[mac_truck]

Good for RadioShack, but I'm still trying to figure out how this association helps Sprint which is already highly leveraged.

[Resettozero]

Wonder if they’ll unload the RS stock and just go with cellphones and such.

(I’m slowly but slowly getting rid of hundreds of dollars worth of RS adapters for equipment that no longer exists.)

[Alex Murphy]

The rebranded stores will be known as Shint.

[Vigilanteman]

I'd really, really like to see Radio Shack survive. Even more, I'd like to see them get back into the business of selling smaller electronic parts, even if they only stocked the most popular and had an on-line ordering and pick-up capability for the rest.

There were a great store once upon a time.

[Myrddin]

Both Pocatello stores are stripped clean and back on the market as general retail space. The Radio Shack signage is all that remains.

I'm reduced to DigiKey, Mouser, Sparkfun, Adafruit and Element14 using online ordering for parts. The days of making a field visit for an electronics repair and having basic parts on hand at a local RS store are over.

[fireman15]

“Founded in 1921, the chain was a go-to retailer for electronics before becoming increasingly irrelevant in the digital age.”

I have depended on Radio Shack for decades when I have needed a specialty component to help repair electronic devices. I can't tell you how many times in my youth when I was able to get a stereo or TV working again after a quick trip to Radio Shack.

I do miss the days when one could find a project in an electronics magazine, run down to Radio Shack and pick everything that was needed for a reasonable price. Radio Shack also used to have a large selection of paperbacks with electronics projects for which they generally had all of the parts.

But everything has changed. Part of the problem for Radio Shack is that modern electronics have become less and less repairable. It used to be when something went pop and a little puff of smoke came out of the back of your radio... you could take the case off, sniff around a little, identify the burned parts, trouble shoot the circuit, remove the bad parts, solder in the new parts and you were back in business.

These days a lot of the time you have surface mounted specialty IC chips doing most of the work in tiny devices... they are hard to troubleshoot, hard to find and hard to remove and reinstall. Additionally, the value of modern electronic items drop very quickly so that by the time they break they are often not worth messing around with.

Radio Shack has had a smaller and smaller variety of parts in stock. And of course even if there was a market there is no way that they could stock specialty IC’s for things like phones and tablets. If you have to wait for parts to come in, other component suppliers such as www.digikey.com, www.jameco.com and sellers on eBay and amazon have had far better selection, much cheaper prices and more reliable shipping times.

Radio Shack has been facing very challenging times. I hope that they can continue finding niche markets and survive. I still like visiting the stores. There are generally interesting people working at the stores and they usually have a fun selection of items.

[subterfuge]

Will they still ask for my address when i go in there?

[discostu]

Soooo being a cellphone reseller didn’t work for them and now their plan is to be even more of a cellphone reseller?

[ntnychik]

I last went to Radio Shack a few years ago to buy a radio. They had FM only. Good try keeping me from conservative talk radio. Never mind, RS.