RadioShack Calls it Quits after 94 years, Files for Bankruptcy

After managing to stay in business for so many years, RadioShack has finally pulled the plug and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last Thursday. RadioShack will be closing 1,784 stores across North America by March 31. However, the electronics retail chain will not disappear completely. General Wireless and Sprint are planning on purchasing between 1,500 and 2,400 of its 4,485 stores.

Founded in 1921, RadioShack had a humble start up, selling supplies to radio officers on ships. The company then expanded creating retail stores all over the nation, as well as mail-order business. The business was acquired by Tandy Leather Company in 1963, changing its name to RadioShack. In 2007, The Onion wrote an article with headline “Even CEO Can’t Figure out How RadioShack is Still in Business.” During that time, CEO Julian Day stated “there must be some sort of business model that enables this company to make money, but I’ll be damned if I know what it is.” He even satirized the company’s name saying “even the name ‘RadioShack’- can you imagine two less appealing words placed next to one another?”  “What is that, some kind of World War II terminology? Day also made references to the outdated technology RadioShack still carried, asking rhetorical questions like “Are ham radio operators still around, even?  Aren’t we in the digital age?”           

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While other companies in the late 1990s such as Best Buy and Walmart were providing early online shopping, RadioShack’s website was not e-commerce friendly. It only offered store locators and press releases, but customers didn’t have the option of buying anything online. RadioShack never kept up with the rise of e-commerce the way its biggest competitors did and this put them at a great disadvantage.

RadioShack was once the go to spot for the latest in electronics including CB radios and then the TRS-80, one of the first personal home computers. When cellphones became popular, RadioShack also jumped on the wagon, but never really fit in with the digital age. In 2006, RadioShack made an effort to step up their game in e-commerce, implementing a ship-to-store service, but during that time Amazon was already way ahead of the game in online retail.

  

As RadioShack struggled to find its identity in a fast-moving, ever changing retail environment it began to refer to itself as “The Shack” in an effort to seem cool but ended up being ridiculed. The Technologizer, a technology website, wrote in 2009 “The Shack is a lousy name” and “it describes the chain even more poorly than ‘RadioShack’ does.”

In its bankruptcy filing in Delaware court, the company filed with $1.2 billion in assets and $1.38 billion in liabilities.

RadioShack has over 1,000 dealer franchise stores in 25 countries operated by its Mexican subsidiary and Asia operations which are not affected by the bankruptcy.

RadioShack has proved that by not keeping up with the digital age, companies will disappear quickly. Cyber Technologies brings the most innovative technological solutions for your home and gives you the guidance you need to keep up with a rapidly changing world of technology. Contact Cyber Technologies for a free co nsultation.                                                                                                           

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