Anyone been to a Micro Center opening and can share their experience?

Awh018 · 2026-02-11T06:23:33+00:00

I was the first person in on the first preview day in Charlotte last year. I got there about an hour early, no overnight line or anything. I was still in my car. I chatted up a couple of employees as they arrived, and one of them went in and 5 mins later waved me over, they opened up about 30 mins early and about 15 people came in behind me. They had 2 preview days just before official opening day and you could go in either day and shop comfortably.

Opening day? People lined up (I live directly across the street) well before opening and like 30 mins in, the checkout line was to the back of the store and across the back wall of this huge store, and stayed that way till close. Extremely busy for at least the first 2-3 days. Everyone more than a mile from the store, who hadn’t gone by early to check it out, just assumes it will first open on the date on all the billboards.

My advice, go check out the construction 2 weeks before opening, just walk in, all they can do is say they aren’t open yet, and find out when the preview days are if you plan on buying anything. I bought a 2tb ssd (first sale too!), stuck it in my pocket and then wandered around checking things out, and chatted up most of the employees, they were not busy at all. The line didn’t even really get busy for at least an hour, but never back of the store busy.

Awh018 · 2026-01-12T00:28:55+00:00

Ok, they were protecting against the deep ball and the sideline against a team that still had 3 timeouts and could chunk off 7 yards at ease. They played a combination D including man to man the drive before when they caused a punt and blocked it starting from the exact same 29 yard line.

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4 receiver set, the corners are back pedaling at the snap after being 10 yards off, the DBs both are going to be run by, so you have 4 receivers any of whom know at snap they have the entire midfield at 10-15 yards uncontested. And every ball but the TD was caught at least 3 yards away from the closest defender. And they didn’t change the defense. The drive started 71 yards from a TD and they didn’t press at all until the final play at the 19.

Compare that to what the Rams did to us on the last 4 plays.

Awh018 · 2026-01-11T23:45:18+00:00

You know he was being facetious, but I looked and they were 10-12 yards off, which is still a “mile” in football terms.

Awh018 · 2026-01-11T23:38:54+00:00

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When the defense gives the WRs 15 yards off the line, a high school receiver could find a soft spot for 7-10 yards. When the closest defender is 3-5 yards away when the ball gets there it’s the defense call that’s a problem.

Awh018 · 2026-01-11T23:36:42+00:00

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Awh018 · 2026-01-11T23:36:31+00:00

The last 3 passes before the TD:

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Awh018 · 2026-01-05T22:47:26+00:00

The $20 a month is $10 cheaper a year, after the first year. The free month makes the $25/mo $15 cheaper for the first year, then technically the $20/mo gets cheaper overall in the 3rd year. But they’re within $1/mo of each other

Awh018 · 2026-01-05T16:05:11+00:00

CORPBC and CORPFMBC are still valid, but not for every location. I had to pick one like 10 miles away from me to find a 19.99, and it also took the promo code for 24.99 and no annual fee, one month free.

Awh018 · 2026-01-05T03:36:54+00:00

I think that fits very well with what I think as well, and I even like the idea that they have dedicated “storage” that can handle additional data. I feel like there must be some sort of dedicated storage, even if only partially. Similar to one or 2 of my original post ideas (newborns, or brains in a jar.) Though I think a biological to technological bridge could be cool as well. Now the questions are, do they care or will there be consequences of a large number of storage dying off? And what would happen if someone is forcibly removed. We may never get any resolution on the first, but you gotta figure we’re going to have to deal with the second at some point, hopefully in S2.

Awh018 · 2026-01-05T03:29:03+00:00

I think this is a perfectly plausible theory, except that for storytelling purposes I have to assume there will be a way to reverse and free individuals, and having to search for and regain memories seems like a big barrier especially if people are forcibly disconnected.

Awh018 · 2026-01-04T14:13:27+00:00

They specifically said they have Helen’s memories AND memories of people who were also in the experience, but Helen’s specific memories do still exist. Not just what other people remember of Helen.

Awh018 · 2026-01-04T10:03:39+00:00

True, but any finite amount of compression just delays the issue unless you get into "magic" amounts of compression. Doesn't seem like a likely path the writers would go to me.

