I usually purchase my computer components from Newegg. However, whenever I was impatient or pressed for time, I used to go to Fry’s. I remember one time in 2011 driving from Santa Cruz to Campbell to pick up a hard drive to replace one that suddenly failed; having to wait days for shipping would have been more inconvenient. Fry’s is a great convenience in these cases.
It’s unfortunate to see Fry’s in the zombified state that it’s in. Back in the 2000s it was a really nice store, but recently it has fallen on hard times. I went to the Sunnyvale store a few months ago to try to find a TV antenna, and the selection was a bunch of beat-up boxes, some of them with discount stickers indicating that they were returned items, which left me not confident about the whole lot.
Meanwhile, I’m a little envious of the electronics stores of Tokyo, particularly Yodobashi Camera and Yamada Denki. I travel to Japan regularly, and every now and then I check out these stores. Their Akihabara flagships are a nice mix of Fry’s selection and Best Buy’s presentation. Sometimes I wonder why we don’t have that in Silicon Valley, but then I remember that Tokyo’s density and transit-oriented planning makes such retail operations more viable than Silicon Valley’s largely car-dependent, US suburbia-style planning, which favors online shopping. Still, these flagship Akihabara stores are wonderful places to shop.
Reminds me of the late stages of Circuit City where the stores were just there ... but empty shelves, strange patterns in inventory, employees who just have given up on work .. look like they gave up on life.
I was always amazed how long Circuit City stuck around like that.
Back then Apple was focusing on the computer-as-appliance design philosophy. They were computers for people who were too cool to know anything about computers. It took a while for their pendulum to swing back to supplying premium computers instead of toasters.
My retail days....we sold Macs at Sears (low end crap like Performas), and we sold them at Best Buy back in 1998 or whenever it was the original iMac came out.
But nobody wanted them. We got 25 at our store and almost every one of them came back. People wanted PC's....
Not surprised. Apple spent most of the 90's cranking out one turd after another. There were a few hits for well-heeled professionals, but their consumer offerings were generally a bunch of fatally compromised Road Apples. https://lowendmac.com/2014/road-apples-second-class-macs/
MacOS was behind the times vs. Windows. Still sticking with cooperative multitasking until 2000. Crazy!
iMac was the start of something different, but Apple had a decade of second-class product to atone for, first.
> Still sticking with cooperative multitasking until 2000. Crazy!
To be fair, sticking with it until 2000 wasn't Apple's intention; they'd expected to bring the new "Copland" Mac OS to market by the end of 1996.
I don't know how well the iMac may have sold at the OP's Best Buy, but my recollection -- and a web search just now seems to back this up -- is that the iMac sold very well pretty quickly after its 1998 introduction. For instance, a NYT article from January 1999 which begins:
"Apple Computer Inc.'s popular iMac desktop computer was the No. 1 selling machine through retail and mail-order channels in the 1998 holiday season, according to the research company PC Data.
"In overall sales, the iMac fell from the top spot in November to No. 3 in December. It is still the top-selling computer since its mid-August introduction and led overall sales in the fourth quarter, PC Data, of Reston, Va., reported."
Even the first iMacs were pretty terrible. It took them a while longer to get OSX stable and ditch the Fischer-Price aesthetic. The G4s (iirc and IMO) were the first ones since the Macintosh that were what you'd call 'professional'.
I remember my school had hundreds of them in the library and across different labs. Maybe it was education rather than home user / consumers who bought the bulk?
They formed a partnership, didn't last long: 2000-2002.
At the time I went there to look at their hardware prices, when I was contemplating building a replacement for my desktop Linux box, the only computer they had on the floor with an Internet connection was a Mac. I used it to do some quick price comparisons, then remembered Macs were UNIX too, and decided it was time to give Apple another try.
Staples isn't doing great but there's certainly a market for a local office supplies and services company. Neither Walmart nor Amazon is really a replacement.
There aren't a lot of Kmart locations still around, and I suspect that some of them are in spots where the land is owned and there's some competitive advantage to being there (like the ones in the Florida Keys, where there's no Walmart closer than the mainland).
In NYC I've had good luck with Amazon Prime Now for urgent computer parts. I've gotten an SSD, power supply, and CPU fan for various work needs within a couple hours and without having to go on an excursion.
So thank you, Rube Goldberg machine of human misery, for saving my work day on more than one occasion.
Second thumbs up for Micro Center. I like that they have a combination of consumer-level electronics, mid-level stuff like Raspberry Pis, and low-level stuff like resistors and whatnot.
It's a bit of a pain for me to get to MicroCenter (about an hour one the train), but it has always been useful for me when I'm in a pinch.
When I visit my parents in Orlando, there's a smaller place called "Skycraft" which has a lot of low-level components, but I haven't been able to find an analog to it in NY just yet. Do you know of any?
Tinkersphere Electronics, 152 Allen St (Manhattan) - as the name indicates, hobbyist focused.
Allstate Electronics - Jamaica Queens - Old school distributor, has basically every electronic component under the sun.
If you head out to NJ, there's a couple big shops as well (Wayne Electronics, Green Brook Electronics) but they're not transit-accessible or closer to the city.
Since I first saw the on-going demise of my local Fry's, I've been attempting to buy any computer parts from my local Microcenter, even if it is a little more expensive.
7 years ago I moved from a place with a microcenter to a place with frys. I was really excited since I heard so many great things, I was instantly disappointed. It just doesn’t compare.
I want to love microcenter, it is the type of store that should be my favorite place to be.
Unfortunately, I haven't had a single good experience. Many issues were smaller things, but the single most upsetting was the time I found what I wanted (after being ignore by sales reps for awhile) only to be swarmed by reps trying to put their stickers on the box to get a commission while I walked to check out.
And then people wonder why my first instinct to buy anything is to go online and have it shipped to me.
Back in the day, I had an expense budget at Intel that allowed me to purchase anything I needed for my lab from Frys...
I used to buy gear there and often would find failures...
I would return them to Fry's but in doing so would mark the box with a sharpie in a known place (to me)
I would always check back in the aisles for my returned items and would frequently find them replaced on the shelves to be sold again - knowing that they were bad items.
So Frys would be wasting multiple peoples time, plus their own resources on throwing shit that I tested bad in my lab at Intel back on the shelves...
One time, I went through ELEVEN returns of some SuperMicro mobos that were all bad... (SuperMicro had a REALLY shitty run in the late 90s, early 2000s)
Frys is dead to me know though, for the most part.
The prices in these flagship Akihabara stores are much higher than you'd see online though (20%). You can either search the side alleys there looking for a good deal, or try to negotiate with the salespeople on the floor there. Here in the US, at Fry's and Best Buy I've seen, they'll match Amazon's price without having to do any deal-making.
Most Japanese electronics stores including Yodobashi Camera have point-based discount systems. If you have a membership card, you get 10% of your purchase back in points, which can be used on the next purchase. Of course, prices can still be high.
And yes, you can often negotiate with salespeople, particularly on higher priced items. At a store like Yodobashi Camera, I think it's possible to negotiate for more points on your point card.
At smaller electronics stores, particularly out of the city, negotiating price is more common. I was once looking at a TV at a store (I think K's Denki) towards closing time and the salesman walked over with a calculator and gave me 20% off without me even initiating the negotiation.
I didn't know about Fry's closing until this article, and that makes me sad. It's one of the first places I went to when I moved to the bay area in 2002.
But yeah since I moved to SF it just doesn't make sense to drive down to Palo Alto to buy computer stuff. The traffic kills it :-(
I think the last time I went to Fry's was like 2011 or 2012 :-( I think part of the loss of customers may have to do with younger people moving to SF instead of Palo Alto / Mountain View? In addition to them buying online.
Interestingly I remember my first roommate in 2002 was the one who told me about Newegg.
I just visited Yodobashi in Akihabara and was impressed with the energy and selection, but the prices were awful: At least 50% higher than US prices for many things. Some of this might be due to the yen/dollar exchange rate but I didn't notice particularly high prices on other products in Japan--just stuff at Yodobashi.
But unlike Best Buy, at Yodobashi and BIC Camera you can buy a personal radiation monitor!
Still, you're right — you're paying for convenience and selection when you go to the big electronics stores in Japan.
I try to be conscious of where the things I buy are manufactured. Sadly, the last two items I bought at Yodobashi (a radio and a voice recorder) were made in China. When I asked the salespeople if they had any made in Japan, they seemed very sad (ashamed?) to deliver the answer.
I'd bet they stock the radiation monitors since Fukushima only. And that when another one blows up in another country it would be the same. Though i'm not absolutely sure about that, because i remember reading news headlines about a run on them, and being out of stock in germany because of that at the times.
I think smartphones, laptops, streaming and online shopping really decimated this retail sector.
Even lots of power users just use laptops (and AWS) and don't buy components. And sales of consumer electronics like point and shoot cameras, DVD and CD players, GPSes, etc. have fallen off a cliff.
I'm not sure what the numbers show, but I think, as people who are interested in tech, we often forget a large segment of the population needs some in-person assistance when choosing new devices. My dad asks me every time he needs a new laptop, TV, or whatever. He has no interest in doing the research himself.
Anecdotally, my local Best Buy is always packed. I do a good amount of shopping online, but I also like to get certain things in person when possible. To me, it's much more satisfying to buy something and be able to use it on the same day.
> I'm not sure what the numbers show, but I think, as people who are interested in tech, we often forget a large segment of the population needs some in-person assistance when choosing new devices. My dad asks me every time he needs a new laptop, TV, or whatever. He has no interest in doing the research himself.
Sounds like you could make a good business out of being an "online shopping guide", to help people pick the right [whatever] out of an endless array of [whatever]s. Do credit cards offer this as a concierge service at some level?
That sounds like what wirecutter.com does these days across a pretty wide selection of product categories. Just got a new pillow through them after drowning in Amazon reviews looking for a good side sleeping pillow.
