Post
by Garth » Tue Jan 05, 2016 6:57 am
Jameco's website is down at the moment. I will comment however that a friend used to have an electronics store nearby, and he ended up closing it several years ago because the floor traffic dried up. He still runs the distribution part of the business from his house where it's all by phone and internet. Another part of the business had been repairs on things like TVs and stereos, but no one repairs those anymore. They just buy a new one, so that part of the business was closed perhaps 20 years ago. The floor traffic however was from hobbyists and from students at the local high school and community college who were in electronics classes. Those are not offered anymore, nor are there many hobbyists. The few of us who do still exist buy our stuff online.
CB was big in the 70's and 80's, but cell phones put an end to that. I'm not sure what's happening in amateur radio. I'm a ham myself, but have not been active in 30 years. I still keep my license current so I can jump back in anytime, and keep my old call letters. I grew up in another country because of my parents' work; and when we came back to the States in '74, I discovered Radio Shack, Lafayette, Poly Packs, Burstein-Applebee, and a lot of other electronics stores, many surplus, many local, and it was absolutely wonderful. Radio Shack today is only a shadow of its former self though, and many of those others went out of business many years ago.
The turns the electronics industry has taken in the last decade or two for profits has really discouraged the hobby part. Yet without that, where will the future engineers come from? And sometimes the industry makes me want to get out of it completely and go back to pushing a broom and stocking shelves. I'm that disgusted with it. I got into electronics for fun, not money, and when the fun is gone, so will I be. I'll always keep electronics for a hobby, but we'll see what happens for my work.
