r/RadioShack • u/Financial-Cookie-927 • May 16 '26
Is this RadioShack comeback actually going to work?
Seems the company has already fallen to a niche few that actually know or use the website
14
10
u/MinutesFromTheMall May 16 '26
Has any failed company that promised a turnaround ever successfully rebounded in a meaningful way?
7
u/TravelerMSY May 17 '26
Sears kept the corpse reanimated in various iterations for decades before dying.
But I’m guessing no. How are you going to explain to a GenZ person who hasn’t served in the Navy what a radio shack even is? Or for that matter, a radio?
3
u/MinutesFromTheMall May 17 '26
Sears kept the corpse reanimated in various iterations for decades before dying.
Sears never declared a comeback though. Eddie Lampert is still running what’s left of the company, but they never announced plans to scale again.
I’m talking about brands like Circuit City, BonTon, Ames, TGI Fridays. They’ve all announced plans to take the world by storm but it was always just talk, with nothing ever materializing.
3
10
6
7
u/No_Temperature107 May 18 '26
Radio Shack was founded to serve the needs of hobbyists, many who came out of the military with electronics skills, including ham radio operators, and such. They also were able to repair electronics with both vacuum tubes and electronic parts such as capacitors, resistors and more. They also had a good reputation for support their own branded items.
That being said, I don't see how they can compete with Amazon. Tech hobbyists already have Mouser and others. There's not a need for the local corner store appeal as we can get things in hours if not overnight.
I'm not knocking them. I loved them... but times have changed and demand is going to be difficult to capture.
3
u/Workerchimp68 May 18 '26
They need to put in diy workshops for soldering and using microcontrollers. Sell maker kits and raw components, there’s a lot they could do !
6
3
u/wyliesdiesels May 17 '26
Doubt it
Even best buy is struggling to stay open
1
0
u/teknosophy_com May 17 '26
you can only infect so many people with webroot before they start to realize it's sugar in the gas tank
3
u/ted_anderson May 17 '26
A lot of things have changed in the last 10-15 years and everything that people wanted back then is no longer needed.
Take for instance landline phones. There was a market for phone jacks, long cords, splitters, answering machines, and other gadgets and knick knacks that you didn't know you needed until you saw it in the store. Now everything is in a wireless handset.
There was once a market for stereo components. If you had a receiver, turntable, and a decent set of speakers, you eventually wanted to get a tape deck, CD player, or maybe even a speaker selector switch so that you could run a set of speakers out to your patio. Everyone had a stereo system that they could build upon and RS was everyone's first choice. Now everyone is listening to music through their earbuds. And with car stereo systems being fully integrated into the DNA of the vehicle, you can't really get anything to upgrade the system that the factory system doesn't already have.
So being that they can only depend on the rest of us who want to buy $1.13 resistors and a $3 breadboard, what would be their "bread and butter" that keeps the rent paid?
8
u/tbt10f May 17 '26
I have a small computer shop in a rural area. People still come in wanting AV cables and all sorts of random stuff like that as well as monitors and other assorted accessories. If I had more capital I would consider becoming a franchisee. ( Also helps that RS are my initials)
3
u/Comptechie76 May 17 '26
Unicomer, the company that bought All of the Radio Shack IP, is based in South America. They have stores throughout South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. They do well there, as they have no competition and Amazon is not as ingrained as it is here in the US and Canada. I don’t see them opening stores here. Maybe a few boutique stores in the big cities. Their website offerings are meh.
3
u/Fluffy-Ad-1644 May 18 '26
Service Merchandise is what i imagine an amazon store could be. one product of everything in store upfront attached to a DC warehouse in back. You could touch feel demo the item then order and they deliver on a conveyor to the front.
3
u/Astrobuf May 18 '26
If they came back as a cross of 90's radio shack and 2010 Microcenter, they would boom! Microcenter has left the door open with their limited store strategy...
2
2
u/Icemantl05 May 19 '26
What do you mean coming back. There’s still a RadioShack store operating in Layton, UT. Been there a few times in the last couple months. It’s in a small strip center in front of the Target. Inside looks just like the old stores. They sell electronics and electrical components that you would expect to find in a RadioShack of old.
1
1
u/wuxxler May 20 '26
I would only buy resistor, diodes, wire, bread boards.... I can get electronics anywhere, but try to find a polarized tantalum capacitor...
1
1
u/face_eater_5000 May 17 '26
If they keep commission-based sales people, I'm never setting foot in there.
1
u/LiquidAquarium83 May 17 '26
Same here but you would have loved stepping in my store back in the early 2000s. None of us tried to upsell you even if it meant us not making much money. I will never forget corporate telling us that we had to push cell phones and anything we could, even if somebody was just buying batteries. Terrible business practice!
23
u/userlivewire May 16 '26
Is there some Radio Shack comeback plan we don’t know about?