Tandy (radio shack), Maplin

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Anyone else miss these high street stores that used to sell things like soldering irons, multimeters and resistors? Now your only option is online.

Yes and no. It was good to have the option of using these kinds of stores, and they fulfilled a purpose, but I don't think they did themselves any favours with the quality of their goods and service.

Tandy's stuff seemed a bit shoddy from my admittedly limited experience of them, and Maplins were definitely on the pricey side. I once returned an item to one of their shops and the assistant was most unhelpful.

I much preferred Comet, though it wasn't exactly the same sort of business. They also however changed over the years from a good value, no-nonsense type of outfit to more of a profit-obsessed high-margin operation (like Currys) with little interest in customer service.

I kind of liked Tandy but I agree about the quality problem - the hi-fi items always seemed to have one thing in the spec that wasn't up to scratch, and a lot of their stuff seemed overpriced. And the marketing was a bit over the top. But it was the first place I knew of where you could get a "PZM" hi-fi microphone. They were shaped like a square plate, and not very convenient as close-up vocal mics, but the sound quality was great and they revolutionised my music recording. Very cheap too.

Maplins was OK but again they could be somewhat expensive.

Back in the 1970s there was a place on the Edgeware Road in London called Henry's Radio that had practically everything, very inexpensive too. They also did mail order and had a huge catalogue.

The absolute best bricks-and-mortar electronics shop I ever saw was Bardwells in Sheffield. A lot of their stuff was government surplus, their prices were amazingly low, and they had a stunning range of electronic components. Best of all, they didn't do marketing - the place was always packed with customers and most of them had found out about it by word of mouth. Sadly they closed in 2017. They were too good for the modern world.
https://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/foru ... as-closed/