The death of Frys was one of those that took so much longer than it should. The last time I went into a Frys was a fluke as I had thought it was already out of business. Walking around inside was surreal as the inventory was sad with the vast majority of shelves empty. I remember taking pics at the time of just how much a shadow itself it really was. I just couldn't fathom why someone had allowed the stores to stay open that long.
Because it wasn't private equity and leveraged to the moon, it was able to shamble into bankruptcy, inlike say circuit city that had a step change bankruptcy.
I went to the Renton, WA one during the death days. It was so odd. Mostly empty shelves and what few products were there had the famous Fry's return labels on them. I'm assuming Amazon killed them.
The store I was in had a lot of open box appliances all lined up like a close out store. The products that were new had the famous layer of Frys dust covering them.
Huh. I've never been in a Frys before, but boy is that a strange decor choice. Aztec stylings to sell brand new tech? I guess I see the juxtaposition, but still...
Microcenter feels like going back in time (in a good way). It has a very 90s vibe to it. The staff wear khakis and blue collared shirts. Even the signage uses serif fonts in a way that looks, comfortably, dated. I hope they don’t change.
I love Microcenter, though I haven't purchased anything from one in quite some time - I don't buy a lot of new electronics.
I remember as a teenager we would go on "road trips" to Microcenter - 25 minute drive tops and since none of us had any money we would just try and get someone to spend their paycheck on a new GPU or something so we could get second hand excitement from a purchase. It was also the first and only place I've ever seen BAWLS energy drinks.
I’ve been to the one in Hiroshima. The volume and variety of products is jaw-dropping and fun. Though I was disappointed, although admittedly wasn’t looking to hard, to see the prices were comparable to American prices for the same products - at least for new lenses.
It was also great that it was basically attached to the rail line. Such a better development pattern for business and moving people than airlines and airports.
Yep, I was in Tokyo last year and scoured the earth looking for decent deals on used film cameras. If anything they were selling at a significant premium to US prices. It was quite disappointing.
I keep hoping for a Microcenter in either Portland or Seattle but alas, I get the "we're always looking for new locations" email from their team and a "why not just order it from Amazon" from nearly everyone else.
The Microcenter in Cambridge (MA) finally updated their sign to modernize the rainbow Apple logo a few years ago. I hope it's stashed somewhere, to me it's more iconic than the Citgo sign a few miles away. They have added some components and kits but it doesn't fill the yawning void left by You-Do-It Electronics shutting down a year ago, or Radio Shack's slow motion demise.
Can someone offer an explanation of why this is popular? I don't mean this in a crass way, I'm actually genuinely baffled to see geeks lining up for a Costco-like experience to get stuff that you can easily get online without needing to get into a car.
For me, big box stores just mean markups + staff that know less than most tech reviewers on YouTube. All in an introvert's nightmare. What's the upside?
I bought a 3D printer from my Denver Microcenter a few weeks ago. It's not available on Amazon, and only ships from China (it's a BambuLab H2D). It gives peace of mind that if something goes wrong I can just return it locally rather than deal with shipping a 50 pound printer back to China. Same goes for a MinisForum NAS I bought a few months ago. Plus, whenever I need a one-off USB cable, thumb drive, or printer filament, it's a 15 minute drive.
Also: they're always packed on the weekends. There is definitely demand for a brick and mortar store that focuses on tech/geek hobbies.
Here in Canada, the BambuLab stuff seems to ship from local-ish warehouses... but I get it. Tariffs might also be a factor in this.
Amazon is a reprehensible company that I absolutely order from 3-4 times a week. That 15 minute drive requires a 15 minute drive back, plus a car + insurance + gas. It's 8:59pm local as I type this. If I need a thumb drive, I can order one that will be here by noon tomorrow with free shipping.
TL;DR that hour of your time plus driving surely cancels out any potential savings.
I guess it's good to have options, and late stage capitalism is happy to give them to us.
H2D looks like an amazing printer. I have a P1P and it's great for my needs, but the Bambu stuff is just on a different level from the others I've tried.
Ironically the reason why it's popular is that it's got many items that otherwise you can only get online, which is also the reason why you find it useless since you prefer the online experience.
