RadioShack Had 4,297 Stores. Why Did It Fail?

In 2014, RadioShack's old business was holding. Its phone business was collapsing. Ninety-six days later, it was in bankruptcy court. RadioShack bet fifteen years on selling phones for the carriers, then signed 2013 loans that made it hard to shrink. Built from its own SEC filings and bankruptcy record. We separate what the record documents from our own reading. CHAPTERS 0:00 Ninety-six days 1:50 A store named after a ship's radio room 4:35 1999: Phones become the biggest category 6:09 How a phone made money for RadioShack 8:25 2006: The first public crack 9:28 Doubling down: The Shack, T-Mobile, Target 12:35 Smartphones squeeze the margin 14:36 The 2013 loans 16:51 1,100 closures and the 4,278-store clause 19:19 When the carriers became competitors 21:29 The liquidity spiral 23:31 Chapter 11 24:08 Who bought the stores 25:53 The name after 2015 26:41 The autopsy: what killed RadioShack 28:25 "You've got questions. We've got answers." SOURCES (SEC EDGAR, CIK 96289) Form 10-K FY1999 (Tandy Corp.): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... Form 10-K FY2004: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... Form 10-K FY2006: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... Form 10-K FY2010: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... Form 10-K FY2013: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... Form 10-Q, quarter ended Nov 1, 2014: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... Form 8-K, Feb 5, 2015 (Chapter 11): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... Disclosure Statement, RS Legacy Corp., Aug 10, 2015: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... Press (as attributed): Reuters, Chain Store Age, Retail Dive, AP, NPR, PlanSponsor. A NOTE ON THE NUMBERS 4,297 = U.S. company-operated stores on Dec 31, 2013 (Form 10-K); it excludes 274 Mexico stores and 943 dealer outlets. Some results were restated after the Target Mobile exit (labelled on screen). "Wireless" (to 2010) and "Mobility" (2011+) are different company categories. The ~200-closures-a-year limit is from press reports. Events after 2015 involve later owners of the brand. MORE CASE FILES Motorola:    • Motorola Made the First Handheld Cell Phon...   Nokia:    • Nokia Ruled the Mobile Phone World. Then E...   Greyhound:    • Greyhound: How Its Greatest Asset Became a...   Pyrex:    • Pyrex's Glass Didn't Fail. The Company Beh...   Rubbermaid:    • Rubbermaid: Why Walmart Wasn’t the Whole S...   Tupperware:    • Tupperware: How a Household Empire Lost It...   CREDITS Narration: Alex (ElevenLabs). Stock video: Pexels (Pexels License). Music: YouTube Audio Library: "Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly" (The Grey Room / Density & Time), "Radio Flyer" (Nathan Moore), "Oumuamua" (Alex Hamlin), "Dead Wrong" (Jeremy Blake), "Twin Lynches" (Density & Time), "Things I Could Have Said" (Adam MacDougall). Photos via Wikimedia Commons. Licenses: CC BY 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 · CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 Mike Mozart, CC BY 2.0: "Radio Shack" (13594901725, 13594919063, 13594922493, 13915055660, 14080249648, 14080253728); "Sprint (16150579847)"; "Target Store, Manchester CT (14635941878)" Phillip Pessar, CC BY 2.0: "Another Radio Shack Closing South Beach"; "Radio Shack in West Miami, Florida" Nicholas Eckhart, CC BY 2.0: "Your typical plain and empty RadioShack in Ashtabula, Ohio" Laura Northrup, CC BY 2.0: "RadioShack, Catskill, NY" Anthony Quintano, CC BY 2.0: "MetLife Stadium exterior Super Bowl XLVIII" Jeffrey Zeldman, CC BY 2.0: "New York Stock Exchange Facade 2015" Chris Potter (stockmonkeys.com), CC BY 2.0: "Sprint retail store frontage, New Mexico" Scott Anderson, CC BY 2.0: "Fort Worth skyline in 2011" www.mgaylard.co.uk, CC BY 2.0: "Radio Operators Shack, HMS M33" Michael Steeber, CC BY-SA 2.0: "Former Radio Shack, Manitowoc, WI" Neuwieser, CC BY-SA 2.0: "Fort Worth Skyline" (cropped) Mike Kalasnik, CC BY-SA 2.0: "Martinsburg Mall" Boston Elevated Railway, CC BY-SA 2.0: "Looking west across Dudley Square, circa 1920s" Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 3.0: "Puerto Vallarta Radio Shack" Flominator, modified by Ubcule, CC BY-SA 3.0: "TRS-80 Model I - Rechnermuseum" Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 3.0: "Verizon Wireless Store, Griffin" M.O. Stevens, CC BY-SA 3.0: "Verizon Wireless in Tanasbourne at night" Rico Shen (derivative work), CC BY-SA 3.0: "Motorola DynaTAC" Dave Jones, CC BY-SA 4.0: "Radio Shack Tandy TRS-80 Model I System" Gustavo Belemmi, CC BY-SA 4.0: "RadioShack TRC-222" Suicasmo, CC BY-SA 4.0: "New York Stock Exchange 20170311" Subscribe for new case files. #RadioShack #BusinessDocumentary #EmpireRewind