There was once a time when these stores were common all over America. New York's Radio Row was a huge one. Sadly, we've become a country of cheap, disposable junk electronics. Not only do we not repair and build anything anymore, but we've largely forgotten how to do so. When Radio Shack went out of business, the last bit of the hobbyist electronics industry left the national presence. Places like this are national treasures.

@louistournas120

25 күн бұрын

Radio Shack is sort of back. They don't have their own stores. They make a deal with a certain store to store the items. Apparently, there are a few such places.

This is not only a electronics shop, its a museum, an archive and insanely nostalgic. I would go to the US just to visit this shop! Thanks for sharing...

@goofyfoot2001

Ай бұрын

Don't open the red cases, that's where they keep the Arc of the Covenant.

@PaulHayman-tq5kb

3 күн бұрын

Me too

I am a Mexican electronic engineer 75 years old, I started learning electronics by mail in NATIONAL SCHOOLS IN 1964 But I'd use to go to LA one or two times a year (I have family there) So I been around there fore ever and used all the electronic stores around and in the last two or three years I just go to the places this Electronic stores use to be and Cry actually Cry. The nostalgia is so big that I can't help it. But the saddest part of the story is thinking where the young people are going to get elements for their investigations, their professional personal development. I invented a lot of things because I had the opportunity to play around with all this components Vacuum tubes, transistors relays, etc. etc. also in the field of chemistry the same things happened and more because a lot of substances available then are bound now.

Thank You for advertising EPO on your channel. Long time EPO customer After Radio shack and fry's going out business EPO is the place to go

A hobbyist dream place.

I'm 72 years old,, my uncle use to take me to Sparkys in Fresno when I was 10 years old,,,, this brought back some good memories !! Thanks for the video.

@big8news

Ай бұрын

That was sad win they torrid it down just so they built a another Walgreens right there. I know they did move the store but I went out of business. I know I have a few components from there because they threw them in the trash out my old job I used to work at

@arttrek2

Ай бұрын

I worked at Sparky Electronics back in 1981; it was my very first job. They only had new merchandise (and some new old-stock stuff), not any used equipment. When I moved to the San Francisco Bay area, we had Weird Stuff Warehouse, Excess Solutions, Halted/HSC, and Fry's. Alas, they are all gone now. The effects of aging owners and a changing hobbyist market. The only thing we have left now is a ham swap meet that occurs once a month for about half the year.

This is how every seriously-taken electronics shop should look like and yet I've seen one with my own eyes. Thanks for the tour!

Even the music was from the 80's. Such old Electronic parts store can be a treasure hunt if you are looking for old absolete parts.

@jikosauce

6 ай бұрын

Are they still good to use? How long do components last? The ones with chemicals I guess wouldn't last as long as the ones that are only metal

You are so lucky to have a store like that in your area!

This brings back many memories. I started building electronic kits in the early 70's. Majored in electronics in college. Stayed in the field my entire career. Did well enough to retire at 50. Love this store. Nice mix of vintage electronic and odds and ends. I'm going to save this video. I may need to get some rarer parts.

@mpwiedemann

29 күн бұрын

Pretty much the same path for me and I couldn't be happier. I would love to visit this store.

I remember these type of stores were everywhere back in the day. Man I miss these places !

@michaelquinones-lx6ks

23 күн бұрын

Same here.

What’s crazier is a channel having the courage to record inside a store playing copyrighted music and uploading on yt most don’t dare and normally just do a voice over to avoid demonetization but the original audio does it justice thanks for the share 👏🏼

@grahamnichols1416

Ай бұрын

When that gauntlet gets thrown you go with it. :)

@John-jl3ky

Ай бұрын

At first I thought it was music he had playing in the background, As part of his recording but yeah that's many copyright strikes l o l

@tonyinmo2291

Ай бұрын

What can he do when the store plays the music, you can see the speakers in the ceiling. F YT and their crazy rules.😊😂😂

@FullThrottleMonty

Ай бұрын

Seriously though, I want to buy the soundtrack to this store.

@pomonabill220

Ай бұрын

I was wondering how he got away with the copyrighted music. Guess it passed though.

I knew where you were when I saw you on the corner. I'm a Houston native and I love EPO!

@steeldamiano

Ай бұрын

This came up in my feed and the second I saw that corner I knew as well. I bought a old 1950s record console that was up front when I walked in one day. Sits in my steampunk gameroom to this day.

@elmerhomero666

29 күн бұрын

so this p[lace is in houston?

@TheKuptis

21 күн бұрын

@@elmerhomero666 Yes. The address is in the video's description.

When I see those things I always think about the memories stored in them in the format of a particle of dust from places and people's lives

Amazing! What a bonus, it's 17 miles from my house! Thanks.

