I actually really used to like them, but haven't been there in a long time, so I can't say how they are, but I don 't like seeing them go. I think they could be a cool hobby store and they really should limit their locations to one or two per city and locate exclusively.


Reports of RadioShack's demise are nothing new, but now it seems like the electronics retailer may be done for good. Bloomberg reports that company is in talks with Sprint to hand over around half of its remaining stores to the wireless company. The rest of RadioShack's locations will close, and those that are included in the deal will be painted yellow and black. This means the shops where most of us purchased parts for a project will cease to exist. Nothing's final, and until the ink is dry, another suitor could swipe up the company and allow it to keep on chuggin' along. RadioShack is facing bankruptcy after years of declining sales, so even if Sprint doesn't agree to buy those stores, a move of some kind is imminent for the company that's been selling tech since 1921.

- The end is reportedly near for RadioShack (http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/02/radioshack-sprint-buyout/?ncid=rss_truncated)

I hate to see a business shut down that's been around so long. I can remember going to RadioShack with my Dad to get tubes and other parts to keep our tv and radio running.

I am really surprised they have lasted this long. It's probably been since the late 1990s that I've needed something that I had to go to RadioShack for. The company's attempt to modernize by basically becoming another cell phone store was also a big mistake. It was too little too late and there is little, if anything, to distinguish them from Best Buy Mobile or the numerous other places you can buy a smartphone. They also were once great for getting obsolete electronic parts you need in a pinch and can't get elsewhere, but they can't survive on that alone and today have almost outlived their usefulness even for that.

Circuit City gone, Ultimate Electronics gone, RadioShack gone. What's left? Best Buy and Fry's?

Circuit City gone, Ultimate Electronics gone, RadioShack gone. What's left? Best Buy and Fry's?

In OKC, only Best Buy.

In major cities you still have Fry's, MicroCenter, and Tigerdirect.com (CompUSA). I wonder if any of them will start looking at expanding into smaller markets now that most of the competition has been killed off. The big box electronics store concept is tricky today as it is because of online shopping.

Fry's are very unique, never been in a MicroCenter, haven't been to TigerDirect since the CompUSA on May closed.

Best Buy seems to be doing pretty well, not sure if they will ever go down the Circuit City road.

I just went there a couple months back to pick up some very obscure micro-bulbs for the gear position indicator on my 30 year old motorcycle; not sure I could have found them any other place locally. Sucks to have a resource like that go away.

the definition of irony: radio shack's demise reported by a tech news site owned by aol. -M

I hate to see a business shut down that's been around so long. I can remember going to RadioShack with my Dad to get tubes and other parts to keep our tv and radio running.

Yes, it is a shame to see them go. I've looked to them for electronic parts since the 60's. I remember as a kid going there with a magazine like "Popular Electronics" and buying parts for a project. That was a long time ago when you could fix your radio or tv set. I wonder how many kids got their start in electronics that way.

The tube testers were great! As I remember you'd find a socket that fit the tube, look up switch settings and press the 'Test" button. A meter would indicate good or bad. Ha! Great fun! Wish they were still around as I have a 40+y/o radio that needs some tube replaced.

Fry's are very unique, never been in a MicroCenter, haven't been to TigerDirect since the CompUSA on May closed.

Best Buy seems to be doing pretty well, not sure if they will ever go down the Circuit City road.

So TigerDirect and CompUSA are one in the same?
I will say this city does need a Fry's or a Microcenter and don't even get me started on BestBuy/Geek Squad. Blah.......

As a teen I used to buy parts and build little projects like sirens and shockers that resemble today's tazers. I still have the 8 or so project books that they had. I was saddened to see that their parts got shifted from the shelves to trays. Sad to see them go but surprised that they have lasted so long.

So TigerDirect and CompUSA are one in the same?

When CompUSA folded Tigredirect bought (most of) the Florida stores and kept the CompUSA branding. They have become more of a Best Buy / Circuit City and less of a computer store as of late. To me that will be their demise since I relied on them as a computer parts shop when I needed something quick or wanted to actually put my hands on something.

Last year I went to Wal-Mart to get a battery I needed. It didn't have it. The clerk told me to try Radio Shack, which did. But RS has not had other things I've needed such as copper desoldering braid. And their prices for audio adapters are outrageously high compared to Amazon. For batteries, too.

