The Source by Circuit City

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The Source by Circuit City (often referred to only as The Source) (formerly known as RadioShack Canada) is an electronics retailer with over 800 locations across Canada. It is operated by a company known as InterTAN which was acquired by American electronics retailer Circuit City in May 2004.

Battery Plus, THS Studio, UpClose, and G-Wiz are chains of electronics stores also run by InterTAN (Although all except 1 THS Studio have been shut down). The company is based out of Barrie, Ontario, Canada. InterTAN also operated the Rogers Plus chain of wireless retailers until January 28, 2007 when they were taken over by Rogers Retail, a division of Rogers Communications (RCI). In February 2007, it was announced that InterTAN would close down 62 low volume stores across Canada. On March 30, 2007, Circuit City announced to its shareholders that it was seeking options including selling off the InterTAN/The Source by Circuit City subsidiary to cut losses.

[edit] Background

A "The Source by Circuit City" store at a retail strip mall. This store is located in Brandon, Manitoba.

The Source began as the Canadian counterpart of RadioShack. A licensing agreement with the RadioShack Corporation allowed InterTAN to use the name and logo. One week after Circuit City Stores Inc. purchased InterTAN, the RadioShack Corporation filed a lawsuit in the 352nd Judicial District Court in Tarrant County, Texas to end the licensing agreement. RadioShack Corporation claimed that InterTAN had breached the terms of their agreement. On March 24, 2005, the district court judge ruled in favour of RadioShack and cancelled the agreement. The ruling prohibits InterTAN from using the brand name on their stores or in any of their products, packaging, and advertising after June 30, 2005. On April 26, 2005, Circuit City announced that the stores would be renamed, The Source by Circuit City. The rebranding process was completed in the majority of the chain's Canadian stores by July 1, 2005. Even the Radio Shack brand names on the products in the store were changed to Nexxtech and Centrios.

[edit] Publicity

Over the years (especially after the name change), The Source had been losing its customer base to competitors such as Future Shop, Best Buy and retail giant Wal-Mart.^{[citation needed]}.