Radio Shack’s financial woes

By Barry Shlachter
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

FORT WORTH — During nearly a century in retailing, RadioShack has reinvented itself time and again as the American consumer moved from primitive radio kits to ever-sophisticated audio equipment, CB radios, and then computers and wireless phones.

But now the Fort Worth-based consumer electronics pioneer finds itself tethered to a bygone era, with its 4,000 company-owned stores as much a burden as a benefit, its website delivering only modest returns in this cyber age and competitors — from behemoths like Amazon.com and Wal-Mart to wireless providers — attacking on all fronts. The company warned recently that bankruptcy could be near if it can’t secure new financing . . . 

Observers cite numerous reasons for the steady decline, including missed and squandered opportunities. 

“Call it death by a thousand cuts,” said Ed Fox, who teaches marketing at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business. “RadioShack is left with all these stores and not much differentiation” from big-box rivals and category killers like Best Buy.

“And the market for hobbyists and do-it-yourselfers has evaporated,” said Fox, a West Point-trained engineer-turned-professor. “Unlike the first small computers that arrived as kits, you simply cannot open most consumer electronic devices and work on them.”

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