Please, please, Amazon, leave 1/16 of the shelf space for electronic components! Pack them densely, don't offer customer support, and charge high prices. We need brick and mortar places to buy components. It might be worth a lot of goodwill from electronics tinkerers. Although I guess that's not a big enough group to matter, but who knows...

Sounds fishy to me.

Radio Shack tends to have old leases in 2nd tier shopping centers. Why would they buy a marginal retailer with poor footprint, when you could just lease stores yourself?

There was a time when getting space in malls and strip shopping centers was tough. This isn't one of those times.

I wonder if this is their in for B&M stores. I can also see this as part of their plan to start shipping items before you even buy them. I click checkout and it tells me to just go pick up the item from Radio Shack on 6th and Weidler.

This could be very interesting if it proves to be true. Seeing Amazon purchase Radioshack and then miraculously return it to its former glory and exclusively sell electronic components, hobbyist kits and stop selling things like TV and phones would be a move that I would wholeheartedly support as would my inner 7 year old self who has fond memories of going to Radioshack with my dad and buying a bag of LED's and various electronic components to build things.

As a bonus they could use it to locally store popular items, use the stores as pick-up and drop-off zones (as the site suggests) and have a few computers consumers can come in and use to order directly off of Amazon. I would hate to see Radioshack die, it kind of makes me sad to think the brand could just vanish.

Pump n dump. There's a story on bloomberg that radioshack had been a target for months of leveraged buyout rumors in pump n dump schemes and now, finally, "woosh sound of relaxation" thats all over. LOL little optimistic, not done beating this dead horse yet.

It'd be easier for Amazon to sell Amazon smartphones if their customers could first actually hold one in their hands at the local mall.

I'm pretty sure that Amazon will use the best positioned stores as forward stocking locations. They experimented with a similar concept at WebVan i believe. I also think they now realize that what Postmates and Instacart are doing today (using the city as a warehouse) is actually working and can be attractive to customers.

They should treat the stores as a cache for whatever people in the area order. If someone orders something, send two and put one in the store. That should make things interesting.

Oh no I sure hope not, the tax will be back and that is enough to move me to other sites in several cases.

Edit: To clarify, no sales tax was one of the first things Amazon and other online retailers had on their side. They could sell things cheaper, even by a little, and the rest would be made up by not having to pay sales tax. If they have a presence in a state though they have to collect sales tax. If you buy a lot from Amazon it is kind of like taking a 8.5% pay cut in buying power. If you remember back in 1997-8 there were several bills popping up around it. My Google-fu is failing me, but this is a real issue. Amazon even discontinued the associates programs in some states to avoid taxes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_tax

I like the idea that one of the shipping options could be:

"2 day shipping (free with Prime)"

"1 day shipping $3.99"

"Get off your butt and go get it yourself (closest 2 miles)"

Says RadioShack equity holders

This would mean sales tax in all 50 states for amazon purchases.

This is a good example of why we should let failed companies fail and let good companies then salvage the good assets.

Imagine US government had taken over RadioShack to "protect the jobs" using taxpayers money and spent billions for a so called turnaround.

Amazon sells so many different things that it is difficult to find products within a particular niche. When you look for educational toys on Amazon you will not presented with electronic kits (for example) because mostly that is not what a generic customer wants. Even if you go looking for a particular niche it can be very tricky.

There are lots of sites that sell the same products Amazon do but target a particular niche. A brand like RadioShack could use the Amazon backend and only expose a particular type of product that fits within the traditional RadioShack ethos.

Would this be a precursor to their delivering items themselves? I wonder if it would allow them to effectively have mini warehouses which are just behind a convenient store front. Something like Amazon Basics, simple items Amazon users buy all the time just now in your neighborhood shopping center.

Hell they could do shipping and receiving like UPS stores if they want. The possibilities are endless.

Scott Galloway talked about this at last week's DLD. You can hear his points and arguments at 6:50 -very insightful video on why Amazon has reached a point where they must make a brick and mortar acquisition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCvwCcEP74Q

Bezos could refocus on DIY, hobbyists and maker culture... classes (or sponsorship thereof) would be a good direction to get the cash register filling. It's hard to compete with online, open-source, but there are some things people would pay for (and want) in-person.

So, AmAShack or Radiozon?

I'm not sure I see the logic/advantage of taking over existing RadioShack locations as opposed to just making real estate decisions based upon Amazon's own requirements.

A select subset of their stores might be quite select (and limited in number).

Perhaps Amazon Local could expand and extend as a storefront hub that connects with the city's businesses. Or maybe I just wish I could get local goods in Amazon's purchase model

This makes little sense for Amazon. They have a huge product line. What items would they put in a retail outlet? Unless it's a desperate attempt to push their phone/tablet line.

I have always wanted Amazon to have a store so I can play with their kindle products before pulling the trigger. Hopefully this deal can make that happen.

Would make sense for Amazon to do this, they could stock a limited inventory and expand their quick-delivery option for a limited set of products.

The Sears & Roebuck dealer store (Smaller Sears stores in typically in rural locations) remade as an Amazon Prime depot/storefront?

I would like to see Amazon Direct-to-Store pickup locations at all existing radioshacks. Do you hear me Amazon!

Bloomberg is reporting that "THE SHACK!" is in talks to close half its stores and sell the rest to Sprint.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-02/radioshack...

Perhaps Amazon is looking to use these locations as pickup-up-places for shipped packages?

So does a retail presence in every state mean that Amazon will pay sales tax?

I'm sure Amazon is eying every struggling retailer the exact same way.

I would be much more excited if Google bought it. Google lacks a physical presence that Apple has, and they need it.

This is a brilliant PR move.