Speaking as an Australian, to me it would be a dream to be able to drive to a place like that and getting those things in store as opposed to ordering online then waiting days or sometimes weeks for delivery.
There is also the factor of being able to see the item in person, and perhaps hold it in your hands, might not be very relevant for something like RAM sticks, but it certainly is for something like a gaming controller for example.
If only you could actually hold things in your hands, though. To me, bringing a shrink-wrapped box to a checkout is like buying food at a grocery store to drive to a food bank, when you could just give them cash.
At least record stores let you listen to an album on headphones before you buy it.
Still, I appreciate your perspective. Different strokes for different folks.
There's loads of things at Microcenter you CAN hold in your hand though, plenty of keyboards, mice, game controllers out on display you can handle and see what you think. Their 3d printer section usually has all the printers running and printing something so you can see the speed and judge how noisy it is. Same with their computer cases, out on display so you get a feel for how big it is or how easy it is to get to the drive cages for example.
There's a lot of products there you can inspect in a way that online just doesn't do.
The upside is that if you need a particular thing, you can go buy it immediately, not only that you can actually see the product and potential try to a degree before buying it.
For me, its seeing cases in person and being able to see how they compare for size rather than trying to estimate online.
As someone in Australia where we have pretty poor computer electronics stores for PC parts, this place is like heaven on earth.
To you its an introverts nightmare, but clearly for many geeks its not who are lining up.
I generally think of myself as immune to impulse/window shopping, but if I walked by a Fractal North case for the first time, I would prove myself wrong.
Microcenter has a pretty good reputation for having knowledgeable enough staff. Plus, discovery tends to be a lot better in a curated brick and mortar than online. And sometimes you just want to see and buy cool stuff that you didn't know you wanted.
Except (?) that it's not like you can do more than look at shrink-wrapped boxes.
Even record stores generally let you play albums on a private turntable before you buy them.
It's just so weird to me that someone looking to buy a significant component for their desktop machine or whatever wouldn't do loads of research first. Buying a GPU, for example, during window shopping seems almost unhinged. But everyone's experience is different, and that's a good thing.
Not a great comparison, record stores sell exactly that, just records and each record uses the same player to play. They're not going to let you unwrap a $2000 graphics card, but they might let you touch a mouse you're looking to buy. There are clear differences here where not everything at these stores is just their shrink wrapped boxes, but are often on display, its all all black and white.
There's nothing stopping people from doing all of their Youtube research then walking into their Microcenter and buying it in person.
Its not like PC gamers who often use online stores have just forgotten to do any prior research when buying in store as opposed to online. So yeah I would do loads of research, then I'd go instore and buy it and look at what else they have on offer.
The Cambridge, MA location still has an aisle of keyboards and mice outside of their packaging. It's very nice to be able to hold and feel those peripherals as part of the shopping experience.
Online shopping of fashion items can never replace the experience of physical shopping, especially with friends. Geeks are no different... shopping can be a delightful experience if you are up for it. Part of which might be the thrill of discovering things you are not searching for.
I appreciate the analogy but respectfully I don't think it holds up 1:1.
Love or hate window shopping, the nature of shopping for fashion lends itself far more to in-person evaluation. Every item is slightly different, and so is every person wearing them. This is why you can try on clothes in the store!
Crate digging for vinyl is similar. There's a real joy of discovery, and turntables with headphones for auditioning purchases.
I have a hard time picturing the same dynamic with identical shrink-wrapped boxes.
The difference is what while you're waiting to get your tracking number, I've already driven down the road and come back with the item I could've bought online, that I also purchased based on reviews and Youtube videos I watched the night before.
I wouldn't usually have responded, but "treating a question as an attack or criticism" is a particular bugbear of mine. We can't grow, learn, or understand one another if questions are by-default treated with hostility or defensiveness.
> I'm actually genuinely baffled to see geeks lining up for a Costco-like experience to get stuff that you can easily get online without needing to get into a car.
