Inevitable closing
RadioShack pulls plug on local stores
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Looking to shop at a RadioShack store? You're probably out of luck.
The struggling electronics retailer is closing all three of its locations in Chautauqua County -- Dunkirk, Lakewood and Jamestown. The sites join around 200 other stores that are shuttering now that their parent company, General Wireless Operations Inc., has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection once again, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
The Dunkirk RadioShack at 3953 Vineyard Drive is gasping its last breath, as it is set to close as early as today, but likely around the weekend, Store Manager Erek Fose stated. With only a couple people on staff now, Fose noted he has been working 11-hour shifts, six to seven days a week.
"We were actually going to close in December," he told the OBSERVER. "For me, from part-timer to a store manager, this has been like up and down this entire time. It's been rough."
RadioShack first sought bankruptcy protection in 2015, when it was sold to General Wireless, an affiliate of hedge fund Standard General. The AP reports RadioShack set up Sprint wireless carrier shops in 1,200 stores.
"All of the sudden, in November last year, the third-party vendor that sells Sprint pulled out; they decided they're going to start pulling people out and that's it, so RadioShack took over and we hired all those people and now we're selling Sprint," Fose explained. "So now I'm taking care of two stores for the same pay."
Although December was the initial target date for closure, Fose pointed out Sprint re-signed its lease, thus keeping the store around. However, after all that time in limbo, the Christmas season was over and shoppers had closed their wallets; the Dunkirk RadioShack was getting a couple customers a day, not making any money.
In February, it thus was instructed to hold a so-called "inventory clearance event" alongside another 200 underperforming stores. A week and a half later, the stores were told to raise their prices, but continue the "clearance event," which irked Fose.
"After that, about a week later, they said, 'You got two weeks; your store's closing again,'" Fose recalled. "Sprint and RadioShack had some sort of -- some big wig somewhere got into a heated argument with somebody else and it was like, 'Take down the signage, put it back up, take down the signage, put it back up,' it was this back and forth. So nobody knows what they're doing up top and it's confusing the heck out of the little guy. I used to have five, six people working for me; now I've got two -- me and one person."
The mixed signals got so bad that Fose on Wednesday said he still wasn't sure of his own store's exact closing date.
"I'm just so upset now," he remarked. "How would you feel about working for a company that does this to you? I could've been looking for other employment. I'm worried about not getting paid my last two checks. I still feel terrible I had to go through all this and then have to be the manager that closes the store."
Fose reasoned the lack of foot traffic in his store has a lot to do with Walmart, which has perfected its business model as the cheaper alternative, as well as the boom in online shopping.
Fortune magazine reports there were about 5,000 RadioShack stores in the country as recently as 2013. That number will dwindle to 1,300 after the process of closing down 200 stores is complete, the AP reports.
The RadioShack in Gowanda is not being impacted by the bankruptcy since it is a locally owned franchise store.
Email: gfox@observertoday.com. Twitter: @gfoxnews