You took us back to the 70’s! Love it!

i've spent so many hours just wandering through EPO when I lived in Houston.

Someone call Adam Savage ! 😮

We had a good electronics store in my neighborhood, called ELECTRONIC WAREHOUSE, not even close to what EPO is, but very decent amount of electrics and oddities. After being there since about the 70's, they finally had to throw the towel in. I miss that place.

Been going her for 20+ years. You can spend hours wandering the aisles

Started in the Navy 1979 at 17 years old. Had a 30 year career in electronics. Now that I'm retired am thinking about doing all of those electronics hobby projects a had no time for while in the BIZ. I have a Granddaughter who turns 15 on Saturday. She has expressed an interest in robotics and I bought her a big kit. Then I found out that she has a plastic molding machine. I offered her a laptop when she's ready.

“What the heck is that”…? LOVED that genuine response !!!

Wow, how cool! Brought back memories seeing some of the old oscilloscopes. Even the old dbx audio boxes we used 30 years ago to get better S/N ratio on our music. Thanks sooo much for the walk through!

The Commodore PET computer at 12:00 is a real hit of nostalgia. My elementary school had those.

I love EPO! They also have seminars and workshops!! We are sooo lucky to have it. Houston is awesome!!

My dad started repairing and eventually selling Quasar, Emerson, Zenith and other TV's from the 60's until the late 90s. He grew It to include a Radio Shack franchise and eventually added a hobby shop. Was a cool business to grow up around and work at. This brought back some great memories.

Awesome video. Wow what a find ! Absolute treasure trove . Thank you for sharing with the community. 😊 Shared the video with my local Makerspace group

There was a store on 285 in Atlanta. It had a lot of parts but was not a museum like that store is. I live in Georgia and really want to make that trip.

Very impressive store with *everything to offer* literally. The custom wooden cabinets and educational displays of things like motor controllers and power window regulators are a sign of someone who loves what they do and wants to teach others!

Wow that place is SO cool!! I just love places like this. Great background music, even. Thanks for sharing!

I miss places like this. Thank you for sharing.

"They definitely do not make stores like this anymore." My first thought was simply, "nope, they do not!" while remembering many an old Burstein Applebee and a few of the original Radio Shacks. I'd love to own a store like this, but then again, I'd never get any projects done. :)) Thanks so much for the trip down Memory Lane!

that stores music system sounds great. perfect soundtrack looking around

Wow what a place absolutely fantastic ,everything electrical and more,a great upload thank you for posting ,I'm watching from england all the best for the future and keep going I hope the shop remains there for years to come

This place is incredible!!! I get the impression this place is in Texas? I am in Pennsylvania and I do research into many 1800's technology D'Arsonval and Tesla subjects. That place would be awesome. Thank you so much for bringing this wonderful place to us...

@SHSPVR

Ай бұрын

It in Houston, Texas

I still have a lot of my specialized tools and parts from EPO in my electronics tool box. I have been visiting there since the 1980's . Always something new and a lot of old there.

As a teenager I visited a similar store in 1979 Called Capitol Iron in Victoria BC Canada which sold outdoor camping gear, fishing gear workwear, and down in the basement was an antique electronics pawn shop with vintage military surplus radio, radar equipment. Loads of antique 1930's to 40's telephones. 1920's black knob radios, dozens of pre 1950's radios, record players. I bought a liter of 3/16x1/2 inch brass nut and bolts (still have some of them today) a 1940's metal 365 tuning capacitor (still have it) and a 1000 ft roll of 26 gauge copper magnet wire. Capitol Iron still exists today although the vintage store section closed in the late 2000's

There's a place exactly like this in Hillsboro, Oregon called Surplus Gizmos! I go often! 😄

Thanx for the tour. In a town I lived in had one of these stores called SurplusTronics They still exist but have become more of a parts retail store no preloved items any more.

This IS the coolest store I’ve ever seen! Thanks for sharing! At 12:00 there is an old Commodore Pet computer!

In Orlando there is one similar called Skycraft Surplus

This is a gold mine for diy and hobbyists! There was a store like this in Dallas but they closed a few years ago. I've been looking for a similar location in the DFW metroplex without success.

I loved a store in Toronto with the name ACTIVE SURPLUS in 347 Queen str. West. As a student I have spent countless hours there, it was my only reall entertainment. Unfortunatelly it is closed now (I have heard). It reminds me a lo of this one. Now the new generation does not care about making stuff by themselves, they want to just buy!!!! I am 63 now and everyweekend I must work with the soldering iron.....bad habbits I guess...I love old radios from the 50s and up. I wish all the people out there with the same crazy thoughts as mine to have a good life with health and happines. Please do not forget to help anybody that needs it. Life is too small so we must lock our ego and consider every living soul as our brothers. (It is just a matrix, and our soul is imortal....)

