The End of RadioShack

An Unsightly Old Shack is Finally Torn Down for Good.

Well, it’s official. One of America’s most iconic retail chains has finally shuffled off this mortal coil, relegated to the end-cap of obsolescence. Yes, I’m talking about everyone’s favorite retail whipping boy and butt of countless electronic nerd jokes—Fort Worth’s very own RadioShack.

Once a household word with a death-grip on the electronic category, RadioShack had, in the last two decades, shrunk to an unfortunate parody of itself: a former specialty retailer devoid of any distinctive identity—save for its hated ritual of pestering you to buy batteries or fork over your mailing address.

Now, I come by my appraisal and opinion of the chain honestly enough. I toiled on its behalf for a half dozen years, trying in vain to staunch the hemorrhage of fleeing sales through a series of celebrity-laden TV commercials. (Remember Howie and Teri? Or Ving and Vanessa?) Occasionally our efforts would beat-back the flames for a bit, resulting in a small spike in sales for various odds and ends. Or, more often than not, cell phones.

Ah, cellphones. Therein lay the problem. When these electronic marvels first began hitting the market in the mid 90’s, RadioShack was positioned perfectly to benefit. With over 6,000 stores in every little whistle stop across America, the chain lured you in with the promise of a new cell phone for just a penny. All you had to do was sign up for two years of cell service. And sign up people did—by the millions. Because where else could one find a cell phone and service plan in America at that time, save for their favorite electronics retailer? The answer was “nowhere but RadioShack.”

So cell phone sales boomed. RadioShack stock soared, splitting and splitting again, making associates and shareholders alike rich. There seemed to be no limit to the success wrought by cellular. But then, like most good things, it began to come to an end. Service carriers recognized the profitability and jumped in with their own stores. Sprint and T Mobile and Verizon and AT&T outlets began to sprout. Soon, the big box discounters figured out the cellular model and clambered aboard, further raiding RadioShack’s monopoly. And before you knew it, RadioShack’s golden cellular goose was cooked.

Then began the mad scramble to fill the cellular void with new emphasis on old RadioShack standbys: toys, accessories, parts, pieces, cables, cords and connectors. But something interesting had happened during the years the chain was riding the green cellular wave: Walmart, and then Amazon, had come along to raid those other once-profitable bastions of RadioShack dominance.

And so the slide into oblivion continued. Renewed pushes in cellular didn’t work. Nor did revamped sales commission structures and wholesale layoffs in every sector of the company. Nothing could stop the obvious: that RadioShack was simply an outdated and irrelevant retail model, passed over by both sharper operations and more savvy consumers who’d grown comfortable shopping on the internet.

Yet, much like a zombie not realizing it was already dead, the Shack shuffled on, bumping and stumbling from one bad sales quarter to another. Loan after loan, bailout after bailout until finally, FINALLY! There was no hiding the obvious: the longest plane crash in history was over. Totally and completely over.

What can we learn from the RadioShack story? What insight can be gleaned from their long, and sometimes glorious, history? Well, one could argue that a retailer must change with the times, no matter how good things are currently. Or, that complacency breeds contempt, followed by failure.

In RadioShack’s case, however, I see it more simply. I see a once-proud and relevant chain of stores that was simply passed up by modern times. Let’s face it—people don’t even rely on radios much anymore, instead turning to smart phones and the internet for their music or news. And how many people even know what a “Radio Shack” is? (Answer: the room on a ship where the radioman operates). Much like hat stores and corset shops and record stores and video rentals, the RadioShack concept was simply put out to pasture.

So RIP RadioShack. Those of us who knew you in better times will miss you. As for the rest of America, probably not so much.

*Photo: Courtesy of Craig Warga/Bloomberg via Getty Images