"EDM" ) writes:
"David Nebenzahl" wrote in message s.com...
And I'd like to give a shameless plug to this particular store, Al
Lasher's Electronics in Berkeley on University Ave. They've been there
forever; they have ton of stuff; they know what the hell they're talking
about, and are not above helping the clueless customer who needs a
replacement thingamajig for their old radio, computer setup, or
whatever, find what they need; I hope they're there for a long time to come.

I second that kudo. B&M stores like this are worth their
weight in gold these days.

Of course, the real luck is that they've lasted this long.

Most closed down years ago, as rents went higher (or there was redevelopment,
such as the World Trade Center disbursing Radio Row), or the owners got
older and wanted to retire, or the field changed so much with the coming of
ICs (or even transistors) that they decided it was a good time to close
the business. Indeed, a lot of those places survived because they catered
to a general crowd, not just the hobbyist but the repair outlets. But
as electronics got more complicated, the more specific the parts became,
and unlike the days when stocking standard resistors, capacitors and tubes
would cover much of the need, the inventory had to grow large if it could
be of value to the repair of most items.

When I was a kid in 1971, I picked a store out of the Yellow Pages to
get parts for that first project. Wooden floors, a combination of new
parts, surplus parts and even WWII surplus, and the owner took his shift
behind the counter. ON later trips to the store, I discovered it was a
cluster of electronic stores, so my original choice was pretty good. There
was a more service oriented store that had been around forever (wooden
floors too) but also had an amateur radio department, and an upstart
solid state only place, who seemed to get most of his stock from Poly Paks.
All of those stores are gone, some decades back, and only one store that
I know from those early days still exists (but it still has a wooden floor).
One store in another location continued on till about five or so years ago,
and had disappeared when I returned after what hadn't seemed like too long an
absence.

Although, the owner of that first store I went to was mentioned in the paper
recently, and he's still selling surplus (though now manufacturing surplus
rather than war suprlus), but it seems to be reselling to stores rather than
selling to walk in customers.

Michael