Because the owners are very smart, conservative, businessmen.
MicroCenter was started by two ex-Radio Shack employees, John Baker and Bill Bayne, opening a 900 square foot storefront operation in a "mini-mall" on Lane Avenue in Columbus, Ohio. Within a year they had expanded into a nearby abandoned G.C.Murphy department store in the same Lane Avenue shopping center, which is nearby to Ohio State University, a huge potential source of revenue.
These two guys must be terrific business men to have seen the opportunity in the new location: it was layed out like a department store... so, they created a Personal Computer Department Stoe! Sort of like a Sears or JC Penny for PC users.
The Lane Avenue store was wildly successful. I went there for the first time in the early 80s and was blown away by how well it was organized and the quality of staff they hired. Hacker heaven! But the store didn't just cater to computer geeks. Your grandmother would feel comfortable shopping there.
The Internet and on-line shopping was virtually non-existant at that time. This was the era of 1200 bps modems (if you could afford them) and BBS dial-in sites. I "upgraded" from a 300 bps modem to 1200 and eventually 9600 at that store before signing up (for a short time) with Compuserv. That was a wonderful decade for personal computing. A real wild west environment with Micro Center providing an oasis of sanity.
Mom and Pop "computer stores" sprang up all over the place (most are gone today), fueled by cheap Taiwan parts. Custom built was the only way to buy anything if you couldn't afford IBM. MicroCenter did/does sell imported stuff, but their main thing was quality and service.
The founders conserved their profits and expanded cautiously and slowly, always being profitable and not leveraging too much. It seemed forever (to me) before they opened a store in Cincinnati, which is somewhat closer to Dayton. Same experience shopping there, same "department store" layout and friendly, knowledgable sales people.
The company is still privately owned today with only 21 stores nationwide. That takes real marketing savvy and a certain lack of greed to accomplish. I haven't visited any other MicroCenter stores, but I would bet they are all the same. CompUSA never came close. I just wish MicroCenter would open a store in Dayton so I wouldn't have to drive so far.
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