I knew Radio Shack was in trouble when they took sooooo long to start selling cellular telephones & mobile devices from established providers. They had the infrastructure to support that kind of commerce, but they continued to sell batteries, remote control cars, so-so stereo equipment, PC accessories, etc...
I went into 3 separate Shacks in the last year for various odds & ends, and was greeted by "we don't have that", a csr looking up inventory on their computer, and saying they might could get it in a few days...otherwise known as "something I could do on my own from my laptop or smart phone"...
There are several good electronics suppliers online for project components, but looking online gets tedious versus perusing a paper catalog or browsing shelves of parts...I've had some good ideas by accidentally noticing something completely different from what I have been looking for in catalogs or on shelves to solve other problems, but looking stuff up online, ya almost have to know exactly what you are looking for in order to get any information...for example, NAPA's old website allowed me to look up all kinds of technical information on PCV valves in order to generate a list of a currently manufactured valves to match the displacement of my flatheads, but then they revised their website several years ago that required the user to give a vehicle for reference and most of the technical information was no longer available. But that's the way of the world now I reckon: if ya are working on something outside of "the system", then you are on your own