Conrad Electronic to close all stores in Germany

[Neper]

There was a time, when every German town had a selection of electronics shops. Cologne had a good dozen of them. Great places where we would go to meet friends, exchange the latest gossip and spend our money.   

Then, in the mid 80s, Conrad Electronic, until then a mail-order business, opened big and impressive stores right in the centre of all major cities. They hired radio amateurs for their radio department, modellers for their modelling department etc. Within a few years, all other electronics shops were gone. Conrad picked out their best staff and hired them.

10 years later, they began to ask for customers' ZIP codes at the check-out. Soon after that, the impressive city-centre stores moved to some industrial estate way out of town. Gone were the highly qualified staff, replaced by the same kind that would be flipping burgers elsewhere. Eventually, the store in Cologne was one of the first to close altogether. That was about a decade ago. I haven't bought a thing from them ever since.

Now, Conrad have announced that they'll close all brick-and-mortar shops before the end of this year and concentrate on B2B.

Good riddance!

[HighVoltage]

This was the writing on the wall for a long long time.

I could repeat almost all your points for Hamburg. As a student in the 1980s I probably visited a Conrad store once a week at least.  In the last few years I have not ordered anything from Conrad and also have not visited their stores anymore.

The quality of products went down every year.
The employees were less and less knowledgeable.
The one store in Hamburg had a very good and smart guy working there. After he retired 10 years ago, it was like the store changed and for me it felt like only idiots were working there.

I will not miss them!

This might be similar to the closing of Fry's in the USA.

[ace1903]

Around 1988-1989 my father visited West Germany, probably Munich Messe for business.  As a present for me he bought one printed catalogue and several electronics kits.
At that time I was 7 or 8 years old child in Yugoslavia. I spent days listing that catalogue and enjoying in stuff never seen in my country.
Even now I remember some pages with things that I wanted to have. I think that I become engineer just because of Conrad.
Still have that catalogue and several others from 1990ies. Later around 2009 I visited myself Conrad in Nuremberg. It was far from city center but still nice place.
To have models in hand to evaluate them and possibility to order something from master business catalogue without shipping was nice for us from poor countries.
Probably generations of engineers and builders were inspired by Conrad. One can order everything from web shop but it will be never inspiring as walking in the shop on weekend and talking with people that share same hobby.

[themadhippy]

This might be similar to the closing of Fry's in the USA.

Or maplins in the uk.

[Bicurico]

Let's face it: China destroyed them all.

You get a much broader ranger of products and much cheaper ordering from China directly.

Also, why build a kit five times as expensive than the ready to go equivalent from China?

What I wonder is: why only now? Especially since ordering from China is not that cheap or convenient anymore, at least in the EU.

Another reason is cheap boards like the Arduino or Raspberry Pi. Hacking is now done in software and less in electronics.

The remaining electronic freaks use Farnell and similar.

[Kleinstein]

The electronic components part is just better served online. If you have a local shop near by, it is nicht so have the option to get at least more standard parts from a real shop, but the selction is naturally limited and the service is expensive for the shop. I have not been to a Conrad shop for quite some time and my impression was that a lot was more regular electronics and than some model building stuff.

In Germany, especially before the pandemic shipping is quite fast - next days is kind of standard and this makes the local online shops quite competative.
The electronics parts and other more special parts are kind of made to be served online. So more like a surprise the kept the electronics parts part running so long and have not shut down earlier.

[free_electron]

What happened to Opperman , Nedermann ? Their annual catalogue had all the schematics and many of the layouts for all the kits. i had several of their catalogues in the mid 80's. they also sold lots of spare parts.
That was my staple when i was 15 years old. That and the EKA transistor guide books ( the little yellow book with the owl on front that listed any possible transistor, shortform spec and replacements )

ELV was also good with their kits. their magazine even had the "platininfolie" in the  middle. a true plastic foil ready for you to etch your own boards. Then they started making everything with a microcontroller you had to buy ... Now it's all made in such a way you have to buy the kit from them ( custom lcd displays, preprogrammed micros )
They had a whole tower of test equipment in those black vero-style boxes.
up till a couple of years ago they had all the project pdf files for free on their site. all gone now.

[nctnico]

Let's face it: China destroyed them all.

No. Online ordering and reduced interest in electronics killed these kind of shops. I'm surprised Conrad lasted this long. Likely they used their online sales to keep the shops open. Then again, Conrad sells a lot of lower quality hobby stuff nowadays.

[Bicurico]

On my last visits to Germany I always made sure to visit the Conrad store, mostly the one in Frankfurt.

I never saw anything worth buying, unfortunately.

But I agree, we can broaden my culprit Chine to generic online shopping. I am OK with that.

[tooki]

I’m not entirely surprised. They closed the store near Lucerne in March 2021 and the one near Zurich in September 2021, leaving them with only an online presence for Switzerland.

