[HN Gopher] Silicon Valley finally has a big electronics retaile...
___________________________________________________________________
Silicon Valley finally has a big electronics retailer again: Micro
Center opens
Author : modeless
Score : 275 points
Date : 2025-05-30 22:24 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.microcenter.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.microcenter.com)
| modeless wrote:
| It's been more than four years since Fry's closed. I can't
| believe it took this long to get something better than Best Buy
| and bigger than Central Computers, in the middle of Silicon
| Valley of all places!
| mosdl wrote:
| We had a Microcenter that closed in 2012, took them that long
| to return.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Who in Silicon Valley uses actual computers and not something
| in the cloud? Do any start ups use actual hardware that you'd
| get at some place like MicroCenter? Don't they just get handed
| shiny new Apple hardware (something from HP/Dell if they're on
| a budget) to interface with the cloud?
| tdeck wrote:
| I think many of the employees have gaming rigs at home and
| would buy parts there.
| Nextgrid wrote:
| You'd be surprised by how many "tech" people have no clue
| on about how to build a rig, nor have any willingness to
| learn.
| vladgur wrote:
| Youre not wrong.
|
| I have a pc with 24GB 3090 card capable of running LLMs
| locally, but our electricity costs make API calls much more
| reasonable.
|
| Even gaming -- streaming geforce now is cheaper than
| ammortizing cost of power + hardware over time
| john01dav wrote:
| For my personal use, I'll take the hit in cost for the
| additional control that owning the hardware gives me. Even
| less restrictive things like blocking sideloading are
| unacceptable to me.
| jzer0cool wrote:
| Cost break down please
| dimator wrote:
| The store has lots of other tech enthusiast stuff, like a
| huge selection of 3D printers.
| geerlingguy wrote:
| And a full aisle of electronics / hobbyist gear, including
| decent soldering stations, fluke gear, tons of components,
| and a good smattering of SparkFun and Adafruit's catalog.
| nickthegreek wrote:
| They have great small business machines and more importantly,
| everything you need without waiting for amazon. Their in-
| house prebuilt brand PowerSpec have great prices for the
| hardware and work nicely whether you go for a gaming version
| or office build.
| kanbara wrote:
| silicon valley-ite here: we have normal gaming machines and
| linux boxen too ...
| Hizonner wrote:
| I get the feeling the real Fry's died long before that. It
| seemed like it was going downhill when I left the area about 18
| years ago. Less parts, less tools, less test equipment, more
| packaged gadgets.
| NelsonMinar wrote:
| Yeah Fry's was pretty awful.
| tgma wrote:
| Fry's had an interesting vibe and felt you time traveled to
| the 90s, but my gosh they were so weird. They searched your
| bag on the way out. Microcenter is a godsend although it'll
| be hard to beat B&H with Payboo card.
| tecleandor wrote:
| I only use B&H site for checking general prices or reviews,
| as they won't stop discriminating people.
|
| A discrimination lawsuit almost every year since 2009.
|
| https://www.thephoblographer.com/2024/07/09/bh-photo-
| lawsuit...
| tgma wrote:
| Not really familiar with their internal affairs but as a
| retailer they have been nothing but great in my
| experience as the customer. In the end, any large company
| will at some point be accused of certain things, rightly
| or wrongly, and I am willing to bet larger retailers
| simply have an easier time paying off the complaints
| before we hear about them. I mean, the primary
| alternative for me would be Amazon, which won't win any
| prizes from me in employee affairs dimension, I can tell
| you that.
| toast0 wrote:
| I think a lot of that was following what sold. If nobody is
| buying these things at Fry's, it doesn't make sense for them
| to stock them.
|
| IMHO, there was a drop in good deals around the time they got
| rid of the purchaser who was doing the embezzleing (2008),
| and also new stores started opening with 'boring corporate
| store' theme ('new' sunnyvale store, vegas). If I'm gonna be
| at a boring corporate store and not getting good deals, why
| bother?
|
| Then there was the year? or so of circling the drain when
| there was some sort of credit problem and they tried to
| switch from owning inventory to a consignment model and most
| of their vendors weren't interested so they had no inventory.
| hakfoo wrote:
| TBH, I've been hoping they make a Wolf of Wall Street style
| movie about the store. There was obviously kooky stuff going
| on business wise, and that means there could be an
| entertaining story.
| awful wrote:
| Agreed; went into Fry's, off Lawrence?, just before it closed.
| Visited area on and off again over the years since. Central
| Computer did seem to have what I needed for that moment, but
| the area seemed barren, was simply not the same, and especially
| after experiencing Fry's, Weird Stuff, Halted?, Anchor,
| Computer Literacy, et al. in the late 1980s and 90s.
| ts4z wrote:
| Hear hear. I guess we still have Anchor.
| delfinom wrote:
| PC hardware is a competitive and margin tight business,
| especially due to online sales. At the same time, the inventory
| can be very expensive on the books. It makes the calculus for
| viability of a physical store quite challenging. It's why
| Microcenter has relatively few stores for the US.
| Animats wrote:
| I've been happy with Central Computer. Three machines and two
| repairs in ten years.
| orionblastar wrote:
| Microcenter is what Radio Shack should have become.
| macNchz wrote:
| It was founded by two Radio Shack employees!
| jbaber wrote:
| That explains a lot.
