For years, Westporters have headed to the Radio Shack near the Sherwood Island Connector for answering machines, fax machines, and low-tech technology like that.
But answering machines and faxes have gone the way of Pong. Which is why it was not surprising to see these signs, plastered Crazy Eddie-like, all over the store today:
Just to make sure I wasn’t supplying fake news, I asked an employee if the store is definitely closing.
“We don’t know,” he said.
“No one told us anything. We’re kind of in the dark.”
If only Radio Shack sold flashlights…
(Hat tip: Bruce Schneider)
Yesterday I visited the Radio Shack at the Fresh Pond Shopping Center in Cambridge MA, near my home. Signs all over the place : 30 to 60 pct off. Just one salesman working the store. He confirmed that it was closing and would be replaced by a Verizon store. The Shack in Harvard Square closed a couple years ago. Something is ending, although it’s not as sad, for radio nerds like me, as the demise of Heathkits.
ADW Staples 1956
Holy cow – Heathkit! This radio nerd feels your pain!
I’d like to write a version of American Pie dealing with “the day that Heathkit died.”
I still have the Heath oscilloscope that I made in 1957 and I’ve managed to keep it alive. And I built kits with each of my two sons.
Enough of this nerd stuff.
ADW Staples 1956
So sad. One of my go-to stores. The employees were all so helpful and kind. Anything to avoid the big electronic chain stores. Hope all those young folks find new job.
Amazing, over the years brother in law Dennis and I have fixed countless radios, phonographs tape recorders and Heathkit radios and amplifiers with their parts. At least Dennis has tubes, capacitors and resistors to repair almost anything. Now nothing can be repaired just replaced. Sad
The company that took over the the existing Radio Shack franchises when Radio Shack filed for bankruptcy in 2015 is expected to be filing for bankruptcy itself.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-03/radioshack-s-successor-said-to-be-preparing-bankruptcy-filing
ANOTHER WESTPORT GOODIE BITES THE DUST. SO SAD. IT’S BEEN A WONDERFUL GO TO STORE FOR SO VERY LONG . .
Radio Shack closed all but one store in Tucson 3 years ago. So many little electronic things I used to get there, I now have to search for online. It was so easy to take a small bulb or plug to a salesman and ask for help. I miss Radio Shack.
Radio Shack sells flashlights and now you can get one at a discount’
Very sad, but the days of the diy hobbyist is gone and almost all electronics are being bought online….brick and mortar stores are dying.
PS…..you’re showing your age. Crazy Eddies closed before most of your readers were born……scary!
PPS…. Heathkit and stores like Radio Shack started because of the tons of cheap surplus radio parts left over from WWII, Radio was magic back then, now you can stream anything through your phone…
I still talk everyday on the real airwaves. Still magic!
The Radio Shack near me in CA closed about 8 months ago and reopened two weeks later as a Sprint/Radio Shack store. Right side RS, Left side Sprint. Employees had no clue what was happening throughout the entire process.
Dan I sent you a picture!
Just came from there with my new discounted Apple TV 64gb. Very pleasant man helped me. Lots of hi-tech Easter goodies for the kids (flying things, headphones, blue tooth speakers, radios, phone cases, etc.)at good discounts. Also heard that Fairfield’s Black Rock Turnpike RS is closing. Guess they’re all closing.
This was our first tenant in a long history of many who served Westport at this prime location. We are sure another stellar tenant will soon be open for your business. Sad to see them go, we thank you all for your loyal support.
Radio Shack is a great store for most electronic parts especially for those of us who reminisce over Heathkit. But, when we are in pain as we lose a chain store it shows you how starved we are for good locally owned businesses. .
Yes, you’re right.
adw
I’m a fan, but I went in every time for like, one single battery. Plus name of the store- ‘ Radio’ – kind of explains its; death knell.
This just in, from a press release:
General Wireless Operations Inc., doing business as RadioShack, filed for chapter 11 protection on Wednesday night in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, less than two years after the effective date of the liquidating plan in RadioShack’s prior chapter 11 cases. The debtors seek to conduct store closing sales, reject leases for underperforming stores and pursue a sale or restructuring of their remaining assets. The company says it anticipates that “more than 500 and up to substantially all of their stores” will be closed. However, at this time, according to a press release, the company is closing approximately 200 stores and “evaluating options on the remaining 1,300.”
The company attributes the bankruptcy filing to a failure to achieve anticipated benefits under an agreement with Sprint Solutions Inc., that was part of the sale of RadioShack’s assets to the current debtors in the prior bankruptcy. The first day declaration of CEO and President Dene Rogers details that the Sprint agreement was to establish co-branded stores to sell Sprint devices. However, Sprint mobility sales “dropped off precipitously in the fourth quarter of 2016, following the U.S. presidential election, calling the original arrangement into question.” The debtors say that they were not expecting to receive the originally projected 2016 commissions, but also that they would not receive Sprint commissions, “even at a substantially reduced amount” until 2018. “The Debtors’ many stakeholders,” the declaration continues, “who were expecting a considerable cash influx from Sprint during the 2016 calendar year and beyond, lost faith that the Debtors would ever receive these commission payments[.]” Ultimately, as a result, in March 2017, the debtors and Sprint entered into a settlement agreement to terminate the parties’ relationship.
The company reports $100 million to $500 million in both assets and liabilities.
I think I just discovered why the Westport Radio Shack might be having trouble:
http://www.westportnow.com/index.php?/v3/comments/arrest_for_theft_of_iphones_worth_6000/#more