[thomble]

As a counter to this, my local Micro Center is absolutely booming. I built a fast gaming machine earlier this year, and found all of my desired components in-stock there, with no compromises. Their prices were identical to the lowest prices online, and they offer price match anyway. All of my Ubiquiti stuff I got there as well. They have an expanding hobbyist electronics section that consumed the old physical software/gaming space. They have other great hobbyist stuff like retro gaming and drones. I've just taken it for granted, not realizing that many people consider Micro Center a PC builder "Mecca".[0]

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/search?q=micro+center&...

[mrpippy]

Same, I bought almost all the parts for my Ryzen 3600 upgrade from Micro Center. Prices were great, pick up was easy, and they reflashed the BIOS for free in 30 mins.

[DrScump]

Where?

[thomble]

Fairfax County, VA.

[rootbear]

I shop at the other DC area MicroCenter, in Rockville, and have had similar positive experiences. It's the closest thing I know of to the Fry's shopping experiences I had in the late 90s when I lived in the SF Bay Area. The biggest difference between the Rockville MicroCenter and the Fairfax one is that Rockville has more stuff locked up for theft control.

[compuguy]

Specifically its just outside of Vienna, VA, near the WMATA metro station (Vienna): https://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/fairfax.aspx

It's a decent place to shop at if you need something quickly.