Wednesday, November 12, 2014

"RadioShack Backtracks on Thanksgiving Hours After Worker Outcry" $RSH

Sad story:

RadioShack employees posted comments on an internal message board complaining about the disruption of opening on Thanksgiving -- and the short notice that was given. Some have even resigned, according to one store manager.

“My staff isn’t coming in...they refuse,” another employee posted. “I DON’T BLAME THEM.”

14 comments:

Stagflationary Mark said...

It is sad. It reminds me a bit of this.

November 27, 2012
Twinkies Maker Hostess Going Out of Business, CEO Blames Union Strike

“We deeply regret the necessity of today’s decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike,” Hostess CEO Gregory F. Rayburn said in announcing that the firm had filed a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to shutter its business. “Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders.”

It's tough to have worker negotiating power when a company is on the brink. Radio Shack currently trades at 90 cents. It is not a pillar of retail strength.

MrGotham said...

It's also difficult when you can't rationalize operations, as the 2nd lien lender is preventing at RSH, and as the Teamsters prevented in the Hostess situation:

Under the latest turnaround plan, the sticking point was Hostess's distribution operations, source of the Hostess horror stories filling the media. Union-imposed work rules stopped drivers from helping to load their trucks. A separate worker, arriving at the store in a separate vehicle, had to be employed to shift goods from a storage area to a retailer's shelf. Wonder Bread and Twinkies couldn't ride on the same truck.

Hostess has spent eight of the past 11 years in bankruptcy. As the company explained to its latest judge, the Hostess brands "have not been able to profit from many of their existing delivery stops and have been unable to enter potentially profitable markets, such as dollar stores, vending services and movie theaters."

If Hostess were able to rationalize or outsource delivery to serve these customers, ready to go are "new products based on its best-selling cake items that have a longer shelf-life and can withstand freezing en route to customers over longer transportation hauls."


http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324352004578130912150512612

Stagflationary Mark said...

Union-imposed work rules stopped drivers from helping to load their trucks. A separate worker, arriving at the store in a separate vehicle, had to be employed to shift goods from a storage area to a retailer's shelf.

I sometimes think that unions can be their own worst enemies. This is one of those times.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Speaking of unions...

Look for the Union Label (Musical Tribute)

Union employment jobs (working directly for unions) have gone parabolic (to the downside).

eah said...

Pathetic. It's pathetic that RSH management thinks that staying open from 8am to midnite on Thanksgiving will materially help.

Maybe that's one reason they're in this fix to begin with? RSH has pathetic management.

CP said...

They just have an obsolete business model, which makes it impractical to attract good management.

They should have just put the business in runoff a decade ago, shareholders would have more to show for it and creditors wouldn't have gotten burned:
http://www.creditbubblestocks.com/2014/10/an-obsolete-retailer-in-runoff.html

They sure have a lot of management though:
http://www.creditbubblestocks.com/2014/09/radio-shack-sg-who-is-at-corporate.html

Wonder how many of those people are still there?

Anonymous said...

"If you can stand it, watch the zombie like video of RadioShack, Brand Manager, Amy Shineman."

http://adscam.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/05/shack-shit.html

Stagflationary Mark said...

eah,

Maybe that's one reason they're in this fix to begin with? RSH has pathetic management.

Would pathetic management build themselves a corporate shrine in 2004/2005?

RadioShack constructed their new 38 acre corporate campus on the site of the old Ripley Arnold Housing Project and their old surface parking lot located at the junction of the West and Clear Forks of the Trinity River. The campus opened in phases in 2004 and 2005. It was purchased by Tarrant County College in 2008, and a significantly smaller RadioShack Coporation leases two of the buildings.

...

The most notable feature of the campus is the curving fountain between the store and the main entrance. This curving fountain starts out at grade near the corner of Belknap and Taylor and stays at a level elevation. As the grade steps down toward the main entrance, water flows over the west wall of the fountain. A walkway passes beneath the water wall and the fountain. At night, the fountain is illuminated by multi-colored LED fixtures that are controlled by computer, offering an ever changing light and water show.

Oddly enough, it did not seem to boost retail sales much. Shocking.

MrGotham said...

Ah yes, the great palatial HQ contrary indicator. Almost infallible. 2004 did mark the post tech bubble high for the stock (so far of course, I'm sure it will be on a ramp back up to $36 any day now.)

CP said...

They held onto their HQ for about three years. Has any company ever lost the ability to occupy its palatial HQ faster?

CP said...

There is poor Wilbur Foshay, whose business went into receivership six weeks after his namesake Foshay Tower opened in Minneapolis in November 1929.

It remained the tallest building in Minneapolis until the IDS Center surpassed it in 1972.

Sad story.

Stagflationary Mark said...

CP,

For what it is worth, my doomed division was planning to move to a much nicer facility. I quit before I saw the inside of it.

Unknown said...

Union-imposed work rules stopped drivers from helping to load their trucks. A separate worker, arriving at the store in a separate vehicle, had to be employed to shift goods from a storage area to a retailer's shelf. Wonder Bread and Twinkies couldn't ride on the same truck.

Wow, that is absolutely nuts.

CP said...

It makes sense that unions would eventually go away, over a long enough time period. All it would take is competition (Places where unions have less state-granted extortion power.)

If you think about it, unions are insane. They expect extra producer surplus, akin to what a provider of capital would receive, and in exchange they make the operation less efficient and reduce the total surplus.