Hi Colin, I wish things were as good in the US as you thought. In the 80s, Radio Shack was decent. They had a solid basic selection of resistors, capacitors, common ICs, various small enclosures, etc, as well as some CB/Ham equipment and TV cables, antennas, etc. In the late 80s to early 90s, they began to decline as they focused more on consumer goods like cell phones, landline phones, toys, and computer accessories. In the mid to late 90s, it seemed that they just let their electronic component selection languish - when something went out of stock it often was not re-stocked, many of the parts were no longer properly sorted or categorized. I believe that some of their stores dropped the parts section entirely. Today, they have begun to include some newer hobby stuff like Arduino and robotics kits, but I think their days are probably numbered due to the availability of some local alternatives (my local Home Depot has an entire isle for AV tools, cabling, and accessories) and low prices online. Sean On Tue, Mar 4, 2014 at 2:03 PM, CDB wrote: > I read on the BBC website that Radio Shack is closing 1100 stores,around > 20% of their total number due to fast declining sales. > > I've only ever seen their Tandy offshoots, which in the UK were always > quite expensive from actual component pricing (though I am comparing them > to the likes of Maplin and Henrys Radio and Cirkit amongst others in the > 70s). They very soon lapsed into just a gadget outlet. I understand thoug= h > that in the US they did retain their proper hobby supply status and were > competitive from a hobbyist point of view. > > Colin > -- > cdb, on 5/03/2014 > > > > -- > http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .