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Long live American Science and Surplus

milwaukeerecord.com

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Re: Long live American Science and Surplus

#101

Post by always-open »

zrobotics wrote: post #59
semiquaver wrote: post #18

Completely flabbergasted to see one of my favorite stores of all time at the top of HN. This place is an absolute gem and I have countless childhood memories of visiting the Milwaukee Av location. Heartbroken to see they’re in financial distress. If there’s any store worth saving it’s this one.

I actually specifically made a trip to Milwaukee 1/3 for the Harley museum and 2/3 for ASS (that acronym was definitely deliberate). I've enjoyed my visits to ax-man surplus [0] in Minneapolis enough that when I heard about a similar store it was enough to justify a 500mi weekend bike trip. The stores are very similar, but anyone lucky to live near their store knows that the inventory changes enough that each visit i…

Were there ever surplus stores like this near Bell Labs in NJ?

Re: Long live American Science and Surplus

#102

Post by xrisk »

0_____0 wrote: post #92
xrisk wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it just about having dense industrial zones? I would have imagined cost of labor to be the major cause of price differences.

A lot of the cost of silicon valley labor comes down to extremely high housing prices. A lot has been made of how the tech boom was simply a wealth transfer from investors to bay area real estate + homeowners.

Sure but even if you exclude Silicon Valley, the minimum wage for a US worker must be a fair bit higher than the equivalent non-US worker.

Re: Long live American Science and Surplus

#103

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

karlshea wrote: post #70
zrobotics wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually specifically made a trip to Milwaukee 1/3 for the Harley museum and 2/3 for ASS (that acronym was definitely deliberate). I've enjoyed my visits to ax-man surplus [0] in Minneapolis enough that when I heard about a similar store it was enough to justify a 500mi weekend bike trip. The stores are very similar, but anyone lucky to live near their store knows that the inventory changes enough that each visit i…

When I moved from Milwaukee to Minneapolis I was happy to find Ax-Man existed, but to be fair I’ve only made it in a couple of times. I hope there are still 15 year olds that are amazed when they walk in like I was. A core memory from back then is the big diver’s helmet way in the back at ASS, and wishing I could buy the weird radar screen/oscilloscope boxes that looked like they came right out of a tank. And how eve…

I haven't been to Ax-Man in years, despite the fact that I drive up Snelling, past University at least once a month. I have to make the time to stop there one day.

Re: Long live American Science and Surplus

#104

Post by some_random »

os2warpman wrote: post #91

AS&S survived for decades selling actual science and surplus, now it seems their focus has shifted to alibaba junk consumer goods and flea market reject merchandise. A decade ago if you searched for toggle switches on their website you would have gotten dozens and dozens of results. Now there are six, and only two of them are actual toggle switches. Did all of the science and surplus run out?

I'm not familiar with the science surplus side, but on the militaria side the answer is basically yes. There absolutely is still a ton of surplus but it's nowhere near as cheap and limitless as it used to be.

Re: Long live American Science and Surplus

#106

Post by RankingMember »

Wistar wrote: post #76

Years ago, my spouse thought I had marked an item in a sciplus catalog and so bought it for me as a birthday gift. I unwrapped it to find a plain brown box with an L-shaped metal fitting of some sort with a single black insulated wire that’s terminated with a spade lug. I have never figured out what it is.

Sounds like a plumbus

Re: Long live American Science and Surplus

#107

Post by gopher_space »

joezydeco wrote: post #97
os2warpman wrote: post #91

AS&S survived for decades selling actual science and surplus, now it seems their focus has shifted to alibaba junk consumer goods and flea market reject merchandise. A decade ago if you searched for toggle switches on their website you would have gotten dozens and dozens of results. Now there are six, and only two of them are actual toggle switches. Did all of the science and surplus run out?

I'm guessing the surplus ran out. I would go to the Chicago area stores a lot and could easily recognize which companies were dumping spare/reject assemblies and other shrapnel related to their work. Those companies all moved to Mexico or Asia, so there's nothing left to dump.

There's more competition and no real need for companies to do online or reserve sales of their surplus. They might have been able to place orders or holds previously.

Re: Long live American Science and Surplus

#108

Post by BizarroLand »

os2warpman wrote: post #91

AS&S survived for decades selling actual science and surplus, now it seems their focus has shifted to alibaba junk consumer goods and flea market reject merchandise. A decade ago if you searched for toggle switches on their website you would have gotten dozens and dozens of results. Now there are six, and only two of them are actual toggle switches. Did all of the science and surplus run out?

Aside from everyone else's replies, there's also the fact that the niche is smaller now.

Instead of companies dumping their excess stock on whoever offers to buy it, instead they're dumping it all on Amazon and ebay. A little more work but they get more money for it, meaning that there is less new overstock to go around.

I hope they make it, we need more stores with personality like American Science. I plan on making a trip out that way now that I know where it's located.

Re: Long live American Science and Surplus

#110

Post by toast0 »

zrobotics wrote: post #59
semiquaver wrote: post #18

Completely flabbergasted to see one of my favorite stores of all time at the top of HN. This place is an absolute gem and I have countless childhood memories of visiting the Milwaukee Av location. Heartbroken to see they’re in financial distress. If there’s any store worth saving it’s this one.

I actually specifically made a trip to Milwaukee 1/3 for the Harley museum and 2/3 for ASS (that acronym was definitely deliberate). I've enjoyed my visits to ax-man surplus [0] in Minneapolis enough that when I heard about a similar store it was enough to justify a 500mi weekend bike trip. The stores are very similar, but anyone lucky to live near their store knows that the inventory changes enough that each visit i…

> Side note, I'm surprised that these types of scientific surplus stores have lasted longer in the upper Midwest than places like silicon valley or near bell labs in NJ.

Real estate prices are a big factor. Rents in silicon valley, and I suspect NJ have increased much more than midwest rents. Even if the store location is owned, when the business owners are looking to retire, it's then a question of selling the business with the space or closing the business and selling the space by itself, and the value of the space is probably enough that it doesn't make sense to tie it to a business.

Add a bit of reality that manufacturing and the surplus it generates has mostly left silicon valley and NJ, and it makes more sense to have such a business elsewhere.

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