Oh, heck. My dad builds crystal sets in his sleep for kids and museums, and has tons of 1N34 diodes, germanium diodes, and galena crystals for that purpose. (His favorite build is using just the galena crystal and a razor blade for the detector/tickler assembly). If Nick1911 can't provide the part you need, just let me know.
Radio Shack has gone downhill considerably in the last several years. Even their online parts catalog is threadbare at best. I use MCM Electronics or Allied Electronics online these days, or I visited a place called Astro Too in Melbourne, FL (they ship). I have a bunch of the old Radio Shack/Tandy branded stuff, including a pristine PC-6 Pocket Scientific Computer I use for engineering/GD&T stuff at work. Getting stuff like manuals or printer paper and pens through their catalog system is well-nigh impossible these days. Even a couple of pilot lights and toggle switches for my last lightning detector build was a chore, they've reduced their parts department to basically one rack of drawers.
But you can buy a cell phone there, no problem.
To be fair, as I said, that's what their market is now. That's the target demographic, and it's what sells and makes them money. They moved in this direction because they were nearly bankrupt, the old sales model was selling to a market that vanished.
A 50 cent diode taking up valuable shelf space for a year makes no money. A cellphone that moves every week, for which the cellphone provider pays them as well for promotion, that's what makes the shareholders happy.
Plus, most new electronics are disposable solid-state devices. Just TRY to "fix" a wafer-thin iPod. You'd need a microscope. People don't fix radios and things anymore, except for niche markets like amateur radio. And there's not enough sales to justify keeping the parts on the shelf. Niche markets are most cost-effectively served online and via shipped goods, from the corporate profits end of things. Brick and mortar locations lose money on smaller markets of that sort.
For all intents and purposes, the "Radio Shack" of the 1980's no longer exists, just like Abercrombie & Fitch is no longer a supplier of gear for your hunting trip. They've re-invented, and companies online sell what they used to sell, shipping direct from the overseas suppliers as orders come in. The only reason why they haven't changed their name is that there's such legacy recognition. They've been trying to reduce it to the red R-in-circle without the word at a number of locations, and I expect they'll change to "RS" eventually, in a sort of hybrid of Apple Store and KFC's letter branding.
This is the current one-word-and-catchphrase logo.
It's their new market, can't do anything about that.
