Can Radio Shack fix it?
Ever dropped your phone or tablet? Cracked a screen? RadioShack wants to help. It’s launching a nationwide repair program this week it calls “Fix It Here.”
RadioShack says that customers can bring an injured iPhone or Samsung Galaxy into a store and it’ll be fixed right there. Repair prices start at $79.99.
“I think it’s pretty cool,” says Samuel Gibbs as he leaves a RadioShack store in downtown Washington DC.
He says his girlfriend recently dropped her phone. They didn’t even think about getting it repaired.
“She ended up having to get a new one, which cost us about $250 I think, so it would have been nice to have had a replaced screen instead,” he says.
Radio Shack may be onto something. More consumers are having to buy their own phones, so more may be interested in repairing them when they break. It doesn’t change the fact that Radio Shack has been struggling for years. Will “Fix It Now” fix RadioShack?
Not unless the chain makes other changes, says Harry Wang, director of mobile research at Parks Associates: “They either have to beef up their online program or try to find some really unique kind of merchandise to survive.”
Wang says RadioShack will also have to contend with competition as manufacturers and other big retail chains start their own repair programs.
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