Radio Shack, also known as "The Shack" or "The King of Replacement Parts for Electronic Items that No Longer Exist," is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. Can the good old "We Sell Modern Products Now—We Swear!" find itself a reason to exist?

Radio Shack made the mistake of peaking during a technological era that disappeared, and then trying (and failing) to play catch-up ever since. It has "Radio" in its very name. That should have been an early warning sign. Best Buy took over as the general electronics store, and Apple got the high end computer crowd, and Radio Shack has spent years now casting about desperately for something, anything, to latch onto and call its own. Uhhh... we got phones! Phone chargers! We sell headphones also! For your iPods! We got cords! We got—hey! Come back!

If you want to hear a pitiful ass statistic here is one: "RadioShack has about $6,800 in cash for each of its 4,485 stores." Come on man. Radio Shack not even making payroll with that pitiful ass cash pile right there. I seen bigger cash piles in a Popeye's Chicken register. Come on. So far, the company's bright ideas for a turnaround have been to hire a Walgreen's executive as CEO, and close a thousand stores. Come on. Really now. Is there any way to take this pile of unwanted stores, a rusty brand name, and three dusty nickels and cobble it all together into a successful enterprise again?

That's a serious question. I got nothing. Burn it all for the insurance money?

[Photo: Flickr]