With RadioShack kicking the bucket, who will fill its shoes?

[atrainradio]

What I mean is, will there be a new chain of stores that make up for the loss of of radioshack? Do you think the new stores will be more keen on RADIO, and not CELL PHONES. Call it "waveshack"


For my sake, I hope so.

[BDM]

Radio? Radioooo? You wish for much from the corporate heads of state 

[redhat]

From the electronic perspective, I think most people gave up on RS and went mail order in the late 90's.  Most have a major parts house 2 days shipping from them, and I think that's OK.  Allied, Digikey, Mouser, et al seem to be doing gangbuster business and I doubt that will change.  Depending on where you are, there are surplus places around the country that specialize in electronics surplus.  There's nothing like walking down a row of bins and selecting your parts

+-RH

[Nella F.]

     I still listen to "radio", mostly because it's my main hobby (maybe habit would be a better word), nurtured since the late '50's. Also, I have "land line" telephone service making access to the internet via the local library Exclusively (don't own a computer). Almost All of my friends/acquaintances (twenty something's to baby boomers) have cell phones, tablets, computers, ipods & all the rest. The way I see it, If our "Sun" spews out The massive solar storm & literally destroys "The Internet", radio will continue to decline in popularity. At least in so-called first world countries. Now, places like India, might take a bit longer. And there will be old farts like me that will covet my radios to the day I croak.  

[Pigmeat]

I've actually had RS employees refer me to Digikey and Mouser a number of times in the past two decades when I was looking for parts.

The key to dealing with RS in the past few years was locating the lone geek amongst the phone salesmen in the store. They normally could be found in the back of the store fooling around with some project on their down time.

[Nella F.]

    I still listen to "radio", mostly because it's my main hobby (maybe habit would be a better word), nurtured since the late '50's. Also, I have "land line" telephone service making access to the internet via the local library Exclusively (don't own a computer). Almost All of my friends/acquaintances (twenty something's to baby boomers) have cell phones, tablets, computers, ipods & all the rest. *The way I see it, If our "Sun" spews out The massive solar storm & literally destroys "The Internet", radio will continue to decline in popularity. At least in so-called first world countries. Now, places like India, might take a bit longer. And there will be old farts like me that will covet my radios to the day I croak.  

*What I meant to say was as long as our Sun doesn't spew a massive solar storm thus destroying "The Internet", radio will continue to decline in popularity.

[BoomboxDX]

There won't be any new radio stores, except possibly boutique online ventures tailored towards radio geeks.

Most people under age 20 have no (or little) idea what a radio is. They get all their entertainment via smartphone. Which makes it ironic that Sprint is reportedly buying many Radio Shacks.

You can still see radios for sale in a store here where I live. The local box stores have several -- usually several clock radios and a CD boombox or two, an FM radio with docking for your IPod or whatever, and 2-3 headset radios.

[OldSeaRock]

Most people under age 20 have no (or little) idea what a radio is. They get all their entertainment via smartphone. Which makes it ironic that Sprint is reportedly buying many Radio Shacks.

BINGO.  Devolution.