In my eyes, it's not so much that Radio Shack "ditched" the hobbyist, they just tried to get their share of a bigger market, and in turn had to subsidize their

In my eyes, it's not so much that Radio Shack "ditched" the hobbyist, they just tried to get their share of a bigger market, and in turn had to subsidize their primary focus to a drawer of components in the back of the store. Even though Radio Shack was making 1000% margins on diodes and resistors, I'd imagine the lure of selling phones, and headphones, and televisions was much higher. In that transition, they challenged the bigger players in the industry (e.g. BestBuy), and clearly lost.