There is a lot of this in Silicon Valley. Competition isn't as fierce, and a lot more respect for IP laws, so it isn't quite the wild west but you can walk into Avnet's warehouse and get pretty much any part you need. The biggest issue was Fry's getting into the component business, putting the small guys out of business, and then getting out of it. Still recovering from that but you can see it in places like JameCo getting much better.
As Trevor complained we don't have a lot of small hand factories, which is a bit surprising. Partly its the cost of space, partly its the regulation environment. So if you need a custom fastener you can get it made but if you then want 10,000 you need to switch to someone else and that takes time.
That said, the culture and features grow in environments where a lot of hardware design and implementation is being done. Much of the money in the valley is in software (its slowly shifting back) and so much of these places died off, but you can still find it if you look for it.
Nobody mentioned the Shanzai. The term was explained to me by the founder of a hardware company in Shenzhen. They are small companies that specialize in infringing IP laws and copying consumer electronics products almost as fast as they a released on the market.
As Trevor complained we don't have a lot of small hand factories, which is a bit surprising. Partly its the cost of space, partly its the regulation environment. So if you need a custom fastener you can get it made but if you then want 10,000 you need to switch to someone else and that takes time.
That said, the culture and features grow in environments where a lot of hardware design and implementation is being done. Much of the money in the valley is in software (its slowly shifting back) and so much of these places died off, but you can still find it if you look for it.