Radio Shack reportedly preparing to shut down.

[pauls_workshop]

So as I read things, Radio Shack is closing many stores, sharing space with Sprint in others, but not completely closing right? They are keeping some locations and staying in business under Chapter 11? Is this correct? Locally, looks like one store is closing for me but not two others. At least for now. - Paul

 

[Fishplate]

WE have three RS stores in town...the one in the mall is the only one on the list.

Went in last night, and discovered that it has moved sometime in the last few years, and was now in a space with slat walls and three rows of shelves. the shelves were essentially bare, with the exception of merchandise equivalent to the red fireman's helmet with the flashing light on top, and the walls held only cell phone cases and the like. No sign that any parts cabinets had ever been in that store.

There was one section that had two electronic components on hooks, and another shelf had three standard-definition VHS tapes. And that was about it.

I'm glad I didn't go out of my way to visit my local Radio Shack.

 

[EdJack]

Similar thing happened to me. I have three stores in my area. I visited all three on Thursday and Friday of last week. Everything was business as usual, and full retail.

I made mental note of what each of the three stores had that I wanted, so I could run over when the sale started.

Today, one of the stores is 50-80% off (mostly 50%). So I ran right over. The sale must have started sometime between Saturday and Monday. The store was picked clean, absolutely nothing but garbage like VHS head cleaners, cassette tapes, TV antenna accessories for when people had TV antennas on the roof. I thought to myself, "how the heck could this be cleared out so fast?" Even at 50% off retail, everything would still have been overpriced, so how the heck did they sell it all?

I drove over to the other store, that evidently isn't closing, and everything is full retail. I went over to the soldering area, and they had two Digital Solder Stations, three Weller soldering irons, two Helping Hands, a Solder Sucker, Flux, and Desoldering Braid. Last Friday, they definitely didn't have any of that at all.

I asked "Are you having a storewide discount", the person said "The other store at *** is having the storewide sale." Which was the store I was just at.

It appears as though they Cherry-picked the store that was closing, and moved the good stuff to the store that is staying open. And left all the garbage they knew they couldn't sell, like all the obsolete stuff from the 1980's.

They even Cherry-picked all the common cellphone stuff, for iPhones and Samsung, and moved it over to the other store. All that is left in the "Storewide Sale Store" is stuff for flip phones, Blackberries, and obsolete phones nobody has.

 

[77thor]

Where's the hot deal?

Exactly

 

[Engine]

I read on another forum that someone was able to get one of the parts storage shelf units from his local RS that was closing. That's about the only thing I would want from RS. Now might be a good time to start looking for those if you have a local store that's closing.

 

[motorcycle79]

Stopped by my local rs pretty well picked over but I found a otter box for a iPhone 5, two coast flashlights, some ear buds and about 5 packs of AAA batteries. After tax 55$ not bad I thought

 

[bubinga]

i just brought a bunch of odds and ends at retail price, about $40.00 worth, wonder what there return policy is, if they will let me take them back for the sale price with in 30 days or so?

 

[djb2]

I visited two stores over the weekend.

One had no clearance discounts. And definitely fewer than normal sale items.

The other was 10-50%. You had to take the item to the counter for a price check to find the price. It was busy, but there appeared to be far more price checks than sales. Even with a discount, nothing was appealing to me.

I suspect that they did lots of inventory shuffling, and will do more. They had big stacks of Christmas tat (junk that only appears in the store at Christmas), more than in January, but were missing entire sections of their previous inventory. I was hoping to buy larger spools of solder, but there weren't even shelf tags for them. Yet they were well stocked with the still-overpriced tiny spools.

 

[bubinga]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sounds about Right.

 

[sselander]

Checkout the John Oliver Radio Shack bit on youtube.
John Oliver is a British born late night host on HBO

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Goodbye, RadioShack (HBO)

 

[elronin]

Checkout the John Oliver Radio Shack bit on youtube.
John Oliver is a British born late night host on HBO

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Goodbye, RadioShack (HBO)

Yea saw it on slickdeals too funny as hell

 

[BLUE72CAMARO]

Stopped by one of the local stores closing yesterday afternoon and picked up quite a few switches and insulated electrical terminals for 75% off or so. Also asked about the parts drawers and they are suppose to call me with a price on them. I may wait a few more days and go look around again.

 

[gtlegs]

I asked about the parts drawers and they gave me a price of $300 per 7 drawer section. Total of 4 sections for the normal two sets of drawers in the stores so $1200, too rich for my blood.

 

[EdJack]

Maybe do some Dumpster Diving after the store finally closes. I'll bet some parts drawers go to the dumpster around back behind the strip mall.

 

[djb2]

Maybe do some Dumpster Diving after the store finally closes. I'll bet some parts drawers go to the dumpster around back behind the strip mall.

