RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest
1–10 of 29 posts
Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest
#2Radio 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).
Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest
#3This 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.
Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest
#4Kind of sad, I remember the TRS80 Model 1, a friend worked on the OS. They Apple and Commodore had the first real personal computers. The Model 1 actually had a real operating system with multiple process support (though not really exposed to the user). Irrelevant today as a business.
Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest
#5Calling Steve Wozniak and AdaFruit: Why don't you get together and buy the other half of RadioShack stores and turn them into Maker spaces?
They could continue to sell cables, batteries and universal remotes to consumers to help pay the bills while creating a place to learn and buy supplies for tinkerers, robot clubs, hobbyists etc.
Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest
#6This 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 comes up every time a Radio Shack article is posted, and the consensus has been that even Radio Shack isn't a reliable supplier of electronic components anymore.
Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest
#7Calling Steve Wozniak and AdaFruit: Why don't you get together and buy the other half of RadioShack stores and turn them into Maker spaces? They could continue to sell cables, batteries and universal remotes to consumers to help pay the bills while creating a place to learn and buy supplies for tinkerers, robot clubs, hobbyists etc.
I'm sure there's a business model that could work at some level, but RS is in such a big hole that they probably have to kill it and start over anyway.
One of the earlier HN articles mentioned how RS had an electronics repair biz at one point (maybe they still do). That seems like a good starting point, then cater to hard core hobbyists which would be the core of whatever clientele RS still has. It's just not a big enough business for a public company.
Personally I think it's a good idea. 50% of Radio Shack locations will be up for rent soon, so all you budding entrepreneurs out there, go find some seed money and open your hobbyist/enthusiast/maker supply store. Do electronics repair, repairing phone glass, all that kind of thing, then try to reconnect with the core market of people who love electronics. Make it like the neighborhood bike shop that all the cyclists come to to hang out at. That's how Radio Shack started out.
Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest
#8Calling Steve Wozniak and AdaFruit: Why don't you get together and buy the other half of RadioShack stores and turn them into Maker spaces? They could continue to sell cables, batteries and universal remotes to consumers to help pay the bills while creating a place to learn and buy supplies for tinkerers, robot clubs, hobbyists etc.
I'm sure there's a business model that could work at some level, but RS is in such a big hole that they probably have to kill it and start over anyway. One of the earlier HN articles mentioned how RS had an electronics repair biz at one point (maybe they still do). That seems like a good starting point, then cater to hard core hobbyists which would be the core of whatever clientele RS still has. It's just not a big e…
Agreed, it's not like RS has any value other than it's store space. I'd probably ditch whatever procurement process they had for getting their tech anyways as I'm sure it's highly inefficient, lacking in product people want, and rife with corruption. Also the people that work at RS are next to worthless (IMHO in terms of helping build towards the vision jones1818 outlines, not worthless as people) for doing anything but trying to sell you a phone. There are of course exceptions to this but I agree with yesiamyourdad that you'd be better off starting from square one.
Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest
#9Sprint 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.
Re: RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest
#10This is disappointing, especially since our local RadioShack has recently added a ton of great hobbyist electronics: They carry RaspberryPi starter kits, 4 models of Arduino, Beaglebones, about 8 kinds of shields, tons of robot kits, littleBits, and the usual drawers of random parts. I picked up an Arduino-compatible camera board for $12 on clearance.
I have no idea how big the local market for cool, modern electronics stuff might be. And I'll be sad if it disappears. But it would be nice if somebody could make a business out of this.
But it you haven't checked out your local RadioShark in the last few years, it might be worth a look.