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From: phd@speech1.cs.cmu.edu (Paul Dietz)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: vari-loopstick
Message-ID: <1007@speech1.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Wed, 15-Jul-87 13:21:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: speech1.1007
Posted: Wed Jul 15 13:21:49 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jul-87 01:27:44 EDT
References: <983@ski.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 25
Keywords: Lafayette in the good ol' days, and a challenge...

In article <983@ski.UUCP> dr@unix.UUCP (David Robins) writes:
>Lafayette, a large chain and catalog store, did go out of business years ago.
>They had one of the best consumer and experimenter parts
>availabilities anywhere.  Radio Shack is no comparison.  The
>Lafayette chain stores, however, were similar to Radio Shacks, and
>carried few parts.

When I was growing up, my Grandmother used to live two blocks from the
Lafayette headquarters in Syosset, Long Island. Most of the stuff in the
store was priced well beyond the range of a budding hacker, but there was
this one little room off to the side where they sold broken and discontinued
items. The stuff was VERY CHEAP, and usually tended to the bizarre. (I still
have the remains of a couple of baby Van DeGraf generators somewhere...)
Eventually, they moved the whole "junk" operation to a store in Mineola.
The gimmick there was "Parts for 99 cents a pound"! It was good stuff.
Too bad the operation didn't last...

So, here's a challenge to the net: Let's try and compile a list of the BEST
junk electronics stores in North America currently in existence! Send in
your nominations, and I'll try and compile a comprehensive list.

Paul H. Dietz
On ARPA: phd@speech1.cs.cmu.edu
Carnegie Mellon University
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering