The Micro Center NERD store fills a France space with a return to Silicon Valley

The obsessed with the silicon valley has been alone since then Fry’s electronics Closed in February 2021 in the middle of the epidemic. The electronics store chain was the embodiment of technology roots in the valley.

but Small centerOhayu’s electronics retail company opened its twenty -ninth store in Santa Clara, California. Thus the kingdom returned to the student who taught a lot. I see this as a big deal, follow -up in the opening of the Nintendo – the second in the country after New York – in San Francisco earlier this month. After years of bad economic news, it is good to see signs that the Gulf region is returning.

But this is not just any store. It is a symbol – a sign showing that technology still has a physical presence in the silicon valley, as well as places like Pak Restaurant, religious Where NVIDIA started, Intel Museum, Computer History MuseumAnd the California Academy of Science Technology Museum for Innovation. Another historical landing of technicians such as Walker cartAtari, Lion & Compass – Even Circuter City – has long been closed. But hey, we have Micro Center, and Apple space ship It is not far away.

The big opening week was going well and got a tour of the Superstore of Dan Ackerman, a veteran technical journalist, editor -in -chief at Micro Center News. While I entered the place, ACKERMAN was finishing chatting with Ifixit, a technology repair post containing its own podcast space inside the store. It was unexpected, because I never saw a store embracing social media in this way.

The knowledge tape was in the vicinity, where you can answer all your technical questions – as it is very similar to genius bars in Apple stores. There were a repair schedule in the open.

There are a lot of things for lovers of technology they can like in the small center. First, it is not a sprawling part of the parties like Fry’s, which had Zany topics like ancient Egypt and a strange mix of electronics commodities as well as home appliances, cosmetics, magazines and tons of light foods. (Campbell, California Fry, the Egyptian, which I often traveled 156,000 square feet, and now has become the home of the pickled ball innovations complex). Fry’s was a stereotype and Silicon Valley store, which also had a HBO TV program that carried stereotypes.

In contrast, the Micro Center is smaller at 40,000 square feet and is equipped with many elements that the student studys a lot. For the large opening, this store has a very practical producer for more than 4000 GPUs (GPUS) in stock of NVIDIA (which has just been launched 50 series of graphics processing units) And AMDAkrman told me. Some of these graphics cards cost up to $ 4000.

“There were people awaiting access to graphics processing units,” Aklerman said.

On the screen, a gold -plated graphics card was sold by auction for charitable works. He was signed by Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA.

“I joked that everyone who wins the bidding must get a leather jacket as well.”

This Micro Center has a good location (5201 Stevens Kreik Street in Santa Clara) just a six -minute drive from Apple headquarters all over the world and (maybe better than that) one minute walk from the Korean hair salon.

Micro Center had a former store in Silicon Valley, near Intel headquarters in Santa Clara. But this store closes in 2012 because the company could not negotiate better conditions with the owner. To return to the Gulf region, Micro Center leaked at the time and returned at a time when many other retail chains had failed. It proves that the area that was once proud – the email – is still worth its online store.

Certainly, we have Target, Best Buy and Walmart to sell a lot of electronics equipment. But there is nothing like the Akihabara Electronics area in Japan, full of multi -storey electronics stores and gaming corridors.

But this store is full of modern hardware today, such as personal computers, home network equipment everywhere, and dyes for multicolored water cooling systems. The sellers such as Razer and Logitech had their own sections. Ackerman was pleased with a USB-C’s USB-A in stock, among many mysterious elements. Li showed me the inventory that could rotate its stock of 3D print threads and gives you the flour SKU that you wiped with the tape code.

“This is very fun. I am called by Mr. Filaments,” said Akarman.

There is a section for amateurs who love single computing and DIY projects. There is a set of tools for creating video, sound and digital content for content creators. Finally, there are more than 20,000 products and more than 100 technology experts can help. It even contains the sites of the numbered treasurer where you can check – the same type of exit that Fry’s had.

Customers can obtain a certified computer service such as Apple, Dell and HP, and take advantage of diagnoses and repairs on the same day, thanks to more than 3000 parts on hand through partnerships with the leading OEMS. I just hope it will have an auxiliary office for COMCAST.

The small center started in 1979 in Columbus, Ohio. It is a surprise that there is no more natural stores, given the spread of technology everywhere around the world these days.

But Akraman said: “These men do it correctly, choose and choose, find the right cities, and find the right sites. For this reason, Charlotte is great. Miami is a great technical center, especially for health technology. We are five minutes away from the Apple headquarters and a lot of other places. People from HP, NVIDIA and other companies coming today.”

“Although this store is great, the CEO (Richard Mirdchid) is in fact, making sure that it is the right mix of things. He makes sure that he does not go too far. So you will not come here and find, as you know, hair dryers or care equipment in the garden,” said Akraman. “You will find the entertainment of the computer and the home, and DIY equipment. There are ingredients, just as in the radio hut, interested in amateurs. “

As for Micro Center News, Ackerman told me that he has about 10 regular shareholders and 20 other independents writing tool reviews and other stories about technical equipment. It is a kind of resorting to this category consistent with professional technical journalists. No wonder I was the exact center for visiting nostalgia.