Company type | Private |
---|---|
Founded | Columbus, Ohio 1979 [1] |
Founders | John Baker and Bill Bayne [2] |
Headquarters | , |
Key people | |
Products | Computers, Consumer Electronics & Accessories |
Revenue | $2.4 billion (2015 [6] ) |
Number of employees | 2,750 (2016 [6] ) |
Parent | Micro Electronics, Inc. |
Website | www |
Micro Center is an American computer retail store, headquartered in Hilliard, Ohio. It was founded in 1979, and as of 2023, [update] has 26 stores in 16 states. The chain is a highly electronic and mechanical center for building personal computers and gaming computers.
Micro Center was founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1979 by John Baker and Bill Bayne, two former Radio Shack employees, with a $35,000 investment. [2] [8] The first Micro Center store was established in a 900 sq ft (84 m2) storefront located in the Lane Avenue Shopping Center in Upper Arlington, Ohio. The store benefited from its proximity to Ohio State University and the scientific think-tank Battelle Memorial Institute, which provided a large customer base and a source of computer-literate salespeople. [9] Their goal for the first year was $30 million in sales, and they achieved $29.9 million. [8] In 2009, Micro Center developed an "18-minute pickup" service where customers who order merchandise on their website can pick it up from the store in 18 minutes. [10]
In January 2014, the company planned to open two new New York City stores in Brooklyn and Queens. [11]
As of 2023, there are 26 Micro Center stores nationwide in 17 states, including California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia. Three future stores are planned for 2024: one location in Miami, Florida, one location in Charlotte, North Carolina, and one location in Santa Clara, California. [12] [13]
Micro Center is a subsidiary of Micro Electronics, Inc., a privately held corporation headquartered in Hilliard, Ohio. [14]
Stores are sized up to 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m2), stocking about 36,000 products across 700 categories, including major name brands and Micro Center's own brands. [15] Micro Center is an approved seller of all Apple products. [11] The company has had Apple departments in all stores since 1982, and has included "Build Your Own PC" departments, "Knowledge Bars" for service and support, and "Knowledge Theaters" for free classes on weekends since 2007. [2] [16]
Micro Center was the first retailer in the United States to sell the DJI Mavic Pro drone, launching it by hosting a three-day demonstration in their Columbus store's parking lot which was open to the press and the public. [10]
In a 2015 interview, Micro Center CEO Rick Mershad described how their product line is changing: the STEM movement is driving students and adults to make their own creations, and Micro Center is focusing on Arduino projects and Raspberry Pi, which require more consultative selling. [17]
Joan Verdon of The Record noted that meeting customer's needs with a high level of service and skilled salespeople are Micro Center's "claim to fame". She also quoted Doug Olenick, editor at TWICE, a major consumer electronics trade publication, who said that the store's salespeople, compared to others in the industry, are extremely well trained. [9]
In 2021, the store started to offer a free solid-state drive to new customers, but Storage Review was not sold, concluding "it's free, but it's still not worth it". More generally, they noted that: "Micro Center's Inland brand is to tech what Amazon's dozens of brands are to toilet paper, shampoo, and such." [18]
In 2014, Micro Center was ranked number 93 in the list of 100 hottest retailers in the US, compiled by the National Retail Federation. [19]
In 2015, the industry trade journal Dealerscope ranked it as the 18th largest consumer electronics retailer in the United States and Canada. [20]
In 2016, Forbes magazine ranked it 195th among America's largest private companies. [6]
In October 2016, Micro Center stores won first and second prizes in Intel's annual "Score with Intel Core" competition, and donated their prize money to local schools. [21] [22]
In 2019, Micro Center stores won first and third prizes, making two more prize money donations to local schools. [23] [24]
According to the American business research company Hoover's, the major competitors to Micro Center's parent company Micro Electronics are: [15]
Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned leather-goods company based in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store. By the end of the 1950s, under the tutelage of then-CEO Charles Tandy, the company expanded into the hobby market, making leather moccasins and coin purses, making huge sales among Scouts, leading to a fast growth in sales.
RadioShack is an American electronics retailer founded in 1921. It was established as an amateur radio mail-order business centered in Boston, Massachusetts. Its parent company, Radio Shack Corporation, was purchased by Tandy Corporation in 1962, shifting its focus from radio equipment to hobbyist electronic components. At its peak in 1999, Tandy operated over 8,000 RadioShack stores in the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebranded under its current name with an emphasis on consumer electronics in 1983.
CompUSA, Inc., was a retailer and reseller of personal computers, consumer electronics, technology products and computer services. Starting with one brick-and-mortar store in 1986 under the name Soft Warehouse, by the 1990s CompUSA had grown into a nationwide big box chain. At its peak, it operated at least 229 locations. Crushed by competition from other brick-and-mortar retailers, corporate oversight which was out of touch with evolving market realities, and a failure to make a strong transition to online sales, CompUSA began closing what they classified as "low performing" locations in 2006. By 2008 only 16 locations were left to be sold to Systemax. In 2012, remaining CompUSA and Circuit City stores were converted to TigerDirect stores, and later closed. As of 2023, the CompUSA online website redirects to an error page hosted on Wix.com.
The Apple Store is a chain of retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. The stores sell various Apple products, including Mac personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad tablet computers, Apple Watch smartwatches, Apple TV digital media players, software, and both Apple-branded and selected third-party accessories.