Sure, there are reviewers that publish "objectively best for use-case X" reviews. But they don't review niche product-categories on demand, nor do they filter by your weird personal requirements (say... needing the tool you're buying to be made out of a material that will survive having other parts TIG-welded onto it.) Though I guess you could track down the people that write for one of these sites and commission them?
I recall a point where I was had to go to Frys because places like Quement Electronics, etc. closed down. Frys was always a "hold your nose" and "be careful/picky" sort of place. Often they restocked bad returns, I had problems with them giving out bad ram at times, etc. Generally, the employees weren't particularly knowledgable either.
It's sad to see it go, especially Palo Alto. It felt like they expanded incredibly rapidly - including to Sacramento/Roseville, southern CA and WA state.
I've been using Newegg almost exclusively these days for components. But, yes, the lack of instant gratification can be trying.
> I recall a point where I was had to go to Frys because places like Quement Electronics, etc. closed down. Frys was always a "hold your nose" and "be careful/picky" sort of place. Often they restocked bad returns, I had problems with them giving out bad ram at times, etc. Generally, the employees weren't particularly knowledgable either.
Yup. I remember a whole lot of scammy behavior on the part of reps, too. After I picked up a box running after me to try and get me to let them write it up for commission. Lies from sales reps. RAM inventory being 80%+ bad, taking 3 trips to try and get a working set and realize that I had been being sold the same DIMM I had just returned (I finally put a dot on it with a sharpie).
There's fewer choices than ever for electronic components and misc fixings in the Silicon Valley. Fry's is gone, Radio Shack is gone, Halted is gone, Weird Stuff is gone, a lot of the computer shops are gone (and the ones that remain are dodgier than ever), Triangle Machinery is gone, etc. We've got Alltronics and Jameco and Excess Solutions now...
Weird Stuff is probably my most missed place. I always found something worth buying even if wandering by on lunch. It was dangerous when I worked a few blocks away from there.
I wouldn't call it hold your nose but I did run into problems with bad returns getting restocked and what I assume was employee theft in the form of putting bad items in new boxes that weren't marked as returns. (And for which the serial # wouldn't match, that's how I realized what was up.)
The last time I bought something from Newegg was maybe five years ago. Since then, I've never been able to find what I want in stock on their web site.
That market is a dream place for any electronics enthusiast, at least those who grew when an electronics shop wasn't a cellphone reseller. I wish there was some way of purchasing those Aitendo modules in the EU at decent prices.
Unfortunately some stores are closing over there as well, albeit much slower than in other places.
> the electronics stores of Tokyo, particularly Yodobashi Camera and Yamada Denki
And not only Tokyo. Yodobashi has a couple of dozen stores throughout Japan, some of them, such as Yokohama and Umeda (Osaka), as big as the flagship in Akihabara. They're a good source for household appliances, too.
I live in Yokohama, and I shop at Yodobashi not for the prices but for the service: More than once a salesperson has saved me a lot of trouble by confirming that whatever I bought (a monitor, a hard drive, a cable) was actually compatible with the computer I was using. The staff know their products, and they are willing to give up sales in order to keep from selling people something they can't use. That makes me a more loyal customer.
Yodobashi seems to have a lot of Chinese-speaking staff these days, which is understandable considering the large number of Chinese tourists in Japan in recent years. Probably some of the staff speak English, too, though I've never asked.
They do assist English speakers, but it's the usual deal for Japan: If you ask a question in English, they recognize it immediately and call a staff member over who can at least speak some English. If you begin your query with "Ohayo Gozaimasu" and are courteous, they try very hard to help you.
we dont have big akihabara tech marts like japan does and frys was the closest but there are still some good local shops
for computer stuff and some consumer electronics there are a bunch of central computers and in the south bay theres anchor for electronic components and excess for surplus
Our Fry's in Austin had a "real tough front" on returns. You had to go through a lot of BS to return anything. I wonder if that contributed to the downfall, and if Fry's in other states were tough on returns as well . . . obviously Bezos and company has had an impact
Same here in CA, you had to wait in line forever, have them dig through your boxes taking everything out, then stand waiting for a manager to also come over and do the same thing and then approve it.
That happened to me the last time I seriously shopped there (excluding subsequent visits with my kids for historical/tourism reasons). Returned a brand-new, unwrapped HP PC and watched in horror as the returns clerk clumsily defiled its pristine seal right in front of me. I assume it was later wrapped right back up again, but there's no way a roughed-up item like that would have ever been the same.
I get the risk of fraud and all that, but it seems the Palo Alto Fry's didn't understand the corresponding brand cost of selling blemished merchandise as new.
The Fry’s by my house is a disaster zone of sadness and empty shelves. The Microcenter up the road has completely blown up as a result. It’s regularly packed to the gills.
The employees know it. They’re always referring to how bad it is at Frys and that’s why their store has become so popular.
Microcenter is down right dangerous. There are shelves and shelves of new Ryzen processors and those Bucky ball looking Intel processor boxes. It’s tough to not build a monster rig. I’m even considering heading there as I write this comment - to pick up a water cooler for an old i7 3770k so I can clock it to the moon and revitalize it. (If any hackers here have a 3770k and tips, please share)
I love being able to go there to grab UniFi gear right off the shelf. Being able to walk into a physical store that’s a ten minute drive from my house to grab SFP transceivers and fiber cables is kind of unreal to me.
Being able to get headphones, UniFi gear, a Raspberry Pi Zero W and multiple sensors at Microcenter is very dangerous for me too. And their service to order ahead and just pick it up 20 minutes later is just nuts! I don't have to sift through all the shelves myself!
My local Fry's have gotten a terrible reputation for putting used or broken gear on the shelves -- and they've had that reputation for years. I think they're getting what they deserve, frankly.
Totally forgot about that last part... man, never buy a MB or Graphics Card from Fry's if there's a sticker on it... avoid like the plague, and never buy a laptop/desktop there either... head to BB for that.
There was a time where motherboards were shipping with terrible BIOS, and you could save a bunch of money by buying one of those that was returned and flashing it first thing.For things without a good chance of easy fixes, though, I would probably not buy a previously returned one.
Of course, now they don't really have that kind of merchandise, so this knowledge is pretty much worthless :P
Apropos of nothing, Microcenter's "locations" page is atrocious. Just give me a map!
My Fry's is similarly a disaster zone, so I thought I'd see how close the nearest Microcenter is. Figuring that out requires me to either be familiar with the suburbs of major cities outside my state, or to click through each one to see where they are.
Microcenter's locations are, using metro areas as a location metric:
LA, Denver, Atlanta (x2), Chicago (x2), Kansas City, Boston, DC (x2), Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, Minneapolis, NYC (x5), Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Houston.
If you live in the NE, you probably recognize the closest store just by the name of the city it's in. If you don't recognize any names, then it's probably several hours away.
I used the one in Cincinnati and Chicago quite a bit. Cables and other items I'll still get off eBay or Newegg unless I need them that weekend and am willing to pay the retail upmarks, but for a lot of higher end products, the prices are not too far off from online retail stores (I stopped shopping at Amazon in 2016 so I can't compare to that one; just eBay and Newegg mostly).
There are a lot of products on their site that are "in-store only" which is a good model .. if you happen to live near one. I'll even pay an extra $30~$40 for something high end like a monitor since if something is wrong with it, I can just return it to the store and not have to worry about packaging it and shipping it back.
Out of curiosity where are you located? As far as I can tell, all the Microcenters in the Bay Area have closed down.
We still have Central Computer, which is where I had to go to get my last part when Fry's didn't have it (the special screwdriver for opening the newish Mac laptops).
I just wish it wasn't next to the 5 entrance on the 55. Maybe that is a good thing, if not I would make my way there more often. Reporting from Costa Mesa as well.
My dad basically runs his business through that Microcenter, and has for the past 5+ years—prior to that Fry's was the place to go, especially the one off the 91 & Kramer.
Microcenter on Elston in the 1990s and 2000s was a disaster, run and organized like a flea market. Contrast with the St. Louis one which is like a futuristic Best Buy, clean, organized and well-stocked. YMMV.
There's a Microcenter just a couple of miles from my house, but I haven't ventured inside in roughly 15 years.
Do they still do the RadioShack-style hounding you for a phone number when you checkout? Or did they finally wise up and stop doing that?
The last time I was shopping there, they were AGGRESSIVE about it. Actually got mad when I said my number was unlisted and refused to give it to them. I was so turned off, I just took my shopping online and never looked back.
They aren't that bad, but they work on commission and will try and put little stickers with their barcode on whatever products you are holding in your hand. If you tell them to buzz off they will.
Yeah, I was amazed when I went to Microcenter recently. I had the impression of them as a discount Circuit City/Best Buy from the late 90s and early 2000s. The workers were more knowledgeable than the competition (basically just Staples, Office Depot, Walmart, Target and Best Buy at this point). The guy in charge of the computer hardware section really knew his stuff and was helpful.
When I visited Fry's in the DFW area last year (Irving Store off of LBJ freeway) I was shocked at how low energy and sad the place was. It was just one big pile of despair. Just a handful of people were shuffling in and out. They shelves were in complete disrepair, and there were areas where there was no stock on shelves. Computers on display were broken, twisted wrecks. The home theater areas had older model sets and speakers strewn about.
It was nothing like the late 90's when the place was an absolute zoo, and you could be guaranteed to have every gadget known to man on display. Christmas time at Frys was waiting in a checkout line 100's deep. It was a fun time.
That last time I visited is the last time I'll ever visit. It's clear Amazon and online retailing has decimated them.
Same shocking experience in Austin a few weeks back. Trying to pick up a DisplayPort KVM and a couple of DP cables. This is the big one on MoPac by Opal Devine's. I'd say more than 50% of the shelves were bare, with merchandise strewn about, loose power cables still plugged into outlets. A surprising number of employees but no one was actually doing anything. The computer hardware section looked like a bomb went off. No stock anywhere. But there weren't any "Liquidation / Going Out Of Business" banners like you'd normally expect to see in these circumstances.
