Silicon Valley is about to get a little less weird.
Sunnyvale’s WeirdStuff Warehouse, a favorite for techies in Silicon Valley, closed its doors for the last time on Sunday after serving the South Bay community for over 30 years.
The shop was best known for its wide selection of electronics. Each aisle featured its own tech treasure, from hard drives to computers, and technical manuals to video cards.
But the store was much more than a warehouse filled with tech. Over time, WeirdStuff became the center of a community for many tech geeks in the Bay Area.
“Virtually every collector in the Valley knows about WeirdStuff,” said Lyle Bickley, a customer who visited WeirdStuff nearly every Friday over the last 20 years.
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The closure of WeirdStuff Warehouse comes after Google purchased the building and several other pieces of real estate in the area for future developments. Although the founders, brothers Chuck and Jim Schuetz, would love to relaunch their shop, the rising Bay Area rent costs aren’t giving them any viable options.
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“A lot of big companies have bought out all the acreage and the buildings around here,” Chuck said. “It’s difficult to duplicate the same thing now.”
Google declined to comment on the closure, but explained that its development team did give the store a six-month courtesy notice.
A post on Reddit announcing the closure of WeirdStuff left many loyal customers disappointed and frustrated.
“Oh man, this is terrible. I’ve spent so many happy hours rummaging around their piles over the years,” said Reddit user wowbobwow. “I’m just beyond sad to find out that they’re gone.”
The customers aren’t the only ones feeling the devastation, for Chuck and Jim, WeirdStuff was more than just an electronics store.
“There’s a lot of value for a lot of this equipment,” Jim said. “It’s such a part of our life. It feels sad to have to leave that behind and not being there for all the people that appreciate it.”
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