Micro Center nerd store fills the Fry’s vacuum with its return to Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley’s Nerds have been more solitary since Electronics from Fry Closed in February 2021 in the middle of the pandemic. The electronic store chain was an incarnation of the technological roots of the valley.

But Micro-centerAn Ohio electronics retailer opened his 29th store in Santa Clara, California. And so the Nerd kingdom has returned. I see this as a big problem, following the opening of the Nintendo store – the second in the country after New York – in San Francisco earlier this month. After years of bad economic news, it is pleasant to see signs that the region of the bay returns.

But it’s not just any store. It is a symbol – a panel that shows that technology always has a physical presence in Silicon Valley, in addition to places like the restaurant of Buck, the Denny’s Where Nvidia began, the Intel museum, the IT History MuseumCalifornia Academy of Sciences and Technological Innovation Museum. Other historic meeting places for techniques such as Walker’s Wagon WheelThe headquarters of Atari, Lion & Compass – same City City – has long been closed. But hey, we have the micro center store, and the Apple spaceship is not so far away.

The big opening week went well and I did a tour of the Dan Ackerman superstore, a veteran technological journalist who is editor at Micro Center News. While I entered the place, Ackerman finished a conversation with Ifixit, a publication of technological repair which has its own space for podcasts inside the store. It was unexpected because I have never seen a store kissing social media in this way.

Nearby was the knowledge bar, where you can answer all your technological questions – just like genius bars in Apple stores. And there were repair tables in the open air.

There are a lot for technology enthusiasts can like a micro center. First of all, it is not as extensive as Fry, which had wacky themes like ancient Egypt and a strange mixture of electronic products as well as household appliances, cosmetics, magazines and tons of snacks. (The Fry’s store in Campbell, California, on the theme of Egypt, which I have often been driven was 156,000 square feet, and now it houses a complex of pickleball courts). Fry’s was a store that stereotypical the Nerds and the Silicon Valley, which also had its own HBO television show that wore stereotypes.

The micro center store, on the other hand, is smaller at 40,000 square feet and has filled many other practical items. For the large opening, this store had the very practical product of more than 4,000 graphic processing units (GPU) in Nvidia stock (which has just launched its GPUS of the 50 series) And DmlaAckerman told me. Some of these graphics cards cost up to $ 4,000.

“There were people waiting to go to the GPUs,” said Ackerman.

A gold -plated graphics card was auctioned for charity. It was signed by Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia.

“I’m kidding that the one who wins the offer should also get a Jensen leather jacket,” said Ackerman.

And this Micro Center store has a good location (5201 Stevens Creek Boulevard in Santa Clara) which is only six minutes by car from Apple’s world seat and (maybe better) one minute on foot from the Korean hair salon.

Micro Center had a previous store in Silicon Valley, near Intel headquarters in Santa Clara. But this store ends in 2012 because the company could not negotiate better conditions with the owner. For his return to the Bay region, Micro Center expressed his time and returned at a time when many other retail chains failed. He proves that the formerly proud region – the place of birth of electronics – still deserves its own electronics store.

Of course, we have Target, Best Buy and Walmart selling many electronic equipment. But there is nothing like the Akihabara electronics district in Japan, full of electronic stores on several floors and arcades of play.

But this store is loaded with modern Tob equipment today, such as IA PCs, domestic networking equipment and colors for multicolored water cooling systems. Sellers like Razer and Logitech had their own sections. Ackerman was happy to show me the USB-C adapter to USB-A in stock, among many dark items. And he showed me the inventory machine that could rotate his stock of 3D printing filaments and give you the exact sku that you scanned with a barcode.

“It’s super fun. I call him Mr. Filaments,” said Ackerman about the inventory robot.

There is a section for amateurs who love monomotor computing and DIY projects. There are a set of videos, audio and digital content creation tools for content creators. All in all, there are more than 20,000 products and more than 100 technological experts who can help you. He even has the numbered cashier locations where you can consult – the same type of payment as Fry’s had.

Customers can receive an computer service authorized for brands like Apple, Dell and HP, benefiting from diagnostics and repairs the same day, thanks to more than 3,000 rooms at hand thanks to partnerships with the main OEMs. I only want him to have an assistance service for Comcast.

Micro Center began in 1979 in Columbus, Ohio. It’s a surprise, there are no more Nerd stores, given the way in which omnipresent technology is worldwide these days.

But Ackerman said, “These guys do it really well, choose and choose, finding the right cities, finding the right places. This is why Charlotte is great. Miami is a large hub of technology, especially for health technology. And we are literally five minutes from the apple seat and many places. ”

“Even if this store is large, the CEO (Richard Mershad) is really canned, by ensuring that it is the right mixture of things. It makes sure that it is not going too far. So, you are not going to come here and find, you know, hair dryers or lawn equipment,” said Ackerman. “You are going to find computer and home entertainment stuff and DIY equipment. There are components, just like in a radio hut, amateurs care.”

As for the news of the micro center, Ackerman told me that it had around 10 regular contributors and 20 additional freelancers writing criticism of gadgets and other stories on technological equipment. It is a kind of refuge for this breed of professional technological journalists. No wonder I was so nostalgic for visiting the micro-center.