paulbates Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Sad day for me. I spent much of my youth peddling between Radioshack and Heathkit, spending my lawn mowing money on "stuff" RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest (Bloomberg) -- RadioShack Corp. is preparing to shut down the almost-century-old retail chain in a bankruptcy deal that would sell about half its store leases to Sprint Corp. and close the rest, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.The locations sold to Sprint would operate under the wireless carrier’s name, meaning RadioShack would cease to exist as a stand-alone retailer, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks aren’t public. The negotiations could still break down without a deal being reached, or the terms could change. Sprint and RadioShack also have discussed co-branding the stores, two of the people said. It’s also possible that another bidder could emerge that would buy RadioShack and keep it operating, the people said. The Chinese backers who took the Brookstone chain out of bankruptcy, Sanpower Group, also have been in discussions about bidding for RadioShack assets, one person familiar with the talks said. The discussions represent the endgame for a chain that traces its roots to 1921, when it began as a mail-order retailer for amateur ham-radio operators and maritime communications officers. It expanded into a wider range of electronics over the decades, and by the 1980s was seen as a destination for personal computers, gadgets and components that were hard to find elsewhere. In more recent years, though, competition from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and an army of e-commerce sellers hurt customer traffic.NYSE Suspension In a sign of RadioShack’s escalating woes, the New York Stock Exchange said Monday it would suspend trading of the stock immediately. The exchange took the step after RadioShack failed to submit a business plan that would address its lack of compliance with NYSE rules. Companies listed on the exchange are required to have an average market value of at least $50 million for 30 straight days or shareholder equity of that amount. RadioShack received a rescue financing package from Standard General LP in October, and the hedge fund would serve as the lead bidder in a filing and provide debtor-in-possession financing after filing, said the people familiar with the matter. The investment firm arranged $535 million of first-lien loans in October and is the biggest shareholder of the retailer. Liquidating the stores also would let RadioShack avoid a battle with lenders over control of the company.Sprint Talks RadioShack currently has more than 4,000 company-operated U.S. stores. Sprint is discussing the acquisition of 1,300 to 2,000 locations, the people said. In one possible scenario, RadioShack considered keeping the name alive as a store-within-a-store concept involving wireless carriers, two of the people said. Merianne Roth, a spokeswoman for Fort Worth, Texas-based RadioShack, declined to comment, as did representatives for Standard General and Brookstone. Sanpower didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment outside of business hours in China. The shares tumbled 13 percent to 24 cents on Monday in New York. RadioShack has lost about 90 percent of its value over the past year. RadioShack CEO Joe Magnacca has been remodeling stores and revamping the retailer’s product lineup in a bid to revive sales. Still, the former Walgreen Co. executive hasn’t halted a decline at the electronics chain, which has posted 11 straight unprofitable quarters. Sprint, meanwhile, is expanding its chain. CEO Marcelo Claure told investors at a conference last month that the company would be adding retail locations. “This is a year in which we intend to grow our distribution dramatically,” Claure said. “You are going to see the opening of more and more Sprint stores as this is one area that we work on.” To contact the reporters on this story: Lauren Coleman-Lochner in New York atllochner@bloomberg.net; Jodi Xu Klein in New York at jxu205@bloomberg.net; Scott Moritz in New York at smoritz6@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net; Sarah Rabil at srabil@bloomberg.net; Shannon D. Harrington atsharrington6@bloomberg.net John Lear
Teken Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 I am trying to understand where does the whole *Circuit City* come into play? We had a boat load of Radio Shacks converted into a Circuit City more than six years ago. Most recently, quite a few of them have also folded and disappeared. They were exactly like the failed Target stores which I blogged about in this same forum. Its like American companies purposely come into Canada with the soul intent of failing?? Why would anyone open a brand new Circuit City store only to carry 12 items and in the same breath charge 20% more?? When any fool could walk across the street and buy the same (cheap ***) device at Walmart?? Radio Shack's failing are no surprise to me given the people who run it and how they failed to adapt and offer products the average consumer needed or wanted. When all of the on line electronics parts stores open up it was the last nail in their coffin. The one thing I will given them is their *Extended Warranty* was truly fantastic and well worth the price of admission. Unlike lots of other shysters out there their warranty price was extremely reasonable and provided incredible value. I replaced two lightning adapter cables during a 18 month period. The cable cost me $14.XX on sale at the time (regular $18.XX) and they wanted $2.XX for the extended warranty which covered 3-5 years. So in that 18 months I received $28.XX / $36.XX in product for a measly $2.XX! P.S. Be on the look out Sears will fold in the next 5 years . . .
