I live in Raleigh Hills, OR. There is a Radio Shack less than a mile away from me, and the next nearest place I can go to find anything useful (other than the surplus place, which is obviously hit or miss) is Fry's over in Wilsonville, which is 20 miles away down I-5. I go to neither place with the expectation of getting competent help - meaning I'm on my own - but since that's my expectation, I'm rarely disappointed and am pleasantly surprised when I actually do get competent help, which happens occasionally.
I have been to RS a few times recently. I got both my arduinos there and a few shields. I think if I were to get another, now I would find a knockoff on the web for much cheaper, but it was a good place to get my feet wet. They even had the mega 2560, which I'm using to power my lightboard project.
I consider RS to be exactly what they are, and no more, and as long as that's my expectation and I'm willing to work with it, everything's just fine.
Fry's has a *huge* selection, though recently they've not had things that I needed. But it's almost always worth a trip.