The last time I was in the store was a big disappointment. I recall good experiences when I was younger. About two years ago, the CD player in my car died. It was old enough that it didn't even have an aux out port, so it was basically a radio after that, and then a speaker stopped working.
I bought a new deck from Future Shop and tried to install it myself, which turned out to be more difficult than I thought. As it turns out my car (2002 Nissan Sentra, Spec V SER) comes with a "premium" stereo package which includes 7 speakers and a SW with amp in the trunk which makes things vastly more complicated. If I have had a normal stereo, the process would have been painless likely. Anyway not even the Nissan dealer wanted to touch it with a 10ft pole (jerks).
Eventually have a lot of research online, it seemed the cause of my troubles (Alternator whine, speakers popping, etc...) was because of multiple grounds, and no matter which way I tried to ground the thing, nothing would work. Talking to places, they would want to rewire the whole car system (at large cost). Finally I found a possible solution, in a electronic device called a "Ground Loop Isolator". Obviously not something you find everywhere, and because I wanted it NOW (I was really sick of this project not working), one of only places that had such a thing was Radio Shack. So I went to Radio Shack for the first time in a long time.
Not only did none of the staff know what the hell I was talking about or even if they carried it, it took all the staff to even find one on their shelf. It was only 2 channel, so I would probably have to buy 2, and they cost 50$. As it was I decided to buy one and try it out. I did it in the parking lot as I brought my tools. As it turns out, it wasn't even the correct one, as it had only male connectors, not both male and female. I immediately returned it, and got my 50$ back.
Then I went online and got this:
http://www.monoprice.com/Produ...
It cost me 8$, was 4 channel, and had the correct connectors. I installed it, and it works fine. It messes with your levels, so you have to adjust them in your stereo setup at the start. Which can be annoying as every time I take my car in for service they seem to love disconnecting my battery, which resets my stereo to the defaults, which makes me have to set it up again. However it does what it is supposed to do.
So it is not surprising that they are going out of business. If you are going to sell overpriced electronics, you actually need staff that know what they are selling or talking about. Otherwise I might as well just go online and take my chances...