Xathros Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Sears has been folding for as long as I can remember. -Xathros
Teken Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Sears has been folding for as long as I can remember. -Xathros But, they haven't yet! On a more serious note Sears is a hall mart store which has so much potential along with offerings. I really wish they would go back to American Made Craftman tools opposed to the sublet-ted Taiwan / China tools.
paulbates Posted February 3, 2015 Author Posted February 3, 2015 Circuit City liquidated around 2009. I spent some time there in Richmond Va as a consultant in 2006. It was a classic case of a good 'brick and mortar' that couldn't find its way in a 'click and order' world. Tigerdirect bought the web landing rights so that what good will was still in CC's site was steered towards them
Teken Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Circuit City liquidated around 2009. I spent some time there in Richmond Va as a consultant in 2006. It was a classic case of a good 'brick and mortar' that couldn't find its way in a 'click and order' world. Tigerdirect bought the web landing rights so that what good will was still in CC's site was steered towards them But, did they have anything to do with Radio Shack? Maybe this was only a Canadian thing because they took over all of the Radio Shacks across the nation minus a few *franchise* stores??
paulbates Posted February 3, 2015 Author Posted February 3, 2015 Dude, I'll have to drive south from Detroit to Canada to seek the answer to that question.... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
elvisimprsntr Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Maybe RS should have sold Raspberry Pis, starter kits, shields, motors, books, etc. . Would have brought in traffic and generated secondary sales. Would have returned RS back to its roots of the DIY electronics store. I remember etching and soldering my own circuit boards with stuff from RS. Very sad to see the demise of another iconic company.
Teken Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 Dude, I'll have to drive south from Detroit to Canada to seek the answer to that question.... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Paul, That would be so awesome for sure one day! Maybe RS should have sold Raspberry Pis, starter kits, shields, motors, books, etc. . Would have brought in traffic and generated secondary sales. Would have returned RS back to its roots of the DIY electronics store. I remember etching and soldering my own circuit boards with stuff from RS. Very sad to see the demise of another iconic company. 100% agreed but the reality is when business like Walmart, Home Depot, Best Buys, Fry's, Circuit City, all started to stock basic electrical supplies that hurt their DIY model. Then, came the on line e-tailers like Mouser, Digi Key, etc. The fact they hung on this long selling random crap is quite amazing to say the least!
Brian H Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 I also miss the old Radio Shack where the whole stores walls and isles, where nothing but experimenter parts. Not whet it had become lately. "How about upgrading your Cell Phone"? Well now I know why the closest one to me. Seems to not be opening on time or maybe not at all. The manager was a nice guy and he helped me a few times with messed up ship to store order.
elvisimprsntr Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 I also miss the old Radio Shack where the whole stores walls and isles, where nothing but experimenter parts. I built my first TV descrambler at 15 in the late 70's from parts from RS.
Teken Posted February 3, 2015 Posted February 3, 2015 I built my first TV descrambler at 15 in the late 70's from parts from RS. You (pre direct TV) air wave thief you!
paulbates Posted February 4, 2015 Author Posted February 4, 2015 Can Rob Lowe be scrambled? Please? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
Teken Posted February 4, 2015 Posted February 4, 2015 Can Rob Lowe be scrambled? Please? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD I apologize but he is using 2048 bit encryption and also has the correct cert in place. So, no you can't scramble Rob Low . . .
