Micro Center announced recently that it’s opening a new store in Santa Clara in “late 2024.”. It’s going to be at the old Bed Bath & Beyond location on Stevens Creek Blvd. So you may ask, “How big of a store will this be?” According to Property Shark, the building at this address has about 38,500 square feet to work with. For reference, the Tustin, CA store (the only other MC on the west coast) is about 50,000 square feet. (Though sometimes the square footage for the entire lot is incorrectly referenced as the square footage for the actual structure on the lot, so both stores may actually be the same size – I’ll need to do some more digging.)
Speaking as someone who’s lived in the general area since the mid 80s, I fondly remember my frequent pilgrim’s journies to the veritable silicon cathedrals erected by Micro Center and Fry’s Electronics in the Before Time. I never thought I’d see such a store come back, after the rise of their online competition.
But from what I remember, MC did not actually close down their previous bay area store because of competition from Amazon or Fry’s. It was because the owner of the land jacked up the rent. I’m guessing that Covid and WFH have done a number on commercial real estate prices, and now MC can return to one of its old neighborhoods.
I expect them to close up again pretty rapidly. Maybe not, but IMHO, those days are over (tho they were a lot of fun). I used to make the pilgrimage from Marin to the Fry’s in Fremont every once in awhile, as well as the various computer shows in Vallejo/Santa Rosa.
But, if the Tustin one is still doing well, maybe it won’t fail. Santa Clara is a far better location than Fremont IMHO.
Dumb retail real estate trick: Google Maps is generally accurate with how they outline buildings, and if you use Measure Distance to define a polygon it will tell you the area. That Tustin building is, indeed, right at 50K sf.
My local store (Cambridge, which has been there 30 years and will print money as long as MIT exists and the landlord doesn’t price them out) is 42K, and in one of the weirder possible layouts of a 42K retail building, at that. I suspect you will be full of joy even if it’s slightly undersized from their prototype format.
Hey, I was just in my local Microcenter (Brooklyn) last night! It’s a pleasant surprise to see them doing well in an era when every other big-box store seems to be on the ropes.
Hey, Charlotte has its first Microcenter opening May 10th, so I’m standing here with you, dumbfounded that we get something so awesome at this point in time.
I think the great GPU shortage during the pandemic and the launch of the RTX 3XXX series helped Microcenter a lot. Those of us near one suddenly realized what a valuable resource they are.
I go there for electronics/maker stuff. They don’t have as good prices as Digikey, and sometimes they’re a bit more expensive than even Adafruit or Sparkfun, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay $10 shipping for a little IC or something.
Microcenter will price match major retailers as long as it’s the same exact item, shows in stock, etc. I’m not familiar with the sites you mentioned, but it might be worth asking on your next shopping trip.
That’s a good point. I feel like usually it’s a slightly different version of the same item, but I’ll try to remember that. Selection is really the bigger issue than price, though.
I think MicroCenter has a better chance at big box store survival than a lot of brick and mortars in other categories because of what it can offer on what it sells: on-site returns/replacements. Sometimes you buy a stick of RAM, and it’s bad. Sometimes a new motherboard has a bad circuit or connection. Sometimes you get a dead pixel on a new monitor. It’s great to be able to hop in the car, exchange the defective item, and not sweat it. And I think that – low as MicroCenter prices are (and they’re very competitive, if not often lower than NewEgg or Amazon), people are willing to pay a little extra to avoid the hassle of a mail-order pickup return.
They also have a wide range of in-store inventory, unlike other competitors cough Best Buy cough. When you need a solution immediately, Micro Center most likely has you covered without having to compromise with whatever stock is left on BB’s barren shelves.