| myself248 wrote:
| And we all watched Radio Shack run face-first into the same
| wall, over and over and over and over. The market was exploding
| and it was theirs to lose, and boy did they ever.
| Spooky23 wrote:
| I worked at a CompUSA in high school and college. The money
| was around the PC sale, which was pretty high margin until
| around 1998/9. I'd come in in the morning before class to do
| freight... one time we built a pyramid of about 300 PCs.
|
| It was a money machine until it wasn't.
|
| Radio Shack has to sell everything, couldn't offer a good
| variety of devices, and didn't have the staff to support
| people with complicated PC purchases. If cell phones blew up
| earlier radio shack would still be around.
| walterbell wrote:
| For reboot of US mainline electronics manufacturing, we need a
| video comparing US electronic parts retail with Shenzen
| electronic parts retail.
| absurdo wrote:
| I am afraid of asking but what does Sayal classify as? I figured
| it would take negative time for someone to post Radio Shack in
| commentary because it's basically a knee jerk reaction, but I do
| appreciate a store like Sayal although they're proper electronics
| parts seller. These stores are more like finished product
| distributors. Maybe I'm too picky.
| tdeck wrote:
| I haven't heard of Sayal, but there is Anchor Electronics in
| Santa Clara that sells what I would think you're looking for.
|
| In my mind microcenter mostly sells PC parts that you plug in
| or stick into a card slot, although apparently they do also
| sell some electronics components a hobbyist might solder to a
| board.
| absurdo wrote:
| > Anchor Electronics in Santa Clara
|
| Looks about right! I thought Sayal was scattered across US so
| my bad :l
|
| A big box product store opening that sells plug and play
| stuff is to me, personally, not worthy of bearing the title
| Electronics. It's not news worthy for hackers. I could say
| that out of smugness but very often I'm confronted with sales
| staff that don't know much about what they're selling, and I
| end up (playfully?) educating them about the products, so I
| suspect this would be much the same.
|
| The "Maker" space as it's called today is amazing but I guess
| done to death so nobody talks about it?
|
| There are of course no real contenders today that warrant
| bringing up Radio Shack in any way (but people still do as if
| it's relevant). RS put a gorilla's weight behind teaching
| people how to fish that when they left, they left a massive
| cultural void that nobody has since filled and is unlikely to
| fill. The world has moved on.
| HorizonXP wrote:
| Can you link to Sayal?
|
| Because I'm in Toronto, grew up here, have lived in SF/Bay,
| back when Fry's was around.
|
| Sayal in Toronto was my go to electronics store. I didn't
| realize they were in the US? Unless it's a different one.
| II2II wrote:
| Like it or not, and I'm in the not category, most people
| conflate electronics with consumer electronics. It is just
| something we have to deal with.
|
| That said, a big box computer retailer is worth something.
| For the most part, I've found that sales people know
| something about computers. Contrast that to general
| consumer electronics stores where sales people know nothing
| about everything. If you know what you want, they also tend
| to be better than smaller computer stores. In that case,
| you're basically paying someone to do mail order for you.
| modeless wrote:
| Anchor Electronics is totally awesome. Very small but very
| interesting collection of stuff that you definitely won't
| find at any other store that still exists in the Bay Area.
| yahoozoo wrote:
| At first I was impressed with the number of people lined up to go
| in the store. Then I realized every single person was just an
| employee.
| datavirtue wrote:
| I live next to the Cincinnati store and have been going there
| for more than thirty years. There are people waiting at the
| door every morning when it opens and it is swamped with people
| from open to close.
|
| The service is unmatched by any retailer.
| yahoozoo wrote:
| That's cool, I'll just use Amazon and wait 1 extra day though
| dimator wrote:
| Other micro centers have a ton of employees so I'm not
| surprised. They're actually knowledgeable and helpful, the
| opposite of what Fry's had. And they're everywhere, not in a
| pushy sense, but just available.
| nickthegreek wrote:
| They also earn commission and are motivated to help you. I've
| actually had employees replace items I had chosen to save me
| cash. You don't see service like that often.
| khazhoux wrote:
| The third photo isn't employees
| Braxton1980 wrote:
| I'm lucky to be about 10 mins away from the one in Westchester
| NY.
|
| They have a dedicated asile to custom water cooling items which
| shows how serious they are about enthusiasts.
|
| I used to order my new set ups on Newegg but now I just got to
| Microcenter
| nvllsvm wrote:
| Same for me and the Wayne, PA store. Prices are competitive and
| they're one of the few places I know that carries Bawls energy
| drinks.
| stevenwoo wrote:
| Newegg has deteriorated in my experience and now not materially
| different from Amazon, with wrong items shipped and multiple
| dropshippers commingling inventory so provenance of stuff is
| questionable. Do not recommend.
| somat wrote:
| It is a shame.
|
| I think the tipping point was newegg the store vs newegg the
| marketplace.
|
| Newegg "the store" was pretty great, newegg "the marketplace"
| not so much. And unlike amazon at least newegg tells you who
| the seller is and keeps a big "only show results from the
| newegg store" filter present. but even despite that the store
| is not nearly as great as it once was.
|
| I wonder if there is anything left of amazon "the store",
| perhaps if you buy a book? Or has amazon "the marketplace"
| consumed everything.
| dpiers wrote:
| Amazon has surpassed Newegg as my online parts provider of
| choice.
