RadioShack, formerly RadioShack Corporation, is an American retailer founded in 1921. At its peak in 1999, RadioShack operated over 8,000 worldwide stores named RadioShack or Tandy Electronics in the United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.

Do you remember Radio Shack?

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RadioShack, formerly RadioShack Corporation, is an American retailer founded in 1921. At its peak in 1999, RadioShack operated over 8,000 worldwide stores named RadioShack or Tandy Electronics in the United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.

Radio Shack started in 1921 in Boston, Massachusetts by brothers Theodore and Milton Deutschmann. They wanted to provide equipment for the cutting-edge field of amateur, or ham, radio. The store’s name was taken from a slang phrase of the time denoting any place where radio equipment was kept and used.

The company issued its first catalog in the early 1940s and then entered the high-fidelity music market. In 1954, Radio Shack began selling its own private-label products under the brand name Realist, but was subsequently sued and consequently changed the brand name to Realistic. After expanding to nine stores plus an extensive mail-order business, the company fell on hard times in the 1960s. Radio Shack was essentially bankrupt, but Charles Tandy saw the potential of Radio Shack and retail consumer electronics when hardly anyone else did and bought the company for $300,000.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Radio Shack marketed its free battery card; a wallet-sized cardboard card, free, which entitled the bearer to free batteries when presented at one of their stores. The bearer was limited to one a month, although many customers would frequent several stores with several cards every month. These cards also served as generic business cards for the salespeople in the 1980s; the “battery club” card was still used until the company-wide changes in the early 1990s.

At its peak in 1999, RadioShack operated over 8,000 worldwide stores named RadioShack or Tandy Electronics in the United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. Outside of those territories, the company licensed other companies to use the RadioShack brand name in parts of Asia, North Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

In February 2015, RadioShack Corporation filed for Chapter 11 protection under United States bankruptcy law after 11 consecutive quarterly losses. By then, it was operating only in the United States and Latin America.

In May 2015, General Wireless Inc., an affiliate of Standard General, bought the company’s assets, including the RadioShack brand name and related intellectual property, for US$26.2 million. General Wireless Operations Inc. was formed to operate the RadioShack stores, and General Wireless IP Holdings LLC was formed to hold the intellectual property.

During RadioShack Corporation’s bankruptcy proceeding 2015, RadioShack Corporation sold the RadioShack brand rights to different entities around the world. Mexico-based Grupo Gigante, through its subsidiary RadioShack de México, owns the RadioShack brand within Mexico. El Salvador-based Unicomer Group owns the RadioShack brand within the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean. Egypt-based Delta RS for Trading owns the RadioShack brand within North Africa and the Middle East. General Wireless IP Holdings LLC retained rights to the RadioShack brand in all remaining territories, which is mainly the United States because General Wireless IP Holdings never had the rights to the RadioShack brand in other parts of the world that were previously assigned to InterTAN in 1986, such as Australia until 2020 when it sold the branding rights to Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV).

In March 2017, General Wireless Inc. and subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy, claiming its Sprint partnership was not as profitable as expected, and announced plans to close most of their company-owned stores after Memorial Day Weekend in 2017, and to shift its business primarily to online.

In November 2020, Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV), a holding company owned by Alex Mehr and his partner Tai Lopez, a controversial investment influencer, acquired RadioShack. RadioShack operates primarily as an e-commerce website, a network of independently owned, franchised RadioShack stores, and a supplier of parts for HobbyTown USA.

The Rise & Fall of Radio Shack

1921FoundedRadio Shack was Founded

Radio Shack started in 1921 in Boston, Massachusetts by brothers Theodore and Milton Deutschmann. They wanted to provide equipment for the cutting-edge field of amateur, or ham, radio. The store’s name was taken from a slang phrase of the time denoting any place where radio equipment was kept and used.

2017OnlineThe End of Radio Shack Stores

RadioShack operates primarily as an e-commerce website, a network of independently owned, franchised RadioShack stores, and a supplier of parts for HobbyTown USA.

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