Just saw this on tv. Wow, I grew up with Block Buster and Radio Shack as the go to places. Definitely weird seeing times change. Apparently, Amazon is interested in them? The lady on the show kept saying, "Amazon is interested in the real estate". Anyone hear anymore on this?
Yes, of course, it's been in the news yesterday. Weird to see them close? RadioShack has been in decline for many years. It's not much of a surprise to the financial markets. Amazon and Sprint both are interested in buying RadioShack's stores (not the company/products only their real estate assets - the physical buildings that RadioShack owns). Sprint would obviously use these locations to open up more Sprint cell-phone stores, while Amazon could use the locations as drop-off/pick up locations for their service.
Well, what do you really need to buy from Radioshack? Their electronics are nothing special and when you need a special part not commonly found elsewhere, they usually don't have it. So what's the point? They should have served the niche market. Instead they did a little of everything which made the store very unappealing.
I shopped at this store a lot as a kid. They were pretty much a staple of every mall I ever stepped in during the 1980s and 1990s. They've just become more and more irrelevant by the year. Not surprised at all to see them go the way of Circuit City.
Wow - I knew that it had been struggling for quite some time but I guess I never really thought it would come to this. It's another good example of why people should not confuse the brand with the actual operational performance.
That is crazy, radio shack Was the place I would go to when I was younger to get cords and unusual batteries that I needed for things. I guess with mass retailers like Frys and Batteries Plus now, there is not such a need for small stores like Radio Shack. Many cell phone companies now have their own retail stores with in house repair facilities so you don't even need to go there to get a cell phone now. Times a re sure changing and our kids will never see some of the stores that were staples for us growing up.
Me too man! I remember going in there to look at RC stuff, head phones, keyboard pianos. Last year I bought some resistors from them in the small electronics section. I'm not sure where to get them other than RS.
What exactly does Amazon plan to do with them ? Amazon does have a lot of money, do they plan to get into the retail sales business ? I personally can not see how Amazon can use these stores. Radio Shack used to be a good company but they lose touch with their customers around 20 years ago.
This was foreseen by many people in the financial world. They have been steadily declining for a long time, retail just cannot compete with online shopping when it comes to electronics. Online sellers have lower expenses so they can easily have a lower price and quite simply nowadays price comparison is so simple that people always go for the cheap option.
They just ´missed´ the wave. They could have been the earliest retailers for cell phones and digital cameras but they basically ignored both markets.. and instead just sold really random stuff. There was never a reason to go in a store once the internet became mainstream because you could always just order online, rather than going to a radioshack and hope they had it in stock.