"Tweetldee" wrote in message ...
snipped.....its been reposted enough as this is probably the 20th reply or so...maybe even farthur down the list...

I never bought a whole lot from the shack....batteries,ferric
chloride, and the occasional doo dad were my only big purchases.

Until about 4 years ago I had a shack within walking distance that was
very well stocked in high priced components....like I said I didnt buy
much but they were handy when I somehow didnt have it in one of my
bins.

We did have a regular electronics place here for years....Radio
Electric Supply and it was dingy dusty electronics supply house that
carried everything but they dried up for lack of business about 6 or 7
years ago maybe 8....

2 other places in nearby towns that actually carry electronic supplies
but they are geard more toward cable, computers, and communications
now......any ics or semiconductors will be the 3.00 a pop brand names
like NTE..... no more resistor packs or bulk anything....one of the
stores does not even stock magnet wire and the pros there didnt even
know what it was.

I make my purchases from mouser and electronix express and a few
others....mostly mouser. If you are serious about the hobby you might
as well order 10 or more of the common stuff and make large orders to
save on shipping.

I went to rat shack a couple of weeks ago....they moved to the other
side of town. They had very few components left and didnt knw if they
would restock. They had it all in a big cabinet with bins. They did
have a couple of new rat shack soldering iron stations and some tools
but resistors, capacitors, semicondutors were barely stocked. #
bottles of ferric chloride...I bought 2.

They did have lots of coax type stuff....bncs in many shapes and sizes
and all kinds of "f" coax stuff.

The store was empty and I was immediately accosted by two salesmen who
left me alone when I said I was just loking for electronic parts.

The whole store except for less than 10 square feet is dedicated to
computers and phones....the odd battery selection, the behind the
counter calcualtors etc....but rat shack is clearly a cell phone
dealership now.