"-ex-" wrote in message
...
clfe wrote:

the front. Radio Shack selling basically the same thing the others do -
with the exception of a few things, will peter out. I give them 10 years
tops. I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt it. I think their era has come and
gone.

clf

10 years? No way. In recent years I've had a few instances to go into a
RS looking for stuff for the kids like videogame machines and just odd
random non-radio related stuff. They aren't competitive with that stuff
either.

Seems to me that they are 'surviving' off of their convenience aspect
since most of their urban stores are located in malls and many smaller
towns that don't have the big box stores and malls at least have an RS
franchise...but they never have a very good stock of anything. When you
go into a RS and they can't fit you with a new cellphone battery whats
left?

My bet is that there are a lot of red ink stores in their chain and the
poor franchisees are basically working only to have a job and to try and
salvage their investment. I suspect if it weren't for their franchising
schemes the name Radio Shack would be long gone already.

-Bill M

Bill - BILL - I was "trying" to be nice about it - be conservative - give
them time to buy themselves out of this mess. If they go 5 they'll be damned
lucky. As to their "Franchising" - knowing what I do, I'd be very hard
pressed to want to be a part of their system. I recall a day when they
wouldn't allow (at least how I recall it) a store within 10 miles of
another. Now, they have stores and francised outlets squeezed in between.
Maybe in the quest to try to add more stores for more sales, - they choked
themselves. Seems to be a going thing today. A big store chain comes in -
claims the best of the world and within a very few short years - declare
bankruptcy and shut down. Whatever their problems are - Cell phone sales -
TV sets, Phones, Gadgets and so on - just aren't going to cut it. They
really did lose the basis of their origins. Sad but true - a sign of the
times. It wouldn't surprise me if tomorrow on CNN - they came out with the
announcement that RS is calling it quits. Like the death of a famous movie
star or whatever you hold somewhat near and dear - it may startle the mind,
but life goes on.

clf