Difficulty in finding components

[ray_parkhurst]

I was dismayed today when I could not source some electrical components I needed for a home project. I needed a few items such as 20-24 gauge wire, some alligator clips, and some 2.1mm DC jacks. My usual place to buy such stuff is HSC, but they went OOB a while back. Radio Shack was a standby before that. OOB. My backstop is Frys, but they appear to be going OOB as well, with less than 50% of their shelves stocked (going into the holidays?), and more employees than customers. I tried Harbor Freight, but they didn't have the wire. Home Depot and Lowes are there, but they only have heavy gauge stuff. My last resort was Excess Solutions, an excellent surplus store who by chance ended up buying all of HSC's inventory. They're in downtown San Jose, so a bit of a drive, and when I got there they were closed, presumably for the holiday, but perhaps they are going OOB as well. I didn't even think to call since it is black friday. Isn't everyone open? In the end I needed to postpone my project, and order the components on Amazon and eBay. I live in Silicon Valley and I can't buy wire and connectors!!!

[mawyatt]

I was dismayed today when I could not source some electrical components I needed for a home project. I needed a few items such as 20-24 gauge wire, some alligator clips, and some 2.1mm DC jacks. My usual place to buy such stuff is HSC, but they went OOB a while back. Radio Shack was a standby before that. OOB. My backstop is Frys, but they appear to be going OOB as well, with less than 50% of their shelves stocked (going into the holidays?), and more employees than customers. I tried Harbor Freight, but they didn't have the wire. Home Depot and Lowes are there, but they only have heavy gauge stuff. My last resort was Excess Solutions, an excellent surplus store who by chance ended up buying all of HSC's inventory. They're in downtown San Jose, so a bit of a drive, and when I got there they were closed, presumably for the holiday, but perhaps they are going OOB as well. I didn't even think to call since it is black friday. Isn't everyone open? In the end I needed to postpone my project, and order the components on Amazon and eBay. I live in Silicon Valley and I can't buy wire and connectors!!!

You can't find anything electronic-wise here in Clearwater, Florida. I try an anticipate what I'll need and just order it on-line and wait, this isn't so bad because most things are very inexpensive on-line.

When I'm designing something I'll try and design it around what I know I have on-hand, however this usually involves a few components I don't have which means the long wait and defeats the whole purpose of having stuff on-hand since I could have just ordered everything on-line and not had anything on-hand in the first place

Best,

[ray_parkhurst]

We've been contemplating moving, and one of my concerns was lack of availability of good and services, but many mid-sized towns actually have better availability now than the larger cities and suburban areas. It's interesting times indeed.

[Bob-O-Rama]

Gosh I miss RadioShack! For alligator clips, wire, and so on, the auto-parts store may have things for a quick fix. Our Auto Zone has them.

I also live a few miles away form a gaggle of Amazon and ULINE warehouses and a UPS processing facility - some times things arrive in less than 24 hours - even weird stuff. One time I ordered a DC-DC power module at 11PM friday evening - it arrived by UPS at 10:30AM the next morning. Its a giant alimentary canal of "stuff"