Electronics Stores Nostalgia

Reminds me of my trips to Fry's electronics in the old days. ;-)

I have a Microcenter within biking distance. You are going to hate their prices versus what you can get the exact same product for online. Plus, still no individual electronics components. One of the biggest things I miss about Radio Shack was being able to go buy just the five capacitors I needed to repair something, all housed lovingly organized by value in those sliding drawers.

They were a major electronics retailer when a lot of people on HN were kids, so they hold a special place in our memories. They were pretty much the place to go if you wanted to tinker.Until the one by me closed earlier this year, it was the only place I could go to buy things like breadboards, transistors, and LEDs. Now I have to order these things online.

Radio Shack at this point is a sad caricature of itself. I remember being able to buy all sorts of ICs, analog parts, interesting radios and kits. Now it peddles cell phones and overly prices things -- I recall needing a battery for my cordless phone recently, they wanted $23 for a battery for a $50 phone? Uh, no.Two other bay area places that have changed a lot are Frys and the now closed Quement Electronics. Fry's still has a few components, but nothing like the 80s and 90s.RIP.

I remember Frys Electronics (RIP) used to do that.

As far as I know since the demise of Radio Shack, Fry's is the only hardware enthusiast shop with a real retail presence.

Sad to see that the last two in Orlando are dead now too.I miss Radio Shack, particularly when they were a bit more "component based". As a general electronics store, they were almost always strictly worse than any of the big box stores, but if you needed something like a resistor or individual LEDs, it was great to be able to be able to drive over there and find something. I live in NYC now, and fortunately we still have Micro Center which is still fun, though I do worry that it m

There are still some up and running electronics stores out there like Fry's where I can build a PC from parts. If Radio Shack had stayed the same maybe they would still be in business. Instead every year I walked in they were less and less like that and more and more just prepackaged goods like cell phones and toy cars. Half the time I went in the past couple years they didn't even have whatever adapter or cable or solder or whatever I needed due to them putting all their floor space t

Microcenter does the job here. I do miss heading to frys and just browsing around though :(.

Makes me sad none of this stuff really exists anymore. The South Bay Area is soulless and mostly closes at 9pm.If you need electronics you order from Amazon or Digikey like anywhere else in the US.