CORP/BIZ Left for dead, twice, RadioShack gets another shot online

[thompson]

Left for dead, twice, RadioShack gets another shot online

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — RadioShack, a fixture at the mall for decades, has been pulled from brink of death, again.

theeagle.com

Left for dead, twice, RadioShack gets another shot online

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer
Nov 24, 2020

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — RadioShack, a fixture at the mall for decades, has been pulled from brink of death, again.

It's the most prized name in the basket of brands that entrepreneur investors Alex Mehr and Tai Lopez have scooped up since the coronavirus pandemic bowled over the U.S. retail sector and sent a number of chains into bankruptcy protection. Those brands so far include Pier1, Dressbarn and Modell’s.

Mehr and Lopez plan to make RadioShack competitive again, this time online, rather than on street corners or in malls. However, unlike RadioShack's glory years, it's Amazon's world now.

The big question is: How much value does the RadioShack brand have when the prized target audience of younger consumers may have never owned a radio, let alone stepped inside a RadioShack store?

“It’s a very thin line between being iconic and being dead,” said Robert Passikoff, founder and president of Brand Keys Inc., a marketing and research consultancy. “Being iconic a lot of the time just means people have a memory of it. I’m not sure that just remembering something is leverageable enough to be able to convert something into success.”

Success is something that's been in RadioShack's rear-view mirror for quite some time. The company, which would celebrate its 100th birthday in 2021, appeared to be on top of the tech world in the pre-personal computer days of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the place kids and hobbyist would go to buy radios, walkie-talkies and all the parts to fix them, or even build them themselves.

Somewhere along the way, “The Shack” got lost. Unable to capitalize on the PC boom that began in the mid-eighties, it also found itself largely on the outside of the portable device revolution of the aughts and drifting toward irrelevancy. It booked its last profit in 2011. After store redesigns and other changes failed to draw customers, the Fort-Worth, Texas, company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2015 and then again two years later.

Mehr and Lopez have no designs on rebuilding the brick-and-mortar RadioShack empire. But they say there is a path back to profitability, and it all starts with the name.

“We bought the raw material to build a big business," Mehr said. "Brand means trust. And the brand is very, very strong. I have quantifiable data that the brand is very strong.”

Mehr said REV's formula for measuring public opinion of a brand differs significantly from the way other experts value such things, including their own polling and analysis of how the company might work in a specific “ecosystem."

The plan, in short, is to build a vast online marketplace on top of the RadioShack brand. Trust in that name will get consumers to the site, where the quality and variety of merchandise will dictate whether or not shoppers click the “Buy” button, they say.

Since it was founded in 2019, REV has been in the hunt for other names that could once be described as “household.” It's turned Pier1, Dressbarn and Modell's into online-first businesses.

Other bankrupt retailers have found a second life online. The overhead is low and there are people who remain loyal to the brand, even after the store lights go out. But they are typically much reduced affairs. American Apparel, which went bankrupt and closed all its stores a few years ago, now sells hoodies and sweatpants online. Toys R Us, which closed its doors two years ago, opened a couple of small stores and it has a website. However, the Toys R Us site redirects those who want toys to Amazon.com.

REV says that its much leaner RadioShack will sell from its own website and an Amazon storefront. RadioShack was the place to go for batteries, phone chargers and headphones. Those are products that Amazon sells under its own brand name in vast quantities.

And therein lies REV's challenge. Megachains like Walmart and Target have been able to slow Amazon's encroachment, but Amazon is the ultimate disrupter. It has upended industries from tech and grocery, to global shipping.

If Amazon is the biggest threat to some of America's largest corporations, what are the prospects for a relic from the 1980s?

“Amazon is the Death Star,” said Allen Adamson, co-founder of the marketing strategy firm Metaforce. “They have everything and it’s easy and fast. There’s no need to go to your corner RadioShack to find something, or even to RadioShack online.”

 

[Millwright]

That's pretty ambitious.

I don't see them offering anything different.

 

[BassMan]

Never really much of a fan, though I had a TRS-80 back in the day, and shopped there a bit. Before Radio Shack, electronics stores had good name brands. When Radio Shack bought them out, it was all "Tandy" crap.

Seeing Guitar Center declare bankruptcy? Now that bothers me!

 

[psychgirl]

Well either way, I’m HAPPY any time an American company can make a come back.

 

[blackjeep]

The country has moved beyond Radio Shack. The competition online is fierce compared to a brick and mortar store.
Good luck, fellas, but I think the road will be very rough for a reborn Radio Shack.

 

[night driver]

Wonder if Tandy Shack will continue to carry even SOME of their Leather lines??

