OK, sorry, I must not have been very clear before, but this is exactly the sort of talk about retailers I was hoping to see around my August visit.
So it goes. Hopefully some of it will still be relevant when next I'm able to make the trip. -- Joe On Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 07:24:48PM -0500, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote: > On the positive side of things... > > One of my personal favourite places for obscure gear, Sayal Electronics, is > not > only doing well but has been quietly expanding. > > Unknown to inner city types, the original opened next to Active's Mississauga > store. Frequently frustrated by Active's not having what I wanted, I'd go to > Sayal which always had what I needed and eventually became my first stop in > that plaza. > > That location is still doing well, obviously having outlasted Active. Their > main location and head office remains on Victoria Park north of Finch (very > close to where Electrosonic used to be) but they also have locations in > Markham and near Vaughan Mills. And they've also expanded to Barrie, Cambridge > and Burlington. Their stores tend to be very large, which might be the reason > they prefer industrial zones to city storefronts. > > Also: Canada Computers just did a move of its North York location, from a > strip > mall to Centrepoint Mall (Yonge & Steeles) where it occupies the ENTIRE space > formerly used by the Target store. It's immense and when I went there a few > weeks ago (though the "official" opening was yesterday) there was plenty of > unused area, they could easily fit all of their other Toronto locations into > this one spot. > > - Evan > > > On Sun, 15 Dec 2019 at 16:30, James Knott via talk <[email protected]> wrote: > > I remember when there were a lot of stores that sold electronic and > computer stuff. Besides Active Surplus, there were several stores along > Queen, including Arkon, first near Church and later towards Spadina. > There were also several stores on College around Spadina/Bathhurst. > Then there was Active Electronics, on Lombard St. and when needed I > could hop the subway up to Electrosonic at 555 Yonge St., before they > moved to Gordon Baker Rd. IIRC, there were a couple of other stores in > the same vicinity. There was also City Surplus, on Dixie Rd. north of > the 401, which had a lot of electronic gear. Of course, back in those > days, there were a lot of shops that catered to the TV repair business, > such as Atwater Electronics, not far from Heathkit, in Mississauga. > Going way back, I remember Radio Essentials and Pat's Electronics, in > Oakville. The Oakville Amateur Radio club used to meet in Pat's basement. > > > > On 2019-12-15 02:59 PM, Karen Lewellen via talk wrote: > > Oh I am crushed. > > Steve had, and understood some of the most creative things about > > connecting electronics. > > I have cables in my home and production studio that I simply could not > > find in town anywhere, especially after Radio shack went away. > > Above all was a computer maintenance dream as well. > > *sniff!* > > Kare > > > > > > > > On Sat, 14 Dec 2019, Stewart C. Russell via talk wrote: > > > >> Losing Active Surplus a few years back was bad, but this one seems > >> worse: long-established electronic surplus/weird stuff/junk store > >> Above All Electronic Surplus (635 Bloor W, at Euclid) is closed. I > >> went by today and the windows were papered over and a For Lease sign > >> was on the front. Steve, the owner, was inside tidying up, but the > >> door was locked. Above All was where I went for the off-the-wall > >> retro stuff I knew no-one else would carry. Appletalk cables? Bulk PC > >> reset buttons (some still marked Turbo XT)? SCSI interfaces? Mac > >> Classic RAM? These are all things I found at Above All. > >> > >> > >> Above All has moved before. Let's hope this is the case again. > >> > >> > >> cheers, > >> > >> Stewart > >> > >> > >> > > > > > > --- > > Post to this mailing list [email protected] > > Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/ > talk > > --- > Post to this mailing list [email protected] > Unsubscribe from this mailing list > https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk > > > > -- > Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada > @evanleibovitch or @el56 > --- > Post to this mailing list [email protected] > Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk -- -- Joe On ceding power to tech companies: http://xkcd.com/1118/ man screen | grep -A2 weird A weird imagination is most useful to gain full advantage of all the features. --- Post to this mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