|
| It's not that things can't go wrong, it's just that they are
| much better at handling it than Newegg these days.
| bradfa wrote:
| Totally agree. 20ish years ago Newegg was my one stop for
| computing purchases online. Now I just use it to gauge
| pricing as I find their search and filtering to still be the
| best.
|
| Most of my online computing purchases now come from B&H in
| New York City. Super fast shipping and I've never had a bad
| order experience.
| raisedbyninjas wrote:
| Newegg was purchased by a Chinese investment firm about 10
| years ago. It's like Walmart.com reseller marketplace over
| there ever since. I definitely visit my local Microcenter
| when they have it in stock. They also have a "one time use"
| coupon for $10 3d printer filament.
| redwood wrote:
| I miss Fry's
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I miss WeirdStuff.
| redwood wrote:
| How about HalTech?
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Yeah, Haltek was great. A friend had a knack for finding
| valuable stuff -- would go into Haltek and come out with a
| dozen of some obscure digital numerical display from the
| mid 70's or whatever.
| dehrmann wrote:
| I remember strolling through there and seeing all the weird
| hardware childhood me drooled over. Adult me did not walk out
| with a Snappy video capture thingy or a Jaz drive.
| duskwuff wrote:
| I walked through the store on their last day and was amazed
| at just how much unalloyed junk they had on the shelves -
| boxes of unidentified circuit boards with bent connectors
| and components broken off, shelves of empty binders, etc.
| Lots of neat, weird old stuff, but a lot of things which no
| one would ever buy.
| JoshTriplett wrote:
| I miss Incredible Universe.
| epoxyhockey wrote:
| The store had pre-opening for the past 2 days. I drove by on
| Wednesday and the parking lot was completely full with folks
| parking across the street and walking over. I thought I would be
| able to stroll in and get the free USB drive but ended up not
| able to visit yet. Talk about pent up demand!
| sm_1024 wrote:
| Interesting part is they have actually been open for a week
| now. They did a quiet opening on the 25th and it was still busy
| that day
| blindriver wrote:
| When did Microcenter re-gain its popularity? I remember when it
| was around before it closed down, beside AMC Mercado, and the
| prices were crazy expensive even back then. Did they somehow
| lower their prices?
| datavirtue wrote:
| Their shoppers are all on the savvy scale and could easily use
| their prime membership to buy parts on Amazon, but they don't.
|
| If the customer isn't savvy the knowledgeable customer service
| adds a lot of value.
| tschwimmer wrote:
| I am a "savvy shopper" and have no desire to buy components
| on Amazon anymore. Their stock co-mingling doesn't work for
| speciality computer components. I've received items marked as
| new that were clearly open box returns. I've received
| completely nonfunctional components. I've received the wrong
| item a few times. The component I've had the most success
| with are SSDs, but for anything beyond that I prefer to buy
| from brick and mortar because of their "curation." To be
| honest, it's a shame because the Amazon shopping experience
| is vastly superior but they send you crap, so it's unusable
| for this vertical. I still buy other junk from Amazon, but
| nothing that's particularly performance sensitive.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| A lot of the physical open to the public stores took a beating
| before South Dakota v Wayfair was decided in June 2018, since
| it was trivial to spend ~7% less by shopping from a website
| with a presence outside of your state.
|
| I doubt Microcenter ever expands to the number of locations
| that BestBuy /circuit city/compusa/etc had, but it might have
| enough of a market for one or two locations in the top 10 to 20
| metros.
| dminvs wrote:
| I always liked going to well-stocked stores and browsing for
| stuff. That was Fry's until they shot themselves in the foot.
|
| Micro Center might not be optimal on price, but sometimes you
| just want to wander a store full of cool stuff and maybe walk
| out with something you didn't expect, instead of another
| anonymous box of schmutz from Amazon or wherever
| ryao wrote:
| Unfortunately, Microcenter's selection often leaves me
| disappointed. In particular, they stock almost no ECC RAM for
| AM5 machines. They do not stock many graphics cards that have
| ECC VRAM either. Their best card in stock that has ECC VRAM
| is this nearly obsolete ampere card:
|
| https://www.microcenter.com/product/652517/pny-nvidia-
| rtx-a4...
| washadjeffmad wrote:
| I get it, but as "professional" grade equipment, most
| customers would acquire that through their employers'
| vendors.
|
| It also depends on your local market; my location seems to
| carry more server and HEDT gear than others (they stock
| more A- and W-series GPUs than 5090s, at least). They've
| also purchased things I've requested, like ECC DRAM for my
| Threadripper, which I also purchased from them.
| bsder wrote:
| > When did Microcenter re-gain its popularity?
|
| When online became infested with counterfeits and opened
| returns with no way to distinguish.
|
| Anyone ordering computer parts from Amazon is just asking to
| get fleeced nowadays.
| bdcravens wrote:
| I think the explosion of 3D printing has a lot to do with it.
| av3csr wrote:
| Was nice seeing that the 5090 exists, but boy, those prices.
| a_e_k wrote:
| Now if we could only get one near Seattle!
|
| (I've never really understood why a tech hub as large and
| historical as Seattle doesn't have one. It's weird that it's such
| a relative desert.)
