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0 pointsjmuguy1y ago0 comments

Do you live somewhat near a Microcenter? They'll likely have these as in-store pick up only, no online reservations, 1 per customer. Recently got a 9800X3D CPU from them, its nice they're trying to prevent scalping.

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geertj1y ago

I do! Great advice. Going off on a tangent, when I recently visited my Microcenter after a few years of not going there, it totally gave me 80s vibes and I loved it. Staff fit the "computer nerd" stereotype accurately, including jeans shirts and ponytails. And best of all they actually wanted to talk to me and help me find stuff, and were knowledgeable.

jmuguyOP1y ago

Ours just opened in 2024 and I've tried to give them as much business as possible. Ordering everything for a new PC build, sans the AMD CPU, and then doing pick up was a breeze. Feels great that the place is completely packed every time I go in there. I feel like Bestbuy made me sort of hate electronics retail and Microcenter is reminding of what it used to be like going to Radio Shack and Compusa back in their hayday.

ryao1y ago

I had a similar feeling when going to microcenter for the first time in years a few years ago, but in my case, it was a 90s vibe since I had first visited a computer store in the 90s.

mjevans1y ago

As someone living (near) Seattle, this is a major issue for me every product launch and I don't have a solution.

The area's geography just isn't conducive to allowing a single brick and mortar store to survive and compete with online retail for costs vs volume; but without a B&M store there's no good way to do physical presence anti-scalper tactics.

I can't even get in a purchase opportunity lottery since AMD / Nvidia don't do that sort of thing for allocating restock quota tickets that could be used as tokens to restock product if a purchase is to the correct shipping address.

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