Games - RadioShack

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RadioShack Corporation (formerly Tandy Corporation) () runs a chain of electronics retail stores in the United States, as well as parts of Europe and South America. As of 2003, it has more than 7,000 stores in the USA and reported net sales and operating revenues of $4.6 billion. It will reopen stores in Canada after losing its former subsidiary InterTAN (independent since 1986) to a purchase by Circuit City in 2004. The head office of RadioShack is located in Fort Worth, Texas.

RadioShack's proprietary brands include Optimus (video equipment — discontinued, resurfacing at Christmas '05), Realistic (sound equipment — discontinued), Archer (wiring and antennas — discontinued), and Enercell (batteries and power accessories).

The first 40 years

The company was started as Radio Hut in 1921 in Boston, Massachusetts, by two brothers, Theodore and Milton Deutschmann, who wanted to provide equipment for the cutting-edge field of amateur, or ham, radio. The store's name was taken from the name of the small structure that housed a ship's radio equipment at the time. ("Radio Shack" also refers to the room where a ham has his/her equipment.)

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 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.(http://www.radioshackcorporation.com/media/newcomen.html)

The Tandy years

In 1963 it was bought by the Tandy Corporation (which was originally a leather goods corporation) and renamed Tandy Radio Shack. Tandy eventually got rid of everything but electronics.

Tandy (through InterTAN) also operated a chain similar to Radio Shack in the UK under the "Tandy" name from the 1970s until the late 1990s. The stores were sold to Carphone Warehouse in 1999, and over the next few years were converted to that format, or sold off.

Tandy entered the Australian market in 1973. In 2001 Woolworths Limited acquired the Australian operations. Today there are over 300 stores across the country still operating under the Tandy brand name.

During the 1960s, Radio Shack marketed its free battery card; a wallet-sized cardboard card, free, which entitled the bearer to free flashlight batteries when presented at one of their stores. The cards became a well-known meme of the time, symbolic of what later came to be known as the nerd.

In 1977, Radio Shack introduced the TRS-80, one of the first mass-produced personal computers. Affectionately known as the Trash-80, the machine became a big hit. In the late 1980s, Radio Shack made the transition between its proprietary lines of 8-bit computers to its line of more-or-less IBM-compatible Tandy series of computers. However, shrinking margins and lack of economies of scale led Radio Shack to exit the computer manufacturing market by the mid-1990s.

Radio Shack had another big hit with products designed to take advantage of the Family Radio Service, a short-range walkie-talkie system. Since the mid-1990s, the company has attempted to move into the consumer small components markets, focusing on marketing wireless phones.

Its slogan since 1994 has been "You've got questions, we've got answers."

RadioShack Corp.

In May 2000 the company dropped the Tandy name altogether, instead opting for RadioShack contracted into one CamelCase word. The logo had been changed from the 70's-style bullethole lettering to the current stylized R in 1996.

Also in 2000, the company-owned Realistic and Optimus brands were discontinued when the company entered into an agreement to carry RCA products, although RadioShack hasn't made products under the Realistic name since the early 1990's. When the RCA contract ended in 2004, RadioShack added their own Accurian brand, and then reintroduced the Optimus brand in 2005 on low end products, and has since been discontinued. RadioShack still has its own brand of batteries. The name of this brand is Enercell.

Many RadioShack stores still carry products dating as far back as the 1980's. Older RadioShack products feature the old logo, or an older Realistic or Archer brand name. It is not uncommon to see a few generations of packaging variations on slower moving products.

Until 2002, RadioShack routinely asked for the names and addresses of customers who made purchases so they could be added to the mailing list. Personal information is still requested when purchasing a cellular phone, service plan, mail order part, Direct2U item (which is a fee-free special ordering of a product not in stock), returning an item, or paying with a check. Names and addresses are also required when purchasing or redeeming a gift card. RadioShack customers may still opt to join the mailing list for monthly sale flyers.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for RadioShack ]

Games - RadioShack

The first 40 years

The Tandy years

RadioShack Corp.

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