[thejaredhooper]

I'd argue that the Radioshack's lack of attention to their role as a niche vendor (tinkerer's resource) was the true cause of their demise. As a former employee, I noticed that we continually downsized our parts section (especially in malls) until it was almost nonexistent. There were plenty of customers inquiring about capacitors and other small electric parts. We were then forced to refer those customers to a local niche store.

They were trying to hard to compete with Best Buy in their attempt to sell cell phones and contracts. Poor business decision that led to them being taken advantage of by the mobile carriers who increased market share with RadioShack's assistance, but offered little in return.

By the way that they treated me, my manager and my fellow employees - I'm not sad to see them go.

[mindslight]

And how much profit would those customers have given you? Each sale is tiny, and repeat business is going to be for different obscure components, not for more of the same.

With individual components being so cheap in quantity, people (hobbyists/professionals) are only looking to solve an immediate problem, and will then go place a larger order of assorted stock so that problem never happens again. Radio Shack would have had to be a lot more intelligent about which components they carried to ever function as anyone's "stock room". And that possibility is further shot as the last of peoples' uncomfortableness with online shopping fades.

I think there's perhaps still some room for selling a fewer skus of large assortments (lower margin/overhead), but as part of a larger store that covers the fixed costs and provides impulse buyers thinking about getting into the hobby.