I buy almost nothing at Radio Shack anymore, but there was a time when I was a kid (in the 70's) where you would walk into a Radio Shack and the guys that worked there could teach you how to properly do all kinds of cool stuff. It was once a place for electronics geeks to get together and talk. Sometimes if you had a question they couldn't solve the guys working there would ask a customer who they knew to an electronics god saying,"Let's ask Jeremiah; he knows everything." And then you'd go and ask Jeremiah and invariably he'd know and then they'd all look at you with that "we told you he'd know"-look.If they attracted that kind of customer and sales rep they would probably have more business and then would not have to price gouge (the death knell of a business in trouble), because who the ***** buys their cell phone at Radio Shack. As acidtonic points out that seems to be what they sell nowadays.