I had occasion to visit the new Coffs Harbour Jaycar store, it is a
> nice shop well stocked and laid out probably comparable to the Gore
> Hill store. All I wanted was a 9 pin "D" connector and a MAX232. The
> connector was no problem, I just rocked up to the bin, but all the
> semiconductors were in bins behind the counter. A polite middle aged
> male "Assistant" came up and asked if he could help me. "Yes, I'd
> like a MAX232 please" I said. I knew straight away that this was a
> problem from the blank look in his eyes, "A MAX232?" he said, "Yes" I
> replied, "A MAX232 integrated circuit please". By this time the other
> 3 middle aged well dressed "Assistants" had backed way to the other
> end of the counter and were trying to look busy. My "Assistant"
> started leafing through the catalog without much success, so I
> grabbed another copy, and, even without my reading glasses, found the
> item in about 30 seconds and showed it to him. "Oh you want a ZK8824"
> he said as if I should have asked for that in the first place "And
> whats this other thing you have here?"
I've found that rather unusual for all the Jaycars I have visted. They usually at least know what the basic components are and where to find them in the catalog instantly.
People like to talk about the "good'ol'days" when service staff at the likes of DSE and Jaycar knew their stuff, but some of the most clueless I've ever met were in the very early 80's. They always slip through the cracks.
Dave.