I miss Radio Shack!

[BUTCH1]

Yea, I realize they were a dinosaur as a Co but it just sucks if your a hobbyist and you need some wire, solder, connectors, capacitors, ect. Yea, I know you can get all that at Mouser but you have to order and wait, that part sucks.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Yep..me too. Didn't go often, but when I needed an odd part or parts to cobble something together quickly..I could almost always count on them.

 

[lxskllr]

I miss the old RS, but that hasn't been around since the 80s

 

[TwiceOver]

"You talkin' 'bout the HTC Resistor? Yeah we don't have that cell phone."

 

[JPS35]

I was just in there yesterday; needed some alligator clips with test wires. First time being in there for about 5 years or more, paid too much for them, but it was close and convenient.

 

[Eug]

We have shops here with more stock and better prices than Radio Shack ever had. I almost never shopped at Radio Shack. Their prices for small hobbyist items were insanely high.

 

[Rakehellion]

They blow. Just do Microcenter or buy online instead of paying $6 for an LED.

 

[Mai72]

Yea, I realize they were a dinosaur as a Co but it just sucks if your a hobbyist and you need some wire, solder, connectors, capacitors, ect. Yea, I know you can get all that at Mouser but you have to order and wait, that part sucks.

What about Amazon?

Prime baby. 2 days.

 

[Raizinman]

Where else could you go to purchase an AA battery and they must have your phone number? Only Radio Shack.

I still have my first computer from them a TRS-80 Model 2, the one with the 8" diskettes running TRSDOS and SCRIPTSIT.

 

[waffleironhead]

Just one less cell phone store in the mall.

 

[lxskllr]

Where else could you go to purchase an AA battery and they must have your phone number?

HarborFreight, Little Caesar... Just because they ask doesn't mean you have to comply. I don't give my number frivolously. Manual spyware is the easiest to defeat ;^)

 

[brianmanahan]

They blow. Just do Microcenter or buy online instead of paying $6 for an LED.

microcenter has a couple dozen stores across the US. radio shack had about 100 times that.

 

[BUTCH1]

What about Amazon?

Prime baby. 2 days.

Yea, but is anyone selling a 2-pack of butt connectors?, you'd probably have to buy 10

 

[BUTCH1]

They blow. Just do Microcenter or buy online instead of paying $6 for an LED.

Uh, no, the nearest one is 75 miles away.

 

[who?]

This reminds me of people who complain when a restaurant that they really liked closes but admit that they haven't been there in two years. Don't expect your favorite business to stay open if people don't go there very often.

 

[brianmanahan]

Uh, no, the nearest one is 75 miles away.

JUST DRIVE THERE OK?

caps

 

[waggy]

we have one in town but it's useless. they have no stock and what little shit they have is expensive.

 

[zerocool84]

Here we have Fry's Electronics. Granted there aren't a ton of them but if you're in the LA/OC area, you're within 30min of one.

 

[Red Squirrel]

We still have ours, well it's called "The Source" here as of years ago, it's nice if you need something in a pinch but the prices are quite high and selection fairly poor. I guess there's not enough money in electronic hobby shops as it's pretty niche. Considering there arn't any local computer stores where you can buy motherboards and stuff it's not surprising that you can't easily buy electronic discrete components locally either.

I made like a $400 Digikey order a while back, so I have some basic components in stock now if I want to experiment. Resistors, capacitors, op-amps etc.

Amazon is an ok source too, but you typically get rip off stuff from China that will be hard to find a datasheet for. But basic stuff where you don't really need a datasheet it's probably fine.

 

[feralkid]

Yea, I realize they were a dinosaur as a Co but it just sucks if your a hobbyist and you need some wire, solder, connectors, capacitors, ect. Yea, I know you can get all that at Mouser but you have to order and wait, that part sucks.

What are you building that you would need ectoplasm?

 

[BUTCH1]

What are you building that you would need ectoplasm?

I've been fucking around with supercapacitors, I need some ring terminals to make a wire connection to my car's battery. I might try Ace, they sometimes have connectors and such.

 

[BUTCH1]

JUST DRIVE THERE OK?

caps

Yea, I-4 into Orlando is the most hated drive, ever. A trip that should take 1.25 hours usually takes 2+ because of the constant traffic and accidents. Not to mention I'm not about to miss playoff football stuck in gridlock burning more fuel then what the items I want are worth. That's like ordering a P+J sandwich from Amazon.

 

[ImpulsE69]

They blow. Just do Microcenter or buy online instead of paying $6 for an LED.

This guy doesn't get it.


1. Microcenter...uh what, in its 3 convenient locations?

2. NOT ordering online and getting it NAU was kind of the point.

Of course, like mentioned, they stopped having much good stock years ago.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

They blow. Just do Microcenter or buy online instead of paying $6 for an LED.

Dallas FTMFW! (3x Fry's Electronics (Dallas, Plano, Irving) and 1x MicroCenter)
Technically 4x Fry's if you count the one in Arlington.

 

[Jeff7]

I wish Fry's would expand beyond the west coast.

The first, and so far only, time I was in one, I almost made a sticky puddle when I saw that they had multiple aisles of electronic components, including a lot of surface-mount parts. They probably won't open anything in this city though, with only 100k people here.

All I had in the northeast was watching Radio Shack's small and expensive component section shrink year after year.


Or I could always move to Thief River Falls, MN to be near Digikey.