| asteroidburger wrote:
| There's already a bunch of vacant Walgreens / Rite Aid /
| Bartell Drugs locations, with more to come. Surely one of the
| bigger ones would be adequate.
| devilbunny wrote:
| Interesting. I've never shopped at one; though my home is near
| the intersection of two interstates, I'd have to drive about 7
| hours to get to one. You're even worse off!
|
| It appears that the pole of inaccessibility for Micro Center
| for a place in the lower 48 on an interstate is around Spokane
| to Missoula (Santa Clara vs Denver), but that's only about 3
| hours' longer drive than you would have.
| neilv wrote:
| The Micro Center in Cambridge, MA, has improved a lot over the
| years.
|
| When they have the thing that I want, I'd prefer to go there,
| rather than order online.
|
| Also, I've never seen opened returns re-shinkwrapped and sold
| again as new at Micro Center, unlike in stories about Fry's.
| There are some wire shelves where opened returns are sold at a
| small discount, clearly labeled.
|
| Incidentally, would be nice to also have a good surplus and
| e-cycling store browsing adventure in town. But I guess the
| economics are difficult, when real estate is so expensive, and
| most of the few customers for unusual stuff are online. (That
| local hobbyists could save a lot of money on shipping cost of
| decommissioned corporate and lab gear, or make impulse purchases
| they wouldn't online, probably isn't enough, I'd guess.)
| arprocter wrote:
| >When they have the thing that I want, I'd prefer to go there,
| rather than order online.
|
| Worth mentioning that they price match Amazon
|
| I bought a CPU cooler there a few months back - the guy at
| checkout told me to pull up the Amazon listing on my phone so
| he could knock some cash off
|
| https://community.microcenter.com/kb/articles/6-do-you-price...
| 3eb7988a1663 wrote:
| How is that possible? Amazon has to have lower overheads than
| a brick and mortar.
| fzzzy wrote:
| They hope you'll buy a soda and a magazine or whatever.
| They always try to upsell protection plans.
| neilv wrote:
| I don't recall ever asking for a price match at a
| brick&mortar, even though I'm aware it's available at some
| stores. I'd guess most people don't.
|
| The store gets some mileage out of being known for price-
| matching competitors (even online competitors, where that'd
| be a bit much).
|
| (Well, occasionally I have questioned in-store, when a
| major chain shows one price on the Web, available at a
| specific brick&mortar location, but when you get to that
| location, there's a much higher price on the shelf. Now I
| tend to order for pickup at those stores, which is more
| work for them, just to lock in the Web-advertised price,
| rather than the switcheroo price.)
| YZF wrote:
| In Canada Staples will also price match Amazon.
| erkt wrote:
| I will make stores price match anything and everything. I
| also look at every item on my grocery check out to make
| sure the price is exactly what the shelf said. I concede
| no ground to fine print sales expiration dates. However,
| I am a freak when it comes to remembering these things
| after a decade of business purchasing and I did my fair
| share of taking advantage of the consumer.
|
| I frankly enjoy fighting stores on pricing and get
| dopamine from a good deal and it pains me to pay more
| than necessary even if I can afford it just fine. I
| understand not everyone is like this.
|
| There was a period a year or two ago where if you leaked
| cookies and ad tracking to Amazon and deliberately
| clicked through to competing sites their algorithm would
| aggressively slash pricing far below MSRP. I admit I
| would use this technique in microcenter to get Amazon to
| give me ludicrously cheap pricing then turn around and
| make them price match for instant gratification.
|
| Retail/amazon operate at a much higher margin than most
| people realize.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| >Retail/amazon operate at a much higher margin than most
| people realize.
|
| Then why don't their 10-Ks and 10-Qs show it? There is a
| reason it has a reputation of being a cutthroat business.
| Out of all the big retail businesses, only Home
| Depot/Lowes has 8%+ profit margins, and Apple obviously.
|
| https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WMT/walmart/net
| -pr...
|
| https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/BBY/best-
| buy/net-p...
|
| https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/COST/costco/net
| -pr...
|
| https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/KR/kroger/net-
| prof...
|
| https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/ACI/albertsons/
| net...
|
| https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TGT/target/net-
| pro...
|
| https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/JWN/nordstrom/n
| et-...
|
| https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/M/macys/net-
| profit...
|
| https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/WBA/walgreens/n
| et-...
|
| https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/CVS/cvs-
| health/net...
| walterbell wrote:
| Best Buy will price match competitor websites and printed
| ads, via online chat, for online delivery or in-store
| pickup.
| roughly wrote:
| Amazon prices what they can get away with, not what their
| costs are. Jeff Bezos's rocketry hobby is a testament to
| Amazon's ability to extract surplus.
| kaonwarb wrote:
| Almost everyone prices that way - that is how supply and
| demand works.
|
| Bezos's wealth is ~100% due to stock appreciation, which
| in turn is tied much more closely to AWS than to the
| consumer store.
| kadoban wrote:
| If every person price matched every item, they'd be
| screwed, but: most people don't, many items just can't be,
| and if eg you're price matching a $20 cpu cooler, you may
| also be buying a $500 cpu or a bunch of other components
| that they'll actually make money on.
| roughly wrote:
| This is also why different stores have different skus for
| items - that $20 coolermaster 40mm with red LEDs is
| cm40rl-w at Walmart and cm40rl-a at Amazon.
