A number of years ago, maybe six or seven, I was staying at a cabin in the middle of nowhere northern Minnesota. Well over an hours drive away from any major town or retailer.

My intentions were to work from the cabin for the week in peace and quiet. Have some nice secluded time to relax. The rub was that the WiFi password simply didn't work. The owner of the cabin was being no help, said the password on the note was correct and I could otherwise plug my laptop in to Ethernet directly. My MacBook had no Ethernet port.

In the small nearby town there was a RadioShack, and inside I find a single make of USB Ethernet adapter. I buy it, and take it back to the cabin. It doesn't work with my MacBook. Activity lights don't come on. I don't know if it was a driver issue or what. It came with a CD, but that's no help on a relatively recent MacBook.

I needed to get work done, and in pure frustration end up resetting the firmware on the wireless router using the button on the back and reconfiguring it with their hard wired Xbox One's built in browser. This infuriated the owner of the cabin as it knocked out their temperature and water sensors, which I ended up setting back up for them. I was however able to get work done. Probably not what I should have done but it worked.

On my way out of town, I swung back by the RadioShack to return the Ethernet adapter. I explain to the guy behind the counter that it had not worked with my MacBook and the guy proceeds to argue with me that it's Mac compatible and accuses me of buying it, using it, and returning it. I have to argue with the guy for what seemed like several minutes, and recounted him the story of resetting the WiFi. I've never had such a hostile return process in all my life.

Anyway, that's the last time I ever visited a RadioShack.