Looks like I got it the wrong way round. The British stores were called Tandy but all the stuff they sold was badged Radioshack. They used to be everwhere but they gave up years ago.Tandy is based in Ft. Worth, they are alive and well. It is a subdivision of TI, and Radio Shack is a division of Tandy.
Some of the former RadioShack stores re-named "The Source" and owned by Circuit City are now owned by Bell Canada so they can continue to sell cell phones and cell phones contracts.Circuit City went belly up here a couple of years ago.
Lots of outfits have done just that. All you have to do is meet their minimum purchase requirement. The one linked to is only an example - http://www.seekic.com/icdata/ICL8038.html . There are dozens of other warehouse operations that apparently buy up stocks of IC's at the end of their life cycle against future demand. You have to wonder how profitable it is even to be the only game in town.Stockpile !!
by Jake Hertz
by Aaron Carman
by Jake Hertz
by Jeff Child