I used to love Fry's, they had a great selection for system builders and hobbyists. Although I will say it always had a kind of grim, penitential air to it - all the employees in their black and white outfits and the massive black locked cages behind the rows of registers. It seemed oppressive, like you wouldn't be surprised to find out that the managers were beating the cashiers or something.
Still, sorry to see it go. I've been disappointed with the other system-builder-oriented place in town who knowingly restock broken merch. I guess it's Newegg from here on out!
> Although I will say it always had a kind of grim, penitential air to it
Yeah. A weird vibe. The wood. The faux “luxury” trim. The yellow. Dudes in cheap looking suits trying to corner you so they can “ring up your order” for their commission.
Yeah. Fry’s was a weird place. The branding just didn’t match the service or experience at all.
You should see the Fry's on Northwest Hwy near Garland. It's almost scary, it has a sketchy bazaar feeling. A couple rows of shelves have just random perfume and colognes. All the televisions and stuff have 1/8" of dust on them. It must be more expensive to shut it down than to keep it running.
> It must be more expensive to shut it down than to keep it running.
They probably own the buildings (maybe even the land, too.) Potential buyers of a commercial building would want said building's internals in good condition (i.e. not wrecked by looters.) And the simplest way to ensure the building stays in good condition is to keep it running.
I had almost this exact same experience three weeks ago at a Fry's in LA. It was honestly sad to see it.
I kept joking to my friend that it felt post-apocalyptic because it looked like it had been looted. There were rough and cut-open boxes on empty shelves, empty and open packaging on the floor, no signs for the aisles to show what they had on them, employees that looked dead in the eyes, rows of shelves that were just empty or had maybe two or three items on them. It was legitimately sad to see.
We were on the hunt for a dual monitor setup. They didn't even have a 4k monitor on the shelves. That was how poor their selection was.
I've heard they're having issues even paying their vendors, so yeah. I'm pretty positive Fry's is in big trouble.
I used to live near the Fry's in Tempe, Arizona. Even 5-10 years ago, I didn't really like going there that much. Their prices weren't that great any more, and returning merchandise was a bad experience. It was clear their best days were behind them. Amazon has been a better experience for a long time now. It was cool how you could find a lot of odd electronics items there (components, soldering equipment, wire, etc.), but you could still get all that stuff much cheaper online usually.
That too (that was an annoying thing about Fry's too; I had totally forgotten about that!), but the returns process at Fry's also treats you like a criminal, whereas Amazon's is easy and asks no questions.
My practice when I used to shop at Fry's was to stop and let the receipt checking person mark my receipt with their pink marker, if no one was ahead of me in that line. This was only to let them feel good about their job, not because I had any legal obligation.
If there was anyone in the receipt checking line I would just smile and wave and walk by. They never stopped me, nor could they legally, but the people waiting in line would often look at me and look at the receipt checker, puzzled that I could get away with it and they "couldn't".
Ownership changes at the point of sale. At the time they do the check, they no longer have any legal basis for preventing the customer from leaving. Costco and Sam's Club can only get away with it because they can revoke membership for non-compliance. At Fry's, stopping someone for a search risks civil suit for kidnapping.
Aside from that, it's a security theater tactic to discourage shoplifting, which also happens to discourage regular shopping.
Costco and Sam's check your receipt to make sure you're leaving with everything you paid for. They're much more likely to find you've left something at the checkout rather than find you shoplifting.
That's the stated, euphemistic reason. The real reason is that they are doing security theater.
Finding something you may have forgotten at the checkout is the only possible benefit to the consumer, so they play it up as a point of customer service, to partially counteract the unreasonable queue they create for exiting the store.
If the genuine concern was forgotten items, they would do the additional QA check at the point of sale, where the item is most likely to be found, rather than at the exit doors.
Don't parrot the corporate propaganda without giving it your own analysis first.
The veracity is easily checked. Buy a small, disposable item with your regular purchase, and put it in your pocket after checkout. If the receipt checker notices the item is missing, note a positive result. Put the receipt in your pocket with the item. Next time around, take the item out of your pocket and put it in the cart, and see what happens. Make sure you project the confidence that yes, that object in the cart is yours, and was lawfully purchased during a previous visit. Beware that this sort of testing may get your membership revoked.
The reason you don't want your programmers doing your QA is that they're too likely to make the same mistake twice. Same with having the point of sale people doing the receipt checking.
I've considered using a collapsible box that I bought at Costco to pack my items after a shopping trip there. I wouldn't have the original receipt for it though, so I don't know how much hassle it would be. Haven't tried it yet.
I didn't suggest that the checkout person do the QA. They already have 1 or 2 people standing at the door. Move them to the checkouts and do QA as people start to leave. AKA look at the checkout to see if there's anything still there as the cashier closes out the sale and starts with the next customer.
It's a moot point, because good QA is not the goal.
You could swap collapsible boxes with someone who shops at Sam's Club, if it worries you.
Their considering me a thief by default has provoked me to spend elsewhere.
The poor buggers manning the front door never gave me any grief for blowing them off, but the unanswerable managerial thought that put them there in the first place makes it a no brainier to shop elsewhere.
And yea, that is despite the pull of preferring to fondle and drool on the merchandise in person.
You can just ignore them. They have no cause to detain you, and you have no obligation to let them search you. I've never had a problem just walking past them out to my car. Only one time did someone even bother to yell "hey, I need to check your receipt!" and I just said NOPE and kept walking.
Virtually all of my electronics tools and supplies came from the Tempe store. Since I've moved back east it's a serious challenge finding stores with even a fraction of the inventory the Tempe store had so I end up ordering stuff off Amazon or Ali Express. I the RTP ares has a good electronics store, I haven't found it yet.
Which I find a bit annoying; what I like about Fry's is that they have low-level components in addition to the high-level stuff. With Radio Shack closing, and Fry's probably closing soon, the only non-internet place left that I'll be able to purchase components will be Micro Center.
My point is, Best Buy has never been a one-to-one comparison to me. There are things that Fry's has that Best Buy simply doesn't.
Frys' component selection used to be good. But nowadays it feels like a throwback to the 90s -- they still carry a ton of parts for repairing CRT TVs [1], yet they don't have a single microcontroller or flash chip in the entire aisle, and their prices for basic logic chips like [2] are ridiculous.
Best Buy price matches to Amazon. They also work with cashback services and often times gives you a $5 coupon after purchasing a certain amount. Finally, they also let you return open boxes, no questions asked. Forgot to mention, you can do same day pick up for an item.
Around three years ago, bestbuy realized that they would need to make some sort of change. They did and their stores got better. It still isn't a replacement for what Fry's used to be.
Yeah, it does look a bit like they just rolled over. Still, bestbuy and frys are not directly comparable imo. Micro Center is more analogous to frys. Somewhere else in the thread someone pointed that they had to bail out of california.
Best Buy often has better prices than Amazon.
Since last year I find myself always double-checking the price of anything I want outside Amazon and for big items (e.g. TV, tv stand, etc.) Best Buy is a first choice for sure.
Not only that, but have you ever tried shopping for something like a laptop on Amazon? The descriptions are all three lines long and by the time you figure out what the hell you're buying you could just drive to Best Buy and see a display that clearly explains what's on offer.
Agreed... I've had relatively bad luck on mail ordered laptops and monitors in particular, stick to a physical location I can return them to in general. Walmart seems like a decent middle ground with online to store and returns.
The funny thing is that Best Buy also price matches bestbuy.com :)
Every time I go in there I have to ask the cashier for the price on the web site. The stores and site have different prices. I guess it makes sense because you capture 5% from everyone who doesn't bother to do that.
Just bought a new 3700x and 5700xt at best buy this week, I'm surprised I could that in person. I actively try to avoid purchasing anything at Amazon. They are Mr. Robot's EvilCorp in real life. Can't support that.
One of the only two Fry's in Georgia just closed it's doors permanently. Of the half dozen times I was in there over the past couple years I don't think there were ever more 10 customers in the ~125,000 sq ft store. Of course it wasn't doing them any favors that there is a Microcenter 1.5 miles down the road.
Microcenter is doing great, at least from the point of view of a frequent customer.
The Fry's in Plano is in a similar state to what parent comment is describing. It's an incredibly weird feeling walking thru. They've stopped restocking, so anything I remotely could use or need isn't there. What's left are things that nobody really wants. I have lots of memories growing up in that store, sad to see it like this. I definitely recommend hitting it up before the inevitable shutdown, it's quite the vibe to take in.
Microcenters in the Chicagoland area (N Elston in Chicago, Westmont) are busy, especially on Saturdays. Shelves are well-stocked, and there's even an electronics section with a potpourri of Arduino and RaspPi accessories.
I'm not sure how they're surviving in the era of online shopping but they seem to be doing well. I wonder if most of the foot traffic is driven by impulse same-day BOPIS (Buy Online Pickup in Store) sales. I'll admit that's how I ended up going to the brick-and-mortar store -- I didn't think that computer superstores still existed in this day and age.
browsing the shelves and just being around tech is soothing for me. and the feeling of walking out with a bunch of boxes too. for something i enjoy like tech i like to savor the whole experience
Seems to be busy enough. They always have new cool products and lots of new inventory. If he's in Irving that's pretty far from him so he might not visit.
The one off 75 is always very busy when I go there on a Saturday. The DIY PC section always has a few people pushing around a cart full of parts, and even the pre-built system area will be crawling with customers.
Not DFW area (KofP), but it does feel a bit more like a warehouse to me rather than the exciting tech candy store I remember as a kid. Even the Apple section is depleted and meh feeling.