"Why go to a fine restaurant when you can just stick something in the microwave? Why go to the park and fly a kite when you can just pop a pill?" - Kramer, Seinfeld
A big box electronics store is not a fine restaurant or a park. It's just a less-efficient way to purchase identical shrink-wrapped boxes that you should probably research extensively online before buying.
Not everything needs to be completely efficient, experienced through a computer or mobile phone screen, nor does it need to be "researched extensively". Some people prefer the option of a tactile, in-person, sometimes social experience of browsing physical objects.
If you want to build a full pc, they will walk you through every component. They will optimize a build around your budget as well. i’ve had employees hand me replacements in my carts that were both better and cheaper that I overlooked. There is a bunch of overlooked value from businesses like MicroCenter that the younger generation has never even experienced.
Has nothing to do with whether it's art or a shrink-wrapped product, different people value different things. As an example, a vehicle may be an engineering wonder or a work of art to one person and a "silly mass-produced hunk of steel" to another.
And yes, I am romanticizing in-person experiences and interactions over the insistence that more and more things in life are best experienced through a phone or computer.
Interestingly, the items I was looking for (NAS boxes) were actually cheaper at MicroCenter than anywhere else. And I could get them same day with a generous return policy.
But seriously, online shipping takes longer than driving over to the store and picking the thing up. It's not just being impatient, but sometimes eg your headphones break but you have an important meeting coming up soon.
The other one is,
Amazon, especially, the pictures lie about the object's size after shipping. Especially for. a TVs. Sure you can use a measuring tape, but some people really do just want to see it in person to get a proper feel for how big something is.
Then there's laptops to try out how the keyboard does.
I thought the same, then I ended up spending >$10k there this year because the pricing was great and I didn't have to wait for shipping. It really is a great place.
It's also great for items likely to be scalped. It doesn't guarantee they'll have stock, but it sure is easier to beat scalpers to checking the store that day than bots to an online cart. I even got a Switch 2 bundle the day after launch at MSRP while there for something else. Edit: shit, prices are worse all around now. Glad I didn't wait :D.
Step in and replace the loss of our Frys Electronics stores[0], yay!
[0] https://www.kjzz.org/business/2025-08-27/fans-of-phoenix-fry...
The death of Frys was one of those that took so much longer than it should. The last time I went into a Frys was a fluke as I had thought it was already out of business. Walking around inside was surreal as the inventory was sad with the vast majority of shelves empty. I remember taking pics at the time of just how much a shadow itself it really was. I just couldn't fathom why someone had allowed the stores to stay open that long.
Because it wasn't private equity and leveraged to the moon, it was able to shamble into bankruptcy, inlike say circuit city that had a step change bankruptcy.
I went to the Renton, WA one during the death days. It was so odd. Mostly empty shelves and what few products were there had the famous Fry's return labels on them. I'm assuming Amazon killed them.
The store I was in had a lot of open box appliances all lined up like a close out store. The products that were new had the famous layer of Frys dust covering them.
Huh. I've never been in a Frys before, but boy is that a strange decor choice. Aztec stylings to sell brand new tech? I guess I see the juxtaposition, but still...
They tend to be themed. The store in Cambridge/Boston area is probably more to your expectations.
The one in Fremont had a bunch of Tesla coils, Jacob's ladders, and other high-voltage amusements. As a kid, it was the coolest thing.
I thought all the ones I got to visit were cool as an adult, fascinating combination of stuff for sale.
The one in Burbank was Area 51 themed. Huge UFO crashed into the front, aliens everywhere, etc. It was great and is sorely missed.
I miss Frys...
Microcenter feels like going back in time (in a good way). It has a very 90s vibe to it. The staff wear khakis and blue collared shirts. Even the signage uses serif fonts in a way that looks, comfortably, dated. I hope they don’t change.
I love Microcenter, though I haven't purchased anything from one in quite some time - I don't buy a lot of new electronics.
