With Tanner Electronics closing permanently (after 40 yrs! My dad would take me as kid) … where else can one get electronic parts and components locally here? Can we get a list going, then I’ll put it on the wiki (unless there’s already a local supplies page?)
BGmicro: order online, can then pickup from warehouse in Garland, surplus items
Altex: Carrollton, computer components, networking, common electronics
Micro Center: Richardson, mostly computer parts, some electronic kits and basic components
They’re still open for business but last year they transitioned to a model where their suppliers own the stock rather than Fry’s. This has unintended consequences like eliminating competition among product categories. For example you go to get a television. Instead of there being half a dozen brands and a dozen models from each brand there’s only one brand and a handful of models. Whatever the supplier is willing to front. It’s stupid and I hope it fails.
Allied is still allowing will call on online orders, I picked an order up from them last month and they still show will call as an option when checking out. When you arrive at will call, there is a phone number on the door that you call and they will bring the order out to you.
Maybe Mouser isn’t allowing will call? I seldomly order from them as it is faster for me to drive to Allied.
Hmm, maybe they have changed it? My last two orders were 6/26 and 7/9, and the website still has the will call option listed on checkout. Now I wish I had project to try ordering some stuff for…
I don’t see how Fry’s will survive long now, they’ve been dying for a while and I highly suspect something shady is going on in their main office. Most of their components selection is depleted, and I doubt they’ll stock them again.
Microcenter on the other hand is booming. It was a 45min line to the back of the store last time I was there to get SD cards. They’ve expanded their hobby selection.
It might be worth going through the tanners donation stuff as well, there is a log of whats in there done by some volunteers but I don’t know where to find that info.
They (Fry’s) absolutely had some corruption years ago. A friend of the brothers managed to insert himself into a position of sole authority in purchasing, and built in kickbacks and possibly other extortion into the supply chain. But he was caught years ago, so there has been plenty of time to right the ship.
The feel I get from everything I have read, and could be totally wrong, is that when the brothers found they had been duped, it broke their spirits and interest in the stores, and they went off to play with their billions and leave the stores on auto pilot. So they have had nobody to develop or approve any shifts in strategy to adapt to the changing market, and no reinvestment in the stores. Apparently all the floor computers are still XP for example.
