DailyTech - RadioShack Announces Plans to Close 400-700 Stores

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IT RadioShack Announces Plans to Close 400-700 Stores
Michael Hoffman (Blog) - February 19, 2006 1:00 PM

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18 comment(s) - last by Jackyl.. on Feb 23 at 11:28 AM

RadioShack has recently announced plans to close around 10 percent of its national retail stores

RadioShack, the formerly successful electronics and gadgets store looks like it can no longer do anything right. Between 400 to 700 stores and two distribution centers will be closed as the company struggles to survive. RadioShack simply cannot consistently compete with stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart. This news comes after the company announced a whopping 62 percent drop in its fourth-quarter profits.

"The poor fourth quarter performance caused us to take a much deeper look at the state of our business and resulted in the launch of a turnaround plan including the significant fourth quarter inventory write-down," he added

President and Chief Executive David Edmondson has also been under fire after being caught lying about two degrees he claimed he received. It is doubtful that he will be around to see whether or not RadioShack will be able to save itself.

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wth

By albundee on 2/19/06, Rating: 0

RE: wth

By ted61 on 2/19/2006 1:42:34 PM , Rating: 3

I like radio shack. They have stores all over the place and they sell lots of connectors and junk like that.

Fry's is the best but they are 25 minutes away.

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RE: wth

By Xenoterranos on 2/19/2006 6:10:23 PM , Rating: 2

Damn you. The nearest Fry's to me is Austin. I live in San Antonio (and still manage to go there at least once a month!)

But yeah, Radio Shack was awsome before they let cell phones take over the buisness. Once they started doing that, all the hardcore hobbyists stopped going. Then, once the Cell-phone biz slowed down, they didn't have anyone left to buy anything. Poor bastards, I used to really like that store. I still go buy misc. electronic componenets every now and then when something breaks, but it's nowhere near as good as it used to be.

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RE: wth

By johnsonx on 2/20/2006 6:21:58 PM , Rating: 2

i live within 3 miles of a Fry's. Ha ha.

lol, just kidding (about the Ha ha I mean, not the 3 miles).

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EVERYONE that works on electronics

By tjr508 on 2/20/2006 12:18:47 AM , Rating: 2

Sure they can't offer the prices of Parts Express or the selection of DigiKey, but their stores are in pretty much every town around here. I am no "hardcore hobbiest" like the guy a couple posts down, but I am an electrical engineer and sometimes do some small projects (passive filters, etc). If i happen to need some wire wrap or something small, im not going to pay shipping and im not going to wait 3 days.
Also, i found the need the other day for a 4-way 3.5mm plug to 3xRCA wire. Went to best buy $40. Went to circuit city $40. Went to radio shack, $5.

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RE: EVERYONE that works on electronics

By butane317 on 2/20/2006 9:42:20 AM , Rating: 2

I have to agree. Best Buy is the worst place ever to buy cables. Sometimes I can find what I need at Target, but they're the most reasonable at Radio Shack. I think that cutting down the number of stores and focusing on more of a digi-key like selection would do them some good, as in my area at least, there is no other similar store. I would be their best customer! I hate having to pay shipping and wait a week just to get a little 8-pin IC like a KA555 or something. All of my little projects and stuff are fed by parts from Radio Shack, and if they had a bigger selection I would shop there more often.

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small parts

By HammerFan on 2/19/2006 1:42:04 PM , Rating: 2

I normally go to radio shack to by electronic components, like resistors, etc. That kind of stuff I have not seen any where else except specialty electronics stores, which are hard to find.

RE: small parts

By codeThug on 2/19/2006 3:44:19 PM , Rating: 3

www.jameco.com or www.digikey.com

Are your best bet for specialized logic components as well as jellybean electronics parts. I don't know how anybody can operate a store front and pay sales people just selling LEDs, resistors and cables.

The sprint phones probably barely keeps them alive...

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RE: small parts

By Stoene on 2/19/2006 4:53:24 PM , Rating: 3

I agree about the Shack. We have two here that are <3 miles apart. I needed a 100K linear pot. and both stores where out. They were out of the same kids of stuff. I've had great service with www.Mouser.com for parts. I find, though, when I'm hobbying I want the part right now and am willing to pay Radio Shack prices. However, when you think about it, shipping costs from online stores make the single 100k linear pots. more expensive than Radio Shack's.

