Now that Radio Shack only seems to sell toys and cell phones and random cheap but overpriced gadgets, the Internet is pretty much the only place to buy electronic parts and equipment. Years ago, there were many electronics stores. Most of the catered to TV and radio repair techs or ham radio folks, but they were fairly easy to find. Now, with computers and big box stores and mass produced disposable electronic gadgets, the old independent brick-and-mortar shops are disappearing.
Maybe it's just because I've recently rediscovered an interest in electronics (largely through Make), but there seems to be a new renaissance in DIY electronics - the concepts of physical computing, the rise of microcontroller development tools (which make creating complex electronic hacks much easier than when you had to assemble everything out of discrete components or dozens of ICs), and the hacker/Maker culture have all combined to make it an interesting hobby again.
You can't compete, price and selection-wise, with DigiKey, Jameco, Sparkfun and all of the other online electronics stores, so the last remaining independent stores are closing. You can't really complain that the business model is shifting - change is constant and increasingly rapid - but some shifts, such as this one, have a built in Catch-22. When I got interested in electronics it was purely because I got some Radio Shack Science Fair electronics kit which I liked and which led me into my local Radio Shack (back when they were good sources of parts and kits) and just browsing the aisles spurred my interest and imagination. Without local stores and knowledgeable staff, I'm not sure how many people will get interested. Unless you already have some background in electronics, online shops and three-inch thick catalogs from Jameco or Digikey are overwhelming. In other words, if you have the knowledge up front, you can find what you want and do whatever you can dream up, but if you are starting from scratch, the learning curve can be daunting. The web is turning into a great learning resource, but it still seems that in most cases you create a shopping list of what you need for a particular project and just order it. If you are cooking, you might look at a recipe, then go to the store to buy what you need to make it. As you are shopping, you see all of the other foods on the shelves and you start thinking, "What if I substituted X for Y in this recipe" and "Oh look, Z is on sale, I wonder what I can make with that?" You lose that when shopping for parts online, although some stores like Sparkfun have blogs and forums and project ideas to help out beginners and to suggest new ideas.
Anyway, I had only recently found the only decent electronics store left in the Huntsville, Alabama area - W&W Electronics. It's been in business for over 40 years and has a huge store full of new and used (and even antique) parts. They don't carry the latest microcontrollers or sensors, but they do have just about everything else - digital and analog ICs, all kinds of semiconductors and discrete parts, dusty electronic kits, wires and connectors, power supplies, test equipment, speakers, motors (everything from DC hobby motors to stepping motors to huge AC motors), meters, transformers, PC board making supplies, LEDs, soldering equipment, proto-boards, fans, switches, project cases, nuts and bolts hardware, pumps, sockets, wire-wrapping supplies, heat shrink tubing, vacuum tubes, solenoids, crystals, and hundreds and hundreds of other items. The owner, who now scoots around the store in an electric wheelchair while his grandson runs the register, seems to know where everything is and what can be substituted for what. His knowledge of the technology probably stops at the mid-1980s or so, but he is very nice and helpful. One of the things about the store is that most of the semiconductor items are "behind the counter" and the first few times I went there, I figured it was off limits for browsing. It may have been at one time, but I finally asked if I could look around back there and he said, "Oh yes, look anywhere you want except for the offices" and after that I felt free to wander around and browse the whole store. I've spent hours there and I don't think I've seen half of what they have.
I just went there today at lunch to pick up a few things (a PIR sensor for $7, some ferrite coils for the Joule Thief project, some header pins for breadboard connectors, and just to browse). While I was looking around another person made a crack about how all his town had was a Radio Shack and how he has to drive an hour to come to this store to find stuff if he doesn't want to order it online and the clerk said that he'd better find what he needs now, because the store will be closed in six months and in five months they would be having a huge clearance/grab bag sale where they were going to sell everything in the store.
This is very sad news and I felt like I'd just been kicked, but it also gave me the "Oh my God" cold-sweats at the thought of a clearance sale. I usually go there to wander around and occasionally to pick up an odd component that I need in a hurry. Now I'm going to have to make a huge shopping list and try to figure out what I need to buy to fully stock up on everything I might ever want now that there won't be a local source anymore (and since if I time the sale right, I can probably get it all at a steal). So I guess that's one thing on my Christmas list even though the sale won't be until around the spring - spending money to fill my garage electronics workshop with at least one of everything (well, more than one of some things and I probably won't be buying too many vacuum tubes, although I have seen a few cool retro projects - maybe I'll stock up on them as well).
When I get more details on when the sale starts and the actual closing date of the store, I'll post it here and on the Make forums. It's ironic that Huntsville can't support a local electronics store. Huntsville has one of the highest engineer-to-population ratios in the country. Maybe we can at least help them go out with bang.
