Those surviving stores would continue under the Sprint branding, so RadioShack would essentially "cease to exist as a stand-alone retailer," according to Bloomberg.
Radioshack business modell was shaken by different trends:
- The rise of Internet sales for electronics
- The fact they had too small size (per store) to propose the wide product range its competitors both online and brick & mortar could propose
- The lack of a clear positionning.
It is sad, because, as I can see in a lot of articles, Radioshack was obviously a real cultural phenomenom in the US.
But Radioshack loss is also another view of how fast retailing is evolving. After companies like Blockbuster, or Barnes & Noble, that used to be icons, who will be next? Sears has been going in limbo for ages, and people are questionning the future of Best Buy. It also shows out that nothing is eternal, and it is important to always keep on questionning your business modell, what your customers want, in order to always adapt.
But as Amazon's strategy is raising a lot of question, maybe soon will be the time when brick & mortar business will find the path to secure its long term existence.
To finish, and to sum up all of it, here is a very interesting video, that shows how people did not really get well what Radioshack was still about, but how emotionnally they were linked with the brand.
