OT: Where have electronics hobby stores gone?

[Tim Shoppa]

"9000 VAX" <vax9000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Doc Shipley wrote:
> > And then he charged me $0.99 for 2 0.25W 1k0 ceramic caps...
>
> He surely should charge you that much, because those components are
> extremely rare.  I am surprised that you ever found two.

If they have a hard time finding them, remind them that they are kept
right next to the krytrons that Los Alamos buys for making atomic
bombs :-).

More seriously, with lots of really good electronics,
electromechanical, etc. distributors on the web, almost all of
which are very happy to sell to hobbyists and tinkerers, there's not
much need for Radio Shack anymore. Not that I never buy a fuse or something
at Radio Shack on a Sunday afternoon, but the amount I buy at Radio
Shack is a vanishingly small amount (like, 0.01% for maybe those
two Sunday afternoons a year when I need a fuse) of my parts purchases.

There's simply no way that Radio Shack can compete with Digikey, Mouser,
McMaster-Carr, etc., which are all true distributors with extensive
stocks and completely mind-blowing breadth.

On the surplus side of the equation, are we going to sit around
and lament that Poly-Paks isn't in business anymore or what???!!!!

Tim.