[bigbob]

Ah...how about DigiKey, Mouser (part of TT Electronics, Berkshire Hathaway), Adafruit, MCM, Parts Express, Sparkfun, MakerShed, and several dozen more?

ELectronics as a hobby is bigger than ever. People even make their own 3D printers, ya know? ;-) And with open source software and cheap building blocks like Arduino and Raspberry Pis, hobbyists are making more things that turn into small businesses, often sourcing PC boards, wi-fi, bluetooth, and GPS modules, and other components directly from China and performing the value-added processes here. All good.

Radio Shack simply ran itself into the ground trying to sell phone plans instead of riding the S-curve of the Next Big Thing.

[bigbob]

Here’s a company that could be the New Radio Shack: Frys -

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/frys-electronics-how-this-tech-retailer-has-survived-the-fall-of-brick-and-mortar-145540323.html

34 stores and counting. People love Frys.

[Fresh Wind]

...often sourcing PC boards, wi-fi, bluetooth, and GPS modules, and other components directly from China and performing the value-added processes here. All good.

Not entirely good.

The crappy deals that we made with China makes it possible for them to ship from China to the US for practically no money. For example, it is possible to buy items for a dollar on eBay, and have them shipped from China to the US for free. It would cost about $15 to ship the same item from the US to China.

Add to that they use basically slave labor, have no environmental regulations to hinder them, and have a government that understands that it is in their strategic national interest to destroy global competition.

Of course that makes it possible for hobbyists to play with cheap electronic gadgets from China, but it also means that large segments of the vast electronics industries that used to exist in the US are gone forever.

[mad_as_he$$]

+1