Last time I went there was nothing particularly awe-inspiring as far as setup computers. Just a bunch of Dell and Lenovo's with normal looking monitors. Would have been nice to see at least one souped-up uber PC with all kinds of obnoxious leds quad SLI, and 4 8k monitors, or something.
Granted it's still an extremely useful store, and I really wish I had one in the area I live in now.
I haven't been there in a while, but from what I've heard from friends it's doing well.
You may also want to check out Altex. They have a store in Carrollton, and my experience visiting there a few months ago is that they're _very_ well-stocked and with excellent prices at that.
I was at Fry’s on Garland Rd in Dallas a few years ago and it was horrible. I wanted to pick up a hard drive that day rather than order one, but (and I am not exaggerating) literally every single hard drive on their shelves had one of those “this product had been opened/returned” stickers on it. Ridiculous! Fry’s is such a dump.
I bought my camera bag from that same Fry's store back in July 2018, and the shelves were full, but it was still a far cry from how I remember it back when it first opened. Very few customers there either. Might have been 10 customers in the store max. Amazing how quickly it went downhill.
Ah, I used to work at that location in the mid 00s. The place was a mad house back then. They probably still show the video of me getting a "customer" into a rear naked choke after he started attacking employees.
Yeah, that was a bit nuts but TBH most weekends at the time were pretty darn busy. I'm talking the whole store being mall promenade busy. It was all very energized and felt like the place to be if you were interested in tech hardware.
I've been to that same one twice looking for various electronics cables and they had nothing. Is there a DFW place now that sells that sort of radio-shack supplies? Or is everything online only now?
Well, "trouble" is the wrong word. Fry's is more like "dead man walking".
The last time I went to Fry's was maybe 1 year ago. If you walk around, all of the electronics are older models, the game shelves are filled with games that are all several years old, even things like hard drives, etc are all old and expensive.
There were no salespeople to help except in places like the TV area. The car stereo area, which is what I was interested in, was empty and no one showed up. The car stereos themselves were older models. Nothing worked.
Why on earth would I ever return? The entire shopping experience at Fry's is worse than clicking through on Amazon.
Fry's is dead. Chalk one up for Amazon and automation a-la Andrew Yang. 30% of retail stores will close in 5-10 years and it's because of online stores like Amazon, that suck money out of local stores and diverts all the money to Seattle, except for the local warehouses where minimum wage workers are being worked like robots. This only gets worse unless we figure out how to rejig the economy with 21st century solutions like UBI.
> Fry's is dead. Chalk one up for Amazon and automation a-la Andrew Yang.
It's easy to say that, but then the retort is why isn't Micro Center suffering the same issues? The two should be facing exactly the same pressure from Amazon, so the reasons for Fry's failures has to be more nuanced than "internet retailers are sucking everyone dry."
For my part, I'm much more willing to buy computer parts in person because a) I get to walk out with it and set it up that day and b) I'd rather carry >$1000 worth of equipment on my person than hope no one steals it between its delivery time and my getting off of work.
> The two should be facing exactly the same pressure from Amazon, so the reasons for Fry's failures has to be more nuanced than "internet retailers are sucking everyone dry."
One possibility is that Fry's didn't focus enough on it's core competency: computer components for enthusiasts. Last I was there they were selling a bunch of very tangentially related things, like a lot of kids toys.
That's the kind of stuff that nobody really cares so much about seeing before they but them, so easy for online retailers to serve.
Seems like many successful post Amazon businesses focus on a particular niche. Of course, I imagine that with their huge retail buildings, Fry's had to fill them with something to justify the cost of that space.
Retailers are just as much selling an experience as they are selling goods. The novelty of the Fry's experience just wore off for most people. Believe it or not there was a time when people would take their families there all weekend long as an outing.
People just aren't as impressed with consumer technology now as they were then ... and they're sort of right. The changes in recent years haven't been that wonder-inducing from a consumer perspective.
I've seen mention of what may be one of the biggest differences between Microcenter and Fry's. Fry's stores are absolutely massive--well over 100k sq ft, similar in size to a Walmart. Microcenter is generally running 20-40k sq ft, closer to a Hobby Lobby or Michael's in size. (And I'm comparing stores in the few urban areas that have both, so it's not an issue of land availability). It always felt to me that Microcenter was rather a large store, but that Fry's being so much larger leaves me somewhat perplexed as to what the hell they filled it with.
There always will be some need for physical retail, though. The pattern seems to be:
1. Many Speciality retailers
2. Single speciality retailer
3. single speciality retailer with limited stock
4. general retailer or substitute
With each step the market shrinks some, but it's still possible to capture profits.
Like you can chart videogames in this way
1. funcoland, electronics boutique, software etc, gamestop
2. gamestop (expansion)
3. current gamestop (limited game selection, focus on other high margin goods)
4. (future) gamestop folds, wal-mart and general retailers become focus of physical game retail.
In my town, bookstores are like this:
1. Waldenbooks, B Daltons, Books a Million, Borders
2. BOrders, then BAM
3. BAM, limited book stock, focusing more on high margin accessories
4. (in my local area) Goodwill, tiny book shelf at Walmart
The market will contract as Amazon increases to fit the reduced need for physical. So Micro Center is able to fulfill the demand by themselves, and it was just who had better business governance that chose who survived to take over the shrinking market, i think.
I think a part of it is due to the difference in store size and product offering. Fry's had PCs and components sure, but it also tried to have a bit of everything. Large home appliances, software/games, DVDs/CDs, car stereo, home security, networking, gadgets, cameras, home theater, a cafe, and on and on...
Seems like a store that big is only sustainable if you've got a ton of daily foot traffic.
Microcenter on the other hand has much smaller stores and a more focused set of product offerings. Also much better service. You can count on Microcenter staff to be helpful and informed, while Fry's staff was hit or miss but mostly pretty useless.
I've been to a Micro center once in my life, in Sunnyvale, in Mercado. The prices were worse than Staples for computer equipment so I never went back. I don't even know if it's still there anymore.
I have no idea which part of the country you live in, but I would be shocked if in the Bay Area, Micro Center would be considered a "success". I can see how some stores, depending on their business agreements, might be able to stay alive through support, etc.
But for example, last year I ordered a graphics card on Amazon and it arrived on a Friday. I tried installing it on Saturday, and discovered it was broken, so I ordered a new one on Saturday afternoon. It arrived on a Sunday, before 9am. It was the most amazing experience.
I frequent the Duluth, GA location. MicroCenter has excellent deals if you're building a machine, and they're more or less filling the DIY electronics hole that RadioShack left. The "Maker" department is magical.
Amazon returns are nice, but store warranties are where MicroCenter shines. When my Samsung SSD died after six months, I waited weeks for the manufacturer to ship me a replacement. I've gone with store warranties since then; if something breaks they'll just hand you a replacement off the shelf.
Years back Micro Center was a bit pricy, but they really stepped up their game to be competitive with online. I'll still price compare, but if they're within a few percent (and if there are any ongoing specials they can be cheaper) I'll chose the local pickup option. (Especially for something like a case, which always seem to get damaged in shipping.)
I've been to the Boston, Chicago, and DC-area Microcenters, and had good experiences with all of them (although the Boston one could use a larger parking lot). Never actually been to a Fry's store--it seems that Fry's mostly set up west of the Mississippi and Microcenter east of it.
Same experience with Chicago (Elston) and Rockville, MD Micro Center stores. The employees are helpful and knowledgeable, I've found prices to be good, and being able to bring something home in your own vehicle is also valuable. That's opposed to waiting for it to be tossed onto your porch from across the yard or just simply stolen.
I actually purchased a 34" ultrawide monitor from the Rockville store recently specifically because it was the best price I could find at the time, and I went and got it the same day.
Went to a Fry's way out in the burbs of Chicago long ago, in the mid 2000s or so, it was pretty lively then. Not even sure if that one is still around.
There even used to be a TigerDirect location just south of Micro Center on Elston for a while. In my mind they always competed with NewEgg though and looks like NewEgg won out. I don't think the physical location was around that long. Might have even been a CompUSA around there too if I remember correctly.
Downers Grove Fry's is more or less a ghost town, and has been for more than a year at least by all reports. It's impossible to believe that they can cover their overhead. The "changing to a consignment model" thing is laughable with Fry's gigantic stores, the whole thing is just bizarre.
Yep. I went on a Saturday afternoon in the summer of 2019 to buy a power supply. They had a poor selection in general, and didn't have a full or partially modular PS in stock at all.
Went to Microcenter later that day. Moderately busy store, fully stocked shelves, and a decently knowledgeable staff.
I also just bought an open-box video card there last weekend, which ended up saving me another $35 USD. I like having the option to just return it to the store if there is a problem, I'm a little more worried about doing this via an online retailer.
I think I bought my home monitor from that TigerDirect many years ago. I remember being amazed at how quickly they shipped it, I think I had it at my home in Minneapolis a day later.
Are the prices better than Amazon? I've never been to an electronics store that is doing better since 2000 except for the Apple Store, but I live in CA. Even Best Buy in CA is empty and more expensive for the most part.
The prices, especially if you're going to buy a mobo and a CPU at the same time in a combo deal are frequently the lowest you can find.
I also shy away from amazon for some computer components because of all the fake stuff Amazon is now filled with. At MC you're much more likely to get the actual real part you ordered.
Their sales/deals are often the lowest price going, particularly their combo deals.
For non-sale stuff, they're usually in a competitive ballpark, although I wouldn't necessarily say cheaper, and I don't have to worry about counterfeits, or the "might be used/refurbed" roulette.
I live in CA, too (Santa Clara), and in the last few years -- that's a very important qualifier! -- I've found Best Buy to be... pretty reasonable. It's certainly not empty, stocks are up to date, and their prices tend to be competitive not just with Fry's but with Amazon. A few years ago I bought a Mac-specific mechanical keyboard -- a Matias Tactile Pro 3 -- for a good $40 less than Matias's own online store would have charged, which IIRC was actually $10 less than Amazon's price.
