Radioshack needs to jump on the Maker movement, Right To Repair movement, and science education movement. Offer everything from 3d printing classes to how to fix classes. By educating the masses, you create demand for your products you're selling.
In fact, they used to be right in the center of that! RadioShack was the maker movement back when makers were really into amateur radio and CB. Then they branched out into home computers (TRS-80, Tandy PC clones, etc). Then someone had the bright idea to completely divest themselves of their computer lineup[0] and just sell mobile phone service plans and satellite TV subscriptions... which nobody bothered with, resulting in the company becoming a zombie.
Had RadioShack stayed with the original hobbyist user base they courted (and somehow remained profitable) they'd absolutely be selling microcontrollers, 3D printers, and PC parts. Actually, that's just a Micro Center. The only thing is that Micro Center doesn't fit in the tiny store footprints that most RadioShack locations had. So... I mean, Micro Center isn't in a lot of states, so if they wanted to literally just clone Micro Center but with the Radio Shack branding I feel like there's places they could do that.
[0] Tandy was sold to AST who was then bought up by Samsung and then shuttered when Asian stock markets collapsed in the mid-90s. 8-Bit Guy talks about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hdazA-VUf0
I wonder if their franchise model stymied the format-- they could hardly tell the franchisee who had rented out a standard mall location that he needed to quadruple his footprint.
What's funny is that they were like 1km from a more conventional electronics-parts shop, a little run-down outfit with no marketing budget or retail presence, buried behind a rail yard, and that company's still in business today (albeit at a slightly nicer location).
Yeah, it is the shipping that is killer. You are doing some hobby project and find you need a capacitor or resistor that you don't have, and then you either order just what you need and pay 10x on shipping, or order a whole bunch of them hoping that someday you'll need them, or you find other things you also need or might need someday to add to your order.
It's particularly annoying when I just want a few cheap parts that are all thin, weigh practically nothing, and are not fragile. Why can't Mouser or DigiKey just toss them into an envelope, put a first class stamp on it, and mail it? I'd be willing to accept the risk and eat the loss if somehow the post office manages to break my resistors or capacitors.
What I've done for resistors and capacitors is order some kits that contains a bunch of them. I got a resister kit that has 860 resistors (10 each of the E12 values from 0 to 10M ohm), and a capacitor kit that has 645 capacitors that has a range of ceramic and electrolytic capacitors, with 30 each of the most common values and 10 each of the less common values.
I've also got a 600 transistor kit (15 common types, 40 each), and a 220 piece inductor kit (22 values, 10 each).
The particular kits I bought aren't available anymore, but as an example here's a currently available 1280 piece resistor kit for $11 [1].
The kits will probably have all the resistors, capacitors, inductors, and transistors I'll need for a while, and if I do end up using all of a particular value from one of the kits I'll then also know that is a value that is worth stocking up on.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Resistor-Assorted-Resistors-Assortmen...
I don't think so, maybe they could do well with local stores though. It seems weird to me though...
In the 80s, small towns of even 5000 people might have a radio shack. And more than 1/2 the store was parts and electronic supplies.
I can't think of who would buy from them, even though I did. Was it local appliance repair people? What made them profitable back then, in such small towns??
It may be hard to compete with amazon and digikey, for that part of their business.
But back to your thing, maker and right to repair, I think they might be OK in higher density population areas?
I don't think the dust has settled, amazon is sort of flailing about, has endless issues, and 5 years from now, direct Chinese sellers at Amazon could vanish.
What then?
So much change, so fast.