From: mblack@pubnix.net   
      
   On Sun, 9 Dec 2018, Tom Biasi wrote:   
      
   > On 12/8/2018 10:56 PM, default wrote:   
      
   > I really miss Canal Street   
   >   
   It's been gone so long, most people don't have memories of it, at berst   
   faded memories.   
      
   I only know about it from reading in the magazines, some years after it   
   was torn down for the World Trade Centre.   
      
   But when I first went to buy electronic parts, 1971, I looked in the   
   yellow   
   pages,  and picked one store,  I don't remember why I chose it.  And over   
   time, I came to see that while it wasn't a "Canal Street", there was a   
   cluster of electronic stores within a few blocks.  So Etco, some might   
   remember it because they morphed into a mail order place aimed at the US   
   was the store I went to first, in a building with wooden floors, go down   
   to teh basement and it's jammed with stuff, much of it behind a parts   
   counter, but magazines, and surplus etc.  Even in 1972  I could buy a   
   Command Set transmitter for ten dollars there.   
      
   There was some place nearby that sold transformers and motors, and the one   
   time we went in the owner snarled at us "what do you want?" and we never   
   returned, but we weren't the only ones who got that sort of welcome there.   
   There was Payette Radio, a big parts store, but it also had a ham radio   
   section, where I drooled over the equipemnt, and bought some magazines.   
   And there was a "new" place, Corenet Electronics, selling mostly   
   semiconductors, especially ICs, and kind of promoting itself like a   
   Poly-Paks, where maybe he did get his stock from.   
      
   They were all gone by the end of the decade.  Partly I think the   
   transistion to semiconductors, new places came along that better covered   
   those, and the stores would have to have complete makeover of their   
   inventory to be more relevant.  But I suspect  the rents went up, or if   
   they owned the buildings the offers too good, so they decided it was time   
   to close down.  That area has been redeveloped since the first time I was   
   down there.   
      
   Some of the other stores, spread around, did live much longer.  One even   
   exists today, but when I went about six years ago, it had been renovated   
   and seemed aimed at consumers, rather than hobbyists and repairmen.  I   
   think a lot of their stock had been industrial surplus, it was like a   
   grocery store, with aisles of parts and you'd go up and down with your   
   basket getting what you wanted.  I'm not sure how much of that they still   
   sell, but if it's there, it's behind the counter.  And the wooden floors   
   are gone.   
      
      Michael   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)