They seem to be managing this pretty closely. Stores are closing in tiers. They recalled all of the non-RS brand merchandise before the sale, and are shifting merchandise between stores based on the closing schedule.

My guess is that all unsold parts will be moved to a later-closing store. It's cheaper and easier to put everything into a truck than to have a guy about to be fired sort it out the closing stores.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

I've talked to RS managers and the parts bins are not to be sold locally, but instead sent to warehousing and either sent back to Texas or sold in bin lots later. If a local manager is selling the parts bins, they aren't doing it with permission and the prices are whatever they think they can get away with to pocket the money personally.

Doesn't stop me from asking though. Only one store out of eight near me is closing and they didn't have parts bins in the first place.

 

[freudianfloyd]

Funny little story about Radio Shack....

In our house we have numerous fixtures that take type GU10 light bulbs. These bulbs are tiny. Anyway, they are usually pretty expensive through the big box stores. I found them for $0.96 each on Radio Shack and decided to order a good supply. I was only going to order 10 but they had free shipping if I spend more than $25. So I bought 26 bulbs. I thought they would all be put in one box and shipped together, what happened was just funny...

The first shipment was 3 bulbs in one box, and 1 bulb in another box. The next day I got a huge box, around 2'x2.5'x18" and it had two tiny bulbs in it. I then got another large box and it contained a pair of remote controlled robots in it. Then another large box with 2 bulbs, and etc. almost daily for several days. I don't think I got my complete order of 26 bulbs. The shipping on this order had to cost them a fortune. Maybe the employees know they are about to be out of a job and don't give a **** anymore.

 

[freudianfloyd]

The funniest part of the story is you receiving the random remote controlled robots.

I got the same thing from Advance Auto. I recently ordered 8-9 3/8" drive fill-in sockets (all the same brand) as one order. They all showed up at my house on the same day each in their own 6"x6" shipping box. I looked at the return addresses and tracking codes for each of them and they all originated from the same place, so it wasn't a multiple warehouse inventory issue.

The crazy thing about the robots is that they showed up on my boy's 8th birthday like it was meant to be. I gladly traded 2 light bulbs for a great gift for my boy.

 

[Ksullivan]

I just called and talked to the guy working at our radio shack (Cicero, NY) he told me the drawers that the resistors and such were in are $300/7 drawers and they have 8 units. I think to myself alright I'll call back in a month ��

 

[manrmark]

I just called and talked to the guy working at our radio shack (Cicero, NY) he told me the drawers that the resistors and such were in are $300/7 drawers and they have 8 units. I think to myself alright I'll call back in a month ��

Same thing at my RS $300.00 each?

 

[Ksullivan]

Yes $300 for half the stack he said they are 14 drawers high x 4 stacks of 2

 

[EdJack]

$300, that's crazy.

Maybe $300 for them if they are still full with parts.

This is why Radio Shack went out of business. The prices aren't reality. Go to store, look at item, ask how much it is, salesman tells you how much item is, you walk out of store. That's why they are went out of business.

 

[Exceller8]

I've always thought their motto should be: "You've got answers, we got questions".

The salespeople always seem to know less then I do.

 

[bubinga]

I've always thought their motto should be: "You've got answers, we got questions".

The salespeople always seem to know less then I do.

Thats true,
It was a good 25 years ago, but I was looking at a volt meter there, and trying it out,
and I put the red lead where the black one would /should have gone, Like it would really matter, We had like a 9 volt ballery to "test"/read, and the guy acted like he was all mad and unplugged it, and hooked it up the other way.
So what would have happened, it would have read -9.2 volts. OMG.

 

[terry603]

I don't know much about bankruptcy filing, but I would expect that part of the qualifications for filing chapter 11 would be due diligence to get maximum return on any items sold as the business is slowly liquidated and reorganized. I could be wrong, but I don't personally foresee there being any blowout deals as things slowly shut down and disappear. This isn't a regular going out of business type deal, there is oversight and accountability that has to be maintained throughout this process.

I would expect regular year-end closeout type sales to be better than what you will find in the future at Radio Shack throughout this process.

not sure how RS is doing this, but, most retailer that close out a store, they sell the product to a liquidation company for a price, then that company now owns the inventory, with the hopes of making money...they usually pay about 30% of total inventory value

 

[cheechi]

I actually bought something from RS today. One of the girls was pretty. This was the first time in about a decade that I had walked into one.

Tell me where else local I'm going to buy electrical components, knobs, etc when they're gone. I don't care about the company or that store or whatever. I am just selfishly looking for a place to get [whatever] when my need arises. Grainger has switches, but if Lowe's or HD got the drawers of components that RS still has, I'd go there for them anyway.

 

[fanatic]

$300, that's crazy.

Maybe $300 for them if they are still full with parts.

