Retail carnage continues
RadioShack shuts over 1,000 stores
It has been another week of U.S. retail carnage, with multiple chains reporting store closures.
Electronics retailer RadioShack has closed more than 1,000 stores since Memorial Day weekend and has become a virtual goner, saying it would have only 72 company-owned stores remaining by Thursday.
The chain held a giant liquidation sale over the weekend “before we close the stores for good,” it said in a statement. Also remaining are about 500 dealer-owned stores.
The meltdown of what was once one of America’s best-known chains represents a strange turn of events considering it was only in March that parent General Wireless Operations filed for bankruptcy protection and proposed closing only about 200 RadioShack stores.
General Wireless left the door open to closing more — though few observers expected the numbers to top 1,000 soon.
Now, the remaining company-owned stores will include only seven states, with the greatest concentration in New York, Pennsylvania and RadioShack’s native Texas.
In its heyday, Fort Worth-based RadioShack had 7,300 stores and could claim that it had a store within three miles of 95% of all American households. It was a regular stop for consumers for all nature of electronics — from stereos to walkie talkies. It also became a regular stop for incidental items like cables or antennae to hook up a TV set, batteries for toys or transistor radios, or early laptop computers like the TRS-80.
But like so many other retailers, it has become a victim of the internet. Now, when people need electronic gear, more than ever they turn to online retailers.
RadioShack began in Boston in 1921.
As for the RadioShack authorized dealers, many appear similar to the company owned stores, having stocked RadioShackbranded merchandise. Others differ by carrying items that wouldn’t be found in the companyowned stores.
Payless ShoeSource unveiled this week a second round of store closings as its bankruptcy reorganization moves forward, bringing the total number of locations to be closed this year to as many as about 800.
The discount shoe retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April and said it was closing about 400 locations, including 378 in the United States.
The company is now asking a federal bankruptcy judge to let it close up to 408 additional stores. The company has said it is seeking rent concessions at those locations and could keep some open.
Michael Kors said Wednesday that it would close 100 to 125 stores as the luxury retailer’s slump deepens.
The luxury retail sector’s struggles are bludgeoning Michael Kors, which also acknowledged that it had delivered an underwhelming store experience for consumers.
The company had 827 full-price or outlet stores and another 133 licensed stores for a total of 960 worldwide when its fiscal year ended April 1.