Re: They were so much fun
"The last time I actually tried to go to them for components, they had one or two small racks with between 0 and 3 of each component they stocked."
Most of the smaller components are still out the back. It's no fun to hand them a list of items, to find that "XYZ is out of stock, so we substituted an equivalent."
No, a 0.1uf polystyrene is not the same as a 22pf ceramic.