This is why Radio Shack went out of business. The prices aren't reality. Go to store, look at item, ask how much it is, salesman tells you how much item is, you walk out of store. That's why they are went out of business.

The store near me that's closing had multiple printed signs for the fixtures with Hilcoffe.com on them.
I asked the manager about the fixtures as well and he just referred me to the sign.

 

[sselander]

In one of the Radio Shack articles I read, it mentioned a store called Micro Center that has 25 locations on the East Coast that is close to what Radio Shack used to be like. It was founded by two ex Radio Shack employees. I have not been to one yet.

http://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/default.aspx

Also, one of many excellent places on the web for electronic projects and parts
Apparently, Micro Center carries some of their kits
https://www.sparkfun.com/

 

[jobo1004]

In one of the Radio Shack articles I read, it mentioned a store called Micro Center that has 25 locations on the East Coast that is close to what Radio Shack used to be like. It was founded by two ex Radio Shack employees. I have not been to one yet.

http://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/default.aspx

Also, one of many excellent places on the web for electronic projects and parts
Apparently, Micro Center carries some of their kits
https://www.sparkfun.com/

As someone who lives near a Micro Center I can say that they're awesome. Having been in one, I've never really thought of it as anything like a Radio Shack.

 

[rancherbill]

$300, that's crazy.

Maybe $300 for them if they are still full with parts.

This is why Radio Shack went out of business. The prices aren't reality.....

Go to the store next week they will be $275. Go multiple weeks and they will keep going down. Go for 12 weeks and they will be down to the $25 you want to pay, if there any left.

They will have more money in their pocket than if they just sold them for $25 from the start.

 

[rwil23]

FYI...

Went in there a few days ago..

They had WeMo wifi outlets for like $15 - usually $50.

Also, they had phone cases for 50% off. Lifeproof, incipio, Otterbox, speck, etc - name brand stuff. Some of the prices worked out several dollars cheaper than Amazon prices. Made my wife happy as she needed an iPhone 6 case.

 

[byoungblood]

I finally found one around me that was clearing stuff out. I managed to pick up a decent number of components for about $25. I'd find a random item or two that was apparently on clearance as well and ended up buying the store out of a couple of items that were ringing up for 4-5 cents. Some of the stuff is still too much for occasional use at 50% off. I think they said they'll run about a week at current discounts, then will take off even more. I may stock up on some Arduinos if they get marked down to 75% off.

Employee I spoke to said she'd shoot it up to her DM about me being able to buy one of the parts drawers plus everything in them for $400. I don't know if it will fly (with my wife, too!) but I'd have all the electronic components I could possibly use for quite some time if they did. Hmm....

 

[srmofo]

I finally found one around me that was clearing stuff out. I managed to pick up a decent number of components for about $25. I'd find a random item or two that was apparently on clearance as well and ended up buying the store out of a couple of items that were ringing up for 4-5 cents. Some of the stuff is still too much for occasional use at 50% off. I think they said they'll run about a week at current discounts, then will take off even more. I may stock up on some Arduinos if they get marked down to 75% off.

Employee I spoke to said she'd shoot it up to her DM about me being able to buy one of the parts drawers plus everything in them for $400. I don't know if it will fly (with my wife, too!) but I'd have all the electronic components I could possibly use for quite some time if they did. Hmm....

Their arduino prices are absurd. Most of it would have to be 90% just to compete with Amazon

 

[byoungblood]

Actually their sale prices are on par with Amazon. I wish they'd drop the price of the Micro a bit more, it would be perfect for a simple project I'm putting together.

This one store is in a neighborhood where I think I could easily wait it out another week and they'd probably still have most of the components left. An employee I was speaking to says they've been running their clearance for three days now and hardly any of the components were touched.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

I went to the one in Greenville, NC a couple weeks ago for some terminal strips. They said they were told they'd be one of the last to close. They're closed now from what a buddy said, he stopped there last week.

 

[srmofo]

Actually their sale prices are on par with Amazon. I wish they'd drop the price of the Micro a bit more, it would be perfect for a simple project I'm putting together.

This one store is in a neighborhood where I think I could easily wait it out another week and they'd probably still have most of the components left. An employee I was speaking to says they've been running their clearance for three days now and hardly any of the components were touched.

Mine wants $30 for a single relay board. All of the shields were $50+.

 

[Will S.]

Checked several RS here, and they also say $300 for a 7 drawer cabinet. Nah. I'll wait, or find something else.

For those of you who are looking for electronic parts, knobs, project nkits, etc., try Jameco Electronics www.jameco.com or MCM Electronics I have dealt with both and they have always had what I was looking for, and at reasonable prices.

 

[erty67]

Bought a stack of crimp connectors. Good deal at 70% off.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Stopped by the local store today. It was picked over already.

 

[arroberts]

The drawers are listed at $175 in the Columbus, OH stores, parts are not included.