Before it was Radio Shack electronics it was Allied Radio. Allied used to have a catalog that was at least 2" thick, not a 8 1/2 x 11 size but about 8"x5". It was bought by Radio Shack division of Tandy back in the early 60's. The competitors back then were Newark Electronics, Olson Electronics, Lafayette and Burstein-Applebee. I remember buying some things from just about all of them many years ago. Radio Shack was THE place to get your hands on stereo radios (HI-FI back then), tape decks, high end turntables and great speakers. They had a moderate line of ham radio gear in stock. The downfall I think was they turned it into a Tandy leather store rather than focus on the electronics. I'll bet a lot people never heard of Tandy Leather. Then they drifted away from the products that the audiophile, ham and electronics experimenter bought.
Some companies just didn't keep pace with the fast changing development of electronics. I grew up in and around Council Bluffs, Iowa where back from the 40's through the 70' there was a major manufacturer of ham radio equipment. That was World Radio. My FIL (W0LGQ) was a good friend of the chief engineer, Lee Treft (W0GG) at WRL and had a Globe King 300 transmitter himself. The owner, Leo Meyerson was a good friend of Art Collins. DW worked at WRL one summer during school break and wired up Globe Scouts. She was a good friend of Leo's daughter, Daralynn and used to play in their basement. I used to go to the WRL factory store and I bought a Hallicrafter SX-140 ham band receiver in kit form back about 1961, which I still have.
Radio Shack lost sight of their customer base. Like Radio said, they could have been another Frys but there were too many stores to maintain. A number of the stores were franchises and those people seemed to be better than the company owned stores.
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