RTX 3090: In-Store Purchases vs Online Orders
The official launch date of the RTX 3090 is September 24th, and all variants of it are expected to sell out within minutes once they become available to order online. So, I'd like to know that if I fail to order one online, whether or not there will still be units available for purchase in person at my local Microcenter (Brooklyn).
In other words, does Microcenter allocate a percentage of its stock exclusively for in-store purchases that aren't therefore effected by online orders (regardless of whether or not the online orders are for shipping or in-store pickup)? If so, how many hours before opening should I arrive to wait outside for the store to open up? Are there typically long lines outside of Microsoft locations on the days that new graphics cards are released?

Comments
As for how early you should show up, that's going to depend on your store and availability. From what I'm hearing the 3090 is going to be a pretty limited card just in general.
1. Start hitting refresh on Amazon/Newegg/etc. at 11:59pm on 9/16(and checking forums a couple hours prior to start gauging the frenzy level).
2. If FE & AIB cards are readily available(and Prime-eligible) from Amazon at midnight and I can grab one of my preferred ones(probably either AORUS, eVGA FTW3 or maybe just an FE), I'll likely just do that and wait the two days for delivery.
3. If things are crazy and cards are going out of stock immediately and there's nothing left but Zotacs and MSIs by 12:03, then I'll check online stock for my local MC to see if any cards have been listed yet and plan to head to the store a couple hours or so before opening and play it by ear from there.
4. Worst case, if it's already total chaos by 7am at my local store and it becomes apparent that I have no shot at whatever stock the store might even have, I take my loss, go back home and wait and keep checking back here, amazon, bb, newegg, etc. for however long until cards are in stock again.
My own personal take: While I do think there will definitely be a day 1 rush on these cards(because they look to be great cards at a very respectable relative price point), and that supply logistics certainly have been thrown a unique curveball that didn't exist during the 1000 or 2000 series releases, I think the latter issue could be more likely to impact brick & mortars like MC, whereas vendors like Amazon have clearly shown over the past few months that they have the capital, workforce and transportation capabilities to keep churning along(for the most part). Also(and perhaps more importantly), I don't predict a huge influx of crypto miners for these cards like we've seen previously. For one, mining has become exponentially more complex/difficult since then, and many of the small-timers have packed it in at this point. For another, pricing these cards in the $700-800 range is going to undoubtedly cause a HUGE drop in prices for 1080Ti's and 20xx's, and we'll also see a bunch of them hit the eBay market as well. That's a good thing overall, because there will inevitably be plenty of folks with 1060 6GBs who will go, "I'd really love to spend the $700 on a 3080, but I can get a slightly-used 2070S now for $300, which is almost as good!", and many miners to realize that they can get better value/returns by gouging that used market, rather than dealing with trying to scam the online retailers with bots on release day(prob easier to script/tweak existing bots for eBay auctions anyway). Lastly, there's also speculation that the smaller 8nm architecture for Ampere will allow for greater die yeild(meaning that NVidia may have already produced more GPUs this time around). All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic that I won't find myself sitting here empty-handed in October, still waiting for 3080s to be back in stock and debating whether to just repeat from step 1 with the 3070s, but who knows.
edit: Apologies - I wrote this whole thing up and THEN realized it's a 3090 thread. I'm an idiot. Sorry about that.
edit 2: And then I actually went back and clarified it some more, just because I feel my logic still applies to my approach/opinion re: the 3080s, in case anyone out there stumbles upon this lol
I would get up early and wait in line at the store.
Still no word on which(if any) AIB cards will be avaiable, or at which stores.
Any idea how early lines started for the 3080? How are vouchers handed out? Will a store employee mark us down for a card?