| erkt wrote:
| Retailers will absolutely budge on this technicality,
| this is to disarm those that aren't aggressive.
| Everyone's retail margins are wayyyyyy higher than they
| want the consumer to believe and their holding costs are
| non-negligible.
| ryao wrote:
| I thought the purpose of that was to let them avoid price
| matching on certain items despite having price matching
| policies. I have never heard of one budging on this. Have
| any?
| fuzzfactor wrote:
| It's also so you can't buy the "same" item a year or more
| later after yours is out of warranty.
|
| Which some people were known to do, and then return their
| old unit in the new box for a refund.
|
| So model numbers are sometimes changed far more freqently
| than device characteristics or features are changed.
| ryao wrote:
| Stores often refuse to stock products unless they are given
| a comfortable enough margin on them that can be as high as
| 25%. That is how they can afford to do deals on CPUs to
| draw people into the store. Amazon also has overhead in
| shipping costs to customers that the brick and mortar store
| does not, since they receive goods in bulk that amortizes
| costs. They both also want as much money as they can get
| out of the customer, so they have little reason to lower
| pricing upfront unless they think that it will help them
| get even more money (like how microcenter cuts prices on
| CPUs since they expect to make it up on everything else you
| need to build a PC).
| fuzzfactor wrote:
| Microcenter is a surviving personal computer retailer
| from the DOS days.
|
| Seemed like they were intentionally flexible enough at
| the beginning so they would be able to go forward with
| any and all manufacturers that might turn out to prevail,
| back when nobody knew for sure.
|
| Whether the future would more strongly include Apple, IBM
| compatibles, or any other alternatives which have come &
| went.
|
| It was a "superstore" by design, decades before Walmart
| got there through its unavoidable momentum.
|
| The vast majority of items do need to fly off the shelf,
| but it's best not to purge too much of everything else.
| The smartest operators can actually stock a larger number
| of slower-moving items too.
|
| Also I have seen some affordable stock pulled from the
| shelves and online like smaller capacity SATA SSDs, after
| higher-capacity or more modern units naturally replace
| them as technology progresses. Looks like they mark down
| the less-modern units, or they won't move at all, and
| those can then end up at the point where further markdown
| would be below cost. All remaining stock disappears to a
| liquidator, which are more common than ever these days.
| Just when you thought it was really going to get good. It
| used to be easier to browse for "stragglers" that were
| too expensive when first released, if you waited a year
| or two those prices could be really slashed when more
| modern versions took over the mainstream, if you could
| find any stock remaining.
|
| I drive right by the one in Houston almost every week
| where you can see the store conveniently a block away
| from the freeway, only sometimes for that same reason the
| traffic can get so bad that it's a 20 minute ordeal
| getting back out of the parking lot, down that block, and
| back on the freeway :\
|
| So sometimes I'll wait a few weeks before just dropping
| in, but it's also always been good to have when you need
| something right away.
|
| Except recently when I knew exactly what I wanted, a 2TB
| SATA laptop HDD, not an SSD for this particular PC. I
| still had a 1TB NIB in my storage unit from a few years
| ago when I picked up a couple but only used one at the
| time.
|
| Well, these days they had _nothing_. Except a few items
| of one SKU that was your typical modern garbagey SMR HDD,
| which modern SMR is miserably sluggish (you know, like a
| snail without a shell) by comparison to regular HDDs from
| previous decades (which were all conventional CMR until
| some SMR bozo came along). SMR is very frustrating even
| for long-term storage, and _completely useless_ in a
| laptop. Give me a break.
|
| Had to then go to the storage unit and dig out the 1TB
| one I already had.
|
| Nobody's fault but mine for shopping and trying to be a
| consumer when it's not absolutely necessary :\
| neepi wrote:
| Amazon pricing isn't always that good and they lie about
| the discounts and retail prices, at least here in the UK.
| My US colleagues tell me the same is true in the US. I've
| actually found that general high street crap seller Argos
| here tends to have better retail prices than Amazon. I can
| just amble on down the road and get what I needed same day
| pick up in person rather than wait for a delivery to turn
| up.
| seattle_spring wrote:
| It's not too uncommon for retail stores to match Amazon, as
| long as it's specifically both "sold by Amazon" and
| "shipped by Amazon". Best Buy does too, for example.
| Spooky23 wrote:
| Not anymore. That massive logistics network and in house
| courier ain't cheap.
| syntheticnature wrote:
| Not quite the same as storefront surplus, but:
| https://w1mx.mit.edu/flea-at-mit/
| don-code wrote:
| I was literally just there an hour ago, buying $800 worth of
| gear for a Wi-Fi mesh buildout.
|
| Could I have gotten it cheaper online? Probably. But when you
| have 36 hours notice that you need to build out Wi-Fi, you
| can't beat Micro Center.
| bitwize wrote:
| A company I worked for provisioned all its software dev
| machines from Micro Center. That's how I'd heard of it.
| tapoxi wrote:
| That store is dangerous. The last few times I went "just to
| browse" but I came home with an ultra wide monitor and a new PC
| build.
|
| I've started buying parts retail instead of online just because
| of how much I enjoy Microcenter. The interior does need a bit
| of a renovation though, it looks almost identical to how it did
| in the 90s.
