Black Hole of Los Alamos Seller of surplus nuclear research materials (2011)

This place was amazing, and worth a whole afternoon every time I went there. The owner was even more interesting, and a whole story in his own right. (I just looked at his wikipedia entry- wasn't aware there have been features on him! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Grothus)

He was not just an interesting person, but had a fantastic memory for what was in the place (though I think that was quite selective.) I came in one day looking for an aluminum plate I could use as a heatsink, but I was hoping for something with rounded edges so it wouldn't cut my car seat (for my overly-hot laptop.) He squinted for a few seconds, and then walked directly to a giant pile of random metal debris, and threw a bunch of things aside, reached in up to his shoulder, and pulled out _exactly_ the piece I needed, including chamfered edges on one side.

I am sad places like this are going away quickly. I made a map a long time ago dedicated to documenting places like The Black Hole - scraphounds are welcome to update it with interesting destinations. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?hl=en&mid=1Y1XmPsqClK...

I grew up in Los Alamos and remember shopping at that location when it was a Piggly Wiggly grocery store. There is much more detail here about its subsequent incarnation as the Black Hole and the activism of the man who owned it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Grothus

No longer in operation since 2017, =(

edit: wonder if that means they sold everything