The brick-and-mortar retail landscape changes quickly.
It seems like just yesterday that Sports Authority was a major challenger to Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) -) and people actually argued whether they liked Borders Books & Music better than Barnes & Noble.
The same question pitted Circuit City against Best Buy (BBY) -), but now, of course, Borders, Sports Authority, and Circuit City have been sent to retail heaven.
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Those brands disappeared even after various tries to resuscitate some of them as digital operations. Old retail brands never seem to die, however, but whatever entity owns them does not always use them well.
Retail Ecommerce Ventures has spent the past few years acquiring well-known and, for the most part, well-liked retail-chain names. In fact, the company owns the rights to Dress Barn, Pier 1, Stein Mart, Modell’s Sporting Goods, and Linens ’n Things -- a pretty impressive strip-mall lineup back in the day.
That company has made big promises: On its website, it says it's going to “transform well-known undervalued retail brands into e-commerce success stories,” but that hasn't happened yet.
Until May, REV owned another legendary brand, Radio Shack, but it has now become public that the once ubiquitous electronics retail brand has a new owner, opening the door for a comeback.
Image source: Getty Images
Welcome back, Radio Shack?
Radio Shack had a slow, painful death culminating in two Chapter 11 filings, in 2015 and 2017. Multiple attempts to save the brand had been made. There was the "The Shack" rebrand, which tried to make a store known for selling blank cassette tapes, computer parts, and other electronic odds and ends hip.
The retailer was once essential: If you needed a part for your electronics or an accessory, then almost certainly a Radio Shack was nearby. At its peak, the chain had more than 5,000 locations, but more than any other chain, the internet made it irrelevant.
Yes, Radio Shack could sell you a tripod or a printer cable immediately, but Amazon (AMZN) -) offered better prices and two-day home delivery, hurting the chain's key selling point. Add in that new technology like the iPhone simply couldn't be repaired by regular folks, and a chain that had a wall devoted to soldering irons always had a limited life span.
Radio Shack, of course, has never fully gone away; some independently owned locations are still operating in the U.S. Now, however, the chain has been sold by Retail Ecommerce Ventures to Unicomer, which owned rights to the brand in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean
The new owner has now added rights to the Radio Shack name in about 70 countries, including the U.S. and Canada, Europe, and China, RetailDive reports. That's a move that could mark its return to relevancy in its home market.
Radio Shack's new owner has a plan
While Radio Shack may not be what it was in the U.S., most Americans over 30 know the brand name. That has proven valuable for brands like Toys 'R' Us, which has found new life as a store-within-a-store at Macy's (M) -). Radio Shack could follow a similar path.
Its new owners have a plan, but they're not sharing much of it.
“We have led a successful expansion strategy for the brand. This acquisition will allow us to start another phase of growth and innovation in the shopping experience with the latest technology," Unicomer's franchises vice president, Rudy Siman, said in a news release.
"We have consolidated the franchise we have been operating for 25 years and through which we have generated thousands of employment opportunities in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.”
The company does operate brick-and-mortar Radio Shack locations in many countries. It has not said whether it plans to expand that to the U.S., but it does seem logical given the company's history as the brand's largest franchise operator.
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