Radio Shack has not been known to be the first stop for most
serious gamers' needs. A cable here, an audio adapter there — console peripherals are mostly what you'll find on the
company web site's current
Gaming section (except for the lone Nintendo DS on offer
here). If a CAG forum user (with a relevant corporate logo as his or her avatar) is to be believed, however,
RadioShack will begin to offer over 1100 games and a bit more hardware on RadioShack.com by the end of the month,
including pre-orders for the Xbox 360. Brick & mortar stores will apparently not stock the new selection, but will
allow customers to order from the web site in-store instead (dealing with shelf-space and inventory issues in one
e-tailing blow).
Now there's not much proof here to go on beyond the word of a dedicated CAG forum member, but CAG has been good to us before (see the DS price-drop rumor), so this news should not be dismissed lightly. Also, if RadioShack maintains its free ground shipping option (for orders $50 and up?), we may have a new destination for a variety of games you can't find in most big-box retailers. The actual prices for whatever games are carried will probably make or break this deal, so here's hoping RadioShack execs know what the market will bear. At the very least, we'll hopefully have one more place to try when Xbox 360 (or other next-gen console) pre-order stock runs low. As long as they don't simply throw more electronic poker and checkers handhelds at us, I'll be satisfied.
[Thanks, fanskad]
Update: More Radio Shack employees are coming out to confirm the relaunching of RadioShack.com by September 15th (as opposed to August) with some 10,000 total items, including games, being added to the online store. (See the comments beginning here for more.) Additional details were received during today's district meeting for managers, and employee commissions may also get tallied for in-store orders from the web site. Thanks to strider_mt2k, Crimson, Recon180, and Puh Fifer for their comments. Good luck with the employee discount, guys! (Maybe a 360 Core system with a few discounted accessories could be worth getting for a few 'Shack employees. Maybe.)