RadioShack files for bankruptcy as Sprint agrees to share stores - CNET (http://www.cnet.com/news/radioshack-files-for-bankruptcy-as-sprint-agrees-to-share-stores/)

Remember Heathkits and Realistic stereo equipment?

I still have a set of Realistic Optimus T100 tower speakers that I bought new from Radio Shack in 1979.

Radio should have expanded the size of its stores and be who Best Buy is today.

There was a time when a Radio Shack employee was your goto person if you had a question regarding electronics. But that time ended long ago when they filled their stores with totally disinterested Walmart type employees.

The only time I'd shop in one was when they had their memory cards on sale or when a big clearance event was going on.

About 7 years ago I stopped shopping Radio Shack altogether when their employee/manager wouldn't honor a sale price tag that they had not bothered to take down and the sale apparently ended two days before. Any other store would have acknowledged their mistake and honored the posted price. Never went back in to one and can't say I'm surprised they are going out of business.

Circuit City gone, Ultimate Electronics gone, RadioShack gone. What's left? Best Buy and Fry's?

Amazon? Really RadioShack is gone because of online retailers then from Best Buy. Even Best Buy feels the pressure from online retailers.


Its extremely difficult to repair modern electronics and manufactures are smart to make sure that its not cost effective to repair them. I don't see Sprint keeping the Radio Shack name for very long.

There was a time when a Radio Shack employee was your goto person if you had a question regarding electronics. But that time ended long ago when they filled their stores with totally disinterested Walmart type employees.

This pretty much explains it. The slogan used to be "You've got questions, we've got answers." RadioShack lost what distinguished it from the big boxes years ago and with the changes in the electronics industry over the past 20 years plus the competition from online retailers, there simply isn't a niche for it anymore plain and simple. Radio Shack, K-Mart, and Sears are all examples for today's popular retailers as to how not to run a business.

I bought a fan for my computer at Radio Shack maybe 5 years ago. I guess that just wasn't enough to keep them going.

I worked at RadioShack on and off from 1995 to 2003 (mostly on).

When I signed on in 1995, we had to undergo some fairly rigorous training and pass a number of difficult certifications requiring us to know the basics about electronics components, mounting radio equipment, car stereos, cell phones, TVs and antennas, TV hookups, computers, etc. If someone came in off the street with an off the wall question about consumer electronics, we were expected to be knowledgeable. I remember at first, yes, we had cell phones that we sold, but that was one small part of our business. We were just then phasing out the last of the Tandy computers. Employee compensation was way above average for retail employees. And if you were good, you could make really good money (for retail).

Then someone thought of the penny phone.

The culture shifted from pressure to put multiple lines on your tickets, sell extended warranties, etc., to selling cell phones at all costs. Secret shoppers were sent in to make sure we were asking every single person whether they wanted a "free" cell phone. Many long-time, knowledgeable employees who had loyal customer bases were sent packing because they refused to push merchandise no one wanted. Others were reassigned to stores they couldn't make anything more than minimum wage at.

Around 2000, we got a CEO who really pumped up the stock price, then of course, dumped it. They then had a CEO who they found falsified his college degree (oh the joys of promoting from within) and they suffered from a lot of internal problems because of their policy of only promoting from within. You're a good salesman? Then you must be a good manager! You can manage a store? Well you can definitely manage and handle HR for 30 stores! Oh you're good at handling 30 stores and HR? You can probably handle around 250 stores no problem, etc. The Peter Principle at its finest.

It was still a decent business model and turned a profit, but little by little, with their $50 TV cables you could fine on monoprice for $3.00, with the cell phone deals which were better absolutely everyplace else, RS failed.

I don't think it was the store footprint, the lack of diverse product or even prices. I think it was that they got away from what made them special--employees who knew their stuff. In this day and age, a brick and mortar business has to set itself apart from online businesses somehow. RS chose to treat their employees as minimum wage nobodies and got what was coming to them. Not that their executives won't have packed some nice golden parachutes at this point...

And Brian Bates, if you had looked at the sale tag, it would have clearly shown on it the dates the sale was effective. The customer is not always right and you trying to shake a store down for money because someone didn't pull one of thousands of tags on the shelf (which all had to be manually changed every couple of weeks) was really petty.

