RadioShack declares bankrupcy today! (2/5/15)

[Bock]

Newegg > microcenter, they have good sales but a lot of items are just priced insanely. {Edit: Some of the deals[best ones tbh] aren't listed online.}
Fry's otoh, also gouges until you demand price matching. Then it's literally a B/M newegg with sales tax.

nostalgia moment, when did fry's stop doing their fridays sales? There was always a line outside every fry's on friday mornings. Now, the deals on the single page friday ads are utter shit. Anyone who remembers this probably used to hold off on any hardware purchases until the friday insert came out.

 

[ViRGE]

Aww. It's the end of an era.

I miss Radio Shack and Egghead Software. One for electronics, one for computers. Both were great stores in their day, and from time to time I miss being able to walk into one and wander through stacks of great stuff while shooting the breeze with another nerd.

Coincidentally, both were killed by Amazon... It's hard to stay in business when your competitor doesn't have to turn a profit.

Memories of lying in bed paging through the Radio Shack catalog. Yes, that was a long time ago.

Uhh, most of us would be in bed paging through a Playboy, or at least Victoria's Secret. I love my electronics, but clearly you really love your electronics, Phynaz.

 

[dr150]

I worked there about 15 years ago, and while i had the highest sales in the region, I was thoroughly reamed for not getting a high enough percentage of names and numbers. I quit shortly thereafter. Any company that cares more about spamming shit catalogs more than making actual sales can suck it as far as im concerned.

All of the commission was on batteries and other small components, couldnt make any money selling anything else.

I was always told managers in N. CA made 80-90k. Unbelievable, if true as these places are always empty.

 

[sportage]

It comes down to products and price.
As a kid I ran to Rs to buy transistors and wire.
Today you have to Amazon to find the little stuff.
I don't think there was anything RS could have done.
Their demise was inevitable.

With BestBuy and comparing BestBuy, they concentrate on big box items.
if you plan on buying that new 4K 65" TV, where else can you actually see that TV in action? BestBuy.
Then, you go to Amazon and make the purchase saving tax and getting free delivery.
Usually delivery faster than Best Buy could provide.

 

[Triumph]

Nobody builds boards anymore, there's no ham radio operators, CB operators, stereo speaker builders, or computer builders anymore. Is anyone surprised they couldn't sustain all these storefronts by being the equivalent of a mall cell phone accessory kiosk?

 

[RadiclDreamer]

I was always told managers in N. CA made 80-90k. Unbelievable, if true as these places are always empty.

Unless things are vastly different on the west coast, im doubting it. As normal sales folk, we either made min wage, or if we sold enough via the low commission rates we would go to whatever we made in commission, but it was averaged over the two weeks so if you had an awesome day where you sold enough to make $15-20hr you almost always had the day that made you making $2 an hour so you were more often than not brought back to min wage rather quickly.

The only thing that gave you money regardless were cell phones, we made $15 on each and every cell phone no matter the provider, phone, or plan. This did not go into the commission bucket, it was an instant add to your check

 

[mrrman]

This store has been doomed from the beginning, stores like Frys killed this store. I think Kmart is on the way too.

 

[Possessed Freak]

Imagine if Radio Shack stayed to its core DiY mentality. Instead of becoming yet another cell phone place, they *could* have been a smaller version of Fry's or Microcenter. They *could* have sold motherboards, chips, etc. Had a tech there to build them if you wanted, embraced what was their customer.

The dark days of Radio Shack were not the recent ones, but the ones when cell phones were still not for everyone. All they sold then were cordless phones, crappy RC cars, and skymall crap.

I still went to Radio Shack though, when I absolutely needed some small component (resistor, LED, whatever). Sadly, their braindead employee was only good for one thing: looking up to see if they had any more stock of an item (which they typically did not).

 

[slag]

I went to radio shack last night and purchased two 3 packs of xener diodes to fix a 42 inch magnavox lcd tv. Picked up the TV for $30.00 off craigslist, replaced 3 1500 micro farad 35 volt caps, a 2200 microfarad cap, and 4 xener diodes. Works perfectly now.

 

[steppinthrax]

I think I might have beat you to it...

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2416979


Yep.... I'm just curious what will become of all the old stores.

 

[MetalMat]

I went there quite often for electrical engineering projects back in college and it was one of my normal "kill time" places to stop at on the road in between sales calls.

Unfortunately I don't think it ever got passed that "kill time in the mall" association where people would go mess around with gadgets, race some RC cars, check out a couple of tvs and end up not buying anything.

