Radioshack's demise was precipitated by a number of factors. In no particular order the proximate causes were: 1. A drop in retail sales of electronics from in

Radioshack's demise was precipitated by a number of factors. In no particular order the proximate causes were: 1. A drop in retail sales of electronics from in-person stores as the average consumer purchases more and more online, benefitting from the cost savings due to economies of scale and lack of overhead provided by online retailers such as Amazon. 2. A rapid fall in demand for the consumer products Radioshack offered: camcorders, cassette players, digital cameras, and prior to that CB radios. That trend accelerated as the functions of various devices were taken over by smartphones. 3. A failure to recapture the resurgent maker movement, despite a rather valiant last minute effort. Radioshack used to be a vital resource for makers. Mostly they stocked breadboards, transistors, capacitors, etc. in at least one third of their retail space. When I was a child, and my father first introduced me to electronics in the mid '90s, I loved Radioshack and visited at least once a week. The staff at Radioshack could give advice that my dad (a chemical engineer and MBA by education, civil engineer by profession, who built a simple computer out of transistors in the 1970s from scavenged parts from pinball machines when he was 13, so no novice) didn't know. A few months ago a local maker space opened and I enthusiastically signed up for classes on their machines. Ready to jump in, I figured I would build out some software while I waited to be safety certified on the Tormach CNC and various 3D printers, but their inexpensive Raspberry Pi and Pi competitors were sold out. Out of curiosity, I stopped into Radioshack, since there was one in the same mall. Lo and behold, most of the space formerly occupied by those parts was now filled with modern maker components: Arduinos, Beaglebones, shields to add capabilities, elegant project cases, various add-ons. I picked up everything I needed to get my project up and running on a Beaglebone Black. It was so much more convenient than waiting for Amazon to deliver that over the next couple days I went back for more components. Radioshack, for the first time in years, seemed like a place I wanted to frequent, a stopgap between my local maker space and Amazon. But there was one essential element missing: expertise. The staff was mostly clueless about the differences between the products they stocked. Radioshack failed because it failed to pivot to a more successful business model in time. They tried a scatter-shot approach, pinning their hopes on various experimental focal points: cellphones for a time, high end stereos, video games, etc. Hours worked is simply an unlikely cause of the company's decline. Americans are still tinkering, and the mythos of the lone inventor is alive and well in American psychology.