when I was in the job market in '00 I attended a Radio Shack job orientation. Here's what they were after, people who would work for very low pay but who made c

when I was in the job market in '00 I attended a Radio Shack job orientation. Here's what they were after, people who would work for very low pay but who made commission on cell phones. 95% cell phones in the orientation meeting, It was all cell phones for them and as I observed for many years after. Because it was all about commission and if you didn't sell mobile phones, you were not gonna make any money. Now keep in mind I went to the radio shack because I was interested in gadgets and building stuff. And when somebody needs a simple cable replacement and they see that it's 17.99 for an rca cable that is 2.99 on Amazon, the customer feels burned by the same store that supposedly America "trusted" for 70 years. Radio Shack could have merged with Monoprice 4 years ago and kicked butt on that instead of competing with Best Buy, Toys R Us, guitar center, batteries plus and Amazon all at the same time. Now let's compare to say a home store. There are a lot of home stores, big and small. Some do better than others, many try really hard to compete with Lowes and HD by stocking really smartly. And they can keep people in through relationships. Hiring old experts who can tell you how something is done, and younger apprentice hands who can absorb a lot of info as well as lift 100 lbs into your car like nothing. (again service mindset). Also big box home stores do rentals and they also have classes. Camera shops also offer classes. Radio Shack certainly sold *some cool stuff over the years but they never could be a place I could trust or rely upon to carry anything specific. I never felt like I got a good price on anything let alone a deal. The only time I ever felt I paid regular price was when they happened to have a little cable connector, it had no price and the manager was like eh just give me 1.99. He made up the price according to what he thought it was worth, the same price I thought it was probably worth. But you can bet had it had an active sku, it would have been 7.99. Radio Shack had so many opportunities to be a provider of cool things. They could have even become a refurbish tech dealer selling lots of refurb game systems and controllers and probably done well. I mean you look at it like, what the hell were they even thinking for so long.