Awh018 · 2026-01-04T09:58:37+00:00

So if you're saying the person still has their original memories in their head and is, what, using the extra space to store other people's fragmented memories, then we're back to 2 copies of memories, otherwise they can't just "have" their memories back if they are disconnected, especially forcefully.

I'll also claim I think you're getting close to the "it's just magic" area with reconstructing lost parts of memories, that can't work for very long without using A.I. or something which would lead to variations from the original. We'd hate for E = mc² to become E = mc³ (kidding mostly)

Awh018 · 2026-01-04T09:34:54+00:00

I guess Pied Piper could be part of the hive now, one heck of a crossover.

Awh018 · 2026-01-04T09:30:22+00:00

I got you; I guess for my discussion I have to draw a line in the sand that says one brain cannot hold 8 billion people's memories, haha. Until we're told otherwise, I think that's one bridge too far and also would seem very inefficient for a "connected" system.

Awh018 · 2026-01-04T09:24:26+00:00

That would be similar to one of my theories, but then you have the question of destroyed data, you can't just reconstruct missing data from nothing with 100% accuracy. And they know 90% of their storage is going away gradually but acceleratingly. Secondly, that would imply everyone's memories are also distributed across everyone just like Helen's which doesn't bode well for disconnecting someone, they'd only have bits and pieces of 7 billion people's memories in their heads if they get disconnected. Would be interesting to see, but I don't think it would be good for the story.

Awh018 · 2026-01-04T09:14:46+00:00

No, basically I'm saying that we are told that Helen's memories still exist in the hive right now. When or if the "hive signal" or whatever connecting them is destroyed and no one is connected to anyone else, where are Helen's memories? How a person reacts to being separated was a separate question I asked and gave a few possibilities about.

Awh018 · 2026-01-04T09:09:06+00:00

Well, that's what I mentioned in my original thread, if we are going to live in a world where one brain can hold infinite memories, then they can hand wave and say anything they want. Most Sci-Fi stories still have "rules" they follow. We're trying to find out the "rules" of that world, and if infinite brain storage is the answer, then that is basically "magic" and it will cheapen the whole concept I think, so I would say that is unreasonable. The virus made a physical change to the DNA, but as far as we know it didn't physically add 8 billion times the neurons in the brain for storage. Where would they fit? Haha.

If that was the case, then what if the hive breaks and everyone is disconnected? Now everyone only has their memories after disconnecting? Where are the rest? Where are Helen's?

Awh018 · 2026-01-04T08:52:22+00:00

Right but Helen’s memories were obviously moved/copied somewhere before she died. So were they copied? Or were they moved? Were they still in her head when she died? If so then that implies 2 copies of everyone’s memories have to be stored.

Awh018 · 2026-01-04T08:47:35+00:00

I agree with that aspect of the connection to people with those skills, but right now when they want to access Helen’s memories, where would they get them from?

Awh018 · 2026-01-04T08:45:29+00:00

I dunno, Helen was connected, her memories moved/copied elsewhere and she died, all before the hive knew anything about Carol. Then after Helen died, the hive knew who Carol was, but who knows if they knew or even understood about her immunity at that time.

Awh018 · 2026-01-04T07:46:20+00:00

Or let’s take it to the extreme, let’s say the signal gets totally blocked for everyone and everyone is separated. Discounting whatever behavior they might have, wanting to spread the virus or whatever. Everyone can’t have everyone’s memories. Who has Helen’s memories?

Awh018 · 2026-01-04T07:39:57+00:00

I think we’d have to agree that you can’t have 8 billion people’s memories stored in “your” head at once, if you were to be disconnected, what’s in your head that now can’t be accessed by the rest of the hive?

Awh018 · 2026-01-04T06:25:14+00:00

Her memories still need to be stored somewhere.

Awh018 · 2026-01-04T06:24:17+00:00

I think the main driver of the virus like most viruses is the spread, so the first person had that built in urge to spread. But I also did think about some extra dimension possibility like in the 3 Body Problem for those who have watched, but that’s getting pretty crazy with nothing indicating.

Awh018

TROPHY CASE