I stopped by HSC yesterday. It was packed. They had a spread of food, and a book to write comments in.
In 2018 Weird Stuff Warehouse closed though I was never much of a fan of that store.
I think that some of the items for sale at HSC had been there for several decades. I used to go there when they were on Evelyn, then they moved to Ryder Street, and finally to Corvin.
The real estate is too valuable now for low dollars-per-square-foot business. The customer base is probably changing in the wrong direction too.
Weird Stuff was mostly old PC junk.
Haltek and Halted and Mike Quinn had real electronics! I guess it's all on ebay now.
-- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc lunatic fringe electronics
Stores like that seem to come and go. "Quirky" is usually code for "The employees/management are smug unhelpful jerks and the prices are too high."
Most of the times I've gone into a store like the above WeirdStuff I leave with nothing other than puzzlement as to how they're still in business
Inventory sitting on shelf for decades isn't a recipe for success. I see they've marked the Teac tape deck down to $50 for the going-out-of-business sale which is about what an unserviced Teac stereo reel-to-reel from the 70s is actually worth.
Yeah, also stores like Montgomery Wards, Toys 'r 'Us, Sears... I really miss the J&J Auto Parts place; my next-best option is eBay.
For auto parts, check out RockAuto. Low prices, fast shipping, very wide selections. I have been extremely pleased with their performance. Only one mistake on a 2003 Ford Focus cylinder temperature gauge. Their offering had nothing to do with the actual part. So check carefully.
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