this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
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[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

I walk, it's not ideal but I take one for mother earth and walk the whole 10000 cm to the store when needed.

[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 7 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Who remembers when Radio Shack carried actual radio components?

I don't, but grew up hearing the tales.

[–] Landless2029@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

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

[–] einkorn@feddit.org 26 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

The answer depends heavily on your location. Where are you (roughly) located?

[–] ThisIsFineDotJpeg@sh.itjust.works 21 points 12 hours ago

USA. Sorry for my American Defaultism 😅

[–] dil@lemmy.zip 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Online, bestbuy usually has good deals, if I can wait manufacturer websites have decent deals sometimes but month for shipping, newegg like once, amazon a lot. I do want to buy more chinese stuff, since so much amazon stuff is just rebranded aliexpress stuff with faster shipping lol. But I don't like waiting and theres a lot more research needed sometimes to not get scammed.

[–] dil@lemmy.zip 1 points 7 hours ago

aliexpress has great deals for solid tech like tablets way better than the cheap (around 300$) ones here

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 5 points 9 hours ago

There aren't even good stores to buy electronics from where I live. Online is my first choice.

[–] melodious_thunk@lemm.ee 3 points 8 hours ago

Costco for anything they have. Newegg. ABT electronics.

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 13 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Microcenter, Newegg, B&H Photo and Video.

[–] Lasherz12@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago

These and I'd add Crutchfield, Sweetwater, and Best Buy has good sales.

For components, the standard Mouser, Digikey, and McMaster-Carr

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 5 points 10 hours ago

For me personally, for older electronics, eBay is my default.

For newer stuff I don't even bother online, for the most part anymore. I try my best not to go through amazon ( even though that's where I ended up getting my 2TB external drive and a supposedly refurbished tablet ) because I don't wanna give them business if I don't have to, every single time I have ever tried ordering anything on the walmart website any account I make gets flagged or some other problem arises, I have no experience with other sites like NewEgg, and I think Best Buy is a little overpriced, usually, for what I'm looking for.

[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 5 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

The only possible way to get to a shop is "a car"... Poor Americans!

[–] Crankenstein@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

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 I 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.

[–] Crankenstein@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago

I'm in Louisiana, so using French is actually quite appropriate.

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Many people don't really understand how rural it can get.

[–] rikudou 3 points 9 hours ago

Alza.cz! Probably not very useful to you in the US, I guess. Unless you visit Czechia and want to buy some electronics.

[–] AreaKode@lemmy.world 5 points 12 hours ago

I'm into Arduino and ESP32 and other small electronics. Aliexpress is my best friend. They have it down to about 2 weeks for delivery, pretty consistently. Or if you can't wait, Amazon can get you the same products by the end of the day for twice the price.

[–] DirigibleProtein@aussie.zone 3 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)
[–] gravitywell@sh.itjust.works 4 points 12 hours ago

Aside from amazon ive also used newegg and for some things monoprice. For used stuff, especially phones i use swappa.

[–] tdawg@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

I live in the city. I don't have this weakness you speak of

[–] Albbi@lemmy.ca 7 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

I once had my power supply die on me and had an assignment due very soon that I needed to work on. So I biked down to Best Buy and bought myself a replacement. The replacement didn't work and when I looked closely I could see the capacitors inside were all corroded. So I was a bit tired and I took the bus back to Best Buy to make the exchange. The replacement also did not work, it was missing a wire connector. At this point I cried a little bit and asked my sister to get me with her car so I could get another replacment. I was sad that it came to that.

[–] tdawg@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago

Yikes, that sounds awful. I will say tho if driving is the easier option then your city still isn't setup for proper transit (which sadly makes sense if you live in north America)

[–] ech@lemm.ee 3 points 11 hours ago

This is the more typical process, ime.

[–] ech@lemm.ee 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

It's not a competition and you're being a jerk.

[–] tdawg@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

I would recommend taking a chill pill mate