Focused a bloated 40,000-item catalog down to 2,500 essential electronics parts and devices for a repair-minded generation. Rode successive tech waves—from ham radio parts to home computers like the TRS-80—while blanketing America with convenient strip-center locations.
Electronics became disposable instead of repairable. Gen X and millennials stopped fixing things. Cell phones—which briefly saved RadioShack at 45% of revenue—became an amoeba eating all other devices. Then Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and Amazon crushed them on price and selection while carriers built their own stores.
Bankruptcy in 2015, again in 2017. Passed between owners, eventually bought by Tai Lopez's group in 2020. Used for crypto pump-and-dump schemes. A few franchise stores remain in small towns, but the chain is gone.