Also, as far as I know, Best Buy will do price-matching against Amazon, just like Fry's does, except with much less fuss about it. And Best Buy is way better about actually pricing their stuff competitively with Amazon to start with rather than hoping you just don't notice.
Just lookup the item on your phone when shopping at Microcenter, then show the price to a sales person. They even have a sign saying they will price match Amazon and Walmart.
Simple: MicroCenter left California. It’s extremely difficult to do business here and be profitable with the tight margins involved in computer retail. California is booting them out and spoon feeding non B&M retailers like Amazon.
It would be nice to see them enter (or re-enter) the Northern California market now that Fry’s has imploded. It seems like they have the niche figured out, and apart from Central Computers’ handful of good-but-small locations, they’d have the market to themselves.
Canada has nothing that compares to what Fry's was. Best Buy is about as good as you can get in Canada for computer equipment or electronics, and Amazon.ca is too expensive for Canadians, compared to the prices for Amazon.com for Americans.
When I was living there, I remember shopping at newegg.ca, ncix.ca, tigerdirect.ca and Canada Computers used to have b&m stores with surly service but generally low prices.
Fry's is a very strange store. The store here caries both expensive, ancient products as well as reasonably-priced, current gear. It's also the only place I know of to get certain parts and electronics components.
The customer service is definitely atrocious though. It took 40 minutes to find someone who could unlock the RAM I needed from a cage (and this was after I had to get a printed PO from someone on the "sales" floor).
Kinda funny how they treat years old ram like its gold. I feel bad for the employee(s) that get locked in cages all day.
They're spending a ton of labor for things that don't matter (like keeping a cafe open). No wonder they dont have money to keep their shelves stocked with anything other than as seen on tv junk.
Have you ever tried ordering from those cafe things? It is almost comical watching the poor cashier try to punch in the "order" on their POS. Like they had a binder of SKU's they scan for "coffee" or "latte", and then it would spit out the same mile-long receipt you'd get for ordering a $3000 laptop. It was super bizarre.
What exactly are you considering a "success" and which part of the country do you live in? At least in CA, at the turn of the century Fry's was the most reliable vendor for computer equipment. EVERYONE went there. On Black Friday, the lines were crazy. 20 years later, it's a graveyard of old knockoffs.
I used to live in California when Fry's was the popular destination. They started to go downhill around the time I moved to the Midwest (1995). Questionable return policies etc. Microcenter in contrast is still a huge success. Everytime I visit one, I'm amazed at how well stocked they are, and how busy.
> that suck money out of local stores and diverts all the money to Seattle, except for the local warehouses where minimum wage workers are being worked like robots
Fry's is not paying better than Amazon and Amazon's workers do not earn the minimum wage. Show me where Fry's has a national $15 minimum wage policy (they don't), ie nearly 100% higher than the Federal minimum wage.
Plus almost everybody on the floor at Fry's was paid commission, including the cashiers. Woe be the cashier to checks out a $3000 order only to have the customer come back a month later and get a refund... bye bye commission.
I don't know if this policy is chain wide, but I was very unhappy with the weird shakedown when you leave. There's a person there that stops you and matches your receipt to your purchased items. No attempt to be friendly about it either.
West Michigan here - bestbuy does this on your way out, but it's never felt like they were being intimidating, just a friendly smile while they glance at your receipt and your things and a "have a nice day".
Are you sure this is illegal? I saw other stores to do it as well, for example Home Depot in California. It's not like they are paying your down, just look at the receipt and your cart.
It's not illegal for them to ask to see your receipt at the exit.
It IS illegal for them to try to stop you from leaving if you decline, unless they are detaining you for suspected shoplifting (which they must specifically inform you of).
And if they actually go so far as to physically prevent you from leaving? Congratulations, you just won the lawsuit lottery.
This was my experience as well, going into the Sunnyvale store even 2-3 years ago. Their lineup of laptops were all the previous generation from what was currently available, and nothing was priced that well. I doubt that's changed.
Contrast to going into a local computer store, they had full stock of all the latest parts/components and competitive prices.
Would be interesting to know what's going on within the leadership of this company. They must know what the situation is, but how do they turn things around?
Yet another Central Computers fan checking in. Besides computers, they have all kinds of networking equipment, cables at decent prices, etc.
I haven't been to Anchor yet but several of my ham radio friends have recommended it.
Jameco in San Carlos also has a lot of components. It's not a retail store, other than a small display up front of mostly closeout stuff, but you can order online for will call and they will have it ready by the time you get there.
One more Bay Area source I like a lot is SF Cable. As you can guess, they have mostly cables. The ones I've bought from them have been good quality at a good price. I particularly like their flat Cat 6 Ethernet cables. I don't think they have a retail store at all, but if you're in the Bay Area it's overnight shipping.
Jumping on the Central Computers recommendation, I highly recommend checking them out if you're near one of their stores. They have good prices on the things I've checked, and they are a pleasant place to shop. The employees are helpful if you ask, and they won't harangue you if you just want to shop quietly. One of the few shops that lacks that concentrated misery that is so common in retail.
In fact, for my home-built machines, I typically buy them at Central, who will assemble the CPU, RAM, and Motherboard, showign that it POSTs (I've had plenty of times when I've purchased what I thought was a compatible group of hardware that wasn't).
Another positive review for Central Computers. I was sad to see their Pleasanton store close, presumably due to rising rents, but the Sunnyvale store just reopened in a new location, so hopefully they’ll be with us for years to come.
I was pleasantly surprised by bestbuy for upgrading my desktop recently, good selection and good prices (when matching their online store pricing)...actually I ordered online and picked up there. Then a week later the monitor price dropped and they matched it to the lower price.
I have to say too that the San Jose store has smelled horrid the last year due to what seems like super old carpet smell. If they won't even pay to clean their carpet they don't deserve to be in business.
Another +1 from me for Central Computers - I've bought assembled desktops as well as components there. Prices seem recent (they need to keep up with online price matching) and the service/knowledge is really good.
I live in the midwest and there's a Frys up by Chicago. I drove up there during the holidays in hopes I might be able to snag my wife a nice monitor off the floor.
I was absolutely gutted to see the state of the store. It's immense, which makes its hollowness even more shocking. I remember when the store opened during my highschool years (2004'ish?) it was a pilgrimage to go there and see double-stacked shelves of every part you could imagine.
The employees (probably a 15-20 in the huge 400K sq.ft. store) looked shellshocked and didn't seem to have any inclination to ask me how they could help. I talked to a security guard who was maybe 17-18 and he mentioned something about renegotiating contracts with vendors or something, but I could tell even he didn't buy it.
I don't think there is any question of whether Fry's is in dire trouble.
The one near Indianapolis is like that, too. I'd never been in one before (none anywhere near me in Michigan), and was excited to experience it when vacationing with my family last year. Was shocked at how bad it was—it looked like it was in the process of being liquidated (huge empty spaces), and the merchandise was mostly garbage. It was like a junky flea market without the energy.
Watching that store spiral downhill has been very depressing.
The roof leaks water everywhere, so they have shopping carts with buckets all over the store; the computer section is now entirely empty ("we're switching to a consignment model") is what one employee told me; just very, very sad.
I'd guess perhaps they spent too much on real estate (that store could be 1/3rd its size and still fit everything) but no idea.
That location used to be an AutoNation used car megastore, and its only advertising-friendly feature is being visible from I-69.
Since Fishers succumbed to Carmel disease and started putting traffic circles in everywhere, it's even more difficult to get to from the north.
I'd say they spent too little on real estate, and tried to repurpose a bad building in a bad location. They would have done better in the old shuttered Marsh supermarket on 96th St., if it had closed up shop before they moved in to Indy. Actually, they could probably move right now, for all the shelf-stock they're likely to still have on hand. The old building should just be razed and replaced with class-B office park offices. It has never had enough casual traffic to be good retail.
Are you aware of any real alternatives for electronics hardware in the Indy area? With RadioShack dead and Fry's dying, I honestly have no idea where to go.
It’s more the browsing factor. I typically don’t know what I need, and it’s much easier to get a feel for my options when I can see the variety up close.
As I don't live in Indy or Chicago any more, I don't have any good solutions for you. I-65 isn't that bad a drive, and the windmills give you a nice eco-green feeling, even if the rest areas aren't so great.
The Greek Islands restaurant used to regularly drive a van to Chicago and back, because Kronos wouldn't ship their beef-lamb doner kebab cones for vertical gyro rotisseries all the way to Indy, so they were about the only place in town you could get a real gyro. I guess it's about the same for electronics.
You could maybe ask around the IUPUI or Purdue electronics engineering professors, or the robotic therapy/prosthetics lab at the IU hospital.
Hanger 1 at moffett is only 348,480 sq ft, that is an absolute unit of a Frys at 400,000. Maybe I'll have to drive over to Chicago and check that out before their inevitable closure.
The Frys in Chicago is more like a normal big box store size like a Target. I just drew a ploygon over it on Google maps and it's 3.6 acres (~156k sq ft)
The one in Wilsonville, Oregon has been a sad place for well over a decade. A friend went there just before Christmas this year, and found the same as the article mentions - empty shelves, everywhere.
Fry's in Wilsonville had some tough shoes to fill -- the building started as an electronics megastore called Incredible Universe, and in the beginning at least it was an event to go there. When Fry's moved in, they ditched all the theming (side note - this store never got a unique theme like many other Fry's stores; it was always promised to be "coming soon" but never did), and changed the layout to be a bit of a hodge-podge by comparison.
I really miss Incredible Universe's "bent and dent" room, where they sold items that were missing bits, slightly damaged, unboxed, etc, at a pretty steep discount.
