macy@usenet.ins.cwru.edu (Macy Hallock) (02/12/91)
In article <16708@accuvax.nwu.edu> our esteemed Moderator writes: [Discussion about the older type of electronics and surplus stores, a fast vanishing breed....] >Olson was the same way. How they made a profit I'll never know. I >guess in fact they did not make a profit since they, like Allied, are >out of business. Yes, Olson Electronics was one of the best distributors of surplus parts for quite a while. They were based in Akron, Ohio and had several stores in the Northern Ohio area. Lots of surplus stuff, some in boxes and barrels, some packed in plastic bags. They also carried some new stuff, some with their own name, some with brand names, all at discounted prices. As a teenager, I would get a ride into Akron with my parents when they went to the O'neils department store one block away from one of the larger stores. My father, an engineer himself, would always be amused by my purchases of equipment to experiment with. I blew a lot of my spare cash at Olson's as a teenager. The equipment I bought there led to my continuing fascination with electronics, communications equipment in particular. I probably have a few parts from Olson's still floating around in my workshop, 20+ years later. I also bought quite a few broken/damaged electronic items from Olson's. Learning to fix and modify them, often without schematics, was great for learning troubleshooting. My stereo system was a sight to behold ... it looked something like a laboratory from a bad science fiction movie. Another story about Olson's comes to mind ... In 1971 I left the phone company and went to work for Electronic Engineering Co. of Ohio. I was their first telephone employee in their entry in to interconnect telephone systems. EECo had been primarily an installer of sound and intercom systems up to then. The orginal founder of EECo, Sol Leibowitz, then a bit on in years and semi-retired while his son ran EECo, had been a partner with Sid Olson when he founded Olson Electronics. Sol had some interesting stories about the old days of surplus electronics at Olson's. Seems as though much of the surplus stuff they sold was obtained just by hauling it away from manufacturers and warehouses. Some of the stories he told of finding this stuff and striking deals to get it were fascinating. Seems as though the cost of goods had a lot to do with the profitability and expansion of Olson up to the end of the sixties. The business changed in the early seventies, and that was the beginning of the end for Olson's. The last of the Olson stores were low end audio/CB vendors and were finally sold to NWS for use as retail liquidation outlets around 1985. All are closed now. About the closest thing left to this older type of surplus store are the electronics surplus liquidators like Medelson's of Dayton Ohio and A.R.E. of Findlay. I know there are several such stores in the high tech areas of the country (Weird Stuff Warehouse in Silicon Valley comes to mind), but its not quite the same. My kids will not have as much of a chance to tinker with the equipment as I did. Pity. Like the ham's say: we are all becoming appliance operators thanks to the consumer electronics industry of today... I very much enjoy these occasional forays into the history and heritage of the electronics and communications industries that appear in Telecom Digest from time to time. I've learned a lot from them. One more reason why I read the Digest before I read my newspaper... Macy M. Hallock, Jr. macy@fmsystm.UUCP macy@NCoast.ORG uunet!aablue!fmsystm!macy [Moderator's Note: I am humbled, and thank you ... but enuff already! Starting tomorrow, let's talk telecom again. The message backlog right now is verocious, so the Allied/Tandy/Olson thread MUST close! And please, do hold off on REplies to other threads at least for a few days until the queue thins out a little. Thanks! PAT]