RadioShack’s shambling remains were provided another jolt of life today. Is Radioshack Alive?… when they were acquired by another business that prepares to relaunch the once-great seller as an online-focused brand.
The shop’s remains were acquired by Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV), a startup founded in 2019 that’s been scooping up brands from other faded retail giants too, including Pier 1, Modell’s Sporting Product, Dressbarn, and more. REV states RadioShack’s website currently has “strong existing sales and sales potential,” and the company is “confident” it can even more raise awareness of the brand name globally.
REV declares it’s successfully turned around other companies it’s launched as online brand names. The Wall Street Journal reported that Dressbarn more than doubled its profits in between the very first and 2nd quarter of 2020.
RadioShack was founded in 1921 and ended up being a retail staple in the ’80s and ’90s for anybody aiming to get tech basics. For a very long time, that implied actual radio components, but wound up consisting of lots of electronic toys (one Brink editor fondly remembers his Armatron) and ultimately phones. Its fortunes declined vastly as online shopping arrived, and the business declared personal bankruptcy two times in the past 5 years. RadioShack still accredits its name to third-party “authorized” stores and sells top quality products within some areas of HobbyTown, a crafts merchant– comparable to how you can still discover “Sharper Image” products at Kohl’s although that retailer shut its physical doors over a decade back. REV didn’t say whether those RadioShack licenses would remain. Is Radioshack Alive?
REV says it will “quickly relaunch” RadioShack’s site. So for those of you still clinging on to fond memories of the store, there’ll be a familiar sufficient place to go when you wish to purchase overpriced HDMI cable televisions and knockoff earphones.