[MrMobodies]

I brought two Voltcraft Charge Manager 2020 from them, Conrad Direct site, one in 2006 and 2012, they still work to this day.

https://web.archive.org/web/2021*/https://www.conrad-direct.co.uk

I had replace the fan in one of them in 2014. I think it was 24v ac? fan. The Energizers lasted 6 years, (self discharge before 2 week), the Annsman 8 years (self discharge after a month) before they started loosing significant capacity and now the Eneloops that seem much better which it charges and discharges to their' rated capacity. I read there are charge specifically for Eneloops but these ones seem to work fine and the cells don't get hot

I ordered other things from like Conrad 9v rechargeable battery blocks, they held most their capacity fine until 3 years ago and they started to bulge. GP C rechargeables for doorbell which still seem to work fine and a Steinel 5000 Glue gun. I think they delivery prices went up so I only brought stuff by the many.

Sometimes they seem to waste packaging, instead of putting everything in one box with bubble wrap they'd put each item in large boxes with no bubble wrap where they'd move about.

I got a lot of good things from them in the past many that sill work.

I just remembered something. When I first spoke to customer services in 2006, they answered all my questions and I wanted one that would charge Lithium battery charger like the CM2020 that tell me all the details about what it is doing but they didn't have one. I mentioned a company near them in Germany that sold such a charger (ELV 2000) but I can't find a store that would ship it directly. They offered to buy it for me and ship it across and I thought was really good.

ELV 2000 https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Battery-Charger-ALC-2000-Expert-ELV/dp/B00QCEXVRM

I decided not to buy it due to finding reviews about them failing and no support/comeback

https://de-elv-com.translate.goog/elv-akku-lade-center-alc-2000-expert-038408?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

Actually no, strange, I really thought they charged lithium round cells up.
They do RAM cells.

Sorry about that.
Also it doesn't have the serial port for the datalogging.

Sad that they seem to be going down hill.

[KaneTW]

Makes sense. There's generally no reason for me to order from Conrad over more specialized stores, and the few times I needed something *now*, they didn't have it in stock.

[jonpaul]

bonjour à tous

Since 1970s visited Germany often, Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt.  I found in these cities an electronic district near the Bahnoffs, with many stores, usually with discount areas and oddball items. 

Gold plated silicone  patch cords, beautiful colored lamps with flowers, religious, and political symbols, German test probes like Hirschmann.

I would return with bags of stuff not available in USA or France.

Over the decades the "radio row" stores disappeared and now are just memories....

I still have this unique collection of test leads, probes and oddball lamps still working from Germany.

There was a Similar decline in Silicon Valley and New York city, Courtland Street.

Just the ramblings of an old retired EE

Jon

[MadScientist]

As someone from a country that never had anything resembling a proper components shop, online ordering has been a godsend. Who cares about bricks and mortar

[tom66]

RS still have stores/trade counters open in the UK but frankly I don't see why.  I used to live 10 minutes away from the one in Leeds,  yet they had essentially no electronic components in stock.  It also wasn't possible to apply a filter on their website along the lines of "show me only what you have in stock at location X",  you could add items to your cart and then see,  but that was an extremely slow method (their website is **** - but not quite as bad as Farnell I suppose.) 

The few times I did go there (open 9am-5pm M-F so screw anyone shopping for personal reasons) it was completely empty... huge car park with just the staff parked in it.

Never quite got why they kept them open, they still are, but I'm sure the writing is on the wall soon enough.

[themadhippy]

(open 9am-5pm M-F so screw anyone shopping for personal reasons)

But aint that always been the way, its not that long ago when it was trade account only

[janoc]

I have been to Conrad in Lille (now closed, serves only mail order since two/three years ago) and now here in Mannheim and Frankfurt. However, it is really good only for emergencies when I need something right now. Most of the things they sell there are either generic consumer stuff (appliances, lighting, computer, hifi and such - a lot of it crazy old and obsolete!) and the rest ... A few bits and bobs for model and RC folks, some 3D printers, drones ...

While they still do carry some electronic components and tools, either the stuff you want is not in stock or it is - and with good 200-300% markup. And even then it is most often just the lowest quality, cheapest junk imported from China, only rebadged as one of their store brands. If they were actually importing the good quality items at least but alas ... Their online store carries also decent brands like Fluke or Amprobe but I have never seen one of those in the physical stores.

And heavens help you if you didn't write down the Conrad's part number beforehand - the guys in the "theke" can be really really annoyed if they have to search for e.g. resistors or connectors by value. It is not completely their fault, though - their computer system is as bad if not worse as the website.

I quite don't understand what they expect from going B2B only for physical stores - do handymen and companies actually shop there? Why would anyone do that, given the prices and poor choice?


