In my opinion distributors are now largely redundant and have been so
for a number of years.

1. They were a communication medium across borders while the internet
and cheap telephony was not available or accessible. Today I can email
or phone anywhere on earth just as easiliy as my next door neighbour.

2. They provided support by way of printed data books, apps engineers,
etc. With the WWW, electronic datasheets and forums like this there is
now no further need for that support. (But those bookshelves sure do
look empty!)

3. They kept stock on hand so that you got what you wanted when you
needed it and consolidated orders to pass on savings. These days
corporate greed has taken over: they seem to hold no stock and only
order from the principle after receiving my order and then want to
charge me more than I  would pay for a diect buy from the principle.

4. Being local they provided a simple way to pay for product with
local funds. Now I can buy anything from anywhere with a credit card
and get rewards points to boot.

5. They used to take you out for a good meal once in a while to thank
you for being a good customer. These days you get a bulk Christmas
email and your email address is BCC'd along with all the others.

I do think that the only reason they still exist is because of the
'old school' mentaility still out there. These days I only go through
them when I have exhausted all other options.

That said, I do regularly use a local parts supplier for general
parts, kitting services, getting hard-to-finds from the grey market,
etc. They ARE providing a service by keeping stocks and having parts
when I need them so I don't mind paying them a bit extra for that.
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