YUMA, Ariz. – Yuma residents are surprised to see the Radio Shack on 4th avenue and 16th street all closed up and out of business. Tina Alozo and Joseph Serna say they have brought their kids to this store many times and are sad to see it go. “We were like wow it’s gone” said Alozo. Serna says “It sucks for the winter visitors because everything’s closing and it’s hard to find a place to hang out at”.
Also surprised by the sudden closing is Arizona@Work who say they are worried about the employees that are now out of work.
“For those affected by radio shack we have job leads and ways to help them”, said Arizona@Work spokesman Patrick Goetz.
Radio Shack is just the latest electronic store to leave the Yuma area. Hastings has announced all of their stores nationwide will be closing their doors including their Yuma location. Those stores are expected to be open until October 31st. But why are all these big box stores closing so many locations? Arizona@Work says it may have something to do with the way consumers of today are shopping.
“Alot of people are going online and buying things… its not because they [the stores] are not doing good but because its a different way of doing business”, said Goetz. “Yeah alot of people shop online now that’s probably the thing now”, added Serna.
But if you’re worried that these stores closing is a bad sign for the Yuma economy, Arizona@Work says things are actually looking good for the Yuma market.
“The logistics, hotels, hospitality, plus the agriculture season is gearing up so it’s going to look good for the fall”, said Goetz.