A looming farewell--though not good riddance--to RadioShack

1

NDrLoR 2014 Dec 2, 1:19am

"The company initially announced that its stores would be open from 8 a.m. to midnight; then, after employee objections, decided to close between noon and 5 p.m. so they could spend that little time with their families."

This reminds me of a friend who worked at a company that decided to give its employees a half day off on a Friday as a reward for good work on a special project--the half day from 8-12.

2

JH 2014 Dec 2, 1:47am

Bummer :(

3

zzyzzx 2014 Dec 2, 2:33am

I really don't think anybody is going to notice when they are gone.

4

indigenous 2014 Dec 2, 2:54am

Is this company a good candidate for putting?

5

Tenpoundbass 2014 Dec 2, 3:26am

It would be cool if they went back to their analog semiconductor roots.
Or even some microcontrollers and bread board kits.

Radio shack should be the place you go to when you want to develop a Bluetooth audio transmitter box and even some wireless video kits.

Some HiFi audiophile tube kits, they should have every cord needed to plug into any digital device, such as OTG cables (still not available sourced locally)

They should have actuators and hydraulics for robotics and automation.
All they carry is stupid stuff that like the article says, you can get online.

I think people would go their local Radio Shack if they still carried the type of items that made them Radio Shack. It's a great instant gratification to locally source items for a hobby or a project. The majority of the time, many items are needed on a spare of the moment. A person has the day off, and finds he needs a capacitor for something has hasn't tried to use in a few years. He's going to want to go to the store and do it then. It's harder to get back to things like that.

Hobby shops do such a great business because their customers are impulsive and want what they need now, they don't want to order online and wait a day to a month depending on shipping and cost. They are off today, they want to do their craft or hobby now, not when UPS says it will be at their door.

6

Dan8267 2014 Dec 2, 3:33am

The company died over 10 years ago when it became impractical to make anything by yourself that didn't look like shit compared to smart phones made by cheap Chinese labor.

7

indigenous 2014 Dec 2, 3:36am

Was radio shack ever like that? When we were kids we use to put together the Heath Kit projects and had the little electronic sets that you could do little projects like build intercoms etc.

8

JH 2014 Dec 2, 3:48am

CaptainShuddup says

I think people would go their local Radio Shack if they still carried the type of items that made them Radio Shack. It's a great instant gratification to locally source items for a hobby or a project. The majority of the time, many items are needed on a spare of the moment. A person has the day off, and finds he needs a capacitor for something has hasn't tried to use in a few years. He's going to want to go to the store and do it then. It's harder to get back to things like that.

Exactly!! Now you get bombarded by cell phones and the workers are explaining to ladies how to use their cell phones. Even the boys who work there now could not find their way around a circuit.

indigenous says

When we were kids we use to put together the Heath Kit projects and had the little electronic sets that you could do little projects like build intercoms etc.

Now kids get sold shit like this: snap circuits. wtf

http://www.amazon.com/Snap-Circuits-Jr-SC-100-Kit/dp/B00CIXVITO/ref=lh_ni_t?tag=slicinc-20&ascsubtag=67dc31bbade347639278efcbdfc2357d&ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

9 EBGuy 2014 Dec 2, 4:23am

JH said: Now kids get sold shit like this: snap circuits. wtf
You favor the springs and wires of ye olden times?

10

JH 2014 Dec 2, 4:52am

Yessir!! Unless you have silicon wafer etching capabilities (and even if)...

11 HEY YOU 2014 Dec 3, 11:01am

Capn says: "Some HiFi audiophile tube kits,.."

Many don't appreciate the sound from tubes.

12 5ader5 2014 Dec 3, 11:09am

Returning veterans from WWII, Korea and Cold War era conflicts provided the hifi and hobbyist electronics industries with a ready demographic that appreciated radios, sound equipment and were, more than any other generations before, electronics literate. Radio Shack, You Do It, and the great stereo manufacturers from the US and Japan would never have existed without them. Radio Shack's demise is as much a story about that population advancing age as it is about market dynamics of electronic goods.

13

Strategist 2014 Dec 3, 12:04pm

jvolstad says

RIP Radio Shack.

It's survival of the fittest. If you cannot keep up with changing times you will go extinct. It's the Serengetti. How many of you would be willing to pay twice as much for a part, when you have Ebay and Amazon.
I always felt sorry for Kodak. A name brand that got flushed due to stupidity of its management.

14

indigenous 2014 Dec 3, 12:09pm

How many multiples, do we pay for teachers, fireman, police, calpers, than would be price discovery on these occupations?

