Micro Center is an American computer

retail store The retail format (also known as the retail formula) influences the consumer's store choice and addresses the consumer's expectations. At its most basic level, a retail format is a simple marketplace, that is; a location where goods and services ar ...

chain, headquartered in

Hilliard, Ohio Hilliard is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States. The population was 37,114 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of Columbus and part of Norwich Township. History In 1852, John Reed Hilliard bought of farmland in western Franklin Cou ...

. It was founded in 1979, and has 29 stores in 19 states.

History

Micro Center was founded in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

in 1979 by John Baker and Bill Bayne, two former

Radio Shack RadioShack (formerly written as Radio Shack) is an American electronics retailer that was established in 1921 as an amateur radio mail-order business. Its parent company was purchased by Tandy Corporation in 1962, which shifted its focus from ma ...

employees, with a $35,000 investment.Columbus Dispatch DFAS Magazine, "Doing the Right Thing Right" December 1995, p.12 Rick Mershad is the current CEO and President of Micro Center. Mershad was one of the first 10 employees of the company, starting as a Sales Associate two years after the company's founding. The first Micro Center store was established in a storefront located in the Lane Avenue Shopping Center in

Upper Arlington, Ohio Upper Arlington (often known by its initials U.A.) is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States, on the northwest side of the Columbus, Ohio Metropolitan Area, Columbus metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, th ...

. The store benefited from its proximity to

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

and the scientific think-tank

Battelle Memorial Institute Battelle Memorial Institute (or simply Battelle) is an American private nonprofit applied science and technology development company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. History The institute was founded in 1929 by Gordon Battelle. Originall ...

, which provided a large customer base and a source of computer-literate salespeople. Their goal for the first year was $30 million in sales, and they achieved $29.9 million. In the fall of 1997, Micro Center expanded into

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

by opening a store in

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Clare of Assisi, Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities and towns i ...

. To compete against what was then the dominant computer retailer in California,

Fry's Electronics 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, technic ...

, Micro Center stressed its better employee pay and superior customer service. 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. On July 23, 2012, Micro Center suddenly closed its Santa Clara store—its only one in Silicon Valley—after it was unable to negotiate a further extension of its store lease. By then, the store's front facade had already become a dated relic of the late 1990s, with long-obsolete logos from

Hayes Hayes may refer to: * Hayes (surname), including a list of people with the name ** Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th president of the United States * Hayes (given name) Businesses * Hayes Brake, an American designer and manufacturer of disc brakes * Hay ...

USRobotics U.S. Robotics Corporation, often called USR, is a company that produces USRobotics computer modems and related products. Its initial marketing was aimed at bulletin board systems, where its high-speed HST protocol made FidoNet transfers much fast ...

Practical Peripherals Practical Peripherals, Inc., was a private American computer peripheral manufacturer active from 1981 to 1999 and based in Los Angeles County. Founded by Michael Seedman, the company specialized in telecommunications products, primarily modems, fo ...

Lotus Software Lotus Software (called Lotus Development Corporation before its acquisition by IBM) was an American software company based in Massachusetts; it was sold to India's HCL Technologies in 2018. Lotus is most commonly known for the Lotus 1-2-3 sprea ...

, and

Fujifilm , trading as , or simply Fuji, is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, operating in the areas of photography, optics, Office supplies, office and Biomedical engine ...

. A new store in Santa Clara (in a different location from the previous one) opened in 2025. In January 2014, the company opened new

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

stores in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

and

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

. As of May 2025, there are 29 Micro Center stores nationwide in 19 states, including

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Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

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North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

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, and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

Corporate structure

Micro Center is a subsidiary of

Micro Electronics, Inc. Micro Electronics, Inc. is a privately held American retailer based in Hilliard, Ohio. It was founded in 1979 by John Baker. The company is the parent of the retail chain Micro Center, including its online division, Micro Center Online. It also ...

, a privately held corporation headquartered in Hilliard, Ohio. Stores are sized up to , stocking about 36,000 products across 700 categories, including major name brands and Micro Center's own brands. Micro Center is an approved seller of all Apple products. The company has had

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

departments in all stores since 1982, and has included "Build Your Own PC" departments, and "Knowledge Bars" for service and support since 2007.

Public profile

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. 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 Arduino () is an Italian open-source hardware and open-source software, software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardwar ...

projects and

Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi ( ) is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in collaboration with Broadcom Inc., Broadcom. To commercialize the product and support its growing demand, the ...

, which require more consultative selling.

Media reception

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. In 2021, the store started to offer a free

solid-state drive A solid-state drive (SSD) is a type of solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuits to store data persistently. It is sometimes called semiconductor storage device, solid-state device, or solid-state disk. SSDs rely on non- ...

to new customers, but ''Storage Review'' was not impressed, 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."

Awards and rankings

In 2014, Micro Center was ranked 93rd on a list of the 100 hottest retailers in the United States compiled by the National Retail Federation. In 2015, the industry trade journal ''Dealerscope'' ranked it as the 18th largest consumer electronics retailer in the United States and Canada. In 2016, ''Forbes'' magazine ranked it 195th among America's largest private companies. 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. In 2019, Micro Center stores won first and third prizes, making two more prize money donations to local schools.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.microcenter.com Consumer electronics retailers of the United States Online retailers of the United States Computer companies of the United States Home computer hardware companies American companies established in 1979 Computer companies established in 1979 Computer hardware companies Electronics companies established in 1979 Retail companies established in 1979 1979 establishments in Ohio Retail companies based in Ohio Privately held companies based in Ohio Companies based in Franklin County, Ohio Companies based in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area