I miss the days when you could still buy individual capacitors at RadioShack

Back in the late 90s, if I needed a 100uF 25V cap for a TV repair, I could walk into any RadioShack and grab it off the wall for under a dollar. Now I have to order a 50-pack online and wait a week, paying shipping that costs more than the parts. Has anyone else noticed the local supply drying up, or is it just my town in Ohio?

1 comments

1 Comment

kai8393d ago

Funny thing, I actually think the real loss isn't the parts so much as the knowledge that used to come with them. When I was first learning electronics back in the day, the guy behind the counter at RadioShack could tell you exactly which resistor you needed for a project and might even draw you a quick circuit diagram on a napkin. Now if you walk into a Best Buy or whatever, the staff just points at the HDMI cables. The whole ecosystem of "hey, I'm stuck on this" and getting a real answer from someone who actually soldered things is just gone. And that's what I miss more than the parts themselves.