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Come to britain :D

By Maximilian on 2/19/2006 1:16:40 PM , Rating: 2

They should come to britain, we have a severe lack of electronic stores.

RE: Come to britain :D

By CZroe on 2/19/2006 1:43:47 PM , Rating: 4

They're not that kind of electronics store. They're like a cell-phone kiosk selling Sprint-only cell phones except they have crappy speaker wire and television antennas too.

They were actually an electronics hobbyist's kinda store with switches, capacitors, resistors, breadboards, soldering irons, project enclosures and more but they are kind of a joke now. For instance, I went in there to buy some wire wrapping posts. You know, the pins that jumpers fit over. I bought my wire wrapping tool there and the wire-wrap wire so it only made sense that the stuff you are supposed to use with it would be available there also (There is literally no where else to buy that stuff in most of the US). It wasn't. The employee said he didn't think they had that stuff and then tried to show me a cell phone(!). I pointed out that thye had the other equipment and he had never seen that either! I showed him. Then *I* had to suggest that maybe it was in the catalog but guess what? They didn't have one and they DON'T deliver to the store (Must pay for home shipping, order online). Bullsh!t. I just wanted some freakin' copper pins. So I moved on to the other thing I needed: Yellow stranded-core 18AWG wire (Like for a computer's PSU). I showed him my power supply connectors and wires and described what I needed and why. I pointed out that all I could find was black, which I already had, red which I also intended to buy and a triple pack with green, black and red. His solution to my problem? "Nah man, don't buy that wire man. That wire is... That's the low quality stuff man. Let me show you something better." I wasn't trying to buy pot. I wasn't trying to buy speaker wire. Just what the hell was he trying to sell me?!

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Radio Shack.

By CrackRabbit on 2/20/2006 10:17:17 AM , Rating: 3

You have Questions. We have blank stares.

RE: Radio Shack.

By johnsonx on 2/20/2006 6:24:04 PM , Rating: 2

lol, ain't that the truth. T'was a time when Radio Shack employed people who you could discuss a circuit design with. Now you're lucky if they even know what a resistor is, much less what to do with it.

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Simply because they employee the wrong people

By dmcanally on 2/20/2006 2:40:57 PM , Rating: 3

I think part of the problem is that Radio Shack was originally a specialty shop. Now it is still sort of a specialty shop (I say that loosely because they still have LED’s, solder, and other electronic components of that nature), but manned by complete fools that are only there to get commission on cell phones. Like many people have commented, when they go into the store and ask a semi technical question the clerk gives them a blank stare then starts to motion towards the cell phones.

In the 80's their own brands ruled(Realistic)

By Jackyl on 2/23/2006 11:28:53 AM , Rating: 3

They were a nice store to shop, in the 80's. My dad owned a franchise store. He was an electronics technician and repaired TV's and electronics. But in the 80's, that started slowing down, due to integrated circuits and throw away electronics. It was cheaper to buy a new TV then to have the old one repaired! So he opened a franchise store. He knew his stuff, unlike the employees they have today, that only know cell phones. Most employees won't know the difference between different watch battery sizes, let alone capacitors and resistors!

One thing Radio Shack lost was it's named brand products. They dropped Realistic/Optimus brands, and now sell RCA junky brand and other junky brands. I never thought I'd see Radio Shack selling ionizing air filters and home-health products. What a joke!

Realistic brand was actually good quality, unlike today's RCA/Apex/Lite-on/etc... Their speakers were some of the best. I still have a pair of Mach II speakers that I use daily. Comparable speakers today would cost me $1000 each. They have liquid cooled midrange and tweeter, 15" Woofer, professional solid wood-grain cabinet. Today's electronics is just junk and throw away, and most companies should be ashamed at making the junk.

They need to go back to their roots, bring back a quality store brand(Realistic) and sell quality products. Stop focusing on cell-phones and home-health nic-nack products! Their toys are not very good either. They mostly sell radio-controlled cars now. They use to have a lot of unique toys. Anyone remember the Armatron robotic-arm toy?

why is there competition?

By theslug on 2/20/2006 9:52:47 AM , Rating: 2

I can understand them not being able to compete as far as their more mainstream products go, but where else can you go for small hard-to-find electronics? Certainly not any of the big retailers. And most of their smaller products are quality.