OK yes, I AM old.

 

[Millwright]

Wonder if Tandy Shack will continue to carry even SOME of their Leather lines??

OK yes, I AM old.

They never went away.

Tandy Leather

Leather materials and supplies for all crafters ranging from the hobby level to commercial.

tandyleather.com

 

[Weps]

Should do a retro re-release of Tandy systems, that get the collector/retro guys interested

 

[Dystonic]

The Radio Shack outlet in North Fort Worth off Meacham was freaking awesome. Go in and past the Phone Shack crap into the outlet warehouse. It was a geek wet dream.
In my fast talking sales voice: Resistors, transistors, capacitors, inductors! You need coax? We got spools of coax from RG8 to 58! Yagis and Rohn tower, you nerd it, we geek ya so come on down.

 

[Publius]

The Radio Shack outlet in North Fort Worth off Meacham was freaking awesome. Go in and past the Phone Shack crap into the outlet warehouse. It was a geek wet dream.
In my fast talking sales voice: Resistors, transistors, capacitors, inductors! You need coax? We got spools of coax from RG8 to 58! Yagis and Rohn tower, you nerd it, we geek ya so come on down.

Yep they made their way selling electronic parts to build just about anything and later selling HiFi's too.

 

[samus79]

The Radio Shack outlet in North Fort Worth off Meacham was freaking awesome. Go in and past the Phone Shack crap into the outlet warehouse. It was a geek wet dream.
In my fast talking sales voice: Resistors, transistors, capacitors, inductors! You need coax? We got spools of coax from RG8 to 58! Yagis and Rohn tower, you nerd it, we geek ya so come on down.

Up here we have Fry’s Electronics and MicroCenter which both have much more electronic components than Radio Shack ever did. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven the first time I went to Fry’s, a geeks wet dream.

 

[SquonkHunter]

My first decent home stereo rig was a Realistic. That was about 40 years ago.

 

[Dystonic]

Up here we have Fry’s Electronics and MicroCenter which both have much more electronic components than Radio Shack ever did. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven the first time I went to Fry’s, a geeks wet dream.

Oh yeah, we have those. Late 90’s/early 00’s I went to Fry’s quite often. There was(may still exist) First Saturday in Dallas which was a geek swap meet. Microcenter had the big display in the center. I spent way too much money at those stores.

 

[LoupGarou]

I could see them coming back as a more modern version of what MADE them, electronics, radios, and kits. Technology at it's finest, and get the current generation thinking again and not emoting 100% of the time. Leave the frickin phones alone, cellular and landline. No phones, just don't have them in the store. Too many other stores sell cellular phones and junk, and NOBODY wants a landline phone.

But they would have to have some bricks and mortar stores. Think of it as part Sparkfun, part Adafruit, part hackerspace/makerspace. To be able to walk in and either get common parts, or order any parts that you can think of, plus the ability to rent/use in-house CNC, lasercutters, and 3D printers, and on top of that, have PCB manufacturing services available. I can think of hundreds of companies that would use those parts and services, and often enough to be very profitable to them. Right now, I have a slim possibility of having the parts available within a 75-100 mile range, ONE company that has a somewhat decent CNC and 3D Printer (no Lasercutter) that they will "rent", and only four companies in the whole state that will rapid develop PCBs locally and not sub the job out to some sweatshop in china with a minimum two week wait.

Loup

 

[SpokaneMan]

Jeebus everybody here is aging ourselves. Haha. Radio Shack was the place to get all of the perfect adapters and cables.

 

[ellsworth848]

My first "PC" was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer purchased new in 1982 at The Shack. Went online with it using CompuServ which was a kinda text only internet. Used it to get stock exchange prices and I day traded index options. Before that I had to drive to town and sit in front of a Merrill Lynch terminal.

 

[Shooter]

before radio shack there was World Radio Labs. these guys sold kits to build your FIRST color TV. I mean you had to solder in every resistor and condenser, all kinds of kits, also they carried a lot of short wave stuff. but they kind of frowned on CB.s they thought it was rather low class.

they were called Heith Kits I think

 

[AlfaMan]

Radio Shack is where you bought your soldering irons and electronic parts to build stuff with. And every shortwave radio I bought was from Radio Shack. My DX-440 (store branded Sangean ATS-803A) is still going strong , replete with it's Radio Moscow DX sticker on top. My first SW radio-a early 80's boombox with SW bands on it-came from them. Can't forget the WeatherCube radio-yup, they had them! For many, Radio Shack was the only place to get good electronic stuff in small town America, pre internet.
In northern VA we have a MicroCenter-it's a computer geeks' version of heaven, but I see them eventually going the same way as Radio Shack. They sell computers and electronic parts too-but they have so much other "stuff" they sell it seems they're going the same destructive "we sell everything!" path Radio Shack did.
If Radio Shack comes back, yeah, I'd definitely give them a try on brand loyalty alone.

