Retail Watchers

the radio shack at 195 w shaw in clovis, ca is liquidating that store has been open for a long time

Johnstown, NY closing as of this coming Sunday. It was an ORIGINAL tennant of the Pyramid Mall (now Johnstown Mall) when it opened way back in 1972.

radio shack at manchester center in fresno is also closing. they may keep it vacant during the remodel.

Radio Shack thought that partnering with Sprint would be a good business decision. The problem is that Sprint is not doing well by itself. Sprint has many complaints about terrible coverage and slow speeds. A Verizon store has lots of customers, but a Sprint store is usually a ghost town. If Radio Shack had partnered with Verizon or another chain, things may have been different.

I know of 2 nearby stores that were never rebranded with Sprint Radio Shack. One closed and the other is about to close. The stores did sell Sprint phones, but lacked the signage to draw cell phone customers to the store. The Concord, California store is in a strip mall with a CVS and a Staples. The shopping center is practically dead, but the reason why the Radio Shack survived this long was probably due to the low rent.

Today is supposedly the last day except all but 70 corporate locations (I can't find a list anywhere as to which are staying open, and there doesn't really seem to be a plan for the few remaining stores).

Aren't like 20% of the RadioShack stores as of 2015 (pre-bankruptcy) franchised?

So are the Sprint/RadioShack stores going away now?

USA Today gathered a list of remaining stores here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/bu ... 102372912/#

Funny enough, most of the ones in my area in PA are still staying, although many have closed over the years. Besides CO and TX, all the remaining stores are in the Northeast.

What is the rationale behind keeping 72 mostly Northeastern US stores open? Why were these few dozen stores deemed viable while all the others were expendable?

I remember when Blockbuster went bust, for some reason, a group of corporate owned stores in my market (Reno, NV) and Sacramento, CA stayed open after most of the chain closed. Along with some other scattered locations. Nobody could figure out why. A few months later when they closed, nobody cared anymore.

Also there is still a store in Reno, NV on Keystone Ave. with Radio Shack/Sprint signage out front and it appears to be open. It looks like all that is inside is phones though. I never saw this store go through a liquidation sale... so maybe Rat Shack packed up its goods quietly but Sprint stayed in place for some reason.

cathandler wrote:What is the rationale behind keeping 72 mostly Northeastern US stores open? Why were these few dozen stores deemed viable while all the others were expendable?

I'm not sure about TX or CO, but the only thing I can think of is that the presence of brick & mortar Sprint locations in the Northeast was/still is generally pretty weak. This is all assuming the remaining RadioShack stores are still also selling Sprint products, but maybe someone else has a better explanation?I don't know if they do now, but they never had independent authorized dealers like AT&T/Verizon (and TMobile?) had. In my area, it is only in the last couple years (after the Sprint/RadioShack mashup) that I saw strip-center Sprint stores pop up. Before this, the only Sprint stores I've ever seen in Southeastern PA were in select malls. I'm fairly certain Sprint doesn't have authorized dealers like AT&T/Verizon/TMobile do, which drastically limits their locations.