I have only been to the one in Brooklyn, and yeah usually there's a fair number of people in there.

It's kind of a pain in the ass for me to get there from my house by train, and I don't have a car, but I always make a point to visit there when I'm in the area (usually because I need to go to Lowes and/or Harbor Freight).

I agree that it's nice to not have to worry about counterfeits, and it's nice to be able to buy a microcontroller or a Raspberry Pi or something without have to wait for shipping.