But there is a single, bright spark in the gloom. RadioShack now finds itself closely tied to one of the most disruptive and exciting new trends in the entire economy: the Maker movement, in which tens of thousands of hobbyists make supercool projects using robotics, microcontrollers, and 3-D printing.

In another life, I worked at Radio Shack as a teenager, because it was one of the few retail jobs a computer nerd could do without being completely bored out of his or her skull. Nothing would make me happier than to see Radio Shack reemerge as the go-to place for hobbyists building cool shit. I just doubt whether it’s enough to save the company the way it is.