> someone who can help you with info if you need it is baked into the price.

Absolutely, in their heyday.

By the end, I met an employee who very derisively told me I didn't need to connect all three terminals on a transistor for it to work. According to him, the collector was often skipped in circuits.

So, by that single indicator, they were already the Walking Dead. But I could ignore him and still buy what I needed, then.