One of the wonderful things about discovering Bellingham is all the places tucked into the more industrial areas. Bellingham has very strong roots as a working city and its geographic position as the last major US port city on the "Marine Highway" to Alaska keeps its industrial heart vital.
We have a Graingers, a Fastenal, an Applied and the Mother of All Hardware Stores: Hardware Sales (family owned since 1962)
We also have this place: Re Lectronics
I knew they were there but didn't have any reason to stop in until today. I have a client with an ancient Power Computing (MAC Clone) Power Tower 250 with a blown power supply. I called a few days ago and was told that their MAC person came in on Tuesday and Thursday and to try then.
These were not the people who waited on me but it was damn close...
Not only did they have something that was compatible, they had the exact model manufactured for Power Computing, with the Power Computing label on it, tested and ready to be installed. I had to call my client and warn him about the price: $7.50 plus tax.
This place is an incredible resource -- imagine if you will, a large basement room with a half-dozen men and women working at tables filled with tech of all kinds. Not just computers; scanners, odd bits of industrial technology, networking, optics, video... The stuff all works and it's talking to each other.
This is not the neurotic high-tech energy of the dot-com, venture capital, Aeron Chairs for everyone, spend-spend-spend, the energy here is much more laid back, deep and powerful. These are people who enjoy what they are doing. The fact that they are making a huge dent in the numbers of computers sent to a landfill and are able to provide a reasonably priced power supply to a neighbor on fixed income is awesome!
In the words of the Governator: "I'll be back!"