And Brian Bates, if you had looked at the sale tag, it would have clearly shown on it the dates the sale was effective. The customer is not always right and you trying to shake a store down for money because someone didn't pull one of thousands of tags on the shelf (which all had to be manually changed every couple of weeks) was really petty.I believe, as a business, you should honor your prices. If you have something labeled as a lower price than what it is, you are deceiving your customers. Part of the job of a business is to remove the sale tags when they're no longer valid.

I believe, as a business, you should honor your prices. If you have something labeled as a lower price than what it is, you are deceiving your customers. Part of the job of a business is to remove the sale tags when they're no longer valid.

In fact, Oklahoma Law requires honoring the lowest marked or advertised price for a product. Not sure how this would work with dates on the shelf label though.

I worked at RadioShack on and off from 1995 to 2003 (mostly on).

(snip)

It was still a decent business model and turned a profit, but little by little, with their $50 TV cables you could fine on monoprice for $3.00, with the cell phone deals which were better absolutely everyplace else, RS failed.

I don't think it was the store footprint, the lack of diverse product or even prices. I think it was that they got away from what made them special--employees who knew their stuff.

I worked at RS briefly as a teenager and never had to pass any tests, but that's a bit of an aside. While I agree that lots of bad turns befell Radio Shack, the real reason they've failed is they became an anachronism. Back in the 70's and 80's, RS and Heathkit perfectly served a rich niche market of folks who loved to put together their own electronics. You could buy kits from HeathKit for everything from dot-matrix printers to projection TV's, and RS sold all manner of electronic piece parts no one else sold at retail. Problem is, nobody really likes to do that anymore, at least not at a volume sufficient to support a retail business. Electronics, as a hobby, has morphed into something entirely different.

Think about it - projection TV's back in the day, with their horrible pictures and pre-HD resolution, were thousands of dollars - but a Heathkit kit sold for a fraction of that price if you had the skill to build it and overcome the labor cost. With contemporary flat-screen TV's at $500 offering ridiculously superior picture technology encapsulated on what amounts to a few discrete surface-mounted components on a couple of ribbon-connected PCB's, the home guy with the soldering iron is pretty much out of luck.

As I noted in another thread, I lament the passing of RS not merely for the store, but for the era in American ingenuity and willingness to try different things that seems to has passed right along with it.

The majority of Radio Shack stores closing in Oklahoma are in the Tulsa area:
RadioShack closures across the U.S. - LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/visuals/graphics/la-fi-g-radio-shack-closings-20150206-htmlstory.html)

I believe, as a business, you should honor your prices. If you have something labeled as a lower price than what it is, you are deceiving your customers. Part of the job of a business is to remove the sale tags when they're no longer valid.

All of the tags had the dates on them. So unless Mr. Bates is pleading that he cannot read dates on the tag, because I can confirm they were on the tag in plain sight, I don't have much sympathy.

All of the tags had the dates on them. So unless Mr. Bates is pleading that he cannot read dates on the tag, because I can confirm they were on the tag in plain sight, I don't have much sympathy.Either way, I guess there's a reason the business is going out of business and being sold to another company and one of those reasons might have something to do with the fact that they can't even remove expired sale tags off of their products.

This is such sad news. There were decades of my life where I knew I could always find that odd plug or cable: Radio Shack.

Here is a site that has scanned every Radio Shack catalog going way back. I actually remember some of the covers because they were so ever-present in our home.
Radio Shack Catalogs (http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/)
Going through those catalogs is very close to a time machine for me.

All of the tags had the dates on them. So unless Mr. Bates is pleading that he cannot read dates on the tag, because I can confirm they were on the tag in plain sight, I don't have much sympathy.

No idea where that lashing out and unnecessary sarcasm is coming from.

Its not a foreign customer service concept that a retail store honors its posted sales price - regardless of the date displayed in some 8pt text below the brightly colored and much larger sale price.

I've experienced the same scenario with both Target and Walmart and both didn't even hesitate to honor the price.

In fact, Target has three times now honored to me a price they don't even offer when confronted with the same item being sold cheaper via Amazon (sold and fulfilled by Amazon).

I wasn't asking Radio Shack to deviate from some unheard of customer service stance.