I have vivid memories of the demos at Incredible Universe, including an early-stage VR setup. It's also the place I was able to try out crappy consoles like the Atari Jaguar and the 3DO Interactive.
The San Diego store (in Mission Valley) also started out as an Incredible Universe, Fry's had also bought their delivery trucks but never repainted them. Even 10 years ago, I would still see Incredible Universe-logoed trucks delivering appliances.
I used to drive down there from Portland to get parts that I needed right away. Haven't been there in years though, as it had definitely started going downhill in the early 2000s. I always hated the receipt checkers and used to walk right by the line of people waiting to get out after they paid for merch.
I did go to the AMD roadshow in the parking lot one time, and both my friend and I won Athlon CPU/Mobo combos, that was cool. That may have been the last time I was there. Sounds depressing.
I remember going to the Wilsonville Fry's as a kid and playing Gran Turismo 2 for PS1 in an awesome demo setup with a steering wheel, shifter, and huge TV. I went back last year to the same store and found it downright melancholy. Like seeing your childhood die.
As many have already pointed out, the answer to Fry's in 2020 is Microcenter.
I'm fortunate to live 15 minutes away from the only Microcenter in California, which has really picked up business over the last year. Every Fry's in our area is in thes same sad condition (the Fountain Valley and Anaheim Hills Fry's are both ghost towns.)
The folks who work at our nearby Microcenter are all enthusiasts, and the store has a similar vibe to the golden-era of Fry's stores in Silicon Valley (this is despite CA's Microcenter being in Orange County, about 400 miles south of Silicon Valley and the broader Bay Area.)
One thing I noticed even a decade ago is that Microcenter did a much better job catering to high end computer builds than Frys, which over the last decade felt like it had too much breadth of product at the expense of useful depth in any one area. For instance, Microcenters have long had full isles dedicated to water cooling. Back before AIOs, you'd be able to find parts you'd only otherwise get at online specialty stores -- Newegg didn't even cary them. (Today, the selection is smaller but that is mostly due to the proliferation of AIOs.)
Used to be a Microcenter in Santa Clara. It was a good store and huge. But it closed a few years back. At the time it seemed like it suffered from the same problem as Fry’s. Sounds like maybe they regrouped and are doing better now.
I never found it to be good. With Fry’s and central computer (not to mention Al’s or whatever that place is that I can’t quite remember ... the legendary one) nearby, there was no need to go into overpriced Microcenter.
The shelves in most of the store were empty. Much of the store was blocked off with caution tape, with buckets out to collect rain water dripping from the ceiling. I looked for graphics cards, but the aisle was completely bare. There were very few workers in the store, and even fewer customers.
In the front, I found fragrances. DVDs and Blu-rays were mainly obscure or poor films priced as high as $40. The only computers I could find were antiquated machines for the workers running Windows XP (or possibly Windows 2000) with 4:3 monitors.
One of the workers said that they were 'restructuring' their supply contracts - a clear attempt by management to keep up morale in a failing business. A store that size does not move to a consignment model.
> The only computers I could find were antiquated machines for the workers running Windows XP (or possibly Windows 2000) with 4:3 monitors.
Somewhere there will be a chapter in the book of Fry's demise about how they never modernized their point of sale system. That thing is fucking ancient and looks like some kind of weird homebrew monstrosity that the owners nephew (you know, the one who "knows computers") cooked up for them way back when they started. That thing has to have been a boat anchor that kept them from tinkering with their business model.
They never focused on online sales. Bestbuy was facing a similiar decline But Bestbuy modernized their online experience and added a price guarantee which made them competitive against amazon and other online merchants.
The Fry’s in Burbank won’t even keep all their lights on during the day. I’ve had to bust out the flashlight on my phone while browsing there.
I just think they’ve got too much crap in there at RadioShack prices. It’s hard to find something I’m looking for and when i do find it, have to make the mental choice to pay twice as much for it in store or wait 2 days for Amazon Prime to deliver it.
So just anecdotally as a guy who shops there, I’m not surprised they’re struggling.
Right, I find that hard to believe. I worked in the Oxnard location for a short time in 2007 and that has never been my experience. They'll dim the lights well after store closing, but it's never been dark enough that I felt like I couldn't see what I was doing.
Used to shop at the Oxnard location all the time - opening day was awesome, and the cheap hotdogs they'd do the following year. Probably the brightest fry's I've seen.
Had to stop going there when some manager got upset I was came back in asking for a price adjustment per the store policy and they told me to never come back after handing me cash.
I'm 100% serious. I have been in there maybe two dozen times in the last 2 years. The audio area in particular is quite dim, there are ceiling lights that are never turned on (underneath the weird UFO shaped outcropping).
Sorry for doubting you. I saw some pictures posted on Reddit if the Burbank store, it’s a lot more barren than I remember it being, so I don’t doubt that they’re cutting costs by not turning all the lights on.
When my sister visited she needed a USB cable so we went to Frys in Burbank . I also remember it being very dark and it sort of had an Eastern German feeling to it. Big store with only a few items in it.
I don't want to see retail outlets go away. There is sometime important about being able to physically check out things like keyboards, gaming mice and headphones. I'll pay the extra premium at a BestBuy just because I can actually paid each bluetooth headphone with my device and try it out and actually hear the sound-stage and quality.
I remember when MediaPlay and Circuit City went away. So are we just down to BestBuy and MicroCenters if you want to actually look at things before buying them? How long until all we have are YouTube videos by Markus/Dave2D/Linus to judge products by?
I feel the same way. I don't have Fry's/Microcenter near me, so my choices are BestBuy (overpriced, poor selection) or the internet.
I try to buy from Newegg instead of Amazon because I don't want Amazon to essentially have a monopoly (not to mention that Newegg seems to package things better). I'll buy from BestBuy only in an absolute emergency, though I used to shop at Fry's and RadioShack quite a bit when both were good.
I hope Microcenter can reinvigorate the enthusiast electronics retail market and expand since apparently Fry's isn't going to do it.
From a nostalgic point of view, I agree. Browsing, interacting, and being critical of suppliers are all important things to take into account. But, from an economic point of view, I disagree. The market has chosen the better course. I can browse online, without wandering isles; I already know what I'm looking for. I can read other customers questions and reviews; can't do that in stores. I can see how other customers have reviewed the seller; Fry's has never offered that. They don't make, nor sell, buggy whips anymore. Fry's is just another iteration of that effect. It has not followed market optimization, so it has failed.
Part of the issue is that their quality of service has gone down. 10 years ago, most people who worked there were knowledgeable in their respective departments, but now it is quite often the opposite. I don’t exactly blame the workers, it could simply be that circumstances have caused training to become nonexistent.
I remember the holidays at that time with the checkout line being so long that they couldn’t keep up with even 30 registers open. Now, they have maybe two registers open at any given time and the checkout line is never more than a few customers long.
I find it sad and disconcerting. But I have to admit to being part of the problem: I haven’t bought much at Fry’s since I built my last PC 2-3 years ago. Every time we go now, it’s depressing and we end up only buying a cable or a memory card.
10yr ago those people had just got laid off from all their IT jobs and whatnot. Now they all have real jobs again and you've got lower quality labor. The same thing happened to Autozone, Home Depot and every other place a laid off skilled worker wound up getting a job to make ends meet.
> 10 years ago, most people who worked there were knowledgeable ... but now ...
That is the same in and vaguely specialist shop. Most of the workers will be the cheapest to employ or the least willing to fight back about a bit of unpaid overtime here or there. Having knowledge and/or skills is no longer a significant competitive advantage in that employment market.
> 10 years ago, most people who worked there were knowledgeable in their respective departments,
The quality and depth of information available online, especially via forums, far exceeds what one can expect from a single employee. I don’t see how any store could compete on that aspect, although the online info is probably limited to people who are adept at reading English.
Quite easily; who wants to sift through all that? However, it turns out if you charge higher prices and have knowledgeable employees, many people will take advantage of the employees' guidance, then go home and order the same thing on Amazon for less.
> However, it turns out if you charge higher prices and have knowledgeable employees, many people will take advantage of the employees' guidance, then go home and order the same thing on Amazon for less.
This always chapped my hide. It absolutely killed my favorite local technical bookstores.
1) Not enough people coming into their store to buy, and
2) Past real-estate investments that left them with too much indoor space.
Solution:
Take half the space of each store, and turn it into a maker-space/education center.
Hold workshops there. Free, or dirt cheap, on how to do fun things with a Raspberry Pi, or build your own PC/gaming rig, or whatever.
Have spaces where people can assemble their gear. With a few knowledgeable staff around - plus the friendly neighborhood volunteers who will be naturally attracted to just come hang out at this space - to help out. And since it's right there, they can just walk over to the store and BUY ALL THE PARTS.
Make it FUN. Family friendly. A place where people want to come and just hang out, to be around other technical hobbyists...
A place where local tech enthusiasts go to meet their friends, and make new friends. And spend money.
(Heck, Fry's could even sell food and drinks. Popcorn. There would be people there who need to eat and drink; why not?)
Would this work?
Maybe. Maybe not.
But I bet it has a better chance of working than the direction they're heading now.
i think they're in some odd holding pattern on their downward spiral, where there isn't enough capital for changing the business or even purchasing new product, but there isn't enough business potential for new investment either.
perhaps they are keeping everything open as shells to try and shop some deal to potential investors as revitalizing a once great brand.
someone up high has some really good and specific reasons for keeping most of the stores barely open and operational.
if there were responsible people at the helm they would shutter nearly all the locations immediately.
they probably have a few dozen months of funding left at this pace, no idea what they're holding out for, they seem to be just delaying the inevitable.
Fry’s in Alpharetta is one step away from being a Brandsmart. The store is lackluster and not stocked very well. Thankfully I moved close to a Microcenter. It’s rare you can beat Microcenter’s Intel cpu prices for non-niche cpus.
