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.)

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

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).

"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...

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.

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.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Microcenter/comments/1kymzcd/update...

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.

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.

(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.)

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.

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.

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...