6
The answer depends heavily on your location. Where are you (roughly) located?
USA. Sorry for my American Defaultism 😅
The only possible way to get to a shop is "a car"... Poor Americans!
As a poor American who had to move back in with family out to a rural nowhere town and then had their car break down yet can't afford to get it running again, it absolutely fucking sucks.
I literally cannot go anywhere. I'm surrounded by fields. The closest store of any kind would be an hour's walk just to get there traveling on 55+mph highways for 80% of the trip with no sidewalk, just a 1ft gravel shoulder between the road and 4ft deep ditches filled with god knows what.
I haven't had social interaction that isn't the two family members I live with, and I don't even want to get started on how they are absolute drains on my already failing mental state.
Plus, now that I don't have a car, even if I do finally get a bite on my job search, which has been going for more than 6 months now, I have no transportation to get to work. I can't work from home due to the country bumpkin internet either.
It seriously just feels like waiting to die out here.
Sounds awful. Your situation is extreme (ah rural America!) but I won't deny there's something freeing about cars. These days I hate cars with a passion, and I've always lived in big European cities where they're completely unnecessary, but even I had a car when I was 20, and I loved it. But then a couple of years later I got rid of it, and that also felt like freedom and I loved that too... Anyway, just an anecdote. As for your situation, good luck, you'll find a way out of there.
PS off-topic: I've always found "good luck" to be a bit lacking for these contexts, in French there's the much better "bon courage", sadly untranslatable but much more appropriate in your case.
I'm in Louisiana, so using French is actually quite appropriate.
Who remembers when Radio Shack carried actual radio components?
I don't, but grew up hearing the tales.
I remember growing up and hitting the radio shack components section. Bought new motors for a remote control car, modded it to fit with super glue and twisted/electrical taped a stronger battery on it.
It worked great for like 5 min before the magic smoke came out 🤣
Edit: I think I was 8-10 years old
I walk, it's not ideal but I take one for mother earth and walk the whole 10000 cm to the store when needed.
Monoprice for cables, even if I wasn't near electronics places I probably still would. Cable markup is goofy.
I live in the city. I don't have this weakness you speak of
Microcenter, Newegg, B&H Photo and Video.
These and I'd add Crutchfield, Sweetwater, and Best Buy has good sales.
For components, the standard Mouser, Digikey, and McMaster-Carr
If you did have a car, where would you go for electronics? There’s not many places left I wouldn’t avoid.
I’m near enough to MicroCenter and You-Do-It, but most people aren’t and there’s really not much else worth going to.
Online is king for electronics shopping
Oh, I was just asking because I have a BestBuy that's like a 15 minute drive away, but would take forever to talk to and back from, while carrying the weight of the stuff you bought. I think I also have a Microcenter like 45 min to 1 hour away.
I had a recent terrible experience with Besbuy, so that's why I can't use their shipping anymore. (They use Doordash now, and the driver stole my laptop)
Newegg for most things. Some electronics, I know of smaller online stores and I prefer to order from them.
The only brick and mortar store near me is a Best Buy and that is no good for anyone.
Can you share what these smaller stores are, please?
this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
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