Speaking of - I have only moved to Germany last September, I would appreciate any tips from "locals" where to buy electronic components here for personal (not business) use in small quantities.

In France I used mostly RS because they had free shipping over weekends. I could obviously go to Farnell or Mouser but the ~20€ shipping/handling charge is a pain and I don't buy stuff that often to be able to accumulate the 50€ or so order to avoid that fee in a reasonable time.

Is there some distributor in Germany that is a bit less hostile to small orders?

[cdev]

If people need electronics parts in northern NJ there is a parts counter at NTE electronics in Bloomfield, which has been in operation for decades, under different names..

 I used to go there as a child and could buy any of a large number of different ICs, transistors and other electronics parts. Its still like that. 

They are particularly good for power transistors. This is the best electronics distributor in the NYC metro area. (for modern electronics)


https://www.nteinc.com/


their northern NJ distributor is
https://www.solidstateinc.com/products/

SOLID STATE INC.

46 Farrand Street
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
United States  at the same location, off of Bloomfield Ave in Bloomfield.

As a kid I would shop there. One wrote what you needed on a paper order form and they would deliver it up at the parts window.

There is also a really good ice cream store near there. I forget their name.

[langwadt]

Makes sense. There's generally no reason for me to order from Conrad over more specialized stores, and the few times I needed something *now*, they didn't have it in stock.

that's the problem, to be really useful for stuff you need *now* they would need a huge inventory and you can't make a business out of a huge inventory and occasionally selling a few euros worth components to someone who forgot to order them online

[david77]

Had to happen sooner or later. Oh well, good by old friend.

I hope they keep selling to B2C customers online. Not like RS and Farnell who won't sell to me here in Germany.

[TassiloH]

Speaking of - I have only moved to Germany last September, I would appreciate any tips from "locals" where to buy electronic components here for personal (not business) use in small quantities.

Free shipping for small orders will be difficult, you will be stuck with 6 or 7 EUR for shipping for most companies. My go-to list includes:

• Reichelt (reichelt.de) - prices are ok, good for standard semiconductors and passives (electrolytic caps are cheap), electromechanical stuff, networking stuff, cables, tools
• Voelkner (voelkner.de) - this IS Conrad (Voelkner = Re-In Retail = somehow part of Conrad group), same items shipping from same warehouse just with better prices for most items. They offer a flat-rate shipping program which one can sometimes score for free when buying a promotional item, otherwise it costs some 20EUR for a year and gives free shipping for each order above 10 EUR or so. Not so good for electronic components, but I buy electromechanics and various accessories, MeanWell power supplies, and the odd tool there. Of course they have all the consumer nonsense that Conrad has.
• TME (tme.eu, in Poland, but ships from Germany) - a real electronics distributor, decent but not comparable to Mouser or Digikey, but typically good prices
• Mouser/Digikey: If you don't get to the 50 EUR minimum order for free shipping, have a look at the German mikrocontroller.net forum, frequently some people organize a group order over there (but I don't have personal experience with that, I usually have a list of non-urgent stuff I might need from Mouser and Digikey to fill up an order to 50 EUR if something is needed quickly).
• Pollin (pollin.de) - originally a surplus dealer, now mostly sells a lot of cheap China imports, tools and stuff. Selection of hook-up wire is decent and cheap, sometimes a real surplus gem shows up, passive, electromechanical, and mechanical components are worth a look there, but never trust that you can order the same item again later. And never order something fragile together with any heavy item. The surplus stuff is sometimes broken, but typically they just give you the money back without much ado.

[Messtechniker]

Fully agree with the above listing.

More here:
https://www.mikrocontroller.net/articles/Lokale_Elektroniklieferanten


Very long time ago I found Conrad to be only worthwhile for components and parts not available anywhere else. Otherwise C was simply too expensive. My last Conrad order was about 10 years ago.

[jfiresto]

I have been purchasing from Reichelt since the late nineties, largely online but sometimes will call. I find they are generally quite good, especially for small quantities: for nearly all items, there is no quantity discount.

Generic items can be a guessing game. If Reichelt does not state who makes an item and you need to know, I would ask them.
They can also be reluctant to acknowledge mistakes, but perhaps that is in the past as the latest management no longer advertise an ISO-9001 rating.

[KaneTW]

Distrelec and RS-Online are other, expensive options that might be worth it sometimes if they have a component in stock that no one else has.

[janoc]

Speaking of - I have only moved to Germany last September, I would appreciate any tips from "locals" where to buy electronic components here for personal (not business) use in small quantities.

Free shipping for small orders will be difficult, you will be stuck with 6 or 7 EUR for shipping for most companies. My go-to list includes:

Not looking for free shipping (not like it really is free anyway), 6-7€ is a reasonable price. 20€ is not.

Thanks a bunch for the list, very appreciated!