| john01dav wrote:
| 90s anachronism is a perfectly valid aesthetic. I dislike the
| tendency to think that things must constantly be changed for
| purely aesthetic reasons. This tendency was intentionally
| created in order to sell more things -- look up the history
| of Ford and Alfred Sloan for details.
| walterbell wrote:
| _> identical to how it did in the 90s_
|
| Are 1990s customers and their children in Microcenter target
| market?
|
| Should the next Microcenter aesthetic be 2000s, 2010s, 2020s
| or 2090s?
| mnky9800n wrote:
| 3090s.
| khazhoux wrote:
| > The last few times I went "just to browse" but I came home
| with an ultra wide monitor and a new PC build.
|
| Wow, that sounds like a great day!
|
| > The interior does need a bit of a renovation though, it
| looks almost identical to how it did in the 90s.
|
| I think it would really bring me joy if I walked in and they
| were playing early 90s Beck, Soundgarden, Letters To Cleo...
| ryao wrote:
| If it is not broken, do not fix it. Renovations would cost
| money, which would mean higher prices. It is better to stick
| with what works than see prices rise to cover pointless
| renovations that would harm their competitiveness. The money
| is better spent on expansion that would pay for itself.
| mnky9800n wrote:
| Dude don't update it. Do you really want it to look like Best
| Buy? Because that's the ad company they will hire to remake
| their brand. But it will be even more of that.
| stutstev wrote:
| Considering New Hampshire's lack of sales tax, I'm patiently
| waiting for Micro Center to establish a new presence in Nashua
| or Salem. The Cambridge location, while personally cherished,
| isn't that accessible by car because of Boston's stress-induced
| car traffic congestion. Even on foot, getting to the store is
| still a bit of a journey. Also, let's not forget Massachusetts'
| 6.25% sales tax.
|
| In New Hampshire, I am positive Micro Center would attract
| customers from all over New England and make an absolute
| killing from sales, potentially overshadowing their Cambridge
| profits. I would never shop online or in Cambridge for hardware
| again. But, I'm sure they wish not to jeopardize the Cambridge
| store or their MIT and Boston tech hobbyist clientele.
| Otherwise, I am surprised they have not yet acted upon this
| idea.
|
| But, a man can dream!
| sfilmeyer wrote:
| Comments like this remind me I might be the only person in
| Massachusetts honestly calculating my use tax for my tax
| return every year.
| seattle_spring wrote:
| Probably one of the only people in the country.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Google maps says Salem is 40min+ from Cambridge, and Nashua
| is 50min+ from Cambridge, and add another 10min to 20min from
| other parts of Boston.
|
| Each minute of driving costs at least $0.67 (from IRS),
| excluding increased morbidity and mortality risks (injury
| from car collisions is the top health risk for most
| Americans).
|
| So even using $0.50 per minute of driving, if you are only
| going to NH to evade sales tax, that is 80min*$0.50cents =
| $40. $40/0.0625 =$640.
|
| So the first $640 of the purchase doesn't even save you any
| money (even more for most Bostonians further than Cambridge),
| and it costs you 1 to 2 hours of your life driving back and
| forth. If you value your leisure time at at least $100 per
| hour, then you're looking at spending at least $2,200 for the
| tax evasion to start paying off.
|
| I'm just positing why Microcenter will not open a NH location
| anytime soon, because most of its customers (who are in
| Boston metro) won't find that it pays off to travel to NH.
| slumberlust wrote:
| Tax free weekends exist in MA as well, yet a lot of people
| still travel across the state line to buy tax free items
| like booze.
|
| It's not always logical, but sometimes you find yourself
| outside of the city or heading north to be wilderness and
| the value prop changes if you're already heading that way.
|
| I agree that MC won't open one here, as we can't even get
| an IKEA closer than Stoughton.
| Spooky23 wrote:
| My favorite store like this is the Apple Store in the
| pheasant Lane mall - the parking lot is in Massachusetts,
| stores are in NH.
| vjulian wrote:
| Oh God. I wish the sales clerks would leave me alone. They're
| always trying to put their sticker on purchases and proffer
| useless advice. Still, it's the best in the area, and the
| Trader Joe's is a draw. I bought my first computer, an Apple
| //gs at Micro Center at their original, single location.
| behringer wrote:
| They're not there for you, they're there for your grandma.
| They also get paid terribly, let them put their little
| stickers on. You never know when they might return the favor.
| fuzzfactor wrote:
| Oh yes. I'm strongly in favor of having a sticker on
| everything and want these salespeople to get credit for
| every purchase even when I know exactly what I want.
|
| Regardless if they gave me any help during that particular
| visit or not.
| behringer wrote:
| Why not? Wtf do you care? It has no effect on you other
| than making them happy.
| gruturo wrote:
| Because making people happy costs you nothing, in this
| case and many many others, so why wouldn't you?
| erkt wrote:
| Just ask for their sticker and promise you will put it on
| your purchase. If another approaches just show them the
| sticker, they get it.
| geerlingguy wrote:
| St. Louis? Or do other locations also pop up near Trader
| Joe's?
| jmlim00 wrote:
| One in Cambridge also happens to be next to the Trader
| Joe's. I'm starting to see a pattern here..
| rayiner wrote:
| I grew up going to the Microcenter in Vienna, VA. Bought a
| monitor there just a couple of years ago. Hasn't changed at all
| in 25 years!
