Can RadioShack make a comeback?

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"

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

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."

"RadioShack's CEO steps down"

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?"

"RadioShack sends out an SOS"