 

[TKO]

Up here we have Fry’s Electronics and MicroCenter which both have much more electronic components than Radio Shack ever did. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven the first time I went to Fry’s, a geeks wet dream.

I note Fry's has less and less inventory as time goes by.

Radio Shack. I used to be a member of the "battery of the month club". Always something interesting for a kid at Radio Shack. My local Radio Shack was a store in a strip mall that had seen better days.

 

[samus79]

I note Fry's has less and less inventory as time goes by.

Interesting, I’ve noticed the same thing at the Frys up here in IL, was wondering if it was a local issue. The store looks emptier every time I go in there.

 

[Lone_Hawk]

I could see them coming back as a more modern version of what MADE them, electronics, radios, and kits. Technology at it's finest, and get the current generation thinking again and not emoting 100% of the time. Leave the frickin phones alone, cellular and landline. No phones, just don't have them in the store. Too many other stores sell cellular phones and junk, and NOBODY wants a landline phone.

But they would have to have some bricks and mortar stores. Think of it as part Sparkfun, part Adafruit, part hackerspace/makerspace. To be able to walk in and either get common parts, or order any parts that you can think of, plus the ability to rent/use in-house CNC, lasercutters, and 3D printers, and on top of that, have PCB manufacturing services available. I can think of hundreds of companies that would use those parts and services, and often enough to be very profitable to them. Right now, I have a slim possibility of having the parts available within a 75-100 mile range, ONE company that has a somewhat decent CNC and 3D Printer (no Lasercutter) that they will "rent", and only four companies in the whole state that will rapid develop PCBs locally and not sub the job out to some sweatshop in china with a minimum two week wait.

Loup

I hope they do actually. I have grandsons, I remember making my 1st crystal radio with my dad and then sneaking out at night and hooking it up to the ground on his ham tower and listening to Wolfman Jack on WWV. Other kits followed. We shall see.

before radio shack there was World Radio Labs. these guys sold kits to build your FIRST color TV. I mean you had to solder in every resistor and condenser, all kinds of kits, also they carried a lot of short wave stuff. but they kind of frowned on CB.s they thought it was rather low class.

they were called Heith Kits I think

Heath Kits were the way to go. I built a lot of their test equipment, meters, O-Scopes, never a TV though.

 

[Normallguy]

Bought from there in the 70's and 80's. I remember getting bags of resisters and testing the resistance of each one.
Had to throw about half away every time. Crap quality control

 

[billet]

Let it go. No one will miss it!

 

[SurvivalRing]

Oh yeah, we have those. Late 90’s/early 00’s I went to Fry’s quite often. There was(may still exist) First Saturday in Dallas which was a geek swap meet. Microcenter had the big display in the center. I spent way too much money at those stores

First Saturday...man, I loved those days. Starting going to it around 1986. And, being a long time geek myself, often went down there to sell stuff...oh, the memories...

 

[twobarkingdogs]

Radio Shack every year would have a coupon in the newspaper for a free 4 cell D flashlight. For back then those flashlights were bright. I used to go around the neighbors houses asking for their coupons. Then myself and a buddy would ride our bikes over to biscayne bay and shrimp using them. We would walk out on the jetties and shine the light in the water looking for the eyes of the shrimp to light up and then grab them with a net. It wasn't unusual for us to get a couple of hundred on a good evening

Getting back to the business of radio shack. If newegg can make a go of it then radio shack should be able to do the same. Keep low inventory levels on things like pc's, tv's, stereos and have those items drop shipped from the vendors or amazon. The small parts which come from china you stock to speed up shipping. Its a good name which folks would trust to shop from and name recognition is the first step in building up a business.

tbd

 

[tnhillbilly]

I owned a Radio Shack store in the mid 70's. They had it down to a fine art then. Remember how they got a name and address at every sale and you got a flyer every month. They could tell me how many $ of business I would get for every flyer my store sent out. They printed and sent out the flyers at no cost to the store. Then a change in management came in. After the TRS-80 computer they made a decision not to get into the computer wars. People would come in expecting to find computers and left disappointed. They tried to keep up with other cheap junk, electronic toys and phones and such and did away with the flyers and died.

