[Noisebridge-discuss] Buying Components

[Gopiballava Flaherty]

On Dec 5, 2011, at 22:34, Jonathan Foote <jtfoote at ieee.org> wrote:

> Short answer: no (sadly). 
> 
> While there is Fry's, Al Lasher (Berkeley), and Radio Shack, they typically have a very limited range of components. 

Anchor Electronics in Sunnyvale and Halted Specialties in Santa Clara have some stuff too. Fun to visit but not reliable enough selection IMHO. 

I think that is part of the problem: years ago, there was a good chance that Radio Shack would have the tubes you needed. Now, to satisfy a significant percentage of people, how many different components would you need to stock? An insane number. 

> I personally find the delivery worth it to avoid the drive to Redwood City.

That's the other issue: how many stores would you need to have so that, say, half the bay area would consider them "near enough"?

It saddens me that I could buy more components retail when I lived in Istanbul when I was 12, but I think the simple realities of the market have made components impractical to stock.