Radio Shack Bankruptcy - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Lawsen
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 21, 2017, 02:58:44 am
content: Radio Shack is bankrupt. They are closing the remaining of 5,000 stores in North America. The causes are many from Sprint cellular telephones that bought them out and their pricing structure is too expensive compared to web sources to buy parts, lack of expansions into items for the maker culture, to the less reliant on over the counter and increasing reliant on web ordering and phone ordering parts. The surgance in maker culture did helped but not enough. All Radio Shacks will be or are gone.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 21, 2017, 12:57:42 pm
content: Quote from: Lawsen on April 21, 2017, 02:58:44 amI'm amazed they were still alive!I doubt I've been in one since I was in the US in 1998 and visited a Radio Shack at Belmont, CA. A fruitless exercise as it had nothing other than TVs and mobile phones even then, at a time when Dick Smith stores in NZ still had components, connectors, wire, kits etc etc.

author: xrunner
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 21, 2017, 01:10:59 pm
content: Quote

author: daveyk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 21, 2017, 01:24:07 pm
content: Quote from: brucehoult on April 21, 2017, 12:57:42 pmRadio shack in the 1970s was great. Their p-Box kits were a wonderful thing for a teenager who wanted to learn. They had parts back then too. I was just learning electronics around 1975 and they were the only thing in town.I am Facebook friends with the retired owner of our Radio Shack from back then. He's still alive and retired down south but active on-line. I can remember his patience when I would go to his store, which was in the back of his appliance store and then later as its own Radio Shack business moved to the local shopping plaza. Mom gave me so much money to buy parts each week for whatever I was building at the time and it would take me an hour to decide what to get. I did end up completing my own shortwave receiver and spend hours scanning the airwaves and collect DSL cards from a lot of shortwave broadcasters. I loved listening to Radio Nederlands.I can not imagine my youth without Radio Shack, so this news makes me very sad, even if I outgrew RS by the early to mid-80s.Radio Shack led to Heathkit, also sadly dead too, and then on to my Technicians education and job at the same place for the last 36years. Sadly that is ending too now that we were bought by GE and are being closed and moved oversees. 57 and being an electronics tech in a throw away society leaves me high and dry and possibly loosing a lot here in this small town. I'm not sure how we will survive. So maybe, indirectly, and through three pass logic, I can blame my future problems on Radio Shack.DaveSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 21, 2017, 01:27:13 pm
content: Again? This will be in the news: This year, Radio Shack did not go bankrupt.

author: cvanc
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 21, 2017, 01:41:42 pm
content: Quote from: daveyk on April 21, 2017, 01:24:07 pmThis. Exactly this.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 21, 2017, 02:21:42 pm
content: Quote from: daveyk on April 21, 2017, 01:24:07 pmAustralia and New Zealand still have Jaycar{.co.nz,.com.au}, which are pretty good. They claim "over 50 Stores & Stockists located throughout New Zealand", many times more than that in Australia. NZ has at least a couple of good owner-operated mail order hobbiest stores inhttps://nicegear.co.nz/andhttp://www.mindkits.co.nz/,plus of course element14.I'm living in Moscow at the moment and there is a wealth of internet order stores with electronic components, but most don't have any walk-in retail presence. Weirdly, they mostly let you select an order on the web site, then phone you to arrange delivery (which can often be in 2 hours, for a $10 fee). Cash payment on delivery seems to be the norm, at least with the places I've used.Ohhh ... I just this moment found "Chip & Dip" which claims four actual retail locations in Moscow. I may just visit this one near me (3.3 km walk, or 15 min walk, 8 min on metro, 5 min walk) in the weekend. Looks reasonable.https://www.chipdip.ru/en/shops/moscow-gilyarovskogo-39I'm just looking at their price list (excel file) now ... lots and lots of ATMega, ATTiny, PIC, STM Cortex. Ah .. and I wanted a few shift registers for my HiFive1 Arduino compatable .. they have TI DIP16 SN74HC595N for 24 rubles (or SO-16 for 14 rubles). Definitely will visit :-)

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 21, 2017, 02:58:48 pm
content: Quote from: brucehoult on April 21, 2017, 02:21:42 pmInteresting that you mention Jaycar and their stores and stockists inthisthread.There is a business in Tamworth, NSW that is a Jaycar stockist as well as having their own product lines. I personally know the guy who founded it. From his involvement in the industry, he has had a fondness for the Radio Shack brand for some time and when Tandy disappeared from Australia, he looked at picking up the brand. He had me prepare some graphics for trademark applications, but even I could tell he wasn't going to get them through.He found a way to get close, though, and made it on a couple of points....https://www.radioshackaustralia.com.au/... so there's going to be a little hint of nostalgia that will live on in Australia.