 

[workhorse]

My town is so slow we still have a brick and mortar Radio Shack in the main shopping area here in Toccoa Georgia.

 

[blueridge]

....Lafayette and Allied Radio - are they still 'here'???

used to spend lotsa time and $$$ there - and Heathkit

 

[Dystonic]

I could see them coming back as a more modern version of what MADE them, electronics, radios, and kits. Technology at it's finest, and get the current generation thinking again and not emoting 100% of the time. Leave the frickin phones alone, cellular and landline. No phones, just don't have them in the store. Too many other stores sell cellular phones and junk, and NOBODY wants a landline phone.

But they would have to have some bricks and mortar stores. Think of it as part Sparkfun, part Adafruit, part hackerspace/makerspace. To be able to walk in and either get common parts, or order any parts that you can think of, plus the ability to rent/use in-house CNC, lasercutters, and 3D printers, and on top of that, have PCB manufacturing services available. I can think of hundreds of companies that would use those parts and services, and often enough to be very profitable to them. Right now, I have a slim possibility of having the parts available within a 75-100 mile range, ONE company that has a somewhat decent CNC and 3D Printer (no Lasercutter) that they will "rent", and only four companies in the whole state that will rapid develop PCBs locally and not sub the job out to some sweatshop in china with a minimum two week wait.

Loup

I picture you and two others on this board have a room with a sign on the door labeled “Heath Kits”.

 

[Dystonic]

First Saturday...man, I loved those days. Starting going to it around 1986. And, being a long time geek myself, often went down there to sell stuff...oh, the memories...

I would take $400 with me. Spend about $300 to build a top of the line system that I’d sell for $800. And then $100 left over to spend on whatever I just couldn’t live without.

 

[fish hook]

My first memories was going to Radio Shack to buy vacume tubes for radios and tv's.You could go there and test your old ones to see what you needed.

 

[tech020]

I picture you and two others on this board have a room with a sign on the door labeled “Heath Kits”.

I still have some Heathkit audio stuff and a Heathkit coffee mug. I built many Heathkits in my teens and it gave me much experience for when I went in the Army for radar training in 1970. My college degree in Business and Economics was not as valuable as my combined electronics and electrical technology background.

 

[tech020]

I have ordered many components and electronic parts from Amazon. Most have some made up nonsensical Chinese brand name. Amazon selling under the Radio Shack name would really consolidate their product line and reputation.

 

[SquonkHunter]

My first decent home stereo rig was a Realistic. That was about 40 years ago.

PS: My first crystal radio was built from a Radio Shack 50 in 1 electronics kit circa 1969. I still have my old DX-160 multi-band radio from 1978 - my first good SW radio. Did much SW DXing back in the day. Radio Shack got lots of my business back then.

 

[Swampdweller]

Some friends called it Radio Scrap but it’s still going strong. On the shelf in front of me are a DX-400, a TRC-485 and a PRO-2006 scanner.

 

[Sub-Zero]

Never really much of a fan, though I had a TRS-80 back in the day, and shopped there a bit. Before Radio Shack, electronics stores had good name brands. When Radio Shack bought them out, it was all "Tandy" crap.

Seeing Guitar Center declare bankruptcy? Now that bothers me!

The TRS-80 III with dual floppy drives was $2,499 in 1980. How is that not profiting?

I picked on up used, of course. I still have it as well as cassette tapes, disks, manuals, et cetera.

What are they planning to sell. It'll have to be marketed to boomers, for the most part. They are the only ones who'll remember the brand.

Here's a link to an old computer computer fact site:

Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 model III computer

See if it brings back some old memories for you.

 

[LoupGarou]

....Lafayette and Allied Radio - are they still 'here'???

used to spend lotsa time and $$$ there - and Heathkit

Yes, both Lafayette and Allied Electronics (was Allied Radio) are still going strong.

Loup

 

[LoupGarou]

And yes, I have a load of Radio Shack / Tandy items (including the Tandy PC-5 and PC-6, as well as quite a few Tandy Model 100 and 102s). I also have quite a few of the Heathkit items, including two shortwave receivers one of the color TVs several of the microcontroller trainers, and a Hero robot at one time (donated to a school here)
.
And if you really want some scary, I have a few of both the early HP modules that they made before they went pro and were pumping out all sorts of nice test equipment (way before the PC and printer days).

Loup

 

[CELLO]

I was a Heath kit kid. I'd love to be able to find some of the kits I had as a kid, to give to my grandkids!

 

[Millwright]

I was a Heath kit kid. I'd love to be able to find some of the kits I had as a kid, to give to my grandkids!

Still around, but not much there.

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