[GTALUG] another unique store gone: Above All Electronic Surplus

[Evan Leibovitch]

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 <talk at gtalug.org> 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
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
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-- 
Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada
@evanleibovitch or @el56
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