I remember as a teenager we would go on "road trips" to Microcenter - 25 minute drive tops and since none of us had any money we would just try and get someone to spend their paycheck on a new GPU or something so we could get second hand excitement from a purchase. It was also the first and only place I've ever seen BAWLS energy drinks.
the American Akihabara, land of the khaki otakus
Yodobashi Camera is on my list of places I'd have to visit on a future Japan trip.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yodobashi_Camera
I’ve been to the one in Hiroshima. The volume and variety of products is jaw-dropping and fun. Though I was disappointed, although admittedly wasn’t looking to hard, to see the prices were comparable to American prices for the same products - at least for new lenses.
It was also great that it was basically attached to the rail line. Such a better development pattern for business and moving people than airlines and airports.
Yep, I was in Tokyo last year and scoured the earth looking for decent deals on used film cameras. If anything they were selling at a significant premium to US prices. It was quite disappointing.
I keep hoping for a Microcenter in either Portland or Seattle but alas, I get the "we're always looking for new locations" email from their team and a "why not just order it from Amazon" from nearly everyone else.
The Microcenter in Cambridge (MA) finally updated their sign to modernize the rainbow Apple logo a few years ago. I hope it's stashed somewhere, to me it's more iconic than the Citgo sign a few miles away. They have added some components and kits but it doesn't fill the yawning void left by You-Do-It Electronics shutting down a year ago, or Radio Shack's slow motion demise.
>>it doesn't fill the yawning void left by
Or Gateway Electronics in St Louis
I live in Columbus near the original Microcenter. Still the GOAT store, it's not even close. Happy to see them expand more!
I always wondered why my Ohio hometown had a Microcenter (grew up near Cincinnati), now it makes sense! I had no idea they started in Ohio.
their headquarters is here as well.
My favorite place as a kid XD I still get excited thinking about it haha
The old Frys in Austin is turning into a Microcenter next year:
https://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/austin.aspx
The Charlotte Micro Center opening was great, and was perfect timing since I was able to get some adapters I needed urgently without ordering online.
Got the free mug out of it too! I wonder if the mugs will become valuable collectibles in the future.
Can someone offer an explanation of why this is popular? I don't mean this in a crass way, I'm actually genuinely baffled to see geeks lining up for a Costco-like experience to get stuff that you can easily get online without needing to get into a car.
For me, big box stores just mean markups + staff that know less than most tech reviewers on YouTube. All in an introvert's nightmare. What's the upside?
I bought a 3D printer from my Denver Microcenter a few weeks ago. It's not available on Amazon, and only ships from China (it's a BambuLab H2D). It gives peace of mind that if something goes wrong I can just return it locally rather than deal with shipping a 50 pound printer back to China. Same goes for a MinisForum NAS I bought a few months ago. Plus, whenever I need a one-off USB cable, thumb drive, or printer filament, it's a 15 minute drive.
Also: they're always packed on the weekends. There is definitely demand for a brick and mortar store that focuses on tech/geek hobbies.
Good reply, thanks.
Here in Canada, the BambuLab stuff seems to ship from local-ish warehouses... but I get it. Tariffs might also be a factor in this.
Amazon is a reprehensible company that I absolutely order from 3-4 times a week. That 15 minute drive requires a 15 minute drive back, plus a car + insurance + gas. It's 8:59pm local as I type this. If I need a thumb drive, I can order one that will be here by noon tomorrow with free shipping.
TL;DR that hour of your time plus driving surely cancels out any potential savings.
I guess it's good to have options, and late stage capitalism is happy to give them to us.
H2D looks like an amazing printer. I have a P1P and it's great for my needs, but the Bambu stuff is just on a different level from the others I've tried.
Ironically the reason why it's popular is that it's got many items that otherwise you can only get online, which is also the reason why you find it useless since you prefer the online experience.
Speaking as an Australian, to me it would be a dream to be able to drive to a place like that and getting those things in store as opposed to ordering online then waiting days or sometimes weeks for delivery.
There is also the factor of being able to see the item in person, and perhaps hold it in your hands, might not be very relevant for something like RAM sticks, but it certainly is for something like a gaming controller for example.
If only you could actually hold things in your hands, though. To me, bringing a shrink-wrapped box to a checkout is like buying food at a grocery store to drive to a food bank, when you could just give them cash.
At least record stores let you listen to an album on headphones before you buy it.
Still, I appreciate your perspective. Different strokes for different folks.
