There was once a time when these stores were common all over America. New York's Radio Row was a huge one. Sadly, we've become a country of cheap, disposable junk electronics. Not only do we not repair and build anything anymore, but we've largely forgotten how to do so. When Radio Shack went out of business, the last bit of the hobbyist electronics industry left the national presence. Places like this are national treasures.

This is not only a electronics shop, its a museum, an archive and insanely nostalgic. I would go to the US just to visit this shop! Thanks for sharing...

I am a Mexican electronic engineer 75 years old, I started learning electronics by mail in NATIONAL SCHOOLS IN 1964 But I'd use to go to LA one or two times a year (I have family there) So I been around there fore ever and used all the electronic stores around and in the last two or three years I just go to the places this Electronic stores use to be and Cry actually Cry. The nostalgia is so big that I can't help it. But the saddest part of the story is thinking where the young people are going to get elements for their investigations, their professional personal development. I invented a lot of things because I had the opportunity to play around with all this components Vacuum tubes, transistors relays, etc. etc. also in the field of chemistry the same things happened and more because a lot of substances available then are bound now.

I spent a lot of time in this store with my daddy back in the day He let me piece together my first PC from this store and helped me build it. I completely forgotten this store existed. I'm glad the algorithm kicked this video to me. I'm currently working of a few projects I need a parts for i was about to order on amazon. Now I have a reason to revisit one of my favorite childhood stores instead. Thank you for visiting and posting this video.

Thank You for advertising EPO on your channel. Long time EPO customer After Radio shack and fry's going out business EPO is the place to go

A hobbyist dream place.

I'm 72 years old,, my uncle use to take me to Sparkys in Fresno when I was 10 years old,,,, this brought back some good memories !! Thanks for the video.

Even the music was from the 80's. Such old Electronic parts store can be a treasure hunt if you are looking for old absolete parts.

This is how every seriously-taken electronics shop should look like and yet I've seen one with my own eyes. Thanks for the tour!

The place has been legendary for decades in our area. I used to own a computer repair shop right down the street and would often reach out to these guys. Great people.

I remember these type of stores were everywhere back in the day. Man I miss these places !

This brings back many memories. I started building electronic kits in the early 70's. Majored in electronics in college. Stayed in the field my entire career. Did well enough to retire at 50. Love this store. Nice mix of vintage electronic and odds and ends. I'm going to save this video. I may need to get some rarer parts.

I knew where you were when I saw you on the corner. I'm a Houston native and I love EPO!

Great electronics store! Worked about five blocks from there and went there all the time. If you like EPO, you would haved _loved_ Gateway Electronics in St. Louis. Huge place with more stuff than you could imagine. Was in St. Louis on TDY (temporary duty) in 1974 when in the USAF. We were there four months for training on the then-brand-new F-15 Eagle at the McDonnell Douglas factory. Me and my buddy hung out at Gateway at every opportunity. They had stuff we didn't even know existed, but like nearly all such electronics stores in the USA today, they are no more. I sure hope EPO doesn't suffer the same fate. I don't live in Houston anymore, so it's really nice to see they're still around!

You are so lucky to have a store like that in your area!

You took us back to the 70’s! Love it!

When I see those things I always think about the memories stored in them in the format of a particle of dust from places and people's lives

i've spent so many hours just wandering through EPO when I lived in Houston.

I love EPO! They also have seminars and workshops!! We are sooo lucky to have it. Houston is awesome!!

Amazing! What a bonus, it's 17 miles from my house! Thanks.

Been going her for 20+ years. You can spend hours wandering the aisles

Very impressive store with *everything to offer* literally. The custom wooden cabinets and educational displays of things like motor controllers and power window regulators are a sign of someone who loves what they do and wants to teach others!

We had a good electronics store in my neighborhood, called ELECTRONIC WAREHOUSE, not even close to what EPO is, but very decent amount of electrics and oddities. After being there since about the 70's, they finally had to throw the towel in. I miss that place.

Started in the Navy 1979 at 17 years old. Had a 30 year career in electronics. Now that I'm retired am thinking about doing all of those electronics hobby projects a had no time for while in the BIZ. I have a Granddaughter who turns 15 on Saturday. She has expressed an interest in robotics and I bought her a big kit. Then I found out that she has a plastic molding machine. I offered her a laptop when she's ready.

that stores music system sounds great. perfect soundtrack looking around

I know it's been a year, but I hope it's still around cause my electronics parts store had to close up shop not too long ago. Help keep it alive whatever you can do. These stores are becoming defunct when online stores are taking over, it's sad.

