I'm guessing the surplus ran out. I would go to the Chicago area stores a lot and could easily recognize which companies were dumping spare/reject assemblies and other shrapnel related to their work. Those companies all moved to Mexico or Asia, so there's nothing left to dump.
There's more competition and no real need for companies to do online or reserve sales of their surplus. They might have been able to place orders or holds previously.
The "surplus" at AS&S was more about manufacturing surplus. Spare parts and bulbs, loose switches and chips, wires, unpopulated PCBs with mystery origins, etc.
