American Science And Surplus Ends Online Sales

For nearly 90 years, American Science and Surplus has been shipping out weird and wonderful stuff to customers far and wide. In the pre-Internet days, getting their latest catalog in the mail — notable for its hand-drawn illustrations and whimsical style — was always exciting. From Romanian gas masks to odd-ball components, there was no telling what new wonders each issue would bring. In time, the printed catalog gave way to a website, but the eclectic offerings and hand-drawn images remained.

Unfortunately, those days are officially no more. Earlier this week, American Science and Surplus had to make the difficult decision to shutter their entire mail order division. It’s no secret that the company as a whole had been struggling over the last few years. Like many small businesses they were hit hard during the COVID-19 years, and while they made it through that particular storm, they faced skyrocketing operational costs.

Earlier this year, the company turned to crowd funding to help stay afloat. That they were able to raise almost $200,000 speaks to how much support they had from their community of customers, but while it put the company in a better position, the writing was on the wall. The warehouse space required to support their mail order operations was simply too expensive to remain viable.

But it’s not all bad news. At least two of the company’s physical storefronts, located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Geneva, Illinois will remain open and operate under the ownership of the employees themselves. The fate of the third store in Park Ridge, Illinois is less clear. They currently don’t have a buyer, but it sounds like they haven’t given up hope of selling it yet.

Anyone in the Illinois area feel like getting some buddies together and buying a turn-key surplus business?

29 thoughts on “American Science And Surplus Ends Online Sales

      1. I remember wandering around All Electronics in the Koreatown district of LA as a kid, really helped kick start my sense of wonderment and embedded development career, was just a palace of electronic nirvana back in the day staffed by knowledgable and patient electronics nerds. The one in the San Fernando Valley paled in comparison but has been sorely missed.

        1. They rebranded from Jerryco to AmSciSurp about the time things started to drift away from print catalogs, rendering their signature catalog moot and unfortunately inviting the acronym AS&S which they jokingly explained why they were not using in one of their last print JerryCo catalogs.

          Also victims of the transition: Loompanics (“first amendment” bookstore, RIP) and House of Onyx (amazing selection of gemstones, still in business but RIP their ditinctive catalog and founder Fred Rowe)

  1. I remember when All Electronics went out of business. I bought a whole bunch of stuff from them over the years, it was so sad because their prices were absolutely excellent.

    They opened up as an employee run deal, but I still miss the old All Electronics.

      1. I honestly love small surplus stores. Especially after visiting the Am. Sci and Surplus website to see what I’d missed out on, I am really disappointed these sites are failing. One of my favorites was Saturn Surplus. I ordered some parts for a military genset from them (for a very reasonable price) and now they are gone too. They always seem to have good customer service and great prices, but that just can’t seem to compete with Amazon.

      2. They used to exist. Maastricht, for example, had De Regenboog on the Brusselsestraat. And there was Grootaers in the Mariastraat, although the latter was less of a surplus store, and more of an electronic parts store.

  2. Dammit. I’m ashamed to say that as much as I’ve wanted to order something, the lack of physical space and money has prevented me from doing so. It’s sad to see this place finally go under.

  3. I have no idea if they do mail order – I suspect not – but any AS&S enthusiasts who are in the Portland Oregon area should also check out Surplus Gizmos, my neighborhood surplus store (www.surplusgizmos.com) in Hillsboro. A veritable Aladdin’s Cave of electronics and hardware. The fact that it’s within wafer-throwing distance of various Intel and other campuses lends a certain flavor to much of the stock. Standard disclaimer: I’m not affiliated, just a happy customer, etc etc :-)

  4. This is sad but not surprising, I’ve been going to the Chicago store since the early 1990s, the present owner in Park Ridge used to sweep the floors at the first location in Chicago in the beginning, I remember seeing the original owners often back in the day, but that’s how it works in that big city, eventually the taxes and fees and the changes in the residents(politics) bring an end to a business like that.

  5. I grew up right nearby, maybe 20 minutes from the geneva store, still go there every time I visit home!

    At one of their summer tent sales, almost twenty years ago now, and bought some fans, wire, alligator clips, and speakers – playing with those (and soon after, trying to make lasers with parts from radioshack, rip :/ ) is how I got into the electronics hobby in the first place!

    Made a makeshift scuba/snorkel thing in like fourth grade from some plastic pipes, rubber corks glue, a latex glove and some rubber tubing (and it like, even kind of worked! Kind of want to revisit that, now I think about it … And I even managed not to drown! 🙃) Got my first oscilloscope, first three or four multimeters there, probably filled four or five of their punch cards during high school. My life would certainly look completely different without that little store

    What a place

    Deeply disappointing to see such an icon going this way :( I really hope the physical stores survive. This was my single favorite place in the world until about high school. Even their catalog was great, it’s the one, single mailer, email or print, that I have ever signed up for

  6. Yep, Brazil went down this same lane and that’s sad.
    Nowadays you can’t trust a transistor you buy in Brazil, because all the trustworthy companies was vanished due to bad political decisions…
    But they’ll tell us it’s because of internet, of course.

  7. MPJA.com used to be THE place to buy quality toggle and other switches of many types and sizes cheaply. Just checked and they’re closed. Just checked other, similar, small-time electronic outfits in my favorites and they’re also closed. Jameco.com is still around although I don’t think they’re in the “small-time” category,

  8. Aw man I will indeed miss those catalogs but I fail to understand how a mail order (primarily) company went under during and post covid. How does almost every other business improve sales online during the pandemic and yet these lovable folks fall behind. It feels like some key decisions were not made and some contracts they had for warehouse space and logistics/delivery probably should have been renegotiated. Thirdly lol I never never never see an ad for them. People cant shop there if they cant find you to give you money. My guess is someone will buy it and flip it. Keeping the brand and quirky ads is a no brainer but figure out sales outlets for ebay and amazon and maybe even a curated store on etsy. I dunno I have a mix of feelings. It reminds me of when a friend was brought onboard for a similar in zany nature musical site and tried to explain to the owner that there were too many comics and goofy graphics cluttering up the page, the information provided was comical and not related to the product, and worst of all the actual order page was buried and only used one payment method… The owner doubled down on the garbage and broke their order page for almost 3 months without figuring it out… I really hope ASS finds a way to stay open or even relaunch with more of a presence in the marketplace and a giant cheap warehouse closer to where their magical goods arrive, and a business account or better with a national shipper or logistics company with modern results in that area. Maybe even some demo videos of the items. It sounds like there is a ton of good energy from the current employees (bless them) and others online who could band together and get the heavy lifting done so that operating it just means dealing with supply and watching the reports on sales and the warehouse. It seems very doable even from “me sitting with gpt for three hours” kind of thing. I hope someone can do it :)

  9. Skycraft Surplus (skycraftsurplus.com) took over the remaining MPJA inventory. Not sure how financially durable they are, but hopefully they’ll be around for a while. I would not be surprised at all to find that they also got some of the AS&S inventory in the end.

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