| mrexroad wrote:
| Same! I think last time I was there was to buy a iMac -- back
| when they first released the different colors. Bought lots of
| parts back in that era too. Glad to hear it's still there.
| acheron wrote:
| My teenage son just bought a 3D printer there in January.
| walterbell wrote:
| Fry's Electronics discussion threads
|
| _" Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank"_, 100 comments
| (2025), https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43677862
|
| _" Fry's Electronics is closing all stores"_, 300 comments
| (2021), https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26246435
|
| _" Is Fry's Electronics in trouble?"_, 350 comments (2020),
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21945492
|
| _" The Fry's Era"_, 150 comments (2019),
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20853834
|
| Electronics Surplus Stores
|
| _" Sundown for Surplus_" (2018),
| https://www.eham.net/article/41444
|
| _" End of an Era: Weird Stuff Warehouse closed_" (2018),
| https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/08/sjm-l-weirdstuff-0408...
| roughly wrote:
| > "Fry's Electronics is closing all stores", 300 comments
| (2021), https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26246435
|
| > "Is Fry's Electronics in trouble?", 350 comments (2020),
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21945492
|
| This made me chuckle. Betteridge's law is more of what you'd
| call a guideline than a rule.
| mcbuckeye wrote:
| I got my first computer, an Apple ][+, at the original Micro
| Center store in Upper Arlington (Columbus), Ohio.
|
| The store was tiny and then grew over time to be huge. I live in
| NJ now and they have a store about 40 minutes away from me. I'm
| surprised they are still around given e-commerce and all the
| other stores that have collapsed. Happy they are--it's always fun
| to walk through the store like in the good old days and see what
| you can find.
| kevinsync wrote:
| Yup, I go in the Columbus store semi-frequently -- have since
| the mid-90's. They've kept up with the times so it's a little
| less "smells like nerd" (which bums me out), but they are very
| competent, very good on price, and sometimes it's just NICE to
| zip up 315 to get something instead of hitting Amazon or Ebay.
|
| In comparison, Best Buy is a disaster lol; I hadn't been since
| Obama was in office, needed to buy a new tv, and it felt more
| like "electronics" Value City Furniture crossed with TJ Maxx
| than anything that came before it (Sun TV, Incredible Universe,
| etc).
|
| At least at Micro Center you can expect a disheveled-yet-
| tucked-Oxford salesperson to come bother you until you say "I'm
| good, just put your sticker on the stuff I'm gonna buy" rather
| than some burned-out retail drone in a blue polo who tries to
| hard-sell you on a sound bar you didn't ask for!
| monksy wrote:
| It's amazing for the area that claims it's the tech center didn't
| have a microcenter until now. I like having a microcenter in
| Chicago.
| dehrmann wrote:
| They had one in Santa Clara in or near the Mercado shopping
| center until around 2012.
| spacecadet wrote:
| One of us.
| uqual wrote:
| It's good to finally have something "between" Best Buy and
| Central Computer (et al) back in the SV after Fry's died its slow
| and painful death as the previous Micro Center in Santa Clara
| closed.
|
| Unfortunately this new one is in the same shopping center as
| Harbor Freight and it's close to where I live - this could get
| expensive... Mean to shop at one, end up shopping at both...
|
| The lines on the "insider" opening day 5/28 were pretty long - I
| waited about an hour in line just to get into the store and the
| checkout line was over an hour long.
|
| However, based on my purchases that day, I fear they will be
| unpleasant to shop at - even when busy, they were annoyingly
| upselling extended warranties. The sales associate on the floor
| tried to sell me on a plan for a laptop I bought and then, while
| there were hundreds of people waiting to checkout, the cashier
| spent time doing so AGAIN. Both were just following their
| mandated scripts and were at least nice about it all. They
| apparently also have some sort of rule that the customer buying
| something like a laptop also needs to "meet" with the sales
| associate's manager/supervisor - which was a completely useless
| awkward perfunctory handshake (and the customer survey asked if
| this meeting had happened so it appears to be an annoying
| institutional rule).
| arcanemachiner wrote:
| > the customer survey asked if this meeting had happened so it
| appears to be an annoying institutional rule
|
| Whenever I get a survey that asks dumb questions like that, I
| just answer "yes" so that the employees don't get harassed for
| not asking those dumb questions to me in person.
|
| "Were you warmly welcomed by a team member?" You bet I was!
|
| "Did one of our team members tell you about our partnership
| with the Heart and Stroke Foundation?" Sure, why not?
| vunderba wrote:
| There's a great parody of the whole customer satisfaction
| thing on a very underrated comedy series called "Corporate".
| Five out of five!
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvHZfAT0F94
| dustbunny wrote:
| My mind is blown that this is new.
|
| My small city in Canada has an awesome Memory Express in it. And
| it's packed with ~16 year old gamers and their dads spending big
| $ on stuff.
| grg0 wrote:
| $3719 for a GPU certainly is new.
|
| I'm fucking pumped for brick-and-mortar, though. Bring more
| bricks.
| evbogue wrote:
| I've been shopping at Microcenter in Chicago since I was a kid. I
| bought my last 3 computers there.
|
| I couldn't believe upon moving to the bay in the aughts that
| there was nowhere to buy a decent computer. I'm glad they finally
| have a place to buy a computer out there.