The employees at both places are only really knowledgeable about gaming stuff. As soon as I ask them about other things they have a deer in headlights look.
A week before Thanksgiving I went to the Fry's in Roseville. The Northgate (Sacramento) location has always been busy (haven't been back since 2018). Fry's has always been my go to for last minute electronics (i.e. I can't wait for next day shipping).
The entire computer/networking section was bare. They had a wireless IP camera and a $400 "small-business class" Cisco router (can't remember which model). No cable modems, no other routers, nothing. The only stocked shelves were media (CDs and Blu-ray). The Christmas shoppers were disgruntled they had made the trip.
A sales associate I talked to was confounded. When asked whether Fry's was going out of business he said they were told no. He mentioned there had been no deliveries in months and the storage they did have was empty.
I don't think it can be attributed to just Prime or better service at Best Buy. The market is saturated with tech. Everyone has a cell phone, laptop/desktop, TV, smart-device, etc. Fry's should've been downsizing about 10 years ago. It's possible they could've done more with their service department (the tire, car audio system installers always seemed busy)
I'll always remember Fry's as
- being packed during the holidays
- having ridiculous long checkout lines b/t 1998-2016 even an hour before close
- being able to find cool/rare last minute gifts
- massive selection of photography equipment
- in recent years (?) having price-match guarantee
This is what companies that are going out of business tell their employees in order to keep enough people around to help liquidate/pack up when it's time to shut down.
Curious to know if employee paychecks are still arriving on time and clearing.
Whatever is happening at Fry's, it's not the normal retail circling the drain. Toys R Us had more inventory on shelves a week into their final clearance sales than Fry's in Fountain Valley did a couple days before Christmas.
If it were trying to make things work, they should be consolidating stores to reduce operating costs. But they're just in some sort of holding pattern. I saw a rumor on a Fry's employee forum that one of the brothers Fry was going through a personal bankruptcy and that was disrupting the corporation's credit, which seems plausible, but hasn't been reported anywhere legitimate, so I dunno.
I was at the Northgate store just before Thanksgiving, too. Totally shocked when they had zero CPUs, motherboards, and RAM. An employee said they were hit hard by the tariffs and were looking for new suppliers. That didn't make very much sense to me, because you can buy stuff like that elsewhere, even if the prices went up (I'm not sure if they did or did not). I grew up going to that store when it was still called Incredible Universe. It seems certain that it will close any day.
> Fry’s has adamantly denied the rumors, saying the shelves are empty because it has shifted to a consignment model, meaning that suppliers get paid for goods only after a store has sold them.
Sounds like Fry's asked themselves, "Why are Amazon's inventory carrying costs so low?" or "How come we can't do like FBA?" Their suppliers clearly are not onboard.
When I went to Fry's in Austin a couple of weeks ago I saw very close to no inventory in many of the product categories I looked at. I'm not sure I'll go back. While I'm sad to see Fry's go, I understand that it's partly due to my fondness for Amazon.
If you're in the SF Bay Area, and you like electronics, do yourself a favor and check out Al Lasher's Electronics in Berkeley: http://allashers.com/ "Family owned and operated since 1960."
I get less variety at microcenter than Frys. I use to frequent both, fora long time I just put up with bad customer service and atmosphere (hostile at times!) At both establishments but somehow, microcenter just changed last year, and now I either get it at microcenter or order online and wait, fry's is my last option. Part of me wants to feel sorry for retail workers but I think it's a management issue.
One time I had to get a laptop last minute, they (fry's) tried to get me to buy one laptop, told them I will look around first, which I did and foud what I wanted, asked them to help me get that model after which they basically ignored me and refused to interact with me for like half an hour to 45 minutes where finally a manager stepped in and personally helped me.
Another time, I wanted to buy some game I think as a gift. I declined to give my name/address since I was paying cash and suddenly I needed to show my id and a credit card or else I'm committig fraud or some ridiculous thing.
I've seen them make nasty comments about a customer's appearance to the customer's face too.
And this is at different locations. Microcenter started to get their way,but I was so shocked how they turned around. It's hard to explain,like the sales people will helpfully just ...help you find things without being rude. The cashiers will ask for an address (and get pushy at times) but they are fine without one.
I will just buy online if I have to give up my name anyways. Cash gift cards and deliver it to a trusted person. All the variety I want too. The one advantage aside from accessibility retailers had was privacy and that's outthe door now. Amazon/newegg does not do facial recognition,gait analysis and track my phone in order to buy something in their site.
I haven't been to Fry's in a while, but every time I went I always wondered how the hell they managed to stay in business. My random observations over the years of dealing with Fry's:
- Almost all the floor people are paid in part on commission. Even the cashiers salary is in some part commission based. Like, how can a cashier have any control over what somebody purchases in order to maximize their commission?
- Their Point of Sale software seemed to be the most antiquated homebrew garbage on earth. The thing would print out a mile long receipt, even in their cafe. Like, to order coffee the cashier had to do a bunch of steps in on the terminal just to complete the transaction--super bizarre. I'm pretty sure some owners nephew "who knows computers" must have programmed that thing way back in the day and the owners never bothered to modernize.
- The stores always seemed depressing, even ten years ago. Shelves were always dirty with crap strewn about. The isles always had some shelves that were empty with no inventory, or the majority of the inventory out of stock.
- Years ago my monitor crapped out on me and I had an extended warranty. The cheap fuckers didn't replace it but actually wanted to spend several weeks somehow repairing it. I still have pictures on my phone of the absolute mountain of paperwork they gave me for this processes. It was completely insane.
- All the people working there never seemed happy. Several times I overheard employees yelling at each other in neighboring isles. I always got the feeling store management was running the place like a pressure cooker--"gotta sell XYZ of whatever or you are fired" where "XYZ" was some product nobody on earth wanted.
In short, Fry's always had a weird vibe to me. I'm surprised they managed to make it this far.
> Almost all the floor people are paid in part on commission.
Yeah, every time I picked my item off the shelf, if anyone was nearby they would grab it from me and say "I need to give you a quote."
The first few times, I dutifully followed them to their terminal hoping that the "quote" might be a buck or two off the sticker price. Nope. The quote was for exactly the same price.
After a while I got in the habit of saying "just browsing", and as soon as they left the aisle I would grab my item and make a beeline out of that area.
One time I bought a $20 case for my compact camera. I told the guy I would be a while trying different cases to see how they fit. As soon as I picked one and started to walk away... Yes, you guessed it, "I need to give you a quote." And he wrapped it around my little case and taped it all over the place to make sure I wouldn't throw the quote away.
Something very strange is happening in retail now. As mega-stores like Fry's, not to mention mom and pop shops, wither up and die, people are left with fewer local store options.
So even if you want to continue supporting local business and an old favorite chain, you're left with at least a 50-50 chance you'll make the effort only to return home empty handed.
Wasting an hour or more of your life on an attempt to source an item from a local store isn't worth it to most people. So they go with Amazon, where they find exactly what they're looking for, at a rock-bottom price, often delivered within a day.
With each iteration, another layer of soil gets thrown on the coffin of local retail.
That said, I'm not entirely sure this is a bad thing. Driving around burns a politically and environmentally harmful resource. Freeway congestion is a blight on on cities everywhere. Big box retailers and shopping malls destroy wildlife habitat and pervert the local tax base.
Isn't the ideal world one with replicators like Star Trek NG that can make anything, including a cup of snobby tea and the china cup to hold it?
Well, son, we could have that but that would have hurt mom&pop stores, and put people out of work, and people have to have jobs don't they? A human isn't living a good life unless they are working to keep food on the table.
Every time I go into one now I am shocked at how much open space there is on the floor and the shelves. It is super depressing. I have been seeing this for the last year or so at the San Marcos store near where I live. Frys has been going downhill for years though. But I mostly notice this empty space in the areas where they sold toys or books. The super technical areas of the store are still fully stocked where they sell CPUs or computer cases or motherboards.
this article made me think of 2 experiences at big box stores I had this weekend.
At Lowe's, I had to buy a few things for a desk Im building. I noticed the following:
1) the staff size was the same, but
2) I had to check out my own items at the self checkout which is
3) user hostile and requires assistance for about 30% of the items.
4) they only had 1 person for 8 self checkout stations and this person was super busy and checking out took unnecessarily long
I vowed then to never go back. It just so happens I had a plumbing issue, so I went to home depot. As luck would have it, they have done the same thing. However, their self checkout was reasonably polished and more user friendly. That said, I still was not happy with the process and will revert to going to one of the fewer and fewer ACE hardware stores whenever possible. I shouldnt have to know any code or special information about a product to buy it. If I have to check out my own items I shouldnt see 15 employees loitering around the store chatting.(true at both Lowes and Home Depot). I shouldnt be paying 8 dollars for a 25 foot roll of painters tape if I am checking out my own items.
Dude, the new self checkouts at Home Depot are the bee's knees. Huge, bright and very responsive display. And best part is they actually let you hold a barcode wand so you can scan all your stuff while it is still in the cart! Makes it much, much faster to use because you aren't getting constantly blocked on the machine between each item you ring up.
Unlike every other self checkout, I actually had fun using it!
It's tempting to say "well it's just because of Amazon and Newegg", but Best Buy and (from what I've heard) Microcenter are doing just fine. I'd be really curious to see a post-mortem on what went wrong at Fry's.
> Fry’s has adamantly denied the rumors, saying the shelves are empty because it has shifted to a consignment model, meaning that suppliers get paid for goods only after a store has sold them.
... so it's in trouble, because it is no longer considered creditworthy enough to obtain net-day financing terms from its wholesale partners.
I'm not surprised that the Palo Alto store is closing. It was built in an abandoned warehouse, and the land is now far more valuable than the store.
It hasn't been a useful place for electronic parts for ten years. For computer components, try Central Computer. For electronic parts, DigiKey or Mouser.
