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I've noticed the similar pattern and always wondered how Micro Center seems to manage to do OK.

They're not over expanded and are generally fun to visit. They basically have the right number of stores to interest ratio in an area and they're competitive on pricing.

That's most of it, but there's also MAP. A lot of products Microcenter cells have minimum advertised pricing. That means brick-and-mortar can compete with online and make decent margins.

If Amazon / Walmart sells something for $149, and Microcenter does as well, I might go with Amazon / Walmart for convenience of having it shipped, or Microcenter for speed of having it now.

MAP can give pretty high margins too, in some industries.

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