After RadioShack filed for bankruptcy in 2015, a new company — formed by a partnership between Sprint and the Shack’s new owners at Standard General — rose out of the ashes. Now comes news that this company, General Wireless, may also be facing bankruptcy.
According to insider sources who spoke to Bloomberg, a filing could happen within the next few days and is likely to result in liquidation.
When RadioShack declared bankruptcy, it closed around 2,300 of its stores, but kept around 1,700 of them open in partnership with Sprint, as well as a few hundred franchised locations, with the idea that they’d act like convenience stores for electronics.
But the plan for RadioShack to stay alive after almost 100 years hasn’t been helped by flagging foot traffic and the dominance of online shopping, a retail environment that’s hurting many chains these days, including fellow electronics retailer BestBuy.
While retailers like hhgregg have taken the axe to large chunks of stores at a single blow, General Wireless has instead whittled away at its retail footprint, closing smaller numbers of stores over the last few months in various parts of the country, including in Michigan, Texas, Maine, and New Hampshire.
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist