OK, maybe the right place to describe a treasure of the old days that likely doesn’t much exist anymore: Thompson’s Electronics. A little hole in the wall shop in Eugene, Oregon. It no longer exists. It began in 1936. The original business model was repairing tube radios. Over the decades, old man Thompson, the owner and technician accumulated a lot of radios for repair that were never picked up after repair. He had no choice but to sell them. So he did. His children, Glen, Gene and Linda started working there. People started bringing in all sorts of electronics, working and not to see if old man Thompson would buy them. He almost always did. They built more shelves and started to change the business model to more resale than repair, though they always had highly talented electrical repair technicians in their employ.
During the 1990’s, mrs. x and I used to walk to the Farmer’s Market every Saturday. On the walk back home, we would stop in at Thompson’s to lounge around in the Archie Bunker style lounge chairs and listen to the gear that they had in the store at the time and shoot the crap with Glen, Gene and Linda. They had a massive tube tester and a huge record cleaner...both could be used by anyone for free. Sometimes, I’d have a backpack of records to clean for the night’s boogie session. After some amount of time, mrs. x would continue on with the return walk home while I stayed to play with tall of the audio gear at Thompson’s. Most Saturdays, I wouldn’t get back home until mid-afternoon. I bought all kinds of gear there: Fisher X-100, David Ogden Stier’s Accuphase stack (on consignment), P-300 amp, C-200 Preamp and T-100 tuner, Fisher CX-400 preamp and tons of other stuff. Still running the 1996 B&W Matrix 801 S2 speakers (now with Northcreek crossovers).
Glen, Gene and Linda worked there until their 60s and 70s. They retired, closing the store in 2016. Those were good times. I doubt that many such places exist anymore, though I do hope that in simpler, bucolic little backwater places in the world that such places and the experiences that they create still exist.
https://kval.com/news/local/thompsons-electronics-says-goodbye-after-80-years