Thats cool, in the 70's and 80's there were around 3 or 4 shops in my town but now there's none whatsoever, in fact its quite rare to even see a vintage radio & electronics fair in the U.K. I could spen hours in that shop & spend a few bob too.

There used to be a couple stores near Detroit like this. Always my favorite place to go. Thanks for sharing. lol, Hawaii 5-0 intro music from the early 70's... love it.

They used to have a somewhat similar place here in the Dallas area called "Tanner Electronics." That place closed several years back. I sure do miss it... Wish some other similar store would open... Each Saturday that place seemed to be packed w/customers. Oh well, Fry's couldn't make it either. Farewell to the electronic hobbyist trying to get a glimpse of the past and present electronics parts and tools.

@kensyootoob

Ай бұрын

Yes yes. I miss Tanner-bo-Banner ... good times there.

This is the store I always dream about, but wake up sad because it doesn’t exist… But it does exist.

@chrisapolinar1102

Ай бұрын

It does and it is great. The video doesn't do it justice. This store has Anything you need and everything you wanted. I'm lucky to live in Houston and go to this store at least twice a month just to look at stuff even if I'm not going for a reason. The inventory of vintage stuff changes to, it's not always the same stuff .

Reminds me of the "American Science and Surplus" store in Milwaukee Wisconsin. A place for both high and low tech inventors and collectors of military and industrial sutplus. A fun place for both grandkids and grandparents.

Got to go there next time I visit Houston. We used to get free coffee on Saturdays at the EPO in Webster.

Did you notice the bigger bins with the circuit board dividers , extra cool electronics touch right there .....

This place looks like a electronics hobbyist lucid dream. I have to go visit this some day. Thanks for sharing :)

This is the best store ever!! When I lived in Houston I went all the time. I miss it so much since I moved.

Thanks for the video and for the very good music in the store !

My favorite store in Houston, there used to be two of them here, the other one closed down I usually stay in that store at least a couple of of hours every time I go 😊

Every City in the US used to have a store like this, a mix of ham radio, home and pro audio and semi conductor and other electronic parts and then along came 90's and NAFTA and the internet and it all went a way or off the grid if you will. I have a fondness for old home audio and often find myself browsing Ebay and the likes hoping to get my hands on the right one. Great video, really enjoyed it cant wait to watch part 2.

WOW!!! I druel when I go into these types of stores!!! I am in LA, CA and there aren't very many in my area, and the good one that used to be in Pasadena, ca is now closed.. C&H Surplus... That was mostly Army/Navy surplus but you could spend several hours just going through the store. One unique thing about your store is the well lit isles pretty well organized and labeled, and the music!!! I always wonder how long they keep the stuff, and how do they dispose of the stuff? Thanks for posting.

This is heaven for me. All the electronics I could ever ask for PLUS 80s music. I'll take that bat detector kit. Loving that Laura Branigan song. Takes me back to when I played GTA Vice City. I would have a ball in there.

I knew that store just from the thumbnail. Been shopping there almost 30 years. I am 44 and I have been buying stuff from them since I got my ham license when I was 14. When I was 16 and got my car I wasn’t spending money on taking out girls, I was at EPO buying parts for my next project.

@paleogeology9554

Ай бұрын

Smart man staying away from jail bait and growing your mind and abilities instead. Im with ya 1000% lol

That looks like the exact kind of store in Orlando, Florida, that's called Sky crafts.They got every kind of electronic item you could think of. I love these kind of stores.

I haven't been to that location in years but I used to go to the EPO in Webster Clear Lake area until they closed. Good stuff! 👍😁

Thanks for sharing, It's like hobby shop, Ben Frankling store and radio shack, old Woolworth, all in one. I did see old school receiver pioneer sx850, and some old OHM speakers, look like they had old radio control cars and planes huh? and that robot was R2D2, lol Shure brings back Memorys,

When I lived in League City 35 or so years ago, I went to EPO on Fondren (and the one in Webster) all the time. I miss those stores!

Yes EPO Rocks. I used to spend my lunch break thee everyday building stuff from right off the shelf.

We didn't have EPO in Denver but had Gateway electronics. I had the same sort of inventory. I used to work for an independent x-ray company and we sold a lot of old equipment removed from retiring chiro's to the store; but we also bought a lot of other stuff. It was truly a day of mourning when they closed their doors for good. (howdy to a BMET from a CRES)

Oh, you're down there on Fondren in Houston Texas. I shop there from time to time.

There is a similar one in Franklin Wisconsin .. Except it is more focused on a boat parts . It doesn’t have the amount of old electronics . Still take forever to look from the floor to close to the ceiling . I had the same reaction as you walking through the first time … I do wish I lived in Houston again … Enjoy …

Wow! Adding to bucket list! I remember as a kid going with my dad to a place in Minnesota, called "The ax man". A trip down memory lane. Thanks for sharing this.