“What the heck is that”…? LOVED that genuine response !!!

This IS the coolest store I’ve ever seen! Thanks for sharing! At 12:00 there is an old Commodore Pet computer!

"They definitely do not make stores like this anymore." My first thought was simply, "nope, they do not!" while remembering many an old Burstein Applebee and a few of the original Radio Shacks. I'd love to own a store like this, but then again, I'd never get any projects done. :)) Thanks so much for the trip down Memory Lane!

This place is incredible!!! I get the impression this place is in Texas? I am in Pennsylvania and I do research into many 1800's technology D'Arsonval and Tesla subjects. That place would be awesome. Thank you so much for bringing this wonderful place to us...

I knew that store just from the thumbnail. Been shopping there almost 30 years. I am 44 and I have been buying stuff from them since I got my ham license when I was 14. When I was 16 and got my car I wasn’t spending money on taking out girls, I was at EPO buying parts for my next project.

There's a place exactly like this in Hillsboro, Oregon called Surplus Gizmos! I go often! 😄

The Commodore PET computer at 12:00 is a real hit of nostalgia. My elementary school had those.

This is the store I always dream about, but wake up sad because it doesn’t exist… But it does exist.

Wow, how cool! Brought back memories seeing some of the old oscilloscopes. Even the old dbx audio boxes we used 30 years ago to get better S/N ratio on our music. Thanks sooo much for the walk through!

They used to have a somewhat similar place here in the Dallas area called "Tanner Electronics." That place closed several years back. I sure do miss it... Wish some other similar store would open... Each Saturday that place seemed to be packed w/customers. Oh well, Fry's couldn't make it either. Farewell to the electronic hobbyist trying to get a glimpse of the past and present electronics parts and tools.

This store should never be allowed to disappear like stores like this have done, Thank you so much.

Thanx for the tour. In a town I lived in had one of these stores called SurplusTronics They still exist but have become more of a parts retail store no preloved items any more.

In Orlando there is one similar called Skycraft Surplus

As a teenager I visited a similar store in 1979 Called Capitol Iron in Victoria BC Canada which sold outdoor camping gear, fishing gear workwear, and down in the basement was an antique electronics pawn shop with vintage military surplus radio, radar equipment. Loads of antique 1930's to 40's telephones. 1920's black knob radios, dozens of pre 1950's radios, record players. I bought a liter of 3/16x1/2 inch brass nut and bolts (still have some of them today) a 1940's metal 365 tuning capacitor (still have it) and a 1000 ft roll of 26 gauge copper magnet wire. Capitol Iron still exists today although the vintage store section closed in the late 2000's

There was a store on 285 in Atlanta. It had a lot of parts but was not a museum like that store is. I live in Georgia and really want to make that trip.

I loved a store in Toronto with the name ACTIVE SURPLUS in 347 Queen str. West. As a student I have spent countless hours there, it was my only reall entertainment. Unfortunatelly it is closed now (I have heard). It reminds me a lo of this one. Now the new generation does not care about making stuff by themselves, they want to just buy!!!! I am 63 now and everyweekend I must work with the soldering iron.....bad habbits I guess...I love old radios from the 50s and up. I wish all the people out there with the same crazy thoughts as mine to have a good life with health and happines. Please do not forget to help anybody that needs it. Life is too small so we must lock our ego and consider every living soul as our brothers. (It is just a matrix, and our soul is imortal....)

This is a gold mine for diy and hobbyists! There was a store like this in Dallas but they closed a few years ago. I've been looking for a similar location in the DFW metroplex without success.

Wow what a place absolutely fantastic ,everything electrical and more,a great upload thank you for posting ,I'm watching from england all the best for the future and keep going I hope the shop remains there for years to come

What’s crazier is a channel having the courage to record inside a store playing copyrighted music and uploading on yt most don’t dare and normally just do a voice over to avoid demonetization but the original audio does it justice thanks for the share 👏🏼

Awesome video. Wow what a find ! Absolute treasure trove . Thank you for sharing with the community. 😊 Shared the video with my local Makerspace group

That looks like the exact kind of store in Orlando, Florida, that's called Sky crafts.They got every kind of electronic item you could think of. I love these kind of stores.

Wow that place is SO cool!! I just love places like this. Great background music, even. Thanks for sharing!

