As tech retailer RadioShack put its ducks in a row for bankruptcy proceedings, a new report claims online mega-retailer Amazon may be interested in buying some of the Shack’s retail locations.
Citing two people with knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg says Amazon has discussed purchasing some of the storefronts and turning them into pick-up and drop-off centers for online customers
RadioShack’s bankruptcy plan calls for it to sell off a portion of its 4,000 U.S. retail locations – possibly to wireless carrier Sprint, or the company behind Brookstone – and close the rest.
Amazon has long been rumored to be interested in expanding its operations to actual retail locations, where customers could pick up items ordered online, and where Kindle might be able to push some of its own products, such as the Kindle e-reader, Kindle Fire tablets, and Kindle Fire TV set-top box.
At this point, it isn’t known exactly how many RadioShack stores Amazon might purchase, if any at all.
Amazon opened a series of pop-up stores in California last fall, and was rumored to be opening its first permanent retail location in New York City in time for the Christmas shopping season, however those rumors proved untrue.
The death of RadioShack has been a long, painful one for the once successful electronic gadget reseller. Once catering to electronics hobbyists with its offerings of components and gadgets, its inability to adapt to the world of online retailing led to the company’s becoming nothing more than a mere punchline in the tech world.
RadioShack has experienced two straight years of losses, and with trading of the company’s stock having been suspended on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, the firm is now circling the bankruptcy drain.