author: daveyk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 22, 2017, 02:04:53 pm
content: Quote from: Brumby on April 21, 2017, 02:58:48 pmSolar snake repeller? Damn, I'm glad we don't need anything like that here in central Pennsylvania in the USA. I hear there are more snakes and spiders in Australia that can kill you in a heartbeat than anywhere else? I guess you learn to be careful and adapt?Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 22, 2017, 02:19:33 pm
content: Quote from: daveyk on April 22, 2017, 02:04:53 pmJust like anywhere else in the world.

author: DaJMasta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 27, 2017, 06:29:46 pm
content: I've stopped by my local store a few times in this closeout period, and they're in their final days. My local store said 4 days remaining (closes after the 31st of May) and the sales were up to 80% off (60% off a couple weeks back), with blister packed components were a dollar each.Perhaps more interestingly, they were also selling their store equipment: POS terminals, UPC scanners, shelving, component drawers, and even some basic repair equipment from their back room repair station. They even had extra pens for sale at the register, it's really an everything-must-go situation and if you're near one, there could be some neat stuff.I picked up half a dozen relays, a couple of 6 position rotary switches, and a few good quality connectors for like $11.

author: Electro Detective
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 27, 2017, 11:48:57 pm
content: It's an unfortunate BIG LOSS to decades of Electronics that Tandy/Radio Shack and Dick Smith have folded, but for a while/long time they were selling overpriced blister packaged crap,smartassphones, iDiotPads, TVs etc etc and other stuff that was not exactly 'electronics hobbyist' addictive,to make you wanna go back and get PARTS, a roll of solder, fuses, buy a new meter, lay-by an oscilloscope or sig gen, buy another kit, another book on circuits blah blah and(EEVblog members please enter your poison/s here)Not to mention techs, electricians and other professionals popping in to get bits as well to finish a job or on the weekend etcThey were also employing electronics challenged Red Bull addicted phone and gamer trash,'staff' that were ZERO assistants/assistance, two legged clueless shelf stock labour puppies,job interview winning organic mannequins to make the store look the businessLet's hope Jaycar don't make the same blunder by going the full consumerism crap route,I'm not holding my breath

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2017, 12:56:50 am
content: Quote from: daveyk on April 21, 2017, 01:24:07 pmExact same feeling and situation here. My very first multimeter (an analog FET-VOM) I actually purchased there. Also my very first DMM.However....... by the late 1970s I was already ordering parts via the ads which appeared on the pages of Popular Electronics, Radio Electronics and other hobby magazines.Send a check via snail mail, waited for the check to arrive, waited for the check to clear, waited for them to ship components back.Could take anywhere from 2 to 3 weeks, but there were certain components and/or kits that were better or lower cost than RS.

author: jh15
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2017, 02:07:25 am
content: They kept many a tv or radio station on the air in a pinch when you needed a standard part, audio transformers, power resistors, connectors, especially on a Sunday.

author: P90
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2017, 02:37:41 am
content: good riddance... overpriced and no selection of parts...

author: mdszy
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 28, 2017, 03:00:13 am
content: I didn't even realize they were all closing... the one up the street from my place has just turned into a cell phone store, but they still have some components and such. I'll have to check and see if they're having a clearance sale of all that crap!

author: Electro Detective
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2017, 04:04:11 am
content: Quote from: P90 on May 28, 2017, 02:37:41 amThe last 'overpriced' stuff littering their shelves was nice 'techy looking' intermittent 'FAIL' garbage too,I wrapped the suckers up with smelly horrible waste in the bin, so no possibility of bypassing the land fillWith a bit of luck and PRAYER, after we are all history..the broken down poisons will reappear in the uncaring scumbag benefiting company CEO's great great great grand children's processed food,munching away in their warmed underground runner hideaways... ENJOY!

author: P90
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2017, 05:02:43 am
content: I just found some rolls of solder I got ar RS over 20 years ago... it's the stuff that has that nice smell well it melts... lol