This is the best store ever!! When I lived in Houston I went all the time. I miss it so much since I moved.

It's on Fondren and has been there for years they used to have one out here in Clear Lake where I live but it is gone now just like the Fry's Electronics is gone now here

Thats cool, in the 70's and 80's there were around 3 or 4 shops in my town but now there's none whatsoever, in fact its quite rare to even see a vintage radio & electronics fair in the U.K. I could spen hours in that shop & spend a few bob too.

Did you notice the bigger bins with the circuit board dividers , extra cool electronics touch right there .....

Someone call Adam Savage ! 😮

What a treat to see something like that! One of those places to where you could find some great stuff .

Every City in the US used to have a store like this, a mix of ham radio, home and pro audio and semi conductor and other electronic parts and then along came 90's and NAFTA and the internet and it all went a way or off the grid if you will. I have a fondness for old home audio and often find myself browsing Ebay and the likes hoping to get my hands on the right one. Great video, really enjoyed it cant wait to watch part 2.

The leg lamp from Christmas Story!

I go there quite often for work. One Saturday while driving around with my father in law, I said I had to swing in to get some resistors. When we walked in, he looked around and said, "This ain't no Best Buy !!". When we left, I asked what he thought. He said, "This is a store for geeks, not a regular shopper." Yes it is. It's safe to say that probably 99% of the stuff on the shelves are DOA, but they are VERY proud of what they have and charge accordingly (expensive). I once found a beat up HP Pentium II laptop, asked about it, no power brick, never tested, no warranty, no returns....250 bucks. You GOT to be kidding me !! Yes, it's fun to look at and reminisce, but I'd never buy the old components. And I've been going there for 27 years.... I will admit, the staff are great and you could spend hours doing the "remember when...." stories back and forth.

The Optometry device around 17:30, "medical device , looks like a yag laser" is an air puff tonometer that measures intraocular pressure... glaucoma test. I worked at an optometrists office in the early 1990s...

I still have a lot of my specialized tools and parts from EPO in my electronics tool box. I have been visiting there since the 1980's . Always something new and a lot of old there.

"I'm looking for crimp connectors"! 😆 I wouldn't have done any better...awesome tour. Now I have a reason to visit Houston.

This is heaven for me. All the electronics I could ever ask for PLUS 80s music. I'll take that bat detector kit. Loving that Laura Branigan song. Takes me back to when I played GTA Vice City. I would have a ball in there.

1:17 - That might be a Grundig German vacuum tube radio. My parents used to have one. The size and style looks very similar to that one. The one we had - had a 1/2" slot the same width as that radio station dial. When one would turn on the knob, the radio had to warm up before it would turn on. As it was warming up, in that long 1'2" slot, two intense turquoise blue bands of light would start (at opposite ends of that slot) moving towards each other. They would waver a little back and forth as they moved toward each other. When they finally came into contact with each other in the center, the radio would emit a loud crackle sound and then one would hear the radio station. The one we had looked so similar to that and had six gold plated internal speakers - 2 in the front, 1 on each side and 2 in the back. The radio would send out a mono audio signal (not stereo). Now here's the icying on the cake - There was a modern component stereo system in the room tuned to a Black Funk and R&B station in NYC - WBLS. I hadn't seen this radio since I was a kid. My brother sent it out and got it fully restored and now that I was in my 20s would be the first time I would ever hear it on. As a kid, it was always discarded on the side, broken - never used. My brother tuned that old radio to WBLS too and switched it on. When it finally crackled to life that mono signal radio shot out a 3D holographic audio image of the DJ speaking in the station. I was so realistic that I actually jumped back from where I was standing because it felt like the DJ was in the room with me. That little radio made the modern stereo component system sound flat by comparison - since it was vacuum tube tech, the sound image was so much more warmer too.

I miss places like this. Thank you for sharing.

There are so many items to choose from. I wish I didn't live so far from Houston, I 'd visit the store often.

There used to be a store in Las Vegas, called Buck’s Surplus. It was similar, in it was crammed full of all kinds of esoteric, and obsolete equipment and devices. The fun part was Buck knew where everything was. And if you were trying to replace a broken device, you could bring in something broken, and Buck would walk right to it. Buck died, the store sat for a few years, and then burned to the ground.

Got to go there next time I visit Houston. We used to get free coffee on Saturdays at the EPO in Webster.

