RadioShack Corporation Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

RadioShack Corporation - Case Study Example With stiff competition in the market and emergence of newer technologies, margins of the company are under pressure as of now, but the company has not yet given up. Its product line include wireless telephones and communication devices such as scanners and two-way radios; flat panel televisions, residential telephones, DVD players, computers and direct-to-home ('DTH') satellite systems; home entertainment, wireless, imaging and computer accessories; general and special purpose batteries; wire, cable and connectivity products; and digital cameras, radio-controlled cars and other toys, satellite radios and memory players. RadioShack also provides third-party services such as wireless telephone and DTH satellite activation, satellite radio service, prepaid wireless airtime and extended service plans to its customers (Datamonitor, 2007, 5). RadioShack started off in 1921 with a one-store retail and mail order operation in the heart of the downtown Boston when two brothers, Theodore and Milton Deutschmann pooled their efforts. The name "RadioShack," was arrived at after considering the most useful radio technology at that time i.e. the shipping radio signals2. RadioShack signifies the small, wooden structure which housed a ship's radio equipment. Therefore, it was thought that the name would be appropriate for a store that would supply the needs of radio officers aboard ships, as well as "ham" radio operators. Gradually, the store started becoming quite a useful one in the Northeast, and became a leading electronics mail-order distributor to hobbyists. And it continued to fulfill the needs of the amateur radio operators and other radio enthusiasts for couple of decades. The company also issued its first catalog in early 1940s, considered a luxury till that time. It opened its first audio comparator showroom for customer s to view audio equipment in 1947. Same year, the company started visualizing the opportunity in the hi-fi equipment market and entered the high-fidelity market with the nations' first audio store in 1947. This store provided comparisons of speakers, amplifiers, turntables and phonograph cartridges. In the mid-1950s, RadioShack began selling its own private-label product line with the Realistic brand name, a variation of Realist, which had been used earlier3. The store chain kept growing in strength and by the early 1960s it had nine retails stores and a mail-order business under its name. Soon, it was a leading distributor of electronic parts and products to do-it-yourselfers around the world. Sooner thereafter, the company started feeling the pinch when the company's some of the poor operating practices took its toll and it fell on hard times. The company was later purchased by Charles Tandy, a successful entrepreneur in leather business, in 1963 for the equivalent of $300,000 cas h. And the dwindling fortunes of the company started looking up once again when Charles Tandy turned out a plan of action for the newly acquired business. Tandy opened RadioShack stores in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany and Holland in 1969. RadioShack sold its first electronic calculator in the year 1972. Subsequently in early 1970s, Tandy Corporation started wrapping up its leather business to concentrate on radio equipment only. By 1975 it became exclusively an electronics company after it spun off all other operations into Tandycrafts and Tandy Brands4. In 1986,