My humble self worked as a sales person at Radio Shack when they came out with their electronic calculator. Then it was big hoopla when RS combined with Allied Radio and the size of the products offered really jumped as talk started about anti-trust action against the combo. It seemed like the future was very shiny and ever bright. At the time the highest profit item in the store was the “lifetime guarantee” vacuum tube that were common in TV sets. Then came the TRS80, my first real computer and, again, it looked like a huge gold mine for RS. It was indeed, but only for a while. As the huge wallspace of a million electrical components (capacitors, transistors, etc) disappeared, the life went out of the place because the company lost its identity and did not come up with a new one. So goodbye RadioShack, as you follow Heathkit, Lafayette, and Olsen Electronics into long forgotten history.
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:)
I was with Staples, Office Depot, the electronics dept. of Service Merchandise, Video Concepts (A Tandy Company), and CMC stereo. As fascinating as consumer electronics may be, They never make a profit- even if you sell a ton of extended warranties. All of the above mentioned companies have either closed a ton of stores, merged, or closed entirely. I finally got out 2 years ago. Consumer electronics is a very cut throat industry.
Farewell