The leg lamp from Christmas Story!

@shanepowers7566

Ай бұрын

We seen that too.

Yes this reminds me of the old hardware stores too. This is all long gone never to return sadly. At best we have the Big Box stores where most of the time you can't find help or pay someone to help out.

This store should never be allowed to disappear like stores like this have done, Thank you so much.

even the background song is vintage, love it🙂

The Optometry device around 17:30, "medical device , looks like a yag laser" is an air puff tonometer that measures intraocular pressure... glaucoma test. I worked at an optometrists office in the early 1990s...

Cool store for sure! Kinda reminds me of Axe Man Surplus stores in the Minneapolis area.

This kind of store was more common when the US was a manufacturing leader & surplus electronic parts were common. Parts stores like this are common in Asia today because of a robust manufacturing community, even in shopping centers. I do miss them here.

Vacuum Tubes Have been used in Stereo Amplifiers and Stereo Preamps for over 80-90 years! with that said still being used today with Companies around the world! including US and Canada! VAC - Valve Amplification Company - US, NAT in Serbia. and many more

Wish this place was near me about 60 years ago! Great find. Fun just watching your video! Like a cross between Fry's, Radio Shack & Digi-Key. Nice

@BetterBiomedChannel

24 күн бұрын

I have 2 other videos of this store in subsequent visits. It's more so amazing that their stock actually does rotate.

Awesome! If that store had been 10x times larger, I could have still watched the entire video and enjoyed it all. I feel like places like that are less and less common these days.

There is one in Orlando, Fl called "Sky Craft". I haven been in a while but I know they moved and it is now bigger. I can't wait to go check it after seeing this. Thanks for getting me stoked!!

When I was I kid we had three stores like this. Now they’re all a distant memory. Cool find.

Been shopping there for years. Always finding good stuff.😎

Yeah The cool stuff we had from the 70s and 80s, awesome store, tons of stuff. I miss Radio Shack. I also saw CB/Ham radio's @6:50

This is incredible.

Many years ago, NYC, Where i live used to have independent electronics stores like that.

There used to be a store in Las Vegas, called Buck’s Surplus. It was similar, in it was crammed full of all kinds of esoteric, and obsolete equipment and devices. The fun part was Buck knew where everything was. And if you were trying to replace a broken device, you could bring in something broken, and Buck would walk right to it. Buck died, the store sat for a few years, and then burned to the ground.

I remember in the 60s going to Mikroy Electronics nextdoor to the EKCO factory on Wheeling Road in Wheeling Illinois

Holy Cow. I saw an 802B exciter out of an 816 Continial FM transmitter. Some of the coolest audio gear I have seen in one place.

Cool store! I like your music dubbed-in, awesome.

I’m getting the Drools, here! Awesome. This reminds me of the places in the mid-eighties, down in SoCal!

4:26 Hell yeah! Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout right there.

I wish I had places like this around in MD. It seems like the majority of these kinds of stores reside in the central and mountain time zones.

You are as geeky as I am! Love it! Where is this place? We had a place similar to this here in Dayton OH called Mendelson's, but they closed and tore it down.

Wow kinda reminds me of an old classic electronic surplus store called "Weird Stuff" over at Santa Clara , down the street from Yahoo HQ and Moffett Field ...

That optometric instrument at 17:39 is an American Optical non contact tonometer, the first of the now myriad air-puff gadgets for measurement of the eye's internal pressure. It will date from the early 70s.

@cajuncoinhunter

2 ай бұрын

AKA Glaucoma puffer ...

@gorak9000

Ай бұрын

@@cajuncoinhunter aka the only thing i hate about eye exams - yes, puff air into my eyes so they get all watery, and THEN "which is clearer - 1 or 2", "neither, because my eyes are still watering from that stupid puffer"

Where is this? For someone getting into circuits I'll definitely come back to this video for project ideas

That is a great place. Wish I was around one or I could go to that I would spend probably two days worth of exploring.

Wow! What a place..... I wish I was living in the USA, I would be living in that store.

I know it's been a year, but I hope it's still around cause my electronics parts store had to close up shop not too long ago. Help keep it alive whatever you can do. These stores are becoming defunct when online stores are taking over, it's sad.

@stephendumars9727

Ай бұрын

It is still there; I go there once every 3-4 months as necessary.

@WillH1776

Ай бұрын

@@stephendumars9727 that's good. The store owner must not want to see it go either.

One of my favorite places to shop!!

Wow this is MY kind of candy store! I so wanna go there, thanks for sharing this! The unfortunate thing is stores like this are disappearing at a rapid pace, one by one. So i encourage everyone to support these stores the best they can before it just becomes another blowout sale and ebay front.