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2017, 09:48:02 am
content: Quote from: schmitt trigger on May 28, 2017, 12:56:50 amMail order (or web order) is great, but sometime you just want to walk into a store.I was happy a few weeks ago when I found "Chip n Dip" 30 minutes walk from me in Moscow. I wandered in a couple of Saturday's back, went to the counter, asked for 10x SN74HC595N and 80x 1k ohm 0.25W resistors, and wandered out with them a few minutes later, despite the language barrier (which is never as bad as you expect). Yes! That's what we're talking about!My goodness they had some high end test gear in there too. And mini lathes and mini CNC mills and 3D printers. And Arduinos and Pis and clones thereof. Or bare MCU chips if you wanted. And goodness knows what else.

author: Dubbie
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 28, 2017, 10:23:35 am
content: All those bemoaning the loss, try to think seriously how you might keep a store like the RS of old in the black. It's not an easy task to imagine how to do it, let alone actually do it over hundreds of stores. There just plain ain't enough hobbiests to support that many stores.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 28, 2017, 04:36:54 pm
content: Quote from: Dubbie on May 28, 2017, 10:23:35 amThat's true but I think the fact, that it's so much cheaper to buy online is the main factor in stores being unprofitable. It just doesn't make sense to stock around a million different low value parts, over thousands of stores.Here in the UK we still have Maplin but they don't sell many small parts any more but consumer electronics and even that is limited. They still stock things for the hobbyist but nothing like it was before the Internet came along.Even consumer electronics stores don't exist like they used to because they can't compete with online stores. I can't remember the last time I bought any consumer electronics from a real shop. I just buy online.

author: Dubbie
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 29, 2017, 12:02:31 am
content: Thats what I mean Hero.It's almost impossible to imagine a business model that competes with the prices and range of online shopping.It's certainly not a challenge I would want to take on!

author: Electro Detective
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2017, 04:07:10 am
content: Quote from: Dubbie on May 29, 2017, 12:02:31 amNo one was stopping them from trading online like the competition,and they would have had the reputation, buying power and trade name to their advantageIf they had a web presence and still not making money, they had dimwits handling the online storeThey F'd up, pure and simple, the wrong people running things, after the right people set it up properly and retired.

author: Dubbie
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 29, 2017, 07:37:10 am
content: That would make them another online store. It's the bricks and mortar that people are sad to have lost. Those can't be run indefinitely at a loss, subsidised by the online store.

author: yada
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2017, 09:00:46 am
content: Did you ever notice all their sales were fake? I had a part time job there in college and every week we would put out price tags including "sale" tags. We had this one crap RCA TV that was always $299.99 but every other week we would put a card out that said "SALE" in red and said "was $399.99, now SALE $299.99". That's so shady. Every "sale" was like that or the sale price was actually more then it was last week, they would just edit the WAS price. That's theft by deception.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2017, 09:12:34 am
content: Quote from: yada on May 29, 2017, 09:00:46 amIt's also illegal in some jurisdictions: the item has to have been previously sold at a much higher price for a certain time period, before the shop can stick sale signs on it. Of course that doesn't stop the shop from rotating the sale signs across several different products in the same range.

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2017, 05:24:18 pm
content: From the photos, the Chip and Dip stores appear to be decently stocked, clean and brightly decorated.

author: Electro Detective
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 29, 2017, 10:56:02 pm
content: Quote from: Dubbie on May 29, 2017, 07:37:10 amI was hinting they conduct the online business using the bricks and mortar stores to operate and for partial stock holding and handball distribution,just like Jaycar and Altronics over here in Kangaroo Central.Some franchise arrangements can work too in remote areas,if not too many buy/sell/advertising and other constraints placed on owners by the usual 'out of touch' corporate clownsback at the main company HQSome discussion erupting here about the fading beauty of online ordering:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/nice-one-dhl/

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 30, 2017, 11:09:56 am
content: Quote from: Hero999 on May 28, 2017, 04:36:54 pmIt's a terrible business to be in, my last local independent electronics shop closed down over ten years ago, they have/had a reasonably profitable mail order business going but just didn't have enough walk in to make it worthwhile keeping a shop open. I spoke to the owner a year or two ago and he was still in business but only for industrial clients.I do wonder if there is some scope for an automated 'shop' to be set up (like a shop sized vending machine), somewhere with reels of components so you ordered your parts either online or 'in store' and then waited while the machinery packaged them up for you then you collect a nice, automatically packed box of parts from something like the Amazon smart lockers?

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 30, 2017, 03:05:56 pm
content: Quote from: Hero999 on May 29, 2017, 09:12:34 amThere are get-outs though. If you look carefully at!SALE!items in some UK chain stores you'll find "was £xxxx, now £yyy*".*Previously on sale at £xxxx in our store at No-one-goes-there, Tiny Backwater, North West Scotland.But never sold at any of their other stores at that price. It's within theletterof the law, but nothing like the spirit.