You put a group of average shoppers in a room with big bright tags that state "On Sale $19.99" and ask them "How much is that item?" - They don't reply "Well, let me look for any tiny print below the advertised price."

I was simply sharing my customer service expectation and how they didn't meet it. Obviously they have a habit of not meeting customer expectations or they wouldn't be going under.....

Its a shame for you though.... with that "So unless Mr. Bates is pleading that he cannot read dates on the tag, because I can confirm they were on the tag in plain sight, I don't have much sympathy" stance -- you'd have made a splendid addition to their obviously stellar management team!

C'mon guys, neutral corners. Not worth all the animus.

We all know RS isn't dying solely because of a mismatched price tag. Every retail outlet in history that ever used price tags has almost certainly faced a similar situation, some dealt with correctly, others not. For RS, they're simply an artifact of a bygone era that had little to no hope of finding new relevance in their old novelty electronics and parts business model. Trying to hook on to the cell phone era wasn't a half-bad idea, but they just came to the game way too late.

Let's take a few minutes and think about the several hundred/several thousand folks that are going to be looking for new work in the coming months as those RS stores are shuttered and the company goes off into oblivion. I'm thinking most of those folks would be delighted to have a mismatched pricetag to argue about, as it would mean they were employed.

RadioShack Suffered as Free Time Evaporated - WSJ (http://www.wsj.com/articles/radioshack-suffered-as-free-time-evaporated-1423441817?mod=e2fb)

The majority of Radio Shack stores closing in Oklahoma are in the Tulsa area:
RadioShack closures across the U.S. - LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/visuals/graphics/la-fi-g-radio-shack-closings-20150206-htmlstory.html)

Sprint is supposedly planning on converting the remaining stores to Sprint/Radio Shack stores.

I've experienced the same scenario with both Target and Walmart and both didn't even hesitate to honor the price.

I kind of hate that they do that. Customers shouldn't reasonably expect that a store with tens of thousands of SKUs are all going to be marked absolutely properly. I know that in RS' case though, the effective date of the sale was plainly visible on the tag. Not sure that's also true with the other two.


You put a group of average shoppers in a room with big bright tags that state "On Sale $19.99" and ask them "How much is that item?" - They don't reply "Well, let me look for any tiny print below the advertised price."

Does that speak highly of the average shopper or lowly?


I was simply sharing my customer service expectation and how they didn't meet it. Obviously they have a habit of not meeting customer expectations or they wouldn't be going under.....

Their issue wasn't that at all--their overhead was too high, they skimped on payroll which lost them their best line level employees. They also failed to compete with larger chains like Best Buy.


Its a shame for you though.... with that "So unless Mr. Bates is pleading that he cannot read dates on the tag, because I can confirm they were on the tag in plain sight, I don't have much sympathy" stance -- you'd have made a splendid addition to their obviously stellar management team!

You know, I applied for a job at their HQ which my degree made me perfectly suitable to do. Because I had never managed a store, however, they chose some HS Diploma person above me. That was the last straw and illustrative of why a company built almost entirely on the Peter Principle fails.

C'mon guys, neutral corners. Not worth all the animus.

We all know RS isn't dying solely because of a mismatched price tag. Every retail outlet in history that ever used price tags has almost certainly faced a similar situation, some dealt with correctly, others not. For RS, they're simply an artifact of a bygone era that had little to no hope of finding new relevance in their old novelty electronics and parts business model. Trying to hook on to the cell phone era wasn't a half-bad idea, but they just came to the game way too late.

At one time, they were the #1 cell phone seller in the country by far.

Instead of opening their store to different brands though, they let Sprint and then local regional cell phone companies have exclusivity. Then, predictably, when major new models came out, they never had the stock to keep up. They overpriced their accessories, did a terrible job with promotions and slowly but surely, lost their edge.

http://i.imgur.com/eXWeLOH.jpg

RadioShack Suffered as Free Time Evaporated - WSJ (http://www.wsj.com/articles/radioshack-suffered-as-free-time-evaporated-1423441817?mod=e2fb)

Probably an interesting article, unfortunately behind a paywall.

Let RadioShack be an example. No business model is safe from evolving trends and the changing of the times no matter how established and successful their brand is or once was. I think Sears/K-Mart is next.

