[lenkite]

> I'm curious where you live. Anecdotally, this is the opposite to the experience of everyone I know.

Actually, his experience is the standard PC enthusiast experience for the vast majority of DIY'ers in many nations. And is now subject to threat if businesses catering to consumers shut-down.

[squigz]

> Actually, his experience is the standard PC enthusiast experience for the vast majority of DIY'ers in many nations.

I have to genuinely question this. I haven't heard of anyone I know buying PC components at a physical store in like 20 years, and I know people from various nations.

[prmoustache]

There are still physical stores in most cities so I guess they are still selling if they aren't out of business. They cater for a more enthusiast/gaming oriented population than in the past but still.

You have to take into account that same day delivery from amazon and the likes is only a real thing in the USA. Most other markets do not have the same service, even with accounts such as Amazon Prime. There is only one online store I know that is providing same day delivery in my area in Spain and it is a physical (and rather expensive) chain, El Corte Inglés.

[squigz]

Not having same day delivery isn't really a dealbreaker for most people. Most people aren't like, "I need to upgrade my computer RIGHT NOW"

And it is available in other countries.

[RossBencina]

I'm in Melbourne, I can ride my bike a few kilometers and buy standard PC parts. Not everyone here lives that close to a store, but there are multiple established chains with stores all over the metropolitan area. Even so these stores probably do the bulk of business in online sales.

[gregoryl]

I recently discovered Scorptec has a "total spend" under Account => Order History. Horrifying! Ublock to the rescue, ##.total-amount.card-title.

[lenkite]

I am guessing you purely stick to the mobile-phone/corpo-laptop crowd then ? Finding PC enthusiasts should not be that difficult. They are legions of them all over the world - not just in the developed nations.

Even normal folks upgrade RAM. My aunt did so last year for her old desktop PC. PC components are available in the local computer hardware market of any nation. (Though admittedly, most people buy parts online nowadays and local hardware markets are shutting down)

[squigz]

> I am guessing you purely stick to the mobile-phone/corpo-laptop crowd then ? Finding PC enthusiasts should not be that difficult. They are legions of them all over the world - not just in the developed nations.

No. I'm a PC enthusiast myself, as are most of those people I know. I run an online (PC) gaming community.

> (Though admittedly most people nowadays just buy online and local hardware markets are shutting down)

Literally what I was saying.

[lenkite]

Then I misunderstood what you were saying. PC community has actually increased over last few years as people have become dissatisfied with the big-2 consoles.

[squigz]

I was questioning the assertion that a vast majority of gamers buy their components from physical stores as opposed to ordering online.

[lenkite]

Yes, this is the sad trend excepting for some markets that circumvent paying tax or the markets in the manufacturing cities.

[consp]

I usually buy my cables there since the price difference for brand cables is negligible and I like to have my cable actually do the rated specs. Full pc parts no, but then again I usually buy niche parts not widely available. I usually go to the small repair shop first, and if they don't have any to the big brand. Small shop is a bit more expensive but the guy can order specialized small parts (printer memory module comes to mind) if you ask nicely and even directed you to other shops. Medium sized 100k+ city in NW Europe.

[beowulfey]

California had Fry's until a few years ago. Once they went under it basically ended the local market.

I'd love to see more market-style parts locations a la Huaqiang or Akiahabara

[suslik]

A couple of years ago, one rainy Saturday morning, I woke up with a devastating hangover and nothing else to do - so I decided to build myself a PC, like in good old days. Turned out it wasn't at all difficult to find a local store; only two-three hours later I was already driving home with all these sexy looking boxes filled with hardware. That was in Sweden.

[boston_clone]

I've bought memory (16 GB DDR4), storage (2 TB NVMe), and various peripherals from BestBuy within the last five years.

[healthy_throw]

Last local walking distance shop closed earlier this year (city in Germany). Used to go there for parts needed on short notice: mouse, cables etc. Not sure if there are many left now in this city that stock components like motherboards, gfx cards or RAM.

[georgefrowny]

> Used to go there for parts needed on short notice

Which is why they shut down - the addressable market of people having an emergency need for an item from a limited selection of electronics isn't that big, and that's becoming the only market.

It's not your fault that you don't want to pay over the odds for everything when you're not in a rush, and it's not their fault they need to pay commercial rent, utilities, payroll, insurance and all the other overheads.

But the outcome is simply that staffed local physical shops have a lower efficiency ceiling in terms of getting items to customers.

[prmoustache]

Aren't mediamarkt still selling computer parts in Germany? Maybe not ram and mother boards but in my city in Spain Mediamarkt still sell all the peripherals, some internal drives and cabling at the very least.

[dan-bailey]

Anecdata != data.

That MicroCenter continues to exist tells me that there's at least enough people shopping for parts in meatspace that there's net revenue to be had.

[brk]

Microcenter has a total of 29 stores across the US. Yankee Candle has almost 10x as many locations (240).

Yes, Microcenter "exists", but primarily through selective cultivation of their locations. From a pure market footprint perspective, they are outclassed by a candle company, and many other niche businesses.

[squigz]

I guess I really wasn't clear enough.

At no point was I entirely denying that some people go to physical stores to buy components. I was just countering the idea that a majority of people do so, as opposed to ordering online.