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Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

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Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#71
post #12
post #7

Sounds 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.

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.

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#72
post #53
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one closest to me is in a strip mall next to a Mexican restaurant.

Is that supposed to be good or bad? It describes practically every store in the town where I grew up.

In downtown Boston, there is one right by the financial district, so definitely a prime location.

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#73
post #58

Oh no I sure hope not, the tax will be back and that is enough to move me to other sites in several cases. Edit: To clarify, no sales tax was one of the first things Amazon and other online retailers had on their side. They could sell things cheaper, even by a little, and the rest would be made up by not having to pay sales tax. If they have a presence in a state though they have to collect sales tax. If you buy a lo…

IIRC, aren't you supposed to calculate your owed taxes for your state and then pay when you filed? Of course not many people do this, and the IRS (or state equivalent) has no hope of enforcing this.

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#74
post #53
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one closest to me is in a strip mall next to a Mexican restaurant.

Is that supposed to be good or bad? It describes practically every store in the town where I grew up.

Where I live, Mexican restaurants and Karate studios are indicators of a dying mall.

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#76
post #43

Please, please, Amazon, leave 1/16 of the shelf space for electronic components! Pack them densely, don't offer customer support, and charge high prices. We need brick and mortar places to buy components. It might be worth a lot of goodwill from electronics tinkerers. Although I guess that's not a big enough group to matter, but who knows...

If you're in the Bay Area, halted.com has a store in Santa Clara that totally blew my mind. Dozens of aisles of electronics components, including racks of reels of surface-mount stuff. They also have stuff like used oscilloscopes, industrial robotics controllers, etc.

I have no need for any of that yet I could walk around a store like that for hours and hours.

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#77
post #7

Sounds 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.

"Why would they buy a marginal retailer with poor footprint, when you could just lease stores yourself?"

Because it's already assembled, at, in theory, lower than market rates and won't take months or a year to assemble. Similar to why companies buy companies instead of building their own. At least in the area that I am in Radio Shack has decent retail locations.

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#78
post #42
post #7

Sounds 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.

You sure about the 2nd tier part? The ones around here are in prime locations.

Yep. The one closest to where I work is in a great spot in downtown DC, ironically enough half a block from Bezos owned Washington Post headquarters.

The one closest to where I live is in the prime shopping center adjacent to University of Maryland.

There's seemingly enough in good locations to cherry pick them out.

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#79
post #58

Oh no I sure hope not, the tax will be back and that is enough to move me to other sites in several cases. Edit: To clarify, no sales tax was one of the first things Amazon and other online retailers had on their side. They could sell things cheaper, even by a little, and the rest would be made up by not having to pay sales tax. If they have a presence in a state though they have to collect sales tax. If you buy a lo…

Most states where they have warehouses they pay taxes in now (which is many many states now).

Re: Amazon Is in Talks to Buy RadioShack Stores, Report Says

#80
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, they're at AT&T stores, many of which are in mall, and it doesn't look like it's helped any.

Last time I was in an AT&T store the Fire wasn't even powered on. After using the UI I understood why.

last time I was in an AT&T store (december) the guy told me he had sold 2 Fire phones in 3 months.
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