[McMurdo]

The only problem I have is that, as the rep was always keen to explain, RS's prices for general components are considerably higher than the bulk franchised suppliers such as Arrow, Future, Avnet, Glynn etc as their 'business model' is (was) to build the cost of small-order handling and carriage into the component price.

A carriage/handling charge is understandable if the component prices are at genuine wholesale costs, but soon becomes uneconomic if that's in addition to the inflated component prices.

I wonder if they've realised they no longer have to compete with direct-ship from the US with the exchange rates being what they are and have decided to jump on a gravy train.

I've shopped around for some time with my day-job small orders, spreading them between mouser, digikey, cpc, rapid, cricklewood, langrex, and certain trusted ebay sellers. Either way it's the client that must bear the cost after I've done all I can.