chugabrew]

One thing they are good for: That odd battery, cable, or connector you “need right now” on a Sunday afternoon.

In their early days you could purchase kits (Heathkit) to build your own electronics. They could rise again if they had the right vision and a way to execute it. Explore some of the cutting edge offerings. Build your own NSA foil, for example. Tin foil hats, too.

[pepsi_junkie]

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.

Maybe you were never an engineering student scrambling to get a senior project done and needing a handful of resistors/caps/ICs that you didn't have to complete a key circuit. Waiting a week for a part to be shipped is not an option, going to radio shack to go get them was the only viable choice.

It's too bad there won't be a place to get components easily and quickly anymore.