I am afraid of asking but what does Sayal classify as? I figured it would take negative time for someone to post Radio Shack in commentary because it’s basically a knee jerk reaction, but I do appreciate a store like Sayal although they’re proper electronics parts seller. These stores are more like finished product distributors. Maybe I’m too picky.
I haven't heard of Sayal, but there is Anchor Electronics in Santa Clara that sells what I would think you're looking for.
In my mind microcenter mostly sells PC parts that you plug in or stick into a card slot, although apparently they do also sell some electronics components a hobbyist might solder to a board.
Anchor Electronics is totally awesome. Very small but very interesting collection of stuff that you definitely won't find at any other store that still exists in the Bay Area.
Looks about right! I thought Sayal was scattered across US so my bad :l
A big box product store opening that sells plug and play stuff is to me, personally, not worthy of bearing the title Electronics. It’s not news worthy for hackers. I could say that out of smugness but very often I’m confronted with sales staff that don’t know much about what they’re selling, and I end up (playfully?) educating them about the products, so I suspect this would be much the same.
The “Maker” space as it’s called today is amazing but I guess done to death so nobody talks about it?
There are of course no real contenders today that warrant bringing up Radio Shack in any way (but people still do as if it’s relevant). RS put a gorilla’s weight behind teaching people how to fish that when they left, they left a massive cultural void that nobody has since filled and is unlikely to fill. The world has moved on.
Like it or not, and I'm in the not category, most people conflate electronics with consumer electronics. It is just something we have to deal with.
That said, a big box computer retailer is worth something. For the most part, I've found that sales people know something about computers. Contrast that to general consumer electronics stores where sales people know nothing about everything. If you know what you want, they also tend to be better than smaller computer stores. In that case, you're basically paying someone to do mail order for you.
