I worked for RadioShack in the early 90's. It feels like that was the beginning of the end. Like you I had grown up a tinkerer and would visit their stores at l

I worked for RadioShack in the early 90's. It feels like that was the beginning of the end. Like you I had grown up a tinkerer and would visit their stores at least twice a month. This had continued throughout my teen years in the 80s. When I was hired, in '91 there was a feeling of a change in company ethics happening. There were the older, more experienced, long time employees as well as a batch of newer, younger, less knowledgeable kids. While I can't prove it, there was a sense that the company was trying to shed their image and take on a new, younger appeal. Home computers were the big tech item of the time. In the rural area where I grew up there were not as many young people like myself who were interested in computers or tech in general. I know, it was hard to find people my age with similar interests. I imagine RadioShack had to start hiring 'smiling faces' instead of knowledgeable people in many places during that period. The management was worked hard, we were worked hard. It was thankless work with many expectations any reasonably smart person would scoff at. Spontaneous 8-hour inventories announced the day of, maybe 4 hours in advance are merely the tip of the iceberg. What I saw there were young employees who desperately needed a job, any job that didn't require flipping burgers or working at refineries doing manual labor. They didn't know anything about the products we were selling. I became the go to guy in our store for all knowledge. I eventually couldn't take the abuse and left for greener pastures. The people who stayed were grunt labor, not the kind of people you want selling tech outside of a mobile-phone store; just smiling faces. As the years went on I visited the store less and less as they just didn't have the stuff I needed, or when I did buy something there it would be of terrible quality and I would regret the purchase. I believe that had a lot to do with their slow decline, a need to modernize in the 90's coupled with a lack of knowledgeable people. You can't keep skilled talent if you treat them like slaves.