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RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest

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Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest

#21

Post by Nelson69 »

wglb wrote: post #19
sfeng wrote: post #3

This is somewhat tragic, because you can actually buy a wide variety of electronics components at RS which you can't get locally anywhere else. Sure, the internet is better in many ways, but it is a loss.

This used to be the case, but last few times I checked it out, not so much. Check out octopart, sparkfun, adafruit, and so on. Much more fun these days.

It's just a different era. If you have 3 days, you buy that stuff online. If you're mid project and need something "today" Radioshack is often the best or only bet. It's like they have to have a huge inventory for the 10 people that care though.

Worse, they haven't found that niche to pay the bills.

Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest

#22

Post by mgkimsal »

vonmoltke wrote: post #20
mgkimsal wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about just turning their store in to iPhone/iPad/iPod repair outlets? Replacing screens and selling bling would probably bring them more business than most of the RS stores I've seen in the last few years have.

Around here in DFW, at least, those places are a dime a dozen.

same here, except they're generally busy. on a per sq ft basis, they might even be more profitable than RS.

Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest

#23

Post by Scoundreller »

jbinto wrote: post #2

Radio Shack in Canada ended up in a similar situation. In 2005, they sold to Circuit City and opened as a rebranded store called "The Source" (after a brief legal dispute about the Radio Shack name). When Circuit City went bankrupt in 2009, they sold the chain to Bell Canada (our version of Sprint or Verizon).

And in a similar vein in Canada, Black's, a photofinisher and photography related goods vendor could not adapt to the digital world. The chain was sold to Telus (a competitor to Bell).

It seems to be a common trend for bankrupt chains' leases in Canada to get bought up for the instant network of stores.

Is this a rare phenomenon in the US?

Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest

#24

Post by Scoundreller »

unabridged wrote: post #9

Sprint is 80% owned by SoftBank, who also owns controlling interest in Alibaba. Amazon, Alibaba's largest competitor, has been recently talking about getting into physical retail space. It's possible Alibaba is thinking the same thing.

I feel that Alibaba is more of a competitor to Ebay. The quality of goods are similarly low.

Amazon is more of a "get it in 1-2 days (when we guarantee it)" and "We'll make sure you get your money back, anytime".

At least those have been my experiences.

Turning the existing RS network into a non-denominational PackStation-type setup seems like a good idea.

Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest

#25

Post by kw71 »

sfeng wrote: post #3

This is somewhat tragic, because you can actually buy a wide variety of electronics components at RS which you can't get locally anywhere else. Sure, the internet is better in many ways, but it is a loss.

The real loss is radio shack extended distribution of these into settings like smalltown strip malls.

I live in an area that can be characterized as a giant suburb of 1 million+ people with no big city around it. There's one store in the industrial park with components and they've been around for decades, altho their ownership has changed hands a couple of times.

Real cities should have it better - I remember being in minneapolis and needing some bits for work and finding in the yellow pages a giant electronics store a few blocks from my worksite (downtown somewhere.) I was in a pinch in Cincinnati too and also found a local supplier.

These kinds of businesses are generally counter service, not self service retail.

A lot of people whine about paying $2 for five resistors because the same $2 gets you 200 at mouser. But you'll pay at least $5 for shipping and have to wait.

Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest

#26

Post by RickHull »

Animats wrote: post #14

Sprint doesn't need more retail outlets. They need more cell sites. If you can't get a signal on a Sprint phone, drive up to a Sprint store. They have mini cell sites so their demos work.

They give away their mini cell sites now for home use.

Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest

#29

Post by vonmoltke »

mgkimsal wrote: post #22
vonmoltke wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Around here in DFW, at least, those places are a dime a dozen.

same here, except they're generally busy. on a per sq ft basis, they might even be more profitable than RS.

The ones I have seen are definitely low-overhead. They also seem to be pretty transient and skeevy, though that may be more a reflection of the typical owner than the nature of the business.
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