

RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest - davidradcliffe
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-02/radioshack-is-said-to-discuss-liquidation-as-part-of-sprint-deal

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ekidd
This is disappointing, especially since our local RadioShack has recently
added a ton of great hobbyist electronics: They carry RaspberryPi starter
kits, 4 models of Arduino, Beaglebones, about 8 kinds of shields, tons of
robot kits, littleBits, and the usual drawers of random parts. I picked up an
Arduino-compatible camera board for $12 on clearance.

I have no idea how big the local market for cool, modern electronics stuff
might be. And I'll be sad if it disappears. But it would be nice if somebody
could make a business out of this.

But it you haven't checked out your local RadioShark in the last few years, it
might be worth a look.

~~~
NegativeK
They tried to catch the home hobbyist movement again -- they really did. I
remember being excited about Arduinos showing up and guaranteed component
stock.

Then I needed some parts on short notice. Their supply was present but
incomplete enough to be frustrating, and when I asked one of the employees
about their inventory, I got "I'm sorry; I'm not sure. You're likely to know
more about that than I do." I really appreciate the employee being up front
with me instead of jerking me around, but it's disappointing that Radio Shack
couldn't (or wouldn't) commit to having at least one employee educated in the
hobbyist electronics section.

Now, I pay a monthly fee at a hackerspace and have better access to component
stock and knowledge than I expect any brick and mortar store to provide.

The community finds a way.

~~~
spiritplumber
In fairness, people who buy this stuff generally know what they're doing...
I'd be happy with a full parts bin that's organized sensibly.

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jones1618
Calling Steve Wozniak and AdaFruit: Why don't you get together and buy the
other half of RadioShack stores and turn them into Maker spaces?

They could continue to sell cables, batteries and universal remotes to
consumers to help pay the bills while creating a place to learn and buy
supplies for tinkerers, robot clubs, hobbyists etc.

~~~
yesiamyourdad
I'm sure there's a business model that could work at some level, but RS is in
such a big hole that they probably have to kill it and start over anyway.

One of the earlier HN articles mentioned how RS had an electronics repair biz
at one point (maybe they still do). That seems like a good starting point,
then cater to hard core hobbyists which would be the core of whatever
clientele RS still has. It's just not a big enough business for a public
company.

Personally I think it's a good idea. 50% of Radio Shack locations will be up
for rent soon, so all you budding entrepreneurs out there, go find some seed
money and open your hobbyist/enthusiast/maker supply store. Do electronics
repair, repairing phone glass, all that kind of thing, then try to reconnect
with the core market of people who love electronics. Make it like the
neighborhood bike shop that all the cyclists come to to hang out at. That's
how Radio Shack started out.

~~~
joshstrange
Agreed, it's not like RS has any value other than it's store space. I'd
probably ditch whatever procurement process they had for getting their tech
anyways as I'm sure it's highly inefficient, lacking in product people want,
and rife with corruption. Also the people that work at RS are next to
worthless (IMHO in terms of helping build towards the vision jones1818
outlines, not worthless as people) for doing anything but trying to sell you a
phone. There are of course exceptions to this but I agree with yesiamyourdad
that you'd be better off starting from square one.

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sfeng
This is somewhat tragic, because you can actually buy a wide variety of
electronics components at RS which you can't get locally anywhere else. Sure,
the internet is better in many ways, but it is a loss.

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marpstar
This comes up every time a Radio Shack article is posted, and the consensus
has been that even Radio Shack isn't a reliable supplier of electronic
components anymore.

~~~
orbitingpluto
And modern electronics shops now are packed with dedicated hobbyists.... small
but loyal clientele. Radio Shack has always overreached.

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unabridged
Sprint is 80% owned by SoftBank, who also owns controlling interest in
Alibaba. Amazon, Alibaba's largest competitor, has been recently talking about
getting into physical retail space. It's possible Alibaba is thinking the same
thing.

~~~
Scoundreller
I feel that Alibaba is more of a competitor to Ebay. The quality of goods are
similarly low.

Amazon is more of a "get it in 1-2 days (when we guarantee it)" and "We'll
make sure you get your money back, anytime".

At least those have been my experiences.

Turning the existing RS network into a non-denominational PackStation-type
setup seems like a good idea.

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jbinto
Radio Shack in Canada ended up in a similar situation. In 2005, they sold to
Circuit City and opened as a rebranded store called "The Source" (after a
brief legal dispute about the Radio Shack name).

When Circuit City went bankrupt in 2009, they sold the chain to Bell Canada
(our version of Sprint or Verizon).

~~~
Scoundreller
And in a similar vein in Canada, Black's, a photofinisher and photography
related goods vendor could not adapt to the digital world. The chain was sold
to Telus (a competitor to Bell).

It seems to be a common trend for bankrupt chains' leases in Canada to get
bought up for the instant network of stores.

Is this a rare phenomenon in the US?

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coldcode
Kind of sad, I remember the TRS80 Model 1, a friend worked on the OS. They
Apple and Commodore had the first real personal computers. The Model 1
actually had a real operating system with multiple process support (though not
really exposed to the user). Irrelevant today as a business.

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Animats
Sprint doesn't need more retail outlets. They need more cell sites.

If you can't get a signal on a Sprint phone, drive up to a Sprint store. They
have mini cell sites so their demos work.

~~~
RickHull
They give away their mini cell sites now for home use.

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jtwebman
Bummer but I am guessing this will not be the only brick and mortar store to
close now that most things can be bought online.

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benguild
Where will I buy resistors on a Sunday afternoon! :(

