Radio Shack Files For Bankruptcy

As the sun sets on the end of this busy week, I come across this news item about another "sunset" that makes me sad.


From Bloomberg:

In the agreement, the Radio Shack brand would continue as a store-within-a-store concept at locations acquired by Sprint, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

The retailer now expects to sell 1,500 to 2,400 stores to Sprint and Standard General LP, its biggest shareholder, according to the person. The rest of the locations would be closed, the person said.

Merianne Roth, a spokeswoman for Fort Worth, Texas-based Radio Shack, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Radio Shack talks had been expected to lead to a filing as soon as Wednesday night, though the complexity of the negotiations have delayed the move, another person familiar with the discussions said.

Not only am I from Fort Worth, Texas, where Radio Shack has it's headquarters, but I grew up literally over the hill from the Tandy family that owned the company for decades. Their home was only a couple of blocks from my childhood home.

I remember when personal computers first hit the market, Radio Shack was there with their very popular TRS-80.

I think my entire life I've counted on the fact that certain items you might need around the house could always be found at Radio Shack.

One more little bit of childhood falls away. Color me melancholy.

One Million Moms not having Radio Shack

One Million Moms (in reality, not even close to one million) are not so happy with the new commercials from Radio Shack which feature a dad approaching his teenage son about "the talk."

Via email:

Radio Shack is offending families with not one but two inappropriate commercials. Both ads use sexual innuendos and include children. Parents find this type of advertising disgusting.

In "Laundry," a dad enters the room with a laundry basket and says to his son, "Mom just finished laundry. Anything you want to tell us?" The boy has a guilty look on his face and replies, "Sometimes I have these funny feelings and I'm not sure what's going on, but I looked online and it said it was normal." The dad has a surprised look on his face and is almost speechless, but says, "Uh, you left your phone in your jeans and it went through the wash."

In "The Talk," the dad approaches his son and says, "I think it's time we had a little talk about 'protection.' I know you just want to get out and show it off, but you can't just go swingin' it around all willy-nilly, trying to impress the girls. You gotta be careful." He then displays and refers to a tablet, remarking "this glass is fragile."

Why would Radio Shack deliberately turn off consumers with sex-laden advertisements?

OMM goes on to urge folks to write Radio Shack about the offending ads" and not buy from Radio Shack.

I think they're cute. Watch below: