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RadioShack announces plan to close 1,100 stores nationwide as smartphone sales fail to carry company

ABC News reports that RadioShack will close 1,100 stores following a disappointing holiday season and generally unsuccessful attempt to rebrand the chain as the go-to retailer for smartphones and accessories. The number represents about 20% of the electronics shop’s locations. The company previously announced plans to close only 400-700 stores.

That doesn’t mean RadioShack will be disappearing completely, though. Around 4,000 stores are still expected to remain open. While the cell phone business hasn’t been able to keep the entire company afloat, it has apparently provided enough fuel to keep the majority of the stores functional… for now, at least.

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Comments

  1. Pierre Calixte - 10 years ago

    I grew up with radio shack shame that they will eventually disappear unless they do something drastic.

  2. rlowhit - 10 years ago

    I can see why, ever try calling Radio Shack during an iPhone launch they never have any in stock. Even weeks after initial demand is over they still dont have stock.Whereas ATT and Verizon stores will have sold out, restocked, and sold out three times over.

  3. Walt Schilling - 10 years ago

    I had a job with them, I have Electronics training and have been in their store my entire life. I was a proud member of the battery club. While working for them it became quite apparent that only one thing in the store counted and that was cellphone sales. What made a good employee? Someone who could con a little old lady into a top of the line Cell with as much extras as they could pile on. And I’m not just talking features on the plan, but case & car cords too. If someone had a question on some of the products in the store 9 out of 10 associates would stare at you like a dog doing algebra. But they all could tell you what cell specials they had running at that time.

  4. standardpull - 10 years ago

    Poor Radio Shack is in the business to make a ton of money, and so they totally lost their roots and started to be a generic electronics retailer – something that everyone needs down the street (and/or Amazon).

    But where is the place that can help you get that specialty battery or bulb or part? Oh yeah, that place is gone. Radio Shack had all those wonderful things once, but it decayed into a mediocre but higher profit generic retailer with tons of direct competition.

    Now Radio Shack can’t even depend on their core business – helping customers with their needs – because they completely threw it away for the high profit cell phone and Chinese made crap. They threw out their baby with the bathwater. They should have taken care of that baby. Circuit City and Sears and so many others suffered in the same way – by completely failing to understand why customers bother to enter their stores.

    CEOs and the Boardroom should have all been fired by the smart shareholders. Instead, they blame their predecessors and successors.

  5. windlasher - 10 years ago

    I miss the “Shack” that I grew up with. Parts for everything. They missed the boat. We did not need another gadget store. We needed a place where you could go get stuff that no one else has but everyone needs.

  6. Dennis McCarty - 10 years ago

    I’ve been going to Radio Shack all my life (33) and not once did I ever even consider getting a cell phone from there. Lol. I don’t know anyone else who has bought a phone there either. I always go there to buy cables and adapters and stuff like that. Radio Shack should’ve never invested so much into something they’re not known for.

  7. aaronblackblog - 10 years ago

    No one mentions their name as a problem, but I don’t know that a store called “Radio Shack” could ever escape it’s association with times gone by. “Radio” in the sense that the Shack uses it, refers to the complex systems requiring cords and parts and pieces–those don’t really exist anymore. And “Shack” is an outdated reference to Huts and hovels of the past and just generally makes it sound like they sell shoddy things out of a shack. Call it Arduino Bar, and you might have something. But Radio Shack’s a tough brand to sell in this day and age, I think.