What Tandy gets wrong, heck what most retail in the US gets wrong, is to forget that the most valuable thing that they have as a company are its own employees. As others have noted here, it was often the people managing and working at the stores that would engender loyalty from the customer.
To survive as a retail concern, Tandy needs to draw in new customers to the hobby - a difficult thing to do in the age of cell phones, Call of Duty and cable TV. Without new customers, they are only going to last so long. The only way to grow the retail business is to give the men and women who have a passion for leatherwork and who work for you the tools to succeed.
I am not sure that they are doing this any longer. My local store has some great people, but I no longer see signs for classes, etc. Tandy needs to empower people to go out and create business, even if this means paying them more to attract people with the right stuff.
Without some kind of turnaround, eventually I can see them pulling out of retail and going mail order only again.
Sound familiar?