RadioShack Had About 7,000 Stores, Lost $400.2 Million in 2013, and Filed for Chapter 11 in 2015

In July, the SEC was reported to be close to a settlement with Tai Lopez, co-founder of the company that owned the RadioShack name from 2020 to 2023 — accused by the SEC of a Ponzi-like scheme of about $112 million. Twelve years earlier, RadioShack paid about $4 million for thirty seconds of the Super Bowl to admit its own store was stuck in the 1980s. One month later it reported a $400 million loss for 2013. This is the story of the part nobody else had. In 1963 Charles Tandy, whose family business in Fort Worth sold leather-craft kits, bought a nearly bankrupt Boston radio chain and put a small store near almost everyone. Then the front counter became a phone counter, paid in carrier commissions. Chapter 11 came in 2015, a second bankruptcy in 2017, and then a brand sold from owner to owner. Sources on screen and below: RadioShack's filings with the SEC (XBRL and the 10-K for 2012 and 2013), SEC Litigation Release LR-26413, the Delaware bankruptcy court, RadioShack's and Unicomer's own press releases, and reporting from The New York Times, Reuters, Forbes, CBS News, NPR, CNBC, the Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, Ad Age, Wired and Consumer Reports, 1963-2026. Attributed, because a single source carries them: every 2026 step of the SEC case against the REV founders (InsuranceNewsNet, New York Post, FedLaws) — an accusation, not a verdict; the wireless share of revenue (The Dallas Morning News); the residual model credited to Len Roberts (The Seattle Times); the 2000 Billboard interview; the 95% of households (CNBC); the carrier cuts after the iPhone (Investopedia); the TRS-80 sales (Smithsonian). Unicomer, which owns the brand today, has no part in the SEC case.CHAPTERS 0:00 RadioShack's former owners and the SEC Ponzi case, 2026 0:49 Radio Shack, Boston 1921, and Charles Tandy's leather kits 4:18 The TRS-80, 1977: a computer in the parts store 6:04 Seven thousand RadioShack stores and the drawer of parts 7:55 Phone contracts: carrier commissions and residual income 10:45 CEO David Edmondson's resume and the layoffs by e-mail, 2006 12:46 The Super Bowl ad, 2014: "The '80s called" 14:13 The $400 million loss and the Chapter 11 of 2015 15:41 General Wireless, Tai Lopez and who owns RadioShack now IMAGE CREDITS Press and brand material (time.com ×2, amazon.com ×2, mashable.com, last10k.com, cheddarflow.com, tasteofcountry.com, abcnews.go.com, nacion.com, yahoo.com, pcgalore.com, logodix.com, eejournal.com, kottke.org, theguardian.com, prnewswire.com) — 17 images used, short excerpts used for commentary and criticism Wikimedia Commons — 16 images used, all public domain Pexels — 12 images used, all public domain Item-by-item credits for every image above — author, licence, URL and sha1 — are in the project's CREDITOS.md. ARCHIVE FOOTAGE Pexels — 12 clips, all public domain archive.org — 3 clips, short excerpts used for commentary and criticism RadioShack Catalogs — 1 clip, short excerpts used for commentary and criticism JobToi — 1 clip, short excerpts used for commentary and criticism Bionic Disco — 1 clip, short excerpts used for commentary and criticism Company Man — 1 clip, short excerpts used for commentary and criticism Buried History with Jonathan Reed — 1 clip, short excerpts used for commentary and criticism The Last Shift — 1 clip, short excerpts used for commentary and criticism Archive footage is used in short excerpts, without the original soundtrack, to comment on the events it records. AI RECONSTRUCTIONS — 7 of the 52 images in this episode (13%) are AI-generated reconstructions, made where no public-domain photograph of the scene survives. They are period-styled illustrations, not archival records, and this video is flagged as containing altered or synthetic content. Every one is listed, with its prompt, in the project's CREDITOS.md. Music composed for this episode. Archival photographs are unaltered except for cropping and color grading. Built to Break: one brand per episode — the bet that built it, and the moment the same bet cracked it. Every number on screen has a source. #BuiltToBreak #CompanyHistory #RadioShack