I remember my first visit to a Radio Shack back in 1964 buying some nice, Japanese 18-Watt 6BQ5 P-P output transformers for about $4 ea. in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Those xfmrs went on my first stereo amplifier. The surplus they carried back then was unbeatable!. Spent tons of $ over the years on many various projects and experiments but saw the end coming back in the 80s with the attitudes of the sales reps here in Ca. Local store still has quite an inventory that doesn't appear to be moving well but guess this store to close by Memorial day. Those same transformers new would now probably sell for about $60 each. I'm already missing not having MPF102s readily available...
My first quad set-up long ago featured Radio Shack speakers--man, they made heavy wood cabinets back then! I also remember being confused, I think in grade school, when I first saw a Radio Shack catalog with audio components. They were all branded "Realistic", and I wondered if they were mock-ups, but they were too expensive to just be mock ups...