I miss Radio Shack. But I didn't know This store. And I live here in Houston. What a deal. ❤

When I was I kid we had three stores like this. Now they’re all a distant memory. Cool find.

This kind of store was more common when the US was a manufacturing leader & surplus electronic parts were common. Parts stores like this are common in Asia today because of a robust manufacturing community, even in shopping centers. I do miss them here.

Oh, you're down there on Fondren in Houston Texas. I shop there from time to time.

The great thing is someone works there who knows where every item is.

That optometric instrument at 17:39 is an American Optical non contact tonometer, the first of the now myriad air-puff gadgets for measurement of the eye's internal pressure. It will date from the early 70s.

This is really a cool store... I must visit... thanks for sharing.

My favorite store in Houston, there used to be two of them here, the other one closed down I usually stay in that store at least a couple of of hours every time I go 😊

Awesome! If that store had been 10x times larger, I could have still watched the entire video and enjoyed it all. I feel like places like that are less and less common these days.

Does anybody remember Tanners Electronics in Dallas? I would drop by with a short parts list & walk out with a grocery bag full of stuff. Miss that place.

We lost our similar store in southern NH a couple years ago....a real gut punch to the hobbyist techs and resto folks. If you have one nearby, take the time to support them before they vanish. 😢

There is one in Orlando, Fl called "Sky Craft". I haven been in a while but I know they moved and it is now bigger. I can't wait to go check it after seeing this. Thanks for getting me stoked!!

Yes this reminds me of the old hardware stores too. This is all long gone never to return sadly. At best we have the Big Box stores where most of the time you can't find help or pay someone to help out.

The really scary part is my dad had lots of those electronics stored in my bedroom. My room was also his hobby room. This was pre- computer age. I used to pull stuff and play with it. Wiring up things, just to see them work, or go up in smoke. He didn't care if I messed with anything in the parts bin, but never touch anything on his bench! I learned how to solder pretty good using his gun style soldering gun. I compair one to a club now.

Yes EPO Rocks. I used to spend my lunch break thee everyday building stuff from right off the shelf.

Wish this place was near me about 60 years ago! Great find. Fun just watching your video! Like a cross between Fry's, Radio Shack & Digi-Key. Nice

This place looks like a electronics hobbyist lucid dream. I have to go visit this some day. Thanks for sharing :)

I'd have to drive from North Austin to Houston, but at least it's doable. Need to book 3 days for just the EPO store, then 3 more days for shoping and entertainment! 😁Thanks for the Laura Branigan tune, brought back memories 😊🎵

Wow! Adding to bucket list! I remember as a kid going with my dad to a place in Minnesota, called "The ax man". A trip down memory lane. Thanks for sharing this.

Reminds me of the "American Science and Surplus" store in Milwaukee Wisconsin. A place for both high and low tech inventors and collectors of military and industrial sutplus. A fun place for both grandkids and grandparents.

Oh! EPO! I LOVE this place, I'm sorry you didn't know of it sooner. It's my goto. Mrs. Big AL insists on holding the checkbook though when I go now. I'm in Conroe neighbor, Howdy!

When I lived in League City 35 or so years ago, I went to EPO on Fondren (and the one in Webster) all the time. I miss those stores!

My dad took to radio shack in NY as a kid and said please don't blow up the basement again salesman died laughing

4:26 Hell yeah! Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout right there.

That is a great place. Wish I was around one or I could go to that I would spend probably two days worth of exploring.

I could spend a month wandering around that place drooling! better leave my credit card at home though!

I remember just about everything in the store. Thanks for the trip down mem or lane.

Wow! What a place..... I wish I was living in the USA, I would be living in that store.

We didn't have EPO in Denver but had Gateway electronics. I had the same sort of inventory. I used to work for an independent x-ray company and we sold a lot of old equipment removed from retiring chiro's to the store; but we also bought a lot of other stuff. It was truly a day of mourning when they closed their doors for good. (howdy to a BMET from a CRES)

Yeah The cool stuff we had from the 70s and 80s, awesome store, tons of stuff. I miss Radio Shack. I also saw CB/Ham radio's @6:50

Wow kinda reminds me of an old classic electronic surplus store called "Weird Stuff" over at Santa Clara , down the street from Yahoo HQ and Moffett Field ...

Holy moly. My dream store

This is incredible.

The music being played over the store’s speakers is awesome. Wish I had a store like that in my neck of the woods! I think you may go in for a particular item, but may very well walk out with a couple of other items.