Found an open Radio Shack (New Jersey)

[MrAl]

Hi,

I found an open Radio Shack believe it or not. I wanted to get a small meter to check automobile stats so i took a ride over there the other day and found it was still open. It's in Somerset in the KMart (now part of Sears) mini mall.

I was surprised so i asked the guy if they were going to stay open and he told me that they will probably stay open for a long time because they have corporate accounts and make money from them and that keeps them up and running. They sell electronic kits to Rutgers (not far from here and they have a nice library) and to Hotels which buy batteries for the TV remote controls
Cool right?

I found a small pocket meter although it wasnt the original one i was looking for, and some jumper leads.

[haklesup]

What a concept, Each store earns its own keep instead of sapping off the franchise just to hold a mall slot. There may be hope for them afterall

[CeaSaR]

I've actually been to 4 different ones in my general and larger area during 2016. 2 are within 20 minutes of me, in opposite directions (Pottstown and King of Prussia) another about 1/2 hour from me (Thorndale) and one I've been to near a job between the Willow Grove and Bensalem exits of the PA Turnpike.

Not that I've bought much of anything from them, I don't play with cheap toys and don't like the audio equipment they carry (really cheap stuff at a helluva markup). Replacement cable ends and the like are about it. I did buy a pair of LM386 kits at a BOGO sale they had. Might even pick up a theremin kit, too.

CeaSaR

Oh, and HI MrAl! Long time no see.

[gerty]

There's one near me in a small college town, only thing they sell is cell phones according to my students....

[CeaSaR]

...only thing they sell is cell phones according to my students....

Well, that's the important thing these days, I guess.
CeaSaR

[MrAl]

Hi again,

hack:
Yeah interesting. I dont get that much from them anymore but it's nice to see at least one store around here is still open. I think it is about 4 or 5 miles away. The last one we had was right in town about 1.2 miles away, but it is gone now, taken over by a sub shop "Mr Subs" ha ha.

Ceasar:
Hi, and interesting coincidence as the guy's name in this particular shop is Ceasar too! Very helpful and knowledgeable guy.
You are not super far from me, i am in Central NJ (unfortunately ha ha). I have some family in PA too.

gerty:
Yeah that is funny because that is what a lot of people tell me too, that's like the first thing they mention.
When we had our store in town here (gone now though) they had two walls full of phones. I guess that is such a popular item these days.
I can only guess that there are not that many people involved with electronics in our areas anymore so they cut back on parts storage to make room for the stuff that sells better. The real estate in many areas went up so much in the past 20 years that i cant imagine how any stores stay open. they have to sell cheap stuff at a high cost. I went to Target down the street one day to get a new watch band, and wow, they said they dont sell them. They only sell complete wrist watches. I went to same store for a new pocket camera a few months back, they only had the most expensive ones in stock. It's like the only way to get anything these days is online where they dont have to pay for an actual store, just a warehouse.

Interesting also, the meter i got did not specify the battery model number. All it said was "12v battery" but never mentioned a number anywhere in the data sheet or manual or on or in the meter itself. Both myself and the store guy looked and looked and it was nowhere to be found. He had to guess at the battery type as there were two different sizes it could have been. The cost? The meter was on sale for 12 dollars, the battery was 5 dollars not on sale. The meter is pretty nice though as it has a hard shell case.

Take care guys and have a good year...2017 already...

[Lenp]

It looks like the few RS near me are still a toy store with a parts drawer someplace.
Their online offerings are modest, but at eight o'clock at night, they might just save the day.

I have a supplier I started using with great prices and good delivery performance.

It is https://www.taydaelectronics.com/
Example
NE555 $0.13 Mouser ~ $0.40
2N3904 $0.02 Mouser ~ $0.14
1N4007 $0.02 Mouser ~ $0.20

Enough said, go look!

[haklesup]

Tayda does seem to have good prices for components, how fast do thay ship, seems they are a Thai company but do have a US warehouse so some things may get to you reasonably fast

"Where are we: Tayda Electronics corporate offices are in Bangkok, Thailand. We also have warehouse, shipping and logistics centers both in Bangkok and in Colorado, USA. Our software developers and various marketing staff are in Durango, Colorado USA. Our Electronics kit testers are in Durango and Bangkok"

For a company, Mouser and Digikey are better suppliers because they only sell components from known suppliers and of course have a much larger inventory. That's important because grey market components can come with a lot of issues when you build quantity.

[Lenp]

They have stock and ship from the west coast, about a week from order to the East Coast.
Never had an item out of stock id they show it in stock on their site.

The semi's I have ordered are all branded by the big names, but.....? There has been no issues so far. I use a lot of their 2.54 and 3.96mm wafer connectors. They seem as good as any others except that all of them are a pain to manually crimp the terminals, even with the correct die set!
It's just not enough volume for an automatic crimper.