This week, RadioShack CEO James Gooch resigned after only a year on the job, the latest sign of trouble at the struggling electronics retailer, which has reported back-to-back quarterly losses. Like other brick-and-mortar retailers, RadioShack is facing an existential threat from online behemoth Amazon, which sells the same goods for cheaper. In addition, although RadioShack has identified smartphone sales as a primary area for growth, it's competing there with Apple Stores, plus AT&T and Verizon outlets. Can RadioShack win back the hearts and minds of electronics shoppers?
Yes. Customers still want a physical electronics store: Gooch's departure is a "golden opportunity" for a new leader with vision, says Laura Heller at Forbes. With 4,700 stores nationwide, RadioShack has "tremendous geographical reach." And with its strong focus on smartphones, "there has to be a way for RadioShack to succeed in a market where small, mobile devices are rapidly becoming the most purchased and used consumer products in the world." Shoppers are "hungry for a place close to home they can physically visit," and a "friendly neighborhood technology store would fill that gap."
"RadioShack's CEO loss is its biggest opportunity"
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No. RadioShack's smartphone strategy won't succeed: Sure, smartphones are booming and RadioShack wins points for offering a "variety of devices from the major carriers," says Rick Aristotle Munarriz at The Motley Fool. But it's not easy to make money in the long term as a third-party distributor. "It's the wireless carrier that establishes a direct relationship with the customers," which means RadioShack is "really just a retailer of wings, applauding as its patrons fly away with their purchases." Customers "may come in for replacement charging cords and accessories, but it's ultimately a cesspool of crummy margins."
And investors are jumping ship: "There's a stirring scene in the movie Titanic in which passengers on the lowest decks of the ill-fated liner are following the rats as they scurry to higher ground to escape the rising flood," says Marc Bastow at InvestorPlace. Reminiscent of that scene: The exodus of panicked shareholders from RadioShack. The company's share price has dropped a painful 73 percent this year alone, cutting its valuation to a quarter of what it once was. "Life jackets, anyone?"
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