> failure to find a niche in the modern retail world. When I was a kid, we'd go the RS pretty much monthly. It was the go to place for things like floppy disks

> failure to find a niche in the modern retail world. When I was a kid, we'd go the RS pretty much monthly. It was the go to place for things like floppy disks, batteries, cables, stereos, etc. Sure, it wasn't pro-quality but it was good enough. Then pretty much all those items because obsolete or commoditized. Big box stores had all these things, and more, and usually cheaper with better brands than RS's in house and underwhelming 'Realistic' brand. Walgreens started stocking disks, CD's, cables, etc, which became easy as everyone pretty much standardize on the iPod and iPhone ten years ago. Hard to find stuff was easily gotten on the web and Amazon's big push to take on 3rd party sellers into their system meant you could find pretty much anything right there. I see all this hand-wringing about how RS had a golden age where it was staffed with nothing but EE's and had everything you can imagine, but that seems an overly pleasant interpretation of their product and services. Even during the "golden age" there was never anyone who knew anything about the components I was buying and I was happy to be left alone. The stock there was largely unimpressive as well. I'm afraid nostalgia has taken over here for some people. Not to mention, the margins on components was pretty much non-existent. The idea that it could have trivially turned itself into a "Maker Supply" depot is questionable as well. The prices it would need to get by would chase off makers who knew they could get it for 1/10th the price on Amazon and with things like Prime shipping, it became a no brainer. Brick and mortar retail is a cruel mistress. You have limited space and each shelf needs to bring in x amount of revenue if you want to stay open. How much space do you need to provide a decent experience to makers? How much would each one of those shelves bring in net everyday? Ten bucks maybe? Turning RS into a Akihabara-like component dumping ground just is financially unfeasible. Heck, the fabled Akihabara doesn't even exist anymore, its all video arcades and game and model shops as I learned during my trip there last year. RS is probably a cautionary tale of over-specialization without the "boutique" level of added value, but even that is questionable. I have no idea what could have saved it and am highly skeptical that anything would have worked. It just doesn't seem like a business that makes sense in the modern world. A lot of the projection I see seems to be people with a hobby horse they're trying to insert into the argument. Sometimes businesses need to die. There's really nothing wrong with that. We don't get our shoes recobbled anymore or need someone to help us when ours cars get vapor lock. Things change, and usually for the better.