Fry's Electronics was an American big-box store chain. It was headquartered in San Jose, California, in Silicon Valley. Fry's retailed software, consumer electronics, household appliances, cosmetics, tools, toys, accessories, magazines, technical books, snack foods, electronic components, and computer hardware. Fry's had in-store computer repair and custom computer building services.
Circuit City Corporation, Inc., formerly Circuit City Stores, Inc., was an American consumer electronics retail company, which was founded in 1949 by Samuel Wurtzel as the Wards Company, operated stores across the United States, and pioneered the electronics superstore format in the 1970s. After multiple purchases and a successful run on the NYSE, it changed its name to Circuit City Stores Inc.
Giant Eagle, Inc. and stylized as giant eagle) is an American supermarket chain with stores in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, and Maryland. The company was founded in 1918 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and incorporated on August 31, 1931. Supermarket News ranked Giant Eagle 21st on the "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" based on sales of $11 billion. In 2021, it was the 36th-largest privately held company, as determined by Forbes. Based on 2005 revenue, Giant Eagle is the 49th-largest retailer in the United States. As of summer 2014, the company had approximately $9.9 billion in annual sales. As of fall 2023, Giant Eagle, Inc. had 496 stores across the portfolio: 211 supermarkets 8 standalone pharmacies, 274 fuel station/convenience stores under the GetGo banner, and three standalone car wash under the WetGo banner. The company is headquartered in an office park in the Pittsburgh suburb of O'Hara Township.
Sheetz, Inc. is an American chain of convenience stores and coffee shops owned by the Sheetz family. The stores sell custom food, beverages and convenience store items, with all locations having offered 24/7 service since the 1980s. Nearly all of them sell gasoline; a few locations are full-scale truck stops, including showers and a laundromat. Sheetz's headquarters is in Altoona, Pennsylvania, with their corporate offices located there as well, with over 700 stores located in Central and Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina, with plans to expand into Michigan.
P.C. Richard & Son, commonly known as simply P.C. Richard, is the largest chain of private, family-owned appliance, television, electronics, and mattress stores in the United States. Its 66 stores are located in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, with the majority of the stores located on Long Island, including the New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. The company is also known for its trademark whistle jingle created by Soundsmith worker Leer Leary. It is used by the New York Yankees after striking out an opposing batter at Yankee Stadium. It is also used by the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball after striking out an opposing batter at Fairfield Properties Ballpark.
Harvey Norman is an Australian multinational retailer of furniture, bedding, computers, communications and consumer electrical products. It mainly operates as a franchise, with the main brand and all company-operated stores owned by ASX-listed Harvey Norman Holdings Limited. As of 2022, there are 304 company-owned and franchised stores in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and South-East Asia operating under the Harvey Norman, Domayne and Joyce Mayne brands in Australia, and under the Harvey Norman brand overseas.
Monster Inc. is an American company that manufactures and markets about 6,000 products, but is best known for audio and video cables. It also produces speakers, headphones, power strips, mobile accessories and audio devices for automobiles. The company was founded by an audiophile and engineer, Noel Lee, in 1979 by experimenting with different ways to build audio cables. It grew by doing demonstrations to convince the industry that audio cables made a difference in audio quality and by establishing relationships with retailers that were attracted to the cable's profit margins.
Kings Food Markets is an American food market chain headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, with stores in northern New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.
Currys Digital was an electrical retailer in the United Kingdom owned by Dixons Carphone, with its origins in a photographic shop opened by Charles Kalms.
Computer City was a chain of United States-based computer superstores operated by Tandy Corporation; the retailer was sold to CompUSA in 1998 and was merged into the CompUSA organization.
H. H. Gregg, Inc., is an American online retailer and former retail chain of consumer electronics and home appliances in the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast United States, that operated stores in 20 states including Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Valor Group LLC purchased the brand from the company's bankruptcy trustee for $400,000 in 2017. H.H. Gregg closed all stores in liquidation and had been operating as an online-only retailer since August that year. Founded in Princeton, Indiana, in 1955, H. H. Gregg was headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, when it ceased operating. Its retail offerings included home entertainment video and audio products, computers, and other selected consumer electronics; home appliances, such as refrigerators, ranges, dishwashers, freezers, washers, and dryers; and other products and services, including mattresses. The company announced on November 24, 2008, that it would begin selling popular gaming systems such as Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Audio Advice, Inc. is a specialty consumer electronics retailer in the United States, specializing in home and portable audio, home theater, and smart home technology. Audio Advice operates as both a retailer and custom systems installer/integrator with branches in Raleigh, North Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina.
SZ DJI Technology Co., Ltd. or Shenzhen DJI Sciences and Technologies Ltd. or DJI is a Chinese technology company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, backed by several state-owned entities. DJI manufactures commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for aerial photography and videography. It also designs and manufactures camera systems, gimbal stabilizers, propulsion systems, enterprise software, aerial agriculture equipment, and flight control systems.
Movidius is a company based in San Mateo, California, that designs low-power processor chips for computer vision. The company was acquired by Intel in September 2016.
The DJI Mavic is a series of teleoperated compact quadcopter drones for personal and commercial aerial photography and videography use, released by the Chinese technology company DJI.