For much of my life, Radio Shack was an icon. When I first got into electronics in high school, it was Radio Shack and Allied Electronics catalogues that captivated me and my urges to buy everything they had for sale. It was Radio Shack that introduced us to the first mass-produced personal computer, the TRS-80, in 1977. They had the first audio showroom in 1947.
Currently, they have over 4,000 company-operated stores in the United States and Mexico, and approximately 1,200 dealer and other outlets worldwide. In short, they are a giant retailer.
So what happened? It’s a story of one failure after another. RadioShack entered the 1980s poised to be the center of the computer revolution. But RadioShack went nowhere. Their computer business lost traction and eventually became obsolete as companies like IBM and Dell went elsewhere to deliver more powerful computers.
Instead of concentrating on RadioShack and building its name and products, the company tried new concepts with new stores: Computer City to sell computers, Energy Express Plus to sell batteries, Famous Brand Electronics for refurbished electronics, McDuff and Video Concepts for audio and video, and the Incredible Universe, which became the company’s Best Buy knockoff. All were failures.
They also tried the cell phone market, but to make a long story short, they were not very successful. They did well with CB Radios, but that fad dried up. They were out promoted and out sold by stores like Best Buy and on-line retailers like Amazon.
For me personally, I stopped going to Radio Shack years ago. Their prices were outrageously high. There were too many other places that offered the same merchandise for much less. Too long they tried to live on their name that stretches back almost 100 years, but that does not work anymore.
For more info on their current plan, be sure and read our first story. In fact, have a look at all our stories. There is some good info here, if I do say so myself. -JRC
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