Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/513366
As for RadioShack, having grown to upwards of 4,000 stores across the U.S. and Mexico, it filed for Chapter 11 in February. The company had been strug- gling amid an increasingly competitive electronics market, escalating operating costs, and a cell-phone and service-sales component that has gotten more diffi- cult to manage. Efforts to reduce costs, to rebrand and to upgrade stores, as recently as 2013 and 2014, proved too little, too late. The new management team, headed by General Wireless CEO Ron Gar- riques, a former executive of Dell and Mo- torola, is set to apply strategies to make the chain more relevant. These plans include co-branding most of the stores as Sprint– RadioShack, reducing the merchandise mix, focusing on smaller cities and build- ing a stronger e-commerce presence. The deal, which got court approval in March, sees General Wireless acquiring the stores AySAyERS WERE MORE than a few when General Wireless, an affiliate of New york City–based hedge fund Standard General, stepped in to rescue roughly 1,740 Ra- dioShack stores from bankruptcy-related closure. Now General Wire- less is hard at work enacting plans to revive the nearly centenarian re- tail chain — yes, it really is that old — and proving those critics wrong. in a bid to take RadioShack private. A key part of the restructuring involves an alliance with Sprint to create co-branded, store-within-a-store units at roughly 1,400 locations. Sprint will occupy a third of the total space in a typical 1,800-square-foot store and will oversee the merchandising and staffing of those in-store units. The new stores will more than double Sprint's existing network of company-owned stores. Sprint will use these stores to sell prepaid and contract phone plans and mobile devices. "This is an opportunity for Sprint to quickly and cost-effectively expand our store footprint in prime locations, and it provides both companies immediate access to each other's customers," said Scott Sloat, a spokesman for Sprint. One caveat is that General Wireless got the rights to the RadioShack name N Rescuing RadioShack Will the latest iN a series of reiNcarNatioNs save the troubled retailer? By Beth Mattson-Teig r e t a i l i N g t o d a y 12 S C t / J u N e 2 0 1 5 T h i s s a g i n a w , T e X a s , R a D i O s h a s O O n B e h O M e T O a s p R i n T s T O R e .