*Radio Shack Store Closing Thread* All posts about Radio Shack closing go here.

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MK

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RadioShack Is Falling Apart

The ship continues to sink as RadioShack sales tumble. Local radio stations have had another grim forecast for RS over the past couple days. Yet somehow RS continues to hold on. How much longer can this last?

RadioShack Is Falling Apart (RSH)
 

flythunderbird

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There was a point in time when I thought that If RadioShack went back to its roots, i.e. truly "radio and electronics" and not focus so much on cellphones/associated gadgets, it could make a comeback ... but now I doubt that it could make such a comeback, at least not without a significant and difficult downsizing.
 

SpectreOZ

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There was a point in time when I thought that If RadioShack went back to its roots, i.e. truly "radio and electronics" and not focus so much on cellphones/associated gadgets, it could make a comeback ... but now I doubt that it could make such a comeback, at least not without a significant and difficult downsizing.


Is there still sufficient interest in such product lines? a lot of people around where I live anyway seem more interested in PC's and cell phone "bling" than resistors, capacitors and IC's... I'd happily welcome a R/S revival but think it unlikely as well...
 

MK

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RadioShack is sinking further into a black hole. Local radio business news reported the company received $835 million in new financing to replace its existing $625 million credit. Doesn't this sound like the familiar, "I'll get a new credit card to pay the current balance I cannot pay on my existing card"? It sure seems like it.

Remember that RadioShack reduced their product lines by about 1,000 items this year. Less inventory, but fewer items to interest consumers. The "store within a store" is a retailer fad. It worked to some extent for Best Buy with products such as cell phones, yet it failed miserably for JC Penny, which is also based out of the Dallas area like RadioShack.
 

gewecke

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Radio shack just opened a NEW store in my hometown, 5 years AFTER the last one folded, due to low revenue.
I don't have a clue what the hell they're thinking about there... :confused:

73,
n9zas
 

Darth_vader

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<hijack> "The 'store within a store' concept is a retail fad. It worked to some extent for Best Buy with products such as cell phones, yet it failed miserably for J.C. Penney."

Oh, I don't know about that. It seems to have been working pretty well for Fred Meyer's jewellery division over the last 40-some years. </hijack>
 

Blackink

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Someone posted a link in these forums about "Radio Monitoring, A How to Guide". It's a pdf file and as I was nearing the end of reading it, I noticed an ad for Radio Shack which showed 6600 stores nationwide.
That original how to guide was first published in 1997.
Now (2013) Radio Shack says they have 4700 stores nationwide.

16 Years with a loss of almost 2000 stores.

Yikes!!!
 

Breadman03

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I think that Radio Shack is a victim of the phone kiosks at Wal Mart, Target, etc, as well as the ability of the Internet shops to offer a much larger selection without as much inventory (since they don't need to keep a wide selection at 6600 stores) and the ability for modern parcel services to deliver products within days.
 

KF5YBZ

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Saw a peek at the Black Friday listings....did not see one Scanner... :(

Then you didn't see page 5, bottom right corner "All Trunking Scanners on Sale". :)
I am still hoping for the decline of Apple and the rise of APPLE SHACK!
 

fdscan

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Thought I'd drop by and pitch in my two cents...

I was in need of an adapter, an SMA to BNC, and I was also looking to see what else they had along those lines. I could easily buy the parts off of eBay and have them here in a few days, but I felt like browsing.

I walked in to the local one about a month ago, they have every phone accessory you could ever need, but when you got to the back drawers where they have the electrical/RF parts... It's a mess. Nothing's organized, they're missing a ton of stuff... Lots of switches and stuff like that, a decent amount of RF fittings/coax adapters, but no actual like BNC-to-SMA or stuff along those lines, adapters like that.

The rep was very knowledgeable, said he was ex-military. He showed me that there were some "CB radio fittings" which were really just some BNC plugs. He did mention that RadioShack is supposedly shifting over to the basic electrical components and what not in the near future though, putting more emphasis on that since it's been on a decline... I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I went in a few weeks ago, not really any better, to be honest. It's a shame, really.
 

nbarco

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RadioShack Is Falling Apart

There was a point in time when I thought that If RadioShack went back to its roots, i.e. truly "radio and electronics" and not focus so much on cellphones/associated gadgets, it could make a comeback ... but now I doubt that it could make such a comeback, at least not without a significant and difficult downsizing.

If it was not for cell phones they definitely would have already folded. Their pricing is not competitive and most of their employees don't know a thing about the products they sell. In another other words they're business strategy has doomed them.
 

jeepinjeepin

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RadioShack Is Falling Apart

I want them to stay in business. I enjoy buying clearance parts and turning them on eBay for a profit. Are you ready for the sad part??? If an item(usually clearance) is removed from inventory it gets broken and filed in bin 13. My most local store used to keep a box of "old" phone accessories to give away with new phones. Now that is against policy...
 

krokus

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Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.80 (Android 2.3.4; Linux; Opera Mobi/ADR-1309251116) Presto/2.11.355 Version/12.10)

Those items just needed to be disposed of. They were not always broken.
 

INDY72

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RS is on the ropes, and is doing anything and everything to draw customers in again. Reorganization. Remods of layouts. And if they do not go back to what got them started, they will go under in a year. Completely. They tried the cell phone route, they tried the computer route, they tried the modern TV routes... All have failed miserably. They must go big time radio communications/small electronics/parts or they will lose it all. They can not compete with a AT&T store, Verizon store, Apple store, or even a Wal Mart for market share on cells, pc's/laptops/pads, computer networking, HDTV, and that kind of stuff. They lost out on even the stereo markets, and there stuff rocked in that category! They have to stock full line of Unidens, whats left of the GRE's, stock everything Whistler makes, load up CB's, and yes get the HAM gear too. If not,... It is TAPS.
 

ridgescan

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You gotta hand it to them though for their tenacity in this tough, tough business. Hell, even Best Buy is suffering and they're more on the pulse of what's "cool" than RS.
I don't know about you guys, but virtually everyone I contact personally, either couln't care less about all things radio, or flat out hate radio based on its "older" technology.
My girlfriend's son will actually get annoyed at the idea of you getting him any kind of radio as a present. This is the same guy who told me to get rid of my sx-88 because it was old, big, ugly, and wasted space. (gee, maybe I should toss myself into the dump too:D)
I have gotten pissed at RS in the past for some of their shortcomings, but now I kinda feel bad for that company. They're trying hard, and things they've tried and failed at were dictated by public demands.
The only way they could survive IMO is to shrink down to a handfull of key stores across the Nation then focus back on the original niche like milf suggests, then give HRO and the like a run for their money. Ham radio oughta be in their stores!
 

OemUser

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Some years back, RS rebranded to "The Source" up here in the Great White North. I was in to the local store a couple of weeks back, looking for some rf connectors...none to be found. Young gentleman asked me if I needed assistance and I explained what I was looking for...the young fellow explained that "the Source" is now owned by Bell, and that they are not stocking any more rf or component parts....the new owner wants to be strictly phones/electronic gadgets...

Other than the local truck stop, it is going to be a trip to Toronto for parts/components...
 

jeepinjeepin

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RadioShack Is Falling Apart

I will admit the current crop of staff are sorely undertrained and are usually disinterested in anything in the store. While I was looking for an RJ adapter (the associate that came to help me didn't know what I was talking about) another customer walked in looking for a microphone. The same associate said that they might have 1 back there. I counted at least 3 different handheld mics on the shelf.
 
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