8 Vegas area RadioShack stores headed for ‘potential closure’

NEW YORK — RadioShack Corp. has listed eight stores in the Las Vegas Valley for possible closure as part of its bankruptcy.

Nationwide, there are about 1,780 RadioShack locations planned for possible closure, including the valley stores.

The battered electronics retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday saddled with $1.38 billion in debt, according to court documents.

The local stores on the company’s “potential store closures list” include those at:

■ 4150 Blue Diamond Road, Blue Diamond Crossing, Las Vegas

■ 3119 N. Rainbow Blvd., Cheyenne Commons, Las Vegas

■ 2595 S. Maryland Parkway, Sahara Square, Las Vegas

■ 7460 W. Lake Mead Blvd. at Lake Mead and Buffalo Drive, Las Vegas

■ 4443 W. Charleston Blvd., Charleston Westland Fair, Las Vegas

■ 5600 Boulder Highway, Las Vegas

■ 3596 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas

■ 1300 Sunset Road, Galleria at Sunset mall, Henderson

Charles Thomas, a cashier at the RadioShack at 2595 S. Maryland Parkway, said he has heard his store is closing but didn’t know when.

A person who answered the phone at the RadioShack at 3119 N. Rainbow Blvd. said he also was familiar with the list of potential store closures but had no additional information.

Calls made to several other local stores were not answered.

The company has about 4,000 stores nationwide, including 22 in the valley. It has 27,500 part- and full-time employees.

Hedge fund Standard General is acting as the “stalking horse” or lead bidder for the purchase of up to 2,400 stores. RadioShack is proposing an expedited sale process that would be completed within 45 days. Standard General has separately reached an agreement with Sprint to form a “store within a store” in up to 1,750 of the RadioShack locations.

The Wall Street Journal reported for a story on its website that there will be a final round of sales at the 1,780 RadioShack stores on its list.

Separately on Friday, RadioShack Corp. said it will use a $285 million debtor-in-possession financing from DW Partners LP, a credit-focused fund manager, to back its operation during Chapter 11.

RadioShack traces its roots to 1921, when it opened a store and mail-order operation in Boston to serve the needs of radio officers aboard ships. It was bought in 1963 by Tandy Corp., a retailer that started as a supplier of leather parts to shoe repair shops.

For a time, RadioShack prospered from Americans’ growing love affair with technology. It introduced one of the first mass-market personal computers, the TRS-80, in 1977, and one of the first laptops, the Model 100, in 1983. It also was an early seller of cellphones and satellite television systems.

Reuters and CNN contributed to this report.