I bought a 3D printer from my Denver Microcenter a few weeks ago. It's not available on Amazon, and only ships from China (it's a BambuLab H2D). It gives peace of mind that if something goes wrong I can just return it locally rather than deal with shipping a 50 pound printer back to China. Same goes for a MinisForum NAS I bought a few months ago. Plus, whenever I need a one-off USB cable, thumb drive, or printer filament, it's a 15 minute drive.
Also: they're always packed on the weekends. There is definitely demand for a brick and mortar store that focuses on tech/geek hobbies.
Here in Canada, the BambuLab stuff seems to ship from local-ish warehouses... but I get it. Tariffs might also be a factor in this.
Amazon is a reprehensible company that I absolutely order from 3-4 times a week. That 15 minute drive requires a 15 minute drive back, plus a car + insurance + gas. It's 8:59pm local as I type this. If I need a thumb drive, I can order one that will be here by noon tomorrow with free shipping.
TL;DR that hour of your time plus driving surely cancels out any potential savings.
I guess it's good to have options, and late stage capitalism is happy to give them to us.
H2D looks like an amazing printer. I have a P1P and it's great for my needs, but the Bambu stuff is just on a different level from the others I've tried.
Also: they're always packed on the weekends. There is definitely demand for a brick and mortar store that focuses on tech/geek hobbies.