I've finally lived long enough to both remember when Radio Shack was mocked as low-quality, staffed by teens who knew nothing... and now to watch that same company given a hagiography.
"It was the place to go if you needed..." sounds a lot better than, "It was often the only game in town, and woeful at that," I guess. I still remember them trying to sell Monster cables for amounts of money that were downright comical.
RatShack was the finest purveyor of overpriced electronic components and electronic repair tools and supplies, electronics learning kits, Tandy computers, RC cars, and ham/CB radio gear. As a kid, it was the only such electronics shop withing bicycling distance, although was located in a ugly shopping mall that no one went to pre-internet. An Australian holding company later bought the mall and refurbished it with exterior-facing shops so that it became both a shopping mall and a very long strip mall on the same property.
They were always terrible, but I have fond pre-teen memories of saving up my allowance to buy components off the pegboard in the back and then failing to make anything that worked with them.
The only things worthwhile to get at RadioShack were electronics project components, breadboards, soldering equipment, circuit board etching stuff and so on. Once they threw that stuff under the bus in order to sell cell phones and $9 toys, the place went downhill fast.
I have fond memories of the manager letting me play with the computers for hours. Our Radio Shack was in the mall and I'd drop in and start writing programs on the TRS-80 display models while my parents were shopping.
The manager not only didn't kick me out (like the manager of the bookstore always did if I looked at a book for more than five minutes), he'd come over and teach me some things when he wasn't busy.
That sounds like a great example of the difference between people who love their job and see it as an opportunity to meet interesting people, and someone who hates their job and just grudgingly draws a paycheck.
I hated that an aux cable cost $30 (back when $30 was $50).
I also loved that I knew exactly where to go to get an aux cable, or any other random component I might need.