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| Wish there was one near Los Angeles, especially now that Fry's is
| gone. There's a MC in in Orange County, but it's a bit too far
| with Best Buy close and online deliveries.
| reid wrote:
| Parking lot is completely full. I parked nearby and walked over.
| They're giving away free mugs today with Micro Center Silicon
| Valley on it.
|
| Huge Ubiquiti display and demo area. I didn't buy anything today
| because the checkout line was too long. My daughter liked the
| Magna Tile selection in the toys area.
|
| Really great to have this much selection nearby.
| vunderba wrote:
| I used to love visiting the Microcenter near our family home back
| in the early 90s. In those halcyon days, they had a exceptionally
| LIBERAL return policy - 30 days even on opened software. (the
| L.L. Bean of electronics).
|
| As a child whose modest income was derived solely from weekly
| lawn mowing, needless to say I coincidentally became quite
| accomplished at beating PC games within a month's time.
|
| In defense of my somewhat _dubious_ behavior, I did go back as an
| older teenager with far more disposable income and purchase a ton
| of big-box PC games from them. Most of which I still have
| including one of my all-time favorite RPGs, Betrayal at Krondor.
| mrbluecoat wrote:
| Reminds me of when I started working at a new Best Buy back when
| they were the cool new kid on the block
| MPSimmons wrote:
| Man, I am glad I live near a Microcenter. It's great that they
| have a big maker section now, too.
| whalesalad wrote:
| I used to live a mile or so from the location in Michigan.
| Previously I lived a few miles from the one in Tustin, CA.
| Growing up I was a few miles from Fry's in Burbank and went there
| all the time. Now I live out in the boonies and it's certainly
| made me realize how fortunate I was all these years
| bdcravens wrote:
| While I've built machines using parts from Microcenter, it's been
| several years, as I eventually went all-in on Macbooks (though
| you can often get one cheaper there than at the Apple Store).
| However, as I've gotten into 3d printing and other maker tech in
| the last year, I'm now there at least once a month, and have
| spent more than I ever did.
| maz1b wrote:
| Surprising - but a good change! I recently picked up an M3 Ultra
| from there.
| bschwindHN wrote:
| I got into electronics around 2016, right around when I was
| visiting my hometown from living abroad. There's been a Micro
| Center there for years and I ended up spending hours there
| looking at all the ESP8266 boards they had there, along with the
| various supplies of Arduinos and Adafruit boards. Pretty "recent"
| in terms of electronics tech, but somehow this is already close
| to 10 years ago :c
| pss314 wrote:
| Per this reddit post, at the Santa Clara location there were some
| 5090 GPU retail boxes filled with crossbody backpacks instead of
| the GPU. Microcenter did eventually track this to a particular
| supplier.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/Microcenter/comments/1kymzcd/update...
| mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
| Am I the only one amused that nVidia flagship GPUs are now so
| large that you can fit 3 backbacks inside their packaging?
| edgan wrote:
| I see they opened a store again in Santa Clara. I remember the
| old one next to AMC theater that was a Walmart last I saw.
| sylens wrote:
| I love MicroCenter. Why do they seem to be flourishing as Best
| Buy seems to be closing stores, reducing staff, and locking items
| in the back?
| bitwize wrote:
| Micro Center! I used to go to the one in Massachusetts. Really
| good stuff and a wide selection. I miss Fry's in its heyday, but
| Micro Center comes close to that ideal.
| daviddever23box wrote:
| Micro Center is not trying to be a white-goods (refrigerator,
| washer / dryer, etc.) store, as Fry's was.
|
| I've had great luck with Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Chicago
| stores, and there is now one in Indianapolis that is clean and
| up-to-date.
| vondur wrote:
| I love the one here in Orange County California. They always have
| these combo deals with Motherboard/CPU/RAM that are good deals.
| My current Ryzen 9 7950x was build from a deal at Microcenter.
| mnky9800n wrote:
| I wonder if it will include an old bin with unopened copies of
| dark forces Jedi knight and other old stuff that just never sold
| all the copies for sale in a discount bin. The Microcenter in
| Atlanta was a treasure of old software that you had to have at
| some point in the past.
| johnea wrote:
| All I can say is: It's about time.
|
| I'm amazed there aren't more of these stores nationwide.
|
| I live in San Diego, and (luckily) the closest one is an hour
| drive away in Tustin.
|
| California, 1/8 of the US population, and the world's 4th largest
| economy, has "after years of waiting" 2 stores 8-/
|
| I can only reminisce about the olden days when there were dozens
| of "bin stores", with electronic components, test equipment, new
| and used gear of every variety, and staff that knew about the
| stock.
|
| Apparently, modern electronic developers feel that ordering from
| Alibaba is some kind of viable substitute 8-/
|
| This whole disappearance, coupled with the disappearance of the
| many many small local electronics development firms, is a clear
| sign of the demise of the American republic.
|
| The elimination of small independent tech companies, and the
| supply chain that went with them, from our communities and our
| economy has been a disaster for the american people, and quite
| frankly, I couldn't care less how many vulture capital fanbois
| disagree with me...
| rufus_foreman wrote:
| I sort of hate Micro Center and I sort of love it.
|
| My theory of how you tell you're rich or not is that you walk
| into a store and you can buy whatever you want without caring
| what the price tag is.
|
| I'm rich at the grocery store, I'm not rich at Micro Center.
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