RadioShack
RadioShack Corporation runs a chain of electronics retail stores in the United States and Canada, as well as parts of Europe. As of 2003, it has more than 7,000 stores in the US and Canada, and reported net sales and operating revenues of $4.6 billion. It is based in Fort Worth, Texas.
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2 The Tandy years 3 RadioShack Corp. 4 References 5 External links |
The company was started as Radio Shack 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.
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.
In 1963 it was bought by the Tandy Corporation (which originally started as a leather-goods corporation) and renamed Tandy Radio Shack. Tandy eventually got rid of everything but electronics. Tandy also operated a chain similar to Radio Shack in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s, but under the Tandy name.
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.
In May 2000 the company dropped the Tandy name altogether, instead opting for RadioShack contracted into one bicapitalized word.
Until 2001, RadioShack was notorious for asking for the names and addresses of all customers who made even minor purchases so they could be added to the mailing list. This practice was reportedly discounted after the CEO of the company made a purchase at a RadioShack store and realized how annoying it was.
The first 40 years
The Tandy years
RadioShack Corp.
References
External links