So my phone made an awful noise during the recent heat wave. It turns out that was what its ring had turned into. It kind of sounded like someone had stepped on a cat, repeatedly, but the only cat around was sitting in a chair with his ears straight up looking just as alarmed as me.
Phone still actually worked, if you could ignore the new dying-cat ring sound, but I decided to get replacement. Awful squeal only appeared at end of ring after temps went back to cooler, but I decided I still needed replacement. I had bought the phone at Radio Shack umpteen years ago. The local RSs are in various states of "selling everything", with "everything" still not being stuff I immediately need, so I haven't stocked up. The stuff I know I will eventually need they have already sold out of. At any rate, the last time I was in one, I didn't notice corded landline "princess" phones being featured. They are, apparently, still selling them, but only online. I was afraid of online purchasing from a place I know is bankrupt, so I wound up ordering a similar phone (doesn't have caller ID, though, but my answering machine does) elsewhere online.
There is, however, a lot of the kind of stuff RS sold that I will eventually need, but that I don't know the names of. I tend to save packaging materials of weird electronic parts stuff, so some of this I do know the names of, at least RS's names for them. Others, not so lucky. You could, on a good day, wander into an RS, describe what you needed & actually have an employee guide you to it.
I believe in Newton, MA You-Do-It electronics is still in business. This is like an RS run by real electronics mavens. So I have hope, if I need something I do not know the on-line look-up name of, that I can go to You-Do-It & they'll tell it & sell it to me. Other people in other areas are not so lucky.
But here's a blog written by a former RS employee, describing how the store treated its employees:
http://www.sbnation.com/2014/11/26/7281 ... gy-stories
dammit, though, even after that indictment I still miss a place to easily get a manual splitter switch for the signal from my TV antenna. Even though even RS had gone over to ones that require RCA (3-leads) style of input/output for those, & was phasing the ones I use out. Before they phased RS itself out, that is.