Intel486dx33 wrote on 2025-05-30, 17:05:

Amazon and EBay and Online retailers really screwed things up in California for he Brick and Mordor stores.

For sure... last I heard, one does not simply walk into them anymore.

I Hate driving in traffic
I hate driving 30 minutes and back and spending $15 of gas.
I Hate driving to the store only to find they don’t have what I want.

It’s so much easier to shop online.
This is Why Brick and Mortar stores failed.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2025-05-30, 19:30:

I Hate driving to the store only to find they don’t have what I want.

I mean, have you tried phoning ahead of time?

I don't like knowing everything that's available at a store. I miss the days of going to a store to see what was new. That was exciting. Finding a new game from a company or designer you loved that you didn't even know was coming. Or a new piece of hardware, hell yeah, miss it.

Pretty Sad….
Guys, This is how bad it is in Silicon Valley computer stores.
The line wrapped around the building twice just to get in this computer store.
I will NOT drive 40 minutes in traffic to this Store just to Wait in line to get in.
They might not have in stock what I want.
I would rather shop online.

My FREE time is to Valuable.
I have a Life to live and Bills to pay.
I can’t afford to waste a day driving around shopping for computer components.

Shagittarius wrote on 2025-05-31, 00:27:

I don't like knowing everything that's available at a store. I miss the days of going to a store to see what was new. That was exciting. Finding a new game from a company or designer you loved that you didn't even know was coming. Or a new piece of hardware, hell yeah, miss it.

x10

Online shopping is convenient but boring and "anti-social" in the long run.

@Intel486dx33
quite the enthusiastic crowd it seems

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2025-05-31, 08:25:

I would rather shop online. […]
Show full quote

I would rather shop online.

My FREE time is to Valuable.
I have a Life to live and Bills to pay.
I can’t afford to waste a day driving around shopping for computer components.

Now go read your opening post lamenting the loss of bricks and mortar stores again and realize you're the reason for it.

Great news. Micro Center seems to have really stepped up to the plate in recent years as the last of the irl electronics store chains.

It's invaluable when you're working on a project to be able to run down to the store and grab what you need. I used to live in the Denver area and frequented the Micro Center there. It was indispensable. And they have everything, even laptop batteries that I couldn't find online from any name brands.

A better resource than Amazon, where everything is just rebranded Temu/Alibaba crap now. The Micro Center house brand stuff might also be from China, but it definitely goes through a quality control step somewhere that the Amazon stuff doesn't.

Back in 1990’s Silicon Valley was full of Computer companies and Stores.
We had Frys electronics stores everywhere.
Radio shack
Good guys electronics
Circuit city
Sears
And lots of small business computer component stores.
They were everywhere.
Computer component sales were everywhere

I think things might pick up again with Win-11 upgrade and hardware requirements

But today we don’t have enough Brick and Mortar store computer component retailers
Everyone is shopping online and selling online.
I think allot of this happened when software companies started selling software online as downloads.
Books, Software and Magazines offered online.

There's a microcenter in Kansas City that I sometimes go to. I need to be visiting my friend who lives a half hour from there, and need to have a reason to go.

It's nice to be inside such a store, and yes-- they are basically extinct now.

If I was quite a bit richer, I'd probably go more often.

It was a HOT day in Silicon Valley 95 degrees Celsius

keenmaster486 wrote on 2025-05-31, 14:10:

Great news. Micro Center seems to have really stepped up to the plate in recent years as the last of the irl electronics store chains.

It's invaluable when you're working on a project to be able to run down to the store and grab what you need. I used to live in the Denver area and frequented the Micro Center there. It was indispensable. And they have everything, even laptop batteries that I couldn't find online from any name brands.

A better resource than Amazon, where everything is just rebranded Temu/Alibaba crap now. The Micro Center house brand stuff might also be from China, but it definitely goes through a quality control step somewhere that the Amazon stuff doesn't.

In addition to Temu/Alibaba that you point out, I wonder if brick and mortar stores will start to find their stride again and find a niche, as manufacturers/retailers get frustrated with always-increasing fraud and scalping with online sales

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2025-06-01, 02:43:

95 degrees Celsius

Geez that is hot.

I wanted to purchase from Micro center once but they did not do deliveries.

It's good to see at least one chain of computer stores not just surviving the Retail Apocalypse, but thriving.

I used to work at one of the most popular Dutch computer store chains (MyCom) back in the golden age of computer retail, from the late 90s to the mid 2000s. During the peak times, I remember serving long waiting lines of people in front of the counter, stretching through the store, through the entrance, all the way out to the street. Those were pretty crazy times. Fun, if sometimes a bit stressful. Those stores have gone out of business years ago. Some computer store chains in the Netherlands have survived, by having fewer and larger stores, sometimes just a single huge store.

I also know Micro Center well. I've visited their Sharonville location more than once during my visits to relatives in Ohio. I've bought several things there over the years, including my first modem in 1994.

I know that these days in many cases, ordering computer stuff online is easier and often cheaper. And there is much more choice online too. But there is still a place for retail stores. Sometimes, during a weekend hobby project, you just need one or two components that you can pick up at the store in the same day, which would otherwise take a few (week) days to ship when ordered on-line.

Also, I feel a bit of a nostalgia factor when I walk through a specialty computer store. A more general electronics store like Best Buy or MediaMarkt just doesn't capture it.

Micro Center continues opening new stores, and I have read a lot of comments by people in different parts of the US (and Canada) who wish they had a Micro Center nearby, so there is definitely a demand for it.

So let them continue to serve a niche, I say. The niche may well be bigger than many of us think. 🙂