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General discussion

OH NOES! Radioshack can't close!!

Jul 12, 2010 4:00AM PDT

Discussion is locked

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Radio Shack cannot compete against Mega-Stores
Jul 12, 2010 6:44AM PDT

Hey Robstak, Buzz Gang and Crew,
The article is a little premature. It does make reference that other companies have expressed interest in acquiring Radio Shack and this may still happen. The problem with Radio Shack is similar to

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But...
Jul 12, 2010 7:51AM PDT

Where will people go for electronic components? Who wants to be resigned to limited selection large stores?

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Well...
Jul 12, 2010 9:35AM PDT

There IS this little thing called the internet...

In my view Radio Shack was/is always overpriced for virtually everything they sold/sell. The teed me off to no end a few years ago when I couldn't even buy a battery without them insisting on my name and phone number. It was such b.s.

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While the Internet is great,
Jul 12, 2010 1:59PM PDT

Sometimes you need to get things right away. For example, a few months ago I needed to buy a Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter for a presentation the next day at my small town university. I didn't have a lot of time at that point, and the closest place was a RadioShack.

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(NT) To big to fail? lmao
Jul 12, 2010 11:21AM PDT
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What?
Jul 12, 2010 9:25PM PDT

This just goes to show you that tech people are TERRIBLE for stock and business advice. Buzz Out Loud have been collectively predicting that Sprint would go bankrupt or was doomed for years. Based on what? Because the buzz out loud hosts don't like their phones or coverage. Luckily for Sprint these measures are NOT what decide the bottom line. At the exact same time BOL was predicting Sprint would be doomed, Sprint had a solid P/E and per share income.

Similarly, I guess radio shack is doomed based on the fact that there are some larger stores that tech people find more exciting. WRONG.

http://quote.morningstar.com/Stock/s.aspx?t=RSH

Companies close when they're loosing lots of money year after year. Radioshack had one somewhat bad quarter. At most they'd close down some poorly performing outlets. But I doubt the people writing these articles even bothered to look up basic financial. They just wanted a sensational article that will drive tons of hits and earn them a bunch of advertising revenue.

You can tell they really have no clue what they're talking about in that they both say Radio Shack is doomed, AND state that it is a take-over target. If the business model is DOOMED, then it wouldn't be a takeover target, it would be a future Chapter 7.

I hope people aren't making stock purchasing choices based on what BOL says... people would be losing a lot of money.

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I guess I'm worried because the shack is always empty...
Jul 12, 2010 11:08PM PDT

does anyone else agree?

Whenever I go in to one, I'm generally the only person in there, but if you go into a BuyMore there's always tons of ppl...

so, my perception + this news = worrisome.


It's like the piano store or the hot sauce store in the mall... you always wonder how they stay open... lol but in this case i rly hope they do!

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Sure, some outlets will close
Jul 13, 2010 1:40AM PDT

There are outlets of all sorts of stores that aren't in the black. Retail outlets are always opening and closing, even for successful businesses. There are likely more radio shack outlets which are performing below par. I know there are two Radioshack outlets near me. One of them usually seems to have someone in there buying a mobile phone or something. The other is mostly empty.

So yeah, if the Shack outlet near you is always empty, even during normal shopping hours, then you have good reason to worry it will close.

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Counter example - The Sharper Image
Jul 13, 2010 1:44AM PDT

Thats a good point about the hot sauce stores... I wonder about that sort of store as well. They must make up the lack of business on their margins.

But then again, you have stores like the sharper image which always had people milling about them, but closed anyway because few of those people were buying anything. Moral of the story is that it's hard to tell how well a store is doing based just on the number of customers in said store.

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(NT) good point.
Jul 13, 2010 2:24AM PDT
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Your argument would be fine IF
Jul 13, 2010 12:25AM PDT
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Financial press is even worse
Jul 13, 2010 1:36AM PDT

Outside the respected financial press, the WSJ and a few others, or real analysts that people pay for (like Briefing.com) the quality is terrible.

BOL podcast hosts make bad business predictions because of harmless ignorance. The financial press make whatever business predictions will drive traffic. Or - even worse - they are trying to manipulate stock prices by pumping a story up.

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(NT) Obviously trying to manipulate the market?
Jul 13, 2010 2:24AM PDT
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I dunno but that site (wall street 24/7) looks like a
Jul 13, 2010 2:39AM PDT

typical hype site... I'm not sure if they primarily make money from hype or advertising.