I keep finding myself in the situation that I need some electronic components "right now" and I can't wait for an online order.<p>In Berkeley I used to go to Al Lasher's on University or Radio Shack, but with both of them gone now is there no other option than to go online and wait for delivery?
I'm not sure what electronic components you keep needing that are time sensitive?If you are doing analog/radio stuff, I'll be honest... it's pretty bleak.<p>Personally I just factor in 10 days for my project and have a board made with pcb assembly. JLC is so friggin cheap it isn't worth it to me to bother with doing stuff on perfboard anymore. Last project I made was a UV lamp for curing resin and it was like 8 days from submitting the order to having a finished board in my hand.<p>Personally, I have some test/dev setups that I know work, either STM32 based or since the chip shortage a few espresif or rp2040 based boards. If I need to output a clock for example, I can just bitbang it and when I need a more permanent circuit I just spin a board.<p>I find having about 100x 1/10/100/1k/10k and a bunch of electrolytic, ceramic caps (.1/1uf mostly), along with components for some common circuits (like an ldo and buck/boost). I also have a bunch of cheapo premade buck converters that I can use whenever I need voltage conversion.
there are scattered places, swap shops, etc with parts, some retail storefronts.
You have to find them.
Join this <a href="https://www.meetup.com/welcome/groups/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.meetup.com/welcome/groups/</a>
find your area. Maker space is quite good.<p>Maker spaces have meetings and resources - attend and ask. There are several retail places for SM parts etc in Toronto. There will be similar places in your area.
I keep old electronics and often raid their PCBs for components that I can't get in a hurry. I've learnt to redesign circuits to work with the components I can salvage or have in my junk trays. In a pinch I will strip components from old projects that have been put aside.