I remember growing up, and when I needed some electronic something or other, you could always go to Radio Shack to pick it up... It could be anything from a single little resistor, to a CB radio that was hundreds of dollars... Batteries, switches, wire.... You name it, and it was there... If you couldn't find it, you asked the guy behind the counter (who hadn't hassled you with a hard sell) and he knew it all... He was an electronics geek of the first order... Most likely, he was one of those guys that bought all the parts and made himself one of the first computers just to watch some LED's flash in patterns... Phone stuff?... They had enough there to set up a small phone company of your very own...
It's not like that now... I needed a punch down tool to do the phone wiring in my house yesterday... The thought of going to Home Depot sickened me, and besides, the Shack was closer... Since I don't spend a lot of time there now, I don't know the store layout, so I asked the guy behind the corner. (he looked way to well quaffed to know anything, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt) As soon as I said punch down, his eyes glazed over... He led me down an aisle, and told me all the tools were there... A quick look told me they didn't have one there... So I asked where the phone blocks are, to which he said "what's that?"... It was at that point that I ceased to care if it was there... I would go anyplace to find what I needed, but it wasn't going to be there...
On my trek out the store, I looked around... Cheap TV's, and radios were present as always... But the main thing in there was cell phone crap... And then it all made sense... The old Radio Shack geek had evolved from a knowledgeable electronics guy in to a lower form of life in the cell phone salesman... I could get 17 different color covers for my phone there, but I can't get the tool that lets you connect real phone systems...