NEW YORK–Electronics retailer Radio Shack plans to close as many as 1,100 stores–or nearly 20 per cent of its locations.The company said yesterday that the closings will leave it with more than 4,000 stores, including 900 operated as franchise locations.
Radio Shack also reported that sales at stores open at least a year fell 19 per cent in the last quarter, which included the important holiday shopping period. It blamed the drop on traffic declines and weak sales of mobile devices, such as cellphones. Its net loss in the period roughly tripled.CEO Joseph Magnacca told investors the stores to be closed were lower performing locations had been forecast to lose money this year.
Radio Shack has one of the largest footprints of any US retailer, with about 5,200 locations in the United States. Company filings say that more than 90 per cent of the US population lives or works within minutes of a Radio Shack location. Chief financial officer John Feray said that within five miles of his Fort Worth, Texas, home there are eight Radio Shack stores.
By comparison, Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, has about 3,700 US stores, while Best Buy, one of Radio Shack's major competitors in the electronics sector, has 1,400 US locations.Radio Shack has 27,500 employees worldwide. The number of jobs that will be lost in the store closings was not disclosed, nor were the locations.
Radio Shack has also publicly admitted its current stores are out of date and in need of a massive overhaul. Its Super Bowl ad this year was a self-deprecating acknowledgment that its stores are stuck in the 1980s. It has closed about 100 US stores each of the last two years.
CNN