 

[Ketchup]

...Yep.... I'm just curious what will become of all the old stores.

It's in the article:

But RadioShack is not completely going away. Customers will still be able to purchase RadioShack products, services and accessories at the approximately 1,750 stores where Sprint will open shop. In fact, Sprint will occupy just one third of those locations, where it will sell devices and plans. The stores will be "co-branded," according to a Sprint spokeswoman.

 

[steppinthrax]

It's in the article:

They filed Chapter 11 (liquidation). So I'm curious how this works. Sprint just purchases several of their stores?

 

[twinrider1]

Came here to ask that. What affect does bankruptcy have on how the real estate deals happen? Will the Special Master make deals the way the CEO could? Or will it turn into an auction with Sprint, Google, and anybody else bidding on locations.
And aren't we really just talking about real estate. I'd figure the brand has very little value.

 

[CountZero]

I worked there about 15 years ago, and while i had the highest sales in the region, I was thoroughly reamed for not getting a high enough percentage of names and numbers. I quit shortly thereafter. Any company that cares more about spamming shit catalogs more than making actual sales can suck it as far as im concerned.

All of the commission was on batteries and other small components, couldnt make any money selling anything else.

It was about 13 years ago for me but I also got reamed on names and numbers. I remember talking with the regional manager about moving from the store that required 2+ hours on the bus to the one I could walk to and the guy with this big f-you grin "well lets look at those names and numbers percentages". Quit the following week to go to Whole Foods, easily one of the best decisions I ever made. Screw that guy, they ended up dropping the names and numbers thing like a year or so later.

 

[OverVolt]

They were keeping it afloat artificially to avoid triggering CDS's tired to their bankruptcy.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

It was about 13 years ago for me but I also got reamed on names and numbers. I remember talking with the regional manager about moving from the store that required 2+ hours on the bus to the one I could walk to and the guy with this big f-you grin "well lets look at those names and numbers percentages". Quit the following week to go to Whole Foods, easily one of the best decisions I ever made. Screw that guy, they ended up dropping the names and numbers thing like a year or so later.

When i heard they dropped that I literally chuckled because I had a job making at least 3x that by that point

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Newegg > microcenter, they have good sales but a lot of items are just priced insanely. {Edit: Some of the deals[best ones tbh] aren't listed online.}
Fry's otoh, also gouges until you demand price matching. Then it's literally a B/M newegg with sales tax.

nostalgia moment, when did fry's stop doing their fridays sales? There was always a line outside every fry's on friday mornings. Now, the deals on the single page friday ads are utter shit. Anyone who remembers this probably used to hold off on any hardware purchases until the friday insert came out.

Microcenter is only good for CPUs.

Fry's with tax isn't that bad since NewEgg charges CA tax (HQ in City of Industry over here).

 

[slag]

Microcenter is only good for CPUs.

Fry's with tax isn't that bad since NewEgg charges CA tax (HQ in City of Industry over here).

CPU's.. motherboards, memory, hard drive deals, some cabling, usb drives, micro sd cards, power supplies.. pretty much all computer stuff.

 

[Kadarin]

This is appropriate, and a good read: http://www.sbnation.com/2014/11/26/7281129/radioshack-eulogy-stories

 

[Ketchup]

Came here to ask that. What affect does bankruptcy have on how the real estate deals happen? Will the Special Master make deals the way the CEO could? Or will it turn into an auction with Sprint, Google, and anybody else bidding on locations.
And aren't we really just talking about real estate. I'd figure the brand has very little value.

Most retailers just do a lease, so I don't see that being a problem (if that is how you meant it). I am not entirely sure how this will go down, but an educated guess, based on the article, it would be something like:
Sprint would take over the lease on the building that they want to keep, but would offer to keep a Radio Shack presence, in essence reversing their roles in such buildings. Other buildings would just clear out the products that Sprint doesn't want, and be done with it.

And it could very well end up like Tiger Direct and Circuit City: keep the presence until it is no longer needed, and eventually drop it.

 

[ViviTheMage]

If they wanted to survive, they should have made themselves a B&M sparkfun place basically.

 

[mmntech]

Just stumbled upon RadioShack's 2014 Super Bowl ad. "The 80s called, they want their store back." Someone on Reddit edited it to make it more relevant.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=2XjLJ4-X3ts

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Good

 

[Blanky]

Lots of stores are dead. Kmart obviously, so is best buy, game stop has no future, either, we'll see tons of bankruptcies of big names in the next few years. World is just changing too fast and there is no place for them.