So it’s now after midnight PST and the website is still operating. Is this a false alarm or do we have any new information suggesting that the website and stores will be closing on a specific date?
Because I’m starting to suspect that an unnamed employee at a single store might not be the most reliable source of information about the chain’s nationwide operations.
Generally you know, there's a liquidation company that takes over, invalidating returns and other types of inventory rules and they sell everything. Light fixtures, cash registers, etc. They'll be around a bit I'd assume during liquidation.
And who's to say what's next. Payless shoes relaunched just the other month after doing a similar thing and the current owners of RadioShack may, if they listen to me, will relaunch as a hobbyist electronics store (arduino, sbcs, linux laptops, oscilloscopes, logic analyzes, robotics kits, drones, sdrs, 3d printers, smartcar tech, iot things, etc... possibly with "copy shop" like services for laser cutting, cnc machining and 3d printing and hourly workbench rental).
Supposedly it got passed up the chain and is "under discussion".
Offer that + bootcamps/summer camps for kids but focused on physical gear and put it in a couple key population centers and I think the name RadioShack could become one of America's strongest (but not richest) brands. This also permits a flagship model so the launch will be relatively cheap. It's a "retail second" design, like the cat cafes. The first product is the service.
But there is a difference between Fry's closing at some point, which anyone that has been into a Fry's in the past few years expects, and a surprise shutdown between Tuesday and Wednesday with no prior announcement (which is what was implied by the linked tweet and was the most noteworthy).
I think that the fact that we all did expect them to close at some point caused us to overlook the rarity of a company ceasing operations overnight and we just took some rando's word for it.
Edit: it seems like this unnamed source was correct. Closure information is now posted at frys.com, which isn't quite midnight but close enough. I'm still a little disappointed at HN in general for basically taking one unconfirmed source at it's word without any of the top voted comments questioning or asking for confirmation.
Because I’m starting to suspect that an unnamed employee at a single store might not be the most reliable source of information about the chain’s nationwide operations.