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 30, 2017, 04:49:56 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on May 30, 2017, 03:05:56 pmYour font is actually quite large, compared to some fine print I've seen.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 30, 2017, 05:12:58 pm
content: Don't think Dave has the 1point flyspec font that most terms and conditions are printed in, and I doubt the colour selection includes a 3% grey on white background either.

author: DaJMasta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 30, 2017, 06:49:53 pm
content: Last day of their going out of business sale here, you have maybe 4h left on the east coast. Parts are cheap, though the selection is somewhat limited. I got this for about $30, and it's probably just under 200 packs of things. My store said $25 for everything you could fit into a small bag, the transformers were like $1.50 each.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 30, 2017, 09:55:12 pm
content: Wow, just look at all of those bags. Imagine how much it must have cost for each component to have been individually packaged, taken stock of and transported to the store.Even though you paid nothign compared to what it cost Radio Shack, I wonder how much of it could have still been purchased for less online? The transformers were probably the biggest bargain. You probably got them for less than the cost of the raw materials.

author: DaJMasta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 30, 2017, 10:36:30 pm
content: I think a handful of the parts were actually about at cost - I figure it was in the ballpark of a dime per baggie, and the single pack of caps or maybe some of the diodes were close if they bought in bulk. Since they moved away from the blister packs with cardboard backing, the bags themselves are probably pretty cheap, but I figure it was a significant percentage of the total cost of goods for each one. There were some that I didn't go for which there's a chance they could still have been making a profit off of - 5 packs of 1/8W resistors or two packs of 0.1uF caps - but after the packaging and organizational cost, they could be around breaking even instead at this price. Those SMA to whatever cable adapters in the lower right were listed at like $16 each.... though I've bought similar through ebay for less than $1.50 shipped each...My perspective on their bankruptcy is that they sort of over-diversified and pushed themselves out of the niche markets they could have serviced. While I certainly understand that demand for parts like this have dropped off in the last few decades, I think there probably is a market that can support a local place with a stock of components - there are plenty of times I need a quick replacement part or finishing bit and I don't mind paying a premium to get it now... but they reduced their selection, making it less likely to find the part you need and raised their prices. Something like $2 for 5 resistors or $4 for a single 220uF cap is something I'm only going to pay if I'm REALLY desperate. The one area they always seemed to have a good stock of was terminations for cables - crimp terminals, coax connectors, audio jacks... but while that may be viable for DIY types fixing equipment, it's probably not in many others' wheelhouses.Aside from our niche, they tried to go into cell phones, toys, batteries, and sort of cables and adapters... but their prices can't compete with online and because of the size of their stores, their selection never really seemed big enough to make them a go-to place over best buy, a drugstore, a toy store, etc. While the early moves in that direction may have been able to support their huge number of stores better, I think in the long run it sort of pushed them out of people's buying habits.While I'm sad to see them go, I really only found myself in a radioshack a couple days of a year, at most... and given that their stuff is supposed to generally appeal to people with my interests, I'm not really surprised it's worked out this way.

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2017, 06:52:43 pm
content: Quote from: SeanB on May 30, 2017, 05:12:58 pmOh, I could have made itsmaller and almost impossible to readbut, unlike the original users, I intended for you to be able to actually read it.

author: NottheDan
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2017, 07:18:06 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on May 30, 2017, 03:05:56 pmJust as often you will find*Previously on sale at £xxxx from #date to #date.With those dates nicely indicating that what they are offering is the predecessor to the current model and the "sale price" is in the ballpark of therevisedRRP for it.

author: jh15
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 07, 2017, 04:44:23 am
content: Quote from: Cerebus on May 31, 2017, 06:52:43 pmAnd printed on thermal paper that fades by tax time. So you have to copy it. (easier now with phones), but how do you put that in your receipt shoe-box?

author: yada
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 07, 2017, 04:50:05 pm
content: Quote from: jh15 on June 07, 2017, 04:44:23 amThey do this with mail in rebates intentionally stalling until the colour fades.

author: vk3yedotcom
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2017, 08:58:24 pm
content: Some of their franchises are doing well and even expandinghttps://swling.com/blog/2017/08/radioshack-franchises-expand-in-wake-of-corporate-bankruptcy/

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2017, 09:20:26 pm
content: The independent franchise stores always were the best.Quote from: vk3yedotcom on August 29, 2017, 08:58:24 pm