I would be much more excited if Google bought it. Google lacks a physical presence that Apple has, and they need it.
Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
111–120 of 142 posts
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#112The Sears & Roebuck dealer store (Smaller Sears stores in typically in rural locations) remade as an Amazon Prime depot/storefront?
Pretty much exactly this.
It's where the developing war between Amazon and Google starts to get interesting. Google's approach has been to work with existing brick-and-mortar stores via Google Shopping Express, which I suspect means tying into their ordering and inventory systems. That's also more-or-less an attack on IBM (which does a lot of SMB work as well).
Google gets storefronts, merchandise, direct retail, and business knowledge, while Amazon's got to build that, but has a single unified shopping and logistics system.
I'm not sure which is going to win, though I'm betting somewhat on Google.
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#113Sounds fishy to me. Radio Shack tends to have old leases in 2nd tier shopping centers. Why would they buy a marginal retailer with poor footprint, when you could just lease stores yourself? There was a time when getting space in malls and strip shopping centers was tough. This isn't one of those times.
Lots of established retail locations and fire-sale prices.
Putting together the real-estate inventory on your own means a lot more work.
Sell off the nonperforming locations you don't want. Keep and gut the rest. My bet is that Radio Shack as a brand is done.
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#114This is a good example of why we should let failed companies fail and let good companies then salvage the good assets. Imagine US government had taken over RadioShack to "protect the jobs" using taxpayers money and spent billions for a so called turnaround.
Radio Shack isn't 1) too big to fail and 2) doesn't have an entire ecosystem dependent on it (hobbyists included).
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#115Bloomberg is reporting that "THE SHACK!" is in talks to close half its stores and sell the rest to Sprint. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-02/radioshack...
Quite possibly courting multiple suitors. Though if Sprint's the best counteroffer they've got, Amazon's going to walk all over this.
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#116Amazon sells so many different things that it is difficult to find products within a particular niche. When you look for educational toys on Amazon you will not presented with electronic kits (for example) because mostly that is not what a generic customer wants. Even if you go looking for a particular niche it can be very tricky.
There are lots of sites that sell the same products Amazon do but target a particular niche. A brand like RadioShack could use the Amazon backend and only expose a particular type of product that fits within the traditional RadioShack ethos.
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#117This is a good example of why we should let failed companies fail and let good companies then salvage the good assets. Imagine US government had taken over RadioShack to "protect the jobs" using taxpayers money and spent billions for a so called turnaround.
Radio Shack isn't 1) too big to fail and 2) doesn't have an entire ecosystem dependent on it (hobbyists included).
"Too big to fail" is a term with only political meanings. Best not to let it cloud one's thinking.
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
old leases = below market rate? they are already well distributed for ten zillion amazon lockers? it doesn't seem so far fetched to me; amazon being able to pick up a bunch of cheap space in fell swoop.
Having used Amazon Lockers a lot, I don't really get it. If you don't want a package sitting on your doorstep all day, have it delivered to work. And Lockers has a maximum size limit that I hit every so often that negated that option. Having it show up at my desk is a lot more convenient. Now if I could return packages through Lockers, then I'd be game.
The people working in the mail-room here started objecting to the number of Amazon packages arriving each day (non-business time spent, etc. etc.) so no more at-work deliveries. :(
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Have we learned nothing from pets.com and the expense of shipping heavy pet products? :) It gets shipped even if you buy it in a retail store. Pets.com was a great idea poorly executed about a decade too early.
There's a difference between shipping on a pallet in the same semi trailer as 51 other pallets and shipping in a cardboard box from a fulfillment center. Who's doing pets.com's modern equivalent now?
"shipping on a pallet"
I LOLed at that because my monthly subscribe n save is due later this week and over the years the delivery is getting physically bigger to the point of almost requiring palletized delivery, like the cardboard box is getting so big and heavy my wife has problems moving it. I have hit the UPS shipping limits in the past. Its not just food, I get stuff like dishwasher detergent on a schedule, shaving cream, bath soap, laundry detergent, trash bags... I don't buy much at brick and mortar stores anymore except for fresh/frozen and emergencies. Who has time to stand in a food store once a month for five minutes selecting a box of kitchen trash bags at a price higher than amazon would charge, times about 20 other items?
Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says
#120I wonder if this is their in for B&M stores. I can also see this as part of their plan to start shipping items before you even buy them. I click checkout and it tells me to just go pick up the item from Radio Shack on 6th and Weidler.
That sounds new like a miserable experience. Does anyone actually like online ordering with instore pickup?
I have done that precisely once with a very large monitor where I inspected it before signing. No not want UPS box with rattle of broken glass.
I suppose you could do fresh food that way, get my avocados ready ahead of time, but show me them before I sign for them.