Yes, regrettably.

We used to do maybe $10k/year in small quantities developing prototypes
and doing small (50 pc) production runs for clinical trails. Now that I
nearly always go away empty handed, I don't even bother stopping anymore.
Just put the order in to Digikey in the evening and I have it on my desk by
noon. My orders have to be more consolidated to help cover the shipping
cost, but for prototyping, what else can I do? And I always order extra
parts now, on spec that I'll have a use for them soon enough.

And now that Arrow has pulled out of Edmonton (and presumably Calgary),
there is no place to go for the industrial parts commonly used around here
(relays, connectors, etc.).

Do you think that Digikey has killed off the local distributor office?

Robert

Josh Koffman wrote:
>
> Sadly, I believe all the Actives are going this way. There was a wierd
> management buyout of the retail chain, so they're no longer affiliated
> with Future Electronics anymore. I think this has hurt their buying
> capabilities. Ah well.
>
> I am lucky in that there are a couple of stores here in downtown Toronto
> that stock a lot of the common glue chips and resistors that I need. I
> try and stock up on things they don't have, like microcontrollers and
> specialized interface chips. I watch eBay too... I recently bought 50
> 7805s for around $5 I think. I also now own enough SN75176 RS485 chips
> (200 of them!) to last me for years and years of experimentation. And it
> cost me less to buy that many that it did when I desperately needed 1
> three years ago from Digikey.
>
> It's all about timing though with eBay.
>
> Josh
> --
> A common mistake that people make when trying to design something
> completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete
> fools.
>         -Douglas Adams
>
> "T.C. Phelps" wrote:
> > It is nice being able to drive somewhere in the city
> > and get things right away. So Active's gone the same
> > way in Edmonton as it has in Calgary -- thought maybe
> > it was just our store. The last time I went there I
> > asked for 14 pin dip sockets. "Don't have them, it'll
> > take 2 weeks to get them in."

--
http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us!
email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body