Radio Shack is dead.

[displacedinMN]

RS filed for bankrupcy. Years of mismanagement, high prices and online competition killed a great company.

Let's hear those RS stories. I like to use spoilers to keep the OP short

My time working as RS

Spoiler!

I worked for RS part time. Just to pick up a few extra bucks before I found a teaching job.

It was going down hill then. The district manager was not happy when I told him many of our products could be found some where else cheaper. That did not make him happy. This was before the big depression.

Hey, price first. six bucks cheaper at wal-mart than RS. Printer ink at Office depot across the street was CHEAPER than I could get it WITH MY EMPLOYEE DISCOUNT!

We would have Saturdays where no one would be in for over an hour. Hey, Its Minnesota. Most are at their cabins on the weekend and RS is not a first stop store.

Lesser named electronics, low inventory, did not focus on the electronic geek or do it yourself person.
Terrible management the last 10 years.

Every customer was supposed to be asked about phones and Directv.

RS employees were always informed, but price sells.

Have not been back into my old store much since I left. Amazon has more and cheaper.

Old man Tandy is rolling over in his grave.
Modify message

From the Onion

Spoiler!

Electronics retailer RadioShack filed for bankruptcy after 94 years in business, ultimately unable to keep up with consumers’ shift to the wireless and digital technologies of the internet age. Here is a timeline of RadioShack’s decline:

1962: Retailer establishes a 40-year period of peace and prosperity among electronics retailers known as the Pax Radioica
1980: As a joke, RadioShack employee asks customer buying game-TV switchbox for name and address. Practice lasts company-wide for another 22 years.
1995: Poor microcassette harvest devastates first-quarter sales
1996-2005: Company coasts by on purchase of single VGA cord from Fort Myers, FL location
1999: RadioShack CEO assures Americans that products will break down regardless of Y2K
2001: Company introduces cordless Howie Long
2005: Corporation celebrates one-millionth customer walking in, scoffing at cost, and walking out empty-handed
2007: Email leaks reveal RadioShack in serious talks to buy pack of AA batteries from Duracell
2008: Company loses lucrative Defense Department contract
2010: Executives hold press conference to address issue of what exactly is going on with that one aisle of just copper wire and cable splitters
2015: RadioShack management forced to euthanize millions of thumb drives they can no longer support

Old Radioshack Magazines online. Open, don't download anything (so I have been warned)
http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/

[mdstu]

I still use the soldering iron I bought at RS when I was a kid. Shit, that thing is atleast 30 years old.

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by mdstu

I still use the soldering iron I bought at RS when I was a kid. Shit, that thing is atleast 30 years old.

That's pretty neat.

[KCTitus]

I have used RS for rare electronic things that you cannot find at some stores, fuses, capacitors and AC adapters. The last time I was in was a couple of years ago, and I needed a specific AC adapter for a piece of equipment at work.

There were three people in the store (including myself) and two workers - what appeared to be a manager and a regular worker. I knew what I needed so I went and got it and walked to the counter to check out.

No more than 5 feet from me was the manager and an older gentleman who had just purchased a new cell phone. The manager was walking him through all the features. The other employee was helping someone else who was having a hard time deciding on something.

In any event, I stared at the manager and watched him walk this guy through setting up everything on his phone. And by everything, he was going through every possible feature to the point he helped him reset the voice command to wake up the phone (I think it was a galaxy 3).

I stood there for about 10-15 minutes waiting to simply purchase a 30 dollar item and was summarily ignored by this manager no more than 5 feet from me.

At some point the other employee came from the back of the store and checked me out. That manager never even acknowledged my presence...

Ridiculous.

[srvy]

Originally Posted by Armadillo Skin

Rip-off Shack goes down. Did anybody else always feel like you knew more than the people working there?

You may very well have. But it wasn't always that way back in the day when they popped on the seen in KC they hired knowledgeable electronics people. I always back then cowered to go in for The humbling and humiliation. I remember they had a catalog as think as Monkey Wards chock full of electronics. You could order just about anything includeing the famed heathkit kits. They went down when they fell in love with cellphones and contracts.

Anyone in KC remember CMC electronics and Burstein Applebie?

[Randallflagg]

Hard to believe that they have lasted as long as they have. Hell, to be honest, I thought they went under 20 years ago....


Back in the 70's (when they were a big deal) I actually used one of their kit stereo speaker builds. Put EVs in the cabinets and those damn things blasted my apartment for the next 5 or 6 years...

I stopped going into the place after being asked for my name and address and telephone number for the 500th time.


