As for me I don't see anything wrong with buying from mouser. Radio shack and fry's were always out of the desirable or exotic parts.
Buying from mail order is okay for off the shelf parts but what about custom parts like PCBs and machined parts? And what do you do when you get your mouser order and realize you forgot something important? Having options nearby just means more speed. And that’s what I’m talking about. We’re settling for slower speed than is possible and I don’t like that. They don’t settle for slow in Shenzhen I don’t see why we should.
PCBs were never local in my life and I don't remember them to be. You could always make your own with a copper PCB, but now you can etch and use a 3d printer so that's actually gotten better. There's maker spaces by me as well.
I don't think there's ever been a better time to do these kinds of projects even compared any other "golden age" in my life. By the time Arduino was around these places were already dead.
Congrats on a cool job. I love seeing engineering.
Aside from the fact that this is not my area of expertise (I am a robotics engineer), I assume the same forces that made things difficult for those companies would making things difficult for me.
And as I said earlier I think the practice of private equity firms buying property is raising prices across the board and making things more difficult for everyone. That’s not a bogey man that’s a specific claim.
Whatever else you say about the perceived viability of those companies, they’re valuable for rapidly designing new products. That’s why Shenzhen and Tokyo have famous electronics markets.