Renaissance of the DIY Electronics Store.

Most who are old enough remember when Radio Shack

had walls of electronics and hardware components for DIY

The dawn of the Twenty First Century seemed to bode poorly for such retail. Catalog companies like Jameco and MPJA, and even the majors like Digikey and Mouser  became the source of choice for DIY.

Online sales outlets then saw growth. Some above morphed to online. And many project oriented experimenters (“hackers”, “makers” – what have you) moved to coordination with such online entities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adafruit_Industries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparkfun

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_(magazine)

And there are closely allied entities (physical or conceptual DIY)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makerbot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reprap

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructables

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_cutter

And one can get practically anything from Amazon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com

And well executed online hardware thrives in forms like McMaster-Carr   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMaster-Carr

But the retail store is not dead... Sometimes as a hybrid works - like fasteners from Fastenal   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastenal

And Home Depot and Walmart are developing online presence to leverage their retail…

But getting back to the point. DIY modules are now back on the walls at Radio Shack. And they are popping up else where. There is a whole section at Microcenter in Cambridge for such. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Center

CompUSA and Fry’s are similar (and there are some locals still holding on like You-Do-It in Waltham).

Might not be long before craft supply and home improvement get on the band wagon? And there are always players like Walmart which might take up the banner. One wonders if such a game change could save Kmart/Sears?