Probably an interesting article, unfortunately behind a paywall.

I read most of the article and while it makes a valid point, it ignores the reality that hobbyist electronics are simply not an integral part of American interests anymore - at least not the kind that made RS a household name. Even if "free time" were just as plentiful as it was during RS' heyday, that time would be filled with more Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, and video streaming, not firing up the soldering iron and/or hooking up IC's to a breadboard or buying CB radios. Heck, even the mom-and-pop computer piece-parts stores are all-but gone, which is arguably the closest 90's-2000's era analog to the old RS business model.

I read most of the article and while it makes a valid point, it ignores the reality that hobbyist electronics are simply not an integral part of American interests anymore - at least not the kind that made RS a household name. Even if "free time" were just as plentiful as it was during RS' heyday, that time would be filled with more Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, and video streaming, not firing up the soldering iron and/or hooking up IC's to a breadboard or buying CB radios. Heck, even the mom-and-pop computer piece-parts stores are all-but gone, which is arguably the closest 90's-2000's era analog to the old RS business model.

Agreed.

I wonder if they couldn't have made it online with no brick and mortar stores? Maybe become the Amazon of electronic hobbyists, RC, etc.?

Carry hundreds of thousands of SKU's in centralized warehouses and implement a website with thousands of how to videos for pros and amateurs alike.

Wishful thinking.....

I read most of the article and while it makes a valid point, it ignores the reality that hobbyist electronics are simply not an integral part of American interests anymore - at least not the kind that made RS a household name. Even if "free time" were just as plentiful as it was during RS' heyday, that time would be filled with more Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, and video streaming, not firing up the soldering iron and/or hooking up IC's to a breadboard or buying CB radios. Heck, even the mom-and-pop computer piece-parts stores are all-but gone, which is arguably the closest 90's-2000's era analog to the old RS business model.

RadioShack at the height of its stock price was definitely not a hobbyist store anymore. I was there.

The WSJ piece was very good. With the WSJ and the NYT, getting around their paywall is as simple as putting in the name of the article in Google and it takes you right to the article. So, forgive me for the long url, but it routes through a Google search.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fradiosha ck-suffered-as-free-time-evaporated-1423441817&ei=mXDaVJCAJcHxggSm4IPYCw&usg=AFQjCNHGMnVNMPDo9_pfHPflP1JNgsk03A&bvm=bv.85464276,d.eXY&cad=rja

I remember my 1st computer was a RS 65K COCO with a cassette to keep stuff on, didn't have a hard drive back then. Blazing speed and power LOL I usually just checked out bulletin boards back then.

My first computer was. TRS-80 with a cassette tape interface and 64x16 character screen with 16K RAM. Then I got a Model III and put in two 5.25 floppy drives, then bought a Model IV. My uncle still has his model 4, and I wrote a TON of banking, inventory, and other software for him. Had I half a brain back then, I could probably have advertised that stuff and made some cash with it. It was pretty good stuff. Had one mor iteration of RadioShack with a Tandy 1000 pc clone. Went to building my own after that.

My first computer was. TRS-80 with a cassette tape interface and 64x16 character screen with 16K RAM. Then I got a Model III and put in two 5.25 floppy drives, then bought a Model IV. My uncle still has his model 4, and I wrote a TON of banking, inventory, and other software for him. Had I half a brain back then, I could probably have advertised that stuff and made some cash with it. It was pretty good stuff. Had one mor iteration of RadioShack with a Tandy 1000 pc clone. Went to building my own after that.

SoonerDave, Did you look at that Radio Shack Catalog fan site I posted earlier? I bet you would recognize some of the covers from the 60's and 70's.
Radio Shack Catalogs (http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/)

I remember some of those !!!

I went to RadioShack tonight for probably the first time in years and was very pleasantly surprised. I was expecting a mostly irrelevant store with a focus mostly on cell phones but they really had quite a bit of stuff there including a lot of things you don't see other places. The guys working there were also pretty cool and seemed pretty knowledgeable. I left almost sad that it was going away.

RadioShack sale approved, keeping hundreds of stores open - Tulsa World: Retail (http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/retail/radioshack-sale-approved-keeping-hundreds-of-stores-open/article_2fbec765-72a9-5126-a1ec-b1b6e0ac3ed4.html)