15

MAGA 2014 Dec 3, 12:11pm

5ader5 says

Returning veterans from WWII, Korea and Cold War era conflicts provided the hifi and hobbyist electronics industries with a ready demographic that appreciated radios, sound equipment and were, more than any other generations before, electronics literate.

My Ham Radio Station when I was a teenager (late 1960's).

My first Heathkit transceiver (1970's).

16

MAGA 2014 Dec 3, 12:23pm

Ham Radio today

http://youtu.be/ZrdlaAP2X9g

17 5ader5 2014 Dec 3, 1:43pm

HeathKit!

18

zzyzzx 2014 Dec 3, 10:41pm

indigenous says

Is this company a good candidate for putting?

If the stock ever gets high enough to put, yes.

19

zzyzzx 2014 Dec 3, 10:48pm

Dan8267 says

The company died over 10 years ago when it became impractical to make anything by yourself that didn't look like shit compared to smart phones made by cheap Chinese labor.

Corrected:
The company died over 20 years ago

20

zzyzzx 2015 Jan 15, 7:32am

http://247wallst.com/retail/2015/01/15/radioshack-stock-moves-toward-zero/

RadioShack Stock Moves Toward Zero

Some investors bought shares of RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH) at a 52-week high of $2.79. Others bought shares at $4.14 in May 2013. All those investors, and almost any others who bought RadioShack’s stock recently, are about to watch those shares go to zero.

It is rumored, but not confirmed, from an exclusive story in the Wall Street Journal, that RadioShack soon will file to go into bankruptcy. The company, at that point, may be stripped of its assets.

RadioShack’s shares will drop to zero, and a lot of investors will be burned.

RadioShack Corp. (RSH) -NYSE
0.28 Down 0.13(30.72%) 10:32AM EST

21

SFace 2015 Jan 15, 10:56am

It's called radio shack, no different than typewriter shack. You can't operate 4000 retail stores based on 1970 concepts. There's not enough Jvolstad out there.

They should have switched gears a decade ago and call it cell phone shack. The same type of thing you see at Best Buy mobile stores today.

22

curious2 2015 Jan 15, 12:17pm

People are spending more money than ever on handheld radios (cell phones), and yet Radio Shack is going out of business. I bought recently an LG G3 and wanted one of the models that have FM radio built in; Radio Shack doesn't sell the model that I wanted (D855) and couldn't even tell me which of the models that they do sell contain an FM radio (possibly LS990).

SFace says

They should have switched gears a decade ago and call it cell phone shack. The same type of thing you see at Best Buy mobile stores today.

They tried that but failed. The problem is rank executive incompetence and a toxic corporate culture of abusing the retail employees. It's a pity really, while other companies rake in vast fortunes selling handheld radios, Radio Shack goes under.

BTW, I bought several Radio Shack antenna products recently, discounted for clearance, and was amazed at the combination of good ideas and bad execution. Some of them are too frustrating to use but at clearance prices too cheap to return. Any tinkerer who actually used the products could have told Radio Shack how to improve the designs and achieve real utility, but no, you can only talk with the retail staff and no executives listen to them. OTA HDTV is often better and always cheaper than cable/satellite, and it uses the same radio frequencies as the old Radio Shack products, but Radio Shack antenna products can't compete with what I find online or even at the Dollar Store.

23

Vicente 2015 Jan 15, 12:32pm

As a kid, I'd hang out in the local Radio Shack and when nobody else was looking at it, the guys would let me type programs in and use this beauty:

Ah the memories of BASIC and a cassette recorder.

24

Peter P 2015 Jan 15, 1:06pm

Vicente says

Ah the memories of BASIC

That's my first language! It's a bad way to learn programming though.

25

Dan8267 2015 Jan 15, 2:34pm

Vicente says

use this beauty

Have you played Alien Isolation. Beautiful, sturdy 1970s-style technology. Looks built to withstand an atomic blast.

26

Strategist 2015 Jan 15, 2:42pm

zzyzzx says

Dan8267 says

The company died over 10 years ago when it became impractical to make anything by yourself that didn't look like shit compared to smart phones made by cheap Chinese labor.

Corrected:

The company died over 20 years ago

Took 20 years to bury a corpse.

27

Strategist 2015 Jan 15, 2:45pm

SFace says

It's called radio shack, no different than typewriter shack. You can't operate 4000 retail stores based on 1970 concepts. There's not enough Jvolstad out there.

They should have switched gears a decade ago and call it cell phone shack. The same type of thing you see at Best Buy mobile stores today.

Even "cell phone shack" will be outdated some day. They should call it "Tech Shack" and sell hi tech stuff.

28

Peter P 2015 Jan 15, 2:46pm

Strategist says