Radio Shack Rampage

[casinada]

 I didn't know that some of the stores were closing and liquidating everything at 75% and 90% off the marked price. I got late to a couple of stores that were already almost bare. I still scored some nice stuff for almost nothing. If you live near one of those stores stop what you are doing and head that way. 

[casinada]

There are lots of RF and audio connectors leftover.......

[IanB]

Hmm. I just looked at a map for stores being closed near me, and it seems like they are closing stores mainly in high rent districts.

I had thought they might be pruning out smaller stores and consolidating where several were clustered in the same area, but it doesn't look like that.

[helius]

I'm impressed that the list of store closures (http://radioshackcorporation.com/pdfs/RS-Store-Closure-List_020415.pdf) uses the word "tranche".

[N2IXK]

Have hit 3  local stores LOOKING for these great clearances I keep hearing about and none of them seem to be doing anything.  Apparently these stores are turning over to Sprint rather than outright closing? None of the salesdroids had an idea what was going on.

Was going to make a lowball offer for the entire parts bin setup, just as a goof.  Might be kinda cool to have an entire RS parts stock in my lab for basic connectors and stuff.  Also wouldn't mind grabbing a 200-in-1 kit out of pure nostalgia. For my son, of course....

[xrunner]

Ya I've hit couple of stores in closeout. The bargains are so-so. Quite a lot of the stuff - to be honest - is still way too expensive even after a discount compared to what you can order from internet suppliers if you're willing to wait a few days for delivery. 

[mtdoc]

Kinda makes me wish the ones near me were closing. No special discounts here.

[nanofrog]

Picked up a couple of small rolls of 62/36/2 Rosin core solder for 1/2 off.  Didn't see anything else that was worth buying (rather picked over by the time I got there).

[rdl]

There are corporate owned stores and franchise stores. From what I've heard, most of the closings are corporate stores in high rent locations. Some of those are being taken over by Sprint and supposedly may still contain some kind of "Radio Shack department". It seems many of the franchise stores will remain open, which is probably a good thing. I live in a small college town, we have one Radio Shack and it looks like it's staying open for now.

[Tandy]

There are approximately 1000 franchise stores, this means they are independently owned and therefore not directly affected by the RadioShack closures. It looks like RadioShack intends to come out of chapter 11 as a franchise business, i.e no company owned stores.

The immediate problem for the franchisees is that the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection is being portrayed as closing of RadioShack so potential customers will assume all stores are closing and those that do consider making a purchase will be concerned about warranty. Also there will probably be a problem obtaining inventory that could be detrimental.

In the medium term the owners of the franchise stores will have to decide how much value remains in being a franchise as the buying power of the much smaller RadioShack will be significantly depreciated resulting in lower margins on products and the the harm caused to the brand by the very public bankruptcy.

I imagine that with the sprint deal the product range will be exclusively mobile accessories and that the company will likely drop most of the other categories such as electronic components, toys, AV equipment etc. Some franchisees may decide to close or change to a fully independent store.

[calexanian]

The one around the corner from me had a clearance. Got some good bargains on some things i use all the time. PCB etchant, Deoxit, solderless bread boards, etc... Some arduino shields too. All of the components as mentioned before are still to expensive even at %70 off to get. 

[TerminalJack505]

I went to three Radio Shack stores today.  One of them is closing tomorrow and had pretty much all of the components and connectors priced at 90% off.  I paid $25 for what would have otherwise cost $210.

[Stonent]

I went back to a local radio shack again, I heard the salesman talking to another customer saying "our store is largely unaffected, business as usual.  We've been having delays in restocking, but we have 19 boxes of merchandise on the way"  The store inside the local mall had the doors shut and the windows were covered in white paper.