There's loads of things at Microcenter you CAN hold in your hand though, plenty of keyboards, mice, game controllers out on display you can handle and see what you think. Their 3d printer section usually has all the printers running and printing something so you can see the speed and judge how noisy it is. Same with their computer cases, out on display so you get a feel for how big it is or how easy it is to get to the drive cages for example.
There's a lot of products there you can inspect in a way that online just doesn't do.
100% agree, Aussie here too. I've spent most of my life only buying PC parts online because everywhere else has such limited stock of anything.
The upside is that if you need a particular thing, you can go buy it immediately, not only that you can actually see the product and potential try to a degree before buying it.
For me, its seeing cases in person and being able to see how they compare for size rather than trying to estimate online.
As someone in Australia where we have pretty poor computer electronics stores for PC parts, this place is like heaven on earth.
To you its an introverts nightmare, but clearly for many geeks its not who are lining up.
Case evaluation is a strong argument!
I generally think of myself as immune to impulse/window shopping, but if I walked by a Fractal North case for the first time, I would prove myself wrong.
Microcenter has a pretty good reputation for having knowledgeable enough staff. Plus, discovery tends to be a lot better in a curated brick and mortar than online. And sometimes you just want to see and buy cool stuff that you didn't know you wanted.
That's a very reasonably reply.
Except (?) that it's not like you can do more than look at shrink-wrapped boxes.
Even record stores generally let you play albums on a private turntable before you buy them.
It's just so weird to me that someone looking to buy a significant component for their desktop machine or whatever wouldn't do loads of research first. Buying a GPU, for example, during window shopping seems almost unhinged. But everyone's experience is different, and that's a good thing.
Not a great comparison, record stores sell exactly that, just records and each record uses the same player to play. They're not going to let you unwrap a $2000 graphics card, but they might let you touch a mouse you're looking to buy. There are clear differences here where not everything at these stores is just their shrink wrapped boxes, but are often on display, its all all black and white.
There's nothing stopping people from doing all of their Youtube research then walking into their Microcenter and buying it in person.
Its not like PC gamers who often use online stores have just forgotten to do any prior research when buying in store as opposed to online. So yeah I would do loads of research, then I'd go instore and buy it and look at what else they have on offer.
The Cambridge, MA location still has an aisle of keyboards and mice outside of their packaging. It's very nice to be able to hold and feel those peripherals as part of the shopping experience.
have you heard of the phase “like a kid in a candy store”?
there’s just something about the in store experience that’s different than online.
Microcenter is also known for having better prices than online retailers, but they don’t ship for many items
Applying Costco bulk purchasing leverage for geek items definitely makes sense.
Thanks.
Online shopping of fashion items can never replace the experience of physical shopping, especially with friends. Geeks are no different... shopping can be a delightful experience if you are up for it. Part of which might be the thrill of discovering things you are not searching for.
I appreciate the analogy but respectfully I don't think it holds up 1:1.
Love or hate window shopping, the nature of shopping for fashion lends itself far more to in-person evaluation. Every item is slightly different, and so is every person wearing them. This is why you can try on clothes in the store!
Crate digging for vinyl is similar. There's a real joy of discovery, and turntables with headphones for auditioning purchases.
I have a hard time picturing the same dynamic with identical shrink-wrapped boxes.
The difference is what while you're waiting to get your tracking number, I've already driven down the road and come back with the item I could've bought online, that I also purchased based on reviews and Youtube videos I watched the night before.
That hour + car + insurance + gas has a real cost.
I genuinely despise Amazon as a company, but factually I can order something by 9pm and pick it up from my doorstep after I sleep in.
I honestly don't think either approach is particularly great for the planet or our humanity, but Prime is popular for a good reason.
There's more to life than pressing a few buttons and stuff appearing at your door.
We should all touch grass inside the nearest big box electronics store.
It’s okay for you to not get everything. This one is simple, it’s just not for you. You don’t get it because it wasn’t built for you.
> Can someone offer an explanation...? I don't mean this in a crass way [...] What's the upside?
