“Ironic that they were THE electronics store for a couple of decades but that the ubiquity of the semiconductor in later years actually killed them off.”
No, that is not what killed them off. They had some very unreal expectations of their customers and staff. THAT killed them off! That they’re still in their death throes is just sad, but think wounded dinosaur, back in the the day when they thought dinosaurs were all cold-blooded.Too stupid to know they were dead.
I was a saleman at the Las Vegas Meadows Mall in the early 80s, sold a bunch of TRS-80’s, the expansion boxes for them, and all the accessories I wanted and couldn’t afford for mine, a Model 1, Level 1, 4K machine.
Sold a bunch of stereos, too. Told the customers, truthfully, that I had a tin ear, and couldn’t hear well enough to tell if they sounded good or not, and let them play with the stuff and see how it sounded. Also pointed out the the internals were made by Panasonic, and Matsushita,both good quality component manufacturers. Lot of the stereo cases were perforated steel, hold a flashlight to them you could read the names off the capacitors and many of the semiconductors. Only worked there one holiday season, was their high-selling salesman for that whole time. I knew something about electronics, but was not an expert. Shared what I knew, respected the customers, and did quite well for a part-time job working evening & weekends.
Had a good manager, Stan Cwikala, IIRC. He died while I was gone on a TDY (was active-duty Air Force at the time) and the new manager knew nothing about me when I came back looking to go to work again. Was OK, had fun, but had other options.
To Catch a Mouse, Make a Noise Like a Cheese, by Lewis Kornfeld, ex CEO of Radio Shack