RadioShack devolved in such a way, with a long dying death, that all of my memories of early radioshack have been replaced with later-year memories of their store, when they became a total joke. I have no nostalgia for the brand. I'm sure it would be different if they went out of business with dignity in like 2001.
The last time I went into Radioshack to 'get something' in 2011, i needed to get a couple of cables to connect a mini HDMI cable to a full size connector. They didn't have the exact cable so I had to get several different ones to make the connection work. The price for the cables was literally $91, so I didn't get it, and ordered it online instead. Sad