They weren't saying that it wasn't OK - they were just asking for an explanation from someone for whom it _was_ built
I wouldn't usually have responded, but "treating a question as an attack or criticism" is a particular bugbear of mine. We can't grow, learn, or understand one another if questions are by-default treated with hostility or defensiveness.
I appreciate you.
> I'm actually genuinely baffled to see geeks lining up for a Costco-like experience to get stuff that you can easily get online without needing to get into a car.
"Why go to a fine restaurant when you can just stick something in the microwave? Why go to the park and fly a kite when you can just pop a pill?" - Kramer, Seinfeld
A big box electronics store is not a fine restaurant or a park. It's just a less-efficient way to purchase identical shrink-wrapped boxes that you should probably research extensively online before buying.
Not everything needs to be completely efficient, experienced through a computer or mobile phone screen, nor does it need to be "researched extensively". Some people prefer the option of a tactile, in-person, sometimes social experience of browsing physical objects.
If you're buying art, then yeah - go to a gallery.
If you're buying a shrink-wrapped GPU, then I think you're romanticizing what a big box store adds to that transaction.
If you want to build a full pc, they will walk you through every component. They will optimize a build around your budget as well. i’ve had employees hand me replacements in my carts that were both better and cheaper that I overlooked. There is a bunch of overlooked value from businesses like MicroCenter that the younger generation has never even experienced.
Man, it's been a long time since someone has implied that I'm part of anything young. I'll tell my optometrist!
Has nothing to do with whether it's art or a shrink-wrapped product, different people value different things. As an example, a vehicle may be an engineering wonder or a work of art to one person and a "silly mass-produced hunk of steel" to another.
And yes, I am romanticizing in-person experiences and interactions over the insistence that more and more things in life are best experienced through a phone or computer.
Hanging out in a big box electronics store is a wildly dystopian interpretation of "in-person experiences and interactions".
I don't expect to establish friendships while shopping. It's never even occurred to me.
Interestingly, the items I was looking for (NAS boxes) were actually cheaper at MicroCenter than anywhere else. And I could get them same day with a generous return policy.
This doesn't answer your question, but its an interesting fact:
Microcenter has enough swag to get their own exclusive CPU SKUs from AMD.
I agree. Microcenter seems to sell a lot of flashy shiny garbage and not enough or at all of what matters — like cables or adapters.
It’s more a best buy than fry’s electronics.
We had a recently opened one here in the Bay Area — I went there once, having heard good things. Never again. It’s a bullshit emporium.
It's the region, or maybe just the GM. The Parkville and Rockville stores aren't like that at all.
which microcenter could you even be referring to?
Looking at the photos its a shitload more than just cables and adapters
But I want it nowwwwwww.
But seriously, online shipping takes longer than driving over to the store and picking the thing up. It's not just being impatient, but sometimes eg your headphones break but you have an important meeting coming up soon.
The other one is, Amazon, especially, the pictures lie about the object's size after shipping. Especially for. a TVs. Sure you can use a measuring tape, but some people really do just want to see it in person to get a proper feel for how big something is.
Then there's laptops to try out how the keyboard does.
Laptop keyboards are another great example of a benefit to in-store shopping. Thanks!
Waiting for one in RTP. Miss going to the Cambridge one. So much stuff there you don't know you need!
Best Buy meets Costco - a place you can look at things you'll buy later online.
I thought the same, then I ended up spending >$10k there this year because the pricing was great and I didn't have to wait for shipping. It really is a great place.
It's also great for items likely to be scalped. It doesn't guarantee they'll have stock, but it sure is easier to beat scalpers to checking the store that day than bots to an online cart. I even got a Switch 2 bundle the day after launch at MSRP while there for something else. Edit: shit, prices are worse all around now. Glad I didn't wait :D.
Microcenter costs are often competitive, plus you don’t have to worry about counterfeits.
Where else would you be buying equivalents online anyway?
can you buy a 5090 FE there though?
5090's, yes. The one in Santa Clara has had them in stock for months. FE, no. Not sure if those are even produced anymore.
There needs to be one on the Gulf Coast. I don't care much for having to go to Bezoscorp for my gear.
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