RadioShack and hhgregg Can't Bear the Weight, Close Retail Location Businesses

RadioShack and hhgregg Can't Bear the Weight, Close Retail Location Businesses​

(May 30, 2017) Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

We begin with a super retailer’s death that’s been years in the making – and it’s still not quite over. With 96 years of brick-and-mortar based business in the books and a once thriving retail presence exceeding 7,300 stores, RadioShack is once again waving the white flag and shuttering more stores. As of Memorial Day, 2017, RadioShack closed over 1,000 locations, leaving only 70 corporate stores and 500 dealer stores on American soil. The remaining corporate locations are scheduled to close over the next month.

RadioShack believes it still has legs, and is opting to shift its presence to the Internet, where the company will continue to operate its brand through a virtual storefront on RadioShack.com.

In an effort to raise funds (and cash-in on nostalgia), RadioShack is holding a month-long auction (www.radioshack.com/auction/) featuring prized items from the company’s history. Bidders can win one of several unused original TRS-80 Microcomputers, Realistic Transistor Radios, Tandy computer software games, original brick cell phones, gold commemorative watches, and more.

“We cannot thank you enough for your patronage and support over the years and continued support as we shift to a primarily online business,” the company said in a statement.

Next, we turn to a much shorter-lived member of the larger US electronics retail world, hhgregg. This multiregional consumer electronics chain has been on the ropes from some time, and has finally been dealt a merciful knockout punch. All of hhgregg’s stores and its website have been closed, sadly leaving thousands of workers unemployed.

Traversing to hhgregg’s former webpage takes you directly to a statement from Hilco Steambank, the company charged with auctioning off hhgregg’s intellectual property and related assets. According to the statement, hhgregg operated 220 locations across the Midwest and Southeast during 2016, with revenues reaching $1.66 billion. Its online sales business was smaller, earning $106.4 million during 2016 (up from $93.1 million made in the previous year).

The Indianapolis based business was founded by Henry Harold Gregg and wife in 1955, and grew to be the fifth largest national appliance retailer in the United States. Its growth outside of the Indianapolis area was peppered with stumbling blocks, and the company spent nearly two decades falling to its current fate.

 

[AudiocRaver]

RS has had its ups and downs. For years it was the only place to get almost anything electronic. But they cannot compete with the new ways of doing business in the web-based world.

 

[Todd Anderson]

My first real fulltime job was with Radio Shack, a corporate store in Kansas City, KS. Out of 52 stores, I was consistently in the Top Ten ranked salesmen. Even though I knew nothing of the Tandy computers (around $2500 in 1985!) I made up for that in audio sales. While the home audio side was great fun, my young self dabbled heavily at the time with the cool DIY part and bits available, my friends and I creating all kinds of 12V monstrosities in our cars. Sad to watch the slow decline of this former industry stalwart.

Still using my RS SPL Meter, when I remember to remove the 9V battery so it doesn't drain while idling.

You mention Tandy computers... the first computer I ever used was in 3rd grade and I believe it was a RadioShack model: TRS-80.

I had some very slick BASIC happening:

10 Print "Todd"
20 Goto 10
Run

Look about right?

 

[tesseract]

Ha! I do remember. That was the about the extent of my BASIC skills, too, Todd.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Apparently you and I took the name Basic and applied it to our skills... literally!

 

[Jeff S]

Bring back any memories?

Wow! haven't seen that stuff since my younger days. Great memories.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Here's another one:

That's one lucky son! ;-)

 

[Tony V.]

Remember these:

 

[Todd Anderson]

I had one!

 

[Tony V.]

I bought one of theses in the early 90s and I gave it to my brother who is still using it today.

 

[Leonard Caillouet]

Remember these:

I wanted one of those when I was a kid. But my dad kept every cap, resistor, and tube (and every screw) from old TVs and radios so there was plenty to experiment with.

 

[billrobbo]

It is not only the stock they are offloading they are also auctioning off their public IPv4 addresses as part of their ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Can’t even say how much stuff I bought from Radio Shack over the years (decades, really). Like Wayne said, if you wanted anything electronics-related, they were the place to go. I’d be sure and pick up their catalogs every year, always looked forward to the new one coming out.

However, in later years, it started irritating me that their stuff was so much more expensive than Parts Express, so I’d only go if I was in a “right now” situation.

They used to have some pretty nice stereo receivers back in the ’70s, the ubiquitous Realistic brand (I heard they were made by Pioneer, but I can’t confirm that), and other components as well, such as turntables, cassette decks, etc. I used to have a couple of their 3-head cassette decks, pretty nice stuff. I picked up a couple of used pairs of the Minimus 7 speakers a few years back, for use as surrounds in my bedroom and living room systems.

By the way, here’s a cool site where you can do a virtual thumb-through of decades of Radio Shack catalogs.

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalog_directory.html

Regards,
Wayne

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Back in the early 80's I came oh so close to purchasing a Realistic system that I thought sounded great in the store... maybe $1200 or so, which was a lot of money for me back then. I was trying to figure out how to approved for financing it, but couldn't get approved... no credit to speak of. I wanted that system sooooo bad.

 

[leecreek]

Sansui made some receivers for the shack. 1974 or so. When I came back to CONUS a man in the barracks had a Sansui Eight labeled as Realistic. I had sold one on my Eight's and bought a Marantz 2270 just before I came back. The other Eight went to my parents for Christmas. I lost it due to it could not swim during Hurricane Irene. It still worked fine.

 

[theJman]

By the way, here’s a cool site where you can do a virtual thumb-through of decades of Radio Shack catalogs.

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalog_directory.html

Cool link!