I remember when this happened to RadioShack. I went from being able to purchase just the resistor I needed to a $15 pack of 1,000 resistors I'll never use.
I'm not religious, but if Pope Francis survives, then perhaps we can convince him to add profligacy to the list of deadly sins.
My wife was bummed when I told her about it, but I also recall going several times where they were stocked out of many items, so I kind of get it. Hard to justify a 30/60 minute trip if there is a good chance you wind up empty handeded
Going on a rampage against in-store inventory is a classic PE retail move.
In-store inventory is expensive, subject to shrinkage, etc. So by the spreadsheet, less inventory looks good. But of course, if it's not in-stock when your customer shows up, that's a wasted trip. Only has to happen a few times before your customers quit showing up altogether.
The last time I bought resistors from Radio Shack, which was well over a decade ago, they were $1 a piece. A piece! While I get your sentiment, you can buy resistors in packs of 100 for roughly the same price you used to get 5 for.
When the majority of bigger ticket purchases moved online, the revenue dried up
What's your idea of a solution? If you need the resistor, and there's no service/parts shop, what do you do?
I think the answer of "Pay more for the part in bulk via an online vendor" is ideal. BEcause that online vendor can also send soap, car parts, clothes, and books at the same time.
I find that professional websites like McMaster, Grainger, and Digikey do everything I've wanted amazon to do for years. They have excellent search, organized part catalogs, spec sheets, CAD, and no counterfeits.
I checked and Digikey sells most individual resistors singles for $0.10ea, and $0.004ea for 5,000 ($20).
Unfortunately not all of us live in dense urban centers that can support boutique craft stores.
Update: I told her this news and she basically said that every time she was in there, it was a ghost town. I guess we're the outliers ¯\(ツ)/¯
But just in general, this suggests to me more of a sign of the public increasingly turning toward passive or, if you will, packaged entertainment. Does anyone still build plastic models, fly RC airplanes, get together for card games, or bowl?
Maybe though someone in my neighborhood will start up a doom-scrolling league that the wife and I can join. And there's always the watercooler where we can suggest to others that they watch some streaming shows we saw that they've never heard of.
Twice a week I play board/tabletop card games with two seperate groups in two seprate states. Currently surrounded by kit cars I bought from/with a group of colleagues.
"do kids still bowl", I can't help you much there. Kids are currently socialising both online and in person in ways you and I can't even conceputailize.
TLDR it's not all doom and gloom, HN comments isn't the best for this.
Board games are more popular than ever before. I would guess a lot of RC airplane use has been replaced with drones.
Model building, that I'm not so sure about. Or engineering toys in general. Lego is bigger than it ever was before, but that's not quite the same thing. Not sure if it's sucking all of the air out of the market. Miniature dollhouse kits are getting more popular, thanks to Chinese manufacturers like Rolife and Cutebee. But beyond that, it's something I wonder about a lot, and I don't know how to answer that.
But I think part of the reality is that most customers, even sewing customers, don't stop and consider the "feel" of fabric. If you look at what the median sewing machine user is doing, it's probably cranking out a tacky quilt made from cheap polyester fabrics. (Certainly seems to be a favorite activity in my extended family).
And honestly, for all the floorspace dedicated to sewing and crafting materials, I wouldn't be surprised if the bulk of their sales these days was coming from decorations and art supplies for kids.