First, enjoyed reading the article, so thanks to BDD for posting it.
For me, RS (we used to calll it Rat Shack in NJ) wasn't usually frequented that much. Growing up in Monmouth County, NJ (which is a great place to be from), we had a Lafayette nearby, a Heathkit store, a Radio Shack of course and the U.S. Army's Corcom center located in Eatontown, NJ within Fort Monmouth... and Bendix right down the road from them.
In between those two, there was Atkinson & Smith, an old school electronics distributor that stocked a ton of great quality parts, from known vendors including Allen-Bradley, Ohmite, Centralab, Sprague, Mallory, Bud, Premier, Alpha, Xcelite... you name it, tools and test equipment too. The best part of A&S was their upstairs floor... the Surplus Room. Basically it was tons of top-quality mil-spec parts that came from Fort Monmouth or Bendix. I was able to buy JAN spec vacuum tubes, 50 cents for small 7- and 9-pin types and $1 for octals, 4-pin DHTs, etc. and a couple of bucks for brand new 808 transmitting triodes. Top quality (tube) sockets in ceramic were also the norm for 10 cents to 25 cents. I was a spoiled kid growing up back then.... and all of my allowance was spent there.
After transferring to Florida in '84, I also found a great local distributor, but RS was much closer and in many cases would just run in for a few needed piece parts for a project, plus they (RS) was open on weekends. I never really had a bad experience there, but the local employees never knew that much... so I would politely smile, say I knew what I needed and just walk to the rear of the store and search for the needed parts.
In any case, the article was quite telling... and I'm sure there are some stories about the fate of Lafayette stores as well. Even Sears has filed recently... an old business model simply doesn't hold up forever. Even Atkinson & Smith eventually closed their doors as well. Seems we're now left with mail-order distributors, ebay and some Far East suppliers.
I mostly use Mouser, followed by Digikey, Newark and some others as well for most of my parts needs. For some components I have to go to the source or some mom&pop shops that stock specialized items. I just wish good vacuum tubes were still being made at reasonable prices