Fortunately is that since today RadioShack. Radioshack Ashland,wi… has actually formally been purchased by Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV), giving the troubled company a brand-new lease on life. The downside, a minimum of for folks like us, is that there are no immediate plans to return the iconic electronics retailer to its brick-and-mortar roots. As the name indicates, REV focuses on online retail, having actually previously revamped the Web existence of other bankrupt companies such as Pier 1 Imports and Dressbarn.
While the press release doesn’t straight-out prevent the possibility of new physical RadioShack places, it’s clear that REV believes the future of retail isn’t to be discovered in your local shopping center. As the United States mulls further lockdowns in action to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, it’s hard to disagree. There will be millions of bored kids and grownups searching for something to do during the long winter nights, and an electronic set or 2 delivered to their door might be just the thing.
REV says they plan to relaunch the rather dated RadioShack site just in time for the company’s 100th anniversary in 2021. As of this writing the website currently states that sales have been temporarily halted to allow for stock restructuring, though it’s uncertain if this is straight related to the buyout or not. Getting a precise count of just how much merchandise the business still has on hand after shuttering the majority of their physical areas in 2017 certainly sounds like something the new owners would wish to do.
We all understand how that story ended.
RadioShack’s shambling remains were given another shock of life today when they were purchased by another business that prepares to relaunch the once-great seller as an online-focused brand.
The store’s remains were acquired by Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV), a startup founded in 2019 that’s been scooping up brand names from other faded retail giants too, consisting of Pier 1, Modell’s Sporting Product, Dressbarn, and more. REV says RadioShack’s website already has “strong existing sales and sales capacity,” and the company is “confident” it can further raise awareness of the brand name worldwide.
REV claims 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 revenue in between the 2nd and first quarter of 2020.
RadioShack was founded in 1921 and became a retail staple in the ’80s and ’90s for anyone aiming to get tech fundamentals. For a very long time, that suggested real radio parts, however ended up consisting of lots of electronic toys (one Edge editor fondly remembers his Armatron) and eventually phones. Its fortunes declined significantly as online shopping got here, and the company applied for personal bankruptcy twice in the past five years. RadioShack still licenses its name to third-party “licensed” shops and offers branded products within some places of HobbyTown, a crafts merchant– similar to how you can still find “Sharper Image” items at Kohl’s despite the fact that that merchant shut its physical doors over a years earlier. REV didn’t state whether those RadioShack licenses would stay. Radioshack Ashland,wi
REV says it will “soon relaunch” RadioShack’s site. For those of you still clinging on to fond memories of the shop, there’ll be a familiar adequate location to go when you desire to buy expensive HDMI cables and knockoff earphones.