RIP (I guess)

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by Armadillo Skin

Rip-off Shack goes down. Did anybody else always feel like you knew more than the people working there?

Having worked at RS in college and BB for a short time between college and grad school, I can tell you that there is a massive gap in product knowledge between the two. Associates at RS knew far, far more about electronics than did your average drunken frat cretin that populated the BB TV or Computer area.

[Simply Red]

I thought they're reorganizing (chapter 11) - It's not necessarily the end is it? Am I missing something?

[Stewie]

Originally Posted by Simply Red

I thought they're reorganizing (chapter 11) - It's not necessarily the end is it? Am I missing something?

I think they filed to shed/avoid debt in a deal with Sprint. Sprint is taking over 1700+ stores and will start anew as Sprint stores. Sprint has no obligation to RS debt and benefits from built-in infrastructure.

[splatbass]

Originally Posted by Simply Red

I thought they're reorganizing (chapter 11) - It's not necessarily the end is it? Am I missing something?

No, they are only closing 3 of the 18 stores in Honolulu. Not the end, but they have one foot in the grave.

[bevischief]

Originally Posted by Stewie

I think they filed to shed/avoid debt in a deal with Sprint. Sprint is taking over 1700+ stores and will start anew as Sprint stores. Sprint has no obligation to RS debt and benefits from built-in infrastructure.

This.

[Randallflagg]

Originally Posted by splatbass

No, they are only closing 3 of the 18 stores in Honolulu. Not the end, but they have one foot in the grave.

You know, it's funny, but I always hate it when these "bastions" i.e., Sears, Radio Shack, Kmart go under. One more American business gone....

But it did remind me of a friend of mine (a wise-ass that I went to High School with) who happened to be a HAM operator - anyway - we walk into a RS one day and he asks the kid behind the counter where they keep the cans of squelch for the radios. The kid spent the next 5 minutes looking everywhere for the damned stuff before he finally figured it out.

Damn.....the good old days.....

[bevischief]

http://www.rcrwireless.com/20150206/...ck-stores-tag4

Sprint is swooping into more than 1,500 stores owned by RadioShack, which filed for bankruptcy this week. The carrier will set up shop in those RadioShack locations and plans to turn them into co-branded Sprint/RadioShack stores. Sprint said it will occupy roughly one-third of each store, selling mobile devices and service plans, as well as RadioShack products, services and accessories.

The deal will more than double Sprint’s retail presence. The carrier currently owns about 1,100 stores. Sprint said its brand will be dominant in the RadioShack stores it occupies if the deal is completed as planned. Sprint employees will sell mobile devices and wireless service plans for Sprint, Boost and Virgin Mobile.

Sprint should benefit from the new storefronts as it encourages customers and potential customers to trade in their smartphones in order to take advantage of its promotions. The carrier shares a parent company (Softbank) with Brightstar, a leading distributor of mobile devices. An expanding retail footprint could leverage this relationship because the Radio Shack storefronts will make it easier to reach more people, and the Brightstar connection will expedite recycling and repurposing of the used phones.

General Wireless will be Sprint’s partner in establishing the co-branded stores. General Wireless is a subsidiary of Standard General, RadioShack’s largest shareholder, and will be acquiring the stores from RadioShack. Sprint said it will move into as many as 1,750 stores, a subset of the total number that RadioShack is selling to General Wireless.

RadioShack has storefronts in a variety of locations, ranging from upscale venues to areas that see very little retail traffic. The company sold 1,100 stores last year, leaving it with a total of 4,000. About 900 of those were operated as franchise locations. Reuters reports that RadioShack is now selling 2,400 stores to its investor, implying that roughly 1,600 more stores may be closed.

[Lzen]

My mom worked at radio shack for a short time when I was a kid. I would always look through the catalog and wish I could get a lot of things in there. RC cars were my favorite. I also got a build your own radio kit for a present from there. I think I may have gotten an aeronautics build kit another time. I loved that kind of stuff. I also remember seeing the earliest cell phones in their catalog. It was permanently mounted in your car with a tall antenna attached to the back end. I believe it was like $1200 which is like almost $3000 today. Oh yeah and Tandy computers.

[jjchieffan]

I went into a local radio shack just last week because I needed an RJ45 connector. The guy behind the counter had no idea what I needed. I didn't say anything but I was thinking in my head. This is why RS is going broke. Their supposed to specialize in items like that, yet their employees don't know what an RJ45 is?? As small as the store is, they should be able to point out any item in the store in their sleep. Good Riddance Radio Shack!!

[Deberg_1990]

Tandy 100!


Never had one, but had several friends who did.