Nestor Posted February 4, 2015 Posted February 4, 2015 But, did they have anything to do with Radio Shack? Maybe this was only a Canadian thing because they took over all of the Radio Shacks across the nation minus a few *franchise* stores?? CC bought Radio Shack Canada several years ago. At least, they thought they did until Tandy claimed the name, Radio Shack, wasn't part of the deal. After legal wrangling, CC was forced to put their own name on the stores. IIRC, Radio Shack was doing okay in Canada at the time. I'm sure the branding confusion did it no favours. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Teken Posted February 4, 2015 Posted February 4, 2015 CC bought Radio Shack Canada several years ago. At least, they thought they did until Tandy claimed the name, Radio Shack, wasn't part of the deal. After legal wrangling, CC was forced to put their own name on the stores. IIRC, Radio Shack was doing okay in Canada at the time. I'm sure the branding confusion did it no favours. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Now its coming back to me thanks for the insight. Well, it looks like CC is folding here in Canada too! Several stores have closed up in those strip malls and also in the mega malls.
Nestor Posted February 4, 2015 Posted February 4, 2015 Now its coming back to me thanks for the insight. Well, it looks like CC is folding here in Canada too! Several stores have closed up in those strip malls and also in the mega malls. There's a CC (nee' Radio Shack) in my town here in Ontario at least as long as I've been here (25+), and it's been the same couple running the place. I wonder what their options will be. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Brian H Posted February 4, 2015 Posted February 4, 2015 That store sounds like an Associate Store and not a company store. My local Radio Shack started out as an Associate store and then was changed to a company store.
randyth Posted February 5, 2015 Posted February 5, 2015 Oh Radio Shack. You will be missed, even if only for your past glories. I miss the... thick annual catalogs (I used to pore through those until the already-thin paper wore even thinner) battery of the month club (what's better than free batteries?) TRS-80 and all its crazy peripherals (I designed the hardware and software for the first -- and likely only -- MIDI sequencer for this computer) cheap [but not always good] Realistic-brand items (bought more than I'd like to admit) cheap [but good] Minimus 7 bookshelf speakers (I still own four of them) books by Forrest Mims (learned a lot from that dude, who's still kicking!) and, of course, the aisles of resistors, capacitors, LEDs, switches, and so on...
G W Posted February 5, 2015 Posted February 5, 2015 I remember when it was Allied-Radio Shack. Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk
paulbates Posted February 5, 2015 Author Posted February 5, 2015 Let's not forget tandy business computers. I graduated from lathes and forklifts to writing a job cost program on a Model 80 business computer. TRSDos, a year later it appeared as IBM PC DOS. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
Teken Posted February 5, 2015 Posted February 5, 2015 I was in some hick town way back when and really needed a coaxial CB splitter. RS was the only place in that town that had one! That's when all the air pirate radio in that town started!
G W Posted February 5, 2015 Posted February 5, 2015 Let's not forget tandy business computers. I graduated from lathes and forklifts to writing a job cost program on a Model 80 business computer. TRSDos, a year later it appeared as IBM PC DOS. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Wait! What? Please.... TRSDOS was terrible. Most of us dumped that pile of crap and used NEWDOS80. IBM's PC DOS was light years ahead of TRSDOS. Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk
paulbates Posted February 5, 2015 Author Posted February 5, 2015 The DOS was different, fair enough... I was remembering the programming; its ROM BASIC interpreter was MS BASIC and almost identical to the version used on IBM PCs. I was able to move my programs to the MS DOS world and run them on PCs.
randyth Posted February 5, 2015 Posted February 5, 2015 "It's official: RadioShack has filed for bankruptcy. In a release on Thursday evening, the electronics retailer disclosed that it has reached an agreement with hedge fund Standard General for the firm to purchase up to 2,400 of its stores." http://www.businessinsider.com/radioshack-files-for-bankrtupcy-2015-2
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