RadioShack dying, Amazon buying?!

[thewayne]

RadioShack is not just on Death's door, they're opening it and stepping in briskly. The New York Stock Exchange has delisted them, their stock was trading at 24 CENTS per share the other day, and they can't some up with $50,000,000 to stave off the inevitable.

This makes me very sad. Radio Shack was a major part of my childhood. I bought a lot of stuff from them: even if most of their consumer electronics were crap, they were one of the few places where you could easily buy individual electronic components. In fact, I went to our local store last night to buy a new audio cable for my car (I have to replace it once or twice a year, it shorts out and makes it had to listen to podcasts).

In fact, I bought my first computer from RadioShack in the early '80s: a TRS-80 Model 100. It was one of the first portable computers ever made, it was powered by 4xAA batteries that would power it for ages, had an 8 line by 40 character display, and 24k of non-volatile memory. You could hook up two different kinds of disk drives (both 3.5" and 5.25"), an external monitor, optical bar code reader, cassette tape recorder if you didn't have the disk drive, etc. Built-in BASIC programming language, built-in text editor, etc. Amazingly capable computer: not only do I still have it, but it still works. I power it on occasionally for amusement. It also had a fantastic keyboard.

Even though this computer is 30+ years old, it's very popular among marine researchers: you can put it in a 2 lb Ziploc and take it out on a boat.

Here's a lamentation from Wired:
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/dear-radioshack-adored-love-wired/

And here's the Wired article saying that Amazon might buy them:
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/amazon-radioshack/

This would be a good move for Amazon. They'd get A LOT of stores for very cheap, they're spread around major cities and have presences in many smaller ones, like here. It lets them show off their own line of Kindle electronics and would provide space for drop-shipping items. I would certainly use a drop-ship and drive two miles from work to the nearest RS/Amazon store if it saved money and got my stuff to me quicker.

But apparently the Amazon/RS talks are for a limited number of stores, not the whole chain. Sprint is also in talks to acquire the stores, so I expect they'll end up busting up the chain and selling it off piece by piece.

Comments

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I think Amazon wants it more for the drop-ship part of its internet commerce side, but I think they'd be foolish to not push the Amazon Showroom aspect. You can buy Kindle products almost anywhere, including Staples and Walmart, but you can't really see the entire Kindle ecosystem in one place.

BTW, news came out that Staples is trying to buy OfficeMax. It'll be interesting to see if it goes through as OfficeMax bought out Office Depot last year or the year before. Staples will have over 70% of the office supply market if somehow the merger is approved.

[cp.livejournal.com]

Yes, I saw that about Staples and OfficeMaxDepot yesterday! It does seem like that would be treading awfully close to a monopoly, but I guess it can be argued that most anything the office stores carry can also be gotten elsewhere, online if not locally. Still, it definitely would seem to cut into competition.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

The basic truth is that the FTC and SEC doesn't give a rat's ass about monopolies any more. We have two big cell phone companies, two slightly smaller ones, then a whole bunch of insignificant ones. We have two big cable TV companies. Two big satellite TV companies. They seem to think that a duopoly is good enough, and it isn't. We pay the highest fees and get the poorest service for cell phone service, cable TV, and internet service, and it's all because there's no competition.

[cp.livejournal.com]

Cable's a pretty weird industry--and I oughta know, it's where I've spent most of the past 15 years of my career! As you said, it's consolidated down to a handful of major players, but even so there's hardly any competition to speak of because most consumers only have one choice in their area. The big guys have largely been careful about arranging their territories and carving up geographic areas to remain the only game in town, and then I have no doubt they all conspire to set their prices anyway. I wouldn't have cable if I had to pay for it, that's for sure. It does make for a nice perk of employment, though. :)