The Layoff page for Fry's (https://www.thelayoff.com/frys-electronics) is full of reports of empty stores, no restocking deliveries for months and empty parking lots and has been for a while now.
I'm 99% sure the Austin one is slowly closing. Less stuff every time. No graphics cards last time. I stopped going. Microcenter come to Austin. We have money. Please!!
Fry's is undergoing the same warehousification as the rest of brick and mortar retail. Going to an electronics store used to be an event: new models, attractive displays, knowledgable staff, clean stores, bright lights. I suspect MBA management has squeezed every margin not directly connected to profit. This leaves the inventory, but removes any expense wasted on the experience of the store. New models? No, just the ones that sell the most. Knowledgable staff? No, only those willing to settle for essentially minimal wage. Clean stores? No, we cut the staff and only sweep as needed. Bright lights? No, turn off every other bank to be "green" (and save on electricity.) So the stores have become a step above warehouses.
When the most attractive feature of a store is in-store pickup, it is no longer an event to go to a store, but a logistical footnote in your day. Items are no longer sold by staff, environment, and experience, but instead as a commodity. While many people here may say they want to shop undisturbed, a large portion of purchases, especially high dollar ones, are made with the help of an eager sales person who is encouraging you to spend money.
Margins used to be skyhigh on electronics. Things were new and hot and changing rapidly. People didn't know a whole lot about what they were buying, they needed educated. And it required educated staff, and the margins were high enough to afford them.
Electronics are mostly a commodity now. There's less of a difference now between a TV store and a shoe store.
Yes. What more selection in TV do you need than Costco? They’re all made by LG or Samsung anyway with some diff software, at the price levels most people can afford.
At this point it's probably a better business move to close the store till they're able to stock shelves. No one walks into that store and thinks "oh, this is somewhere I should come back to for my tech needs in the future".
Wow, that looks like what most places look like after a couple weeks of 'going out of business' sales, when they start selling shelves, light fixtures, desks, trash cans and the like.
I dropped by the Fremont Fry's the past weekend to see if the "inventory issues" I'd seen in September had gotten any better. They were worse.
From 2004 till about a year ago, I'd never seen any inventory problems at any of the Bay Area Fry's. Starting around June (I think), I'd noticed inventory issues at their Fremont and San Jose locations.
By September, it was very noticeable -- I couldn't even find a basic plug converter in preparation for an international trip a few months back, finding Target had better selection. When I asked if the store was closing, they said something about some inventory changes, presumably the move to the consignment model the article spoke about.
A few commenters mention that Fry's seemed to be adding more kids toys sections giving that as a potential reason for Fry's demise. Many retailers started stocking more kids toys as Toys-R-Us fell victim to vulture capital. I suspect Fry's was trying to cash in on the sudden market like many other retailers.
Well, it's certainly a reason for geek parents to give as an excuse to drop in to Fry's. Or was at this point.
Once I became aware of Newegg and other online retailers, and trusted shopping form them, it was the end of Fry's for me. The Fry's close to me always had terrible products - off brand motherboards, orange stickered components, etc. For a period Fry's was my place to pick up emergency Cat 5 and other random components, but Home Depot/Lowe's sells quality product at far more convenient locations. I last visited the Renton store a few years back, hoping to find some unnecessary necessity and left disappointed. The store was under stocked and in disrepair. The general quality and quantity of goods had diminished remarkably. I was near the San Diego location a few months back with time to kill and decided it wasn't even worth it to wander around in the air conditioning for a few minutes.
Thinking back, Fry's was a perfect place to spend my teenage years - I had little money, and not enough technical knowledge to be a discerning consumer. As an adult it no longer serves its purpose - I can afford to buy higher quality goods, and have the time and knowledge to find them.
>In the mid-1990s, before high-speed internet connections made software easy to download, the stores served as a teenage hangout, allowing customers to play video games and try new hardware.
>[link:] PAGE ONE -- '90s Kids Find New Hangout -- Computer Store
>Harrison's one complaint is that the game manuals are not near the demonstration computers. "You have to figure out what weapon to kill what people with on your own, and that's hard to do without the manual," he said.
In the late 70's - early 80's, I used to hang out at the mall Radio Shack after school with a few other regular kids, where we played games and learned to program BASIC on the TRS-80's.
They had a similar attitude about kids hanging out there, and gave us a place to store our cassette tapes, because it helped sell computers to the adult customers, who we would demonstrate the computers to all the time.
Plus we got to listen to great music (like "My Sharona" by The Knack, who were supposed to be the next Beatles) as the Radio Shack sales people sold stereos and speakers to customers.
Kids these days know "My Bologna" better than "My Sharona" and Weird Al better than the Beatles. (And JavaScript better than BASIC!)
How is it possible that they've been running in this zombie state for so many months now? The amount of money they have to be spending things like power to keep the lights on and the air at a comfortable temperature must be astronomical with almost no revenue coming in.
If they were going to switch to this model, why not just lock the doors for the months where the transition is happening? Very very weird.
I've patronised the Atlanta (Gwinnett) store since the mid-2000s. It was a very important base for hardware of all kind, to the degree that we would regularly drive from Athens, GA (60 mi E) to Fry's for parts. The last few years, it's been a gradual deterioration toward exactly the kind of empty-shelf phenomenon described in the article. By now, much of the stock seems to be gone, what remains--which is definitely not the most updated and trendiest items--is disorganised and poorly attended-to, and the place has almost no staff. One can hear a pin drop in there most days. It's eerily still, bizarrely empty yet formally open, like the setting of a postapocalyptic video game.
Last time I walked in there was a few months ago, and I assumed they were just trying to clear out what remains of inventory before closing the store. It has been very unclear to me under what economic principle it remains open, given that there is little merchandise, almost no staff, and no customers.
Fry’s was in a tough position. Expand, or risk leaving not just money on the table, but being swamped by expansion of others. In the short term it was a good move for them, but they became Best Buy (the failing version).
They are at a crossroads. Give. Best Buy’s apparent comeback (I am surprised that I like shopping there now, after detesting it for so long) signals that Fry’s could do it. But Fry’s themselves seems to be denying it. They need to aggressive make signs of life. Close half the stores for chrissake.
I’ve actually had 2 “once removed“ encounters with Randy Fry.
1. almost bought the house next door to his in Los Gatos.
2. DMV guy asked if I knew him. I don’t remember why exactly ... it was either that i’d bought the same car or he recognized my address as being near to his house. apparently Randy had just been in the DMV (I guess he doesn’t have people) and the DMV guy remembered him due to his local prominence. Turns out, as the DMV clerk told me, his real name is not Randy. For privacy reasons I guess I’ll not share it.
Having worked with AIM a lot over the years, I'm also very curious about this. In my experience, the people who work at AIM fulltime are very professional and experienced at putting together high quality grant proposals, and already receive substantial NSF funding. I'm thus optimistic that they can survive longterm without the direct support of John Fry.
When Fry's opened up here in the PNW I was looking forward to seeing what theme the store would have - it was a bummer when it wound up being a generic big box store. But still, Fry's was Fry's, and we got some great deals there (mostly thanks to their price match policy) and found some really neat stuff.
One of the things I was looking forward to in fatherhood was taking my kid to Fry's. They always had really cool science/tech toys.
We've now got a two year old, and a month ago we went to the Renton Fry's for the first time in, well, probably two years, and it's absolutely desolate. There were still a few cool toys, though - I got him a Soccer Hoverball [0] - so at least I got to do that once with my son.
So sad to see this. The Thunderbird store used to be about midway between work and home when I lived in AZ, 20 years ago. I'd often stop in just to walk around and see what was new.
Now, the nearest Fry's is 45-60 minutes away from me, so I've only been in about 3 times in the last decade. The most recent was equally depressing. We didn't find what we were looking for and it probably would have been damaged even if we had.
Leading up to the New Year's, I was watching the CNN history documentary on Netflix. It was the one executive produced by Tom Hanks, and covers the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s. I went backwards and have just finished the 80s.
I know the history of computing technology pretty well... but it was striking to see it laid out like that, in the context of changes with art, culture, domestic and international politics.
Retrospecting on that, in the heyday when Moore's Law was so visible, before the PC revolution gave birth to the Internet revolution, new computing devices were changing so fast. You could go into a store a month later and see a lot of things that are new. I remember the Columbus OH Microcenter. There was a tiny used computer store nearby. Both were packed. That business worked because there was so much turnover.
You don't really see that nowadays. The most exciting thing that come out tbese days is the Threadripper, but for most consumers, it isn't necessary anymore.
Most of the rapid changes are taking place where people can't really see it anymore (unless you are an insider) -- in the cloud, with AI.
Even though changes are still happening rapidly, I think the _visible_ changes have petered out for the consumer.
What I am saying is that, even if Fry's were able to compete on price with internet retailers, something more fundamental has shifted.
Now maybe I am just saying this from the perspective of the US. I hear that in China, the development and competitiveness of smartphones is a lot greater there than in the US. Apple has a difficult time competing in China because there are many stylish, hot smartphones within that domestic market. If so, then perhaps it isn't that changes are no longer being visible ... but that the US is no longer the focal point of consumer product innovation that it one was.
I'm a huge nerd and I loved just wondering around the store getting ideas for projects, etc, but I can't help but think that the overall shopping experience was terrible. Wonder in past random bins of laptop fans and USB desk lamps through an outdated books section. Find something that you want, and half the time you had to have a sales person write up a sheet on it so that they'd get their commission, and then go stand in line, just go have to get the thing from a giant chain-link security cage, and then when you finally leave the store someone has to look through all your bags and check the stuff against the receipt.
They might have had selection when no one else did, but the experience was practically designed to be as annoying and uncomfortable as possible.
All of the Fry's locations in Oregon had a similar feel to other commenters. The one thing I'd like to add: many of the overhead lights were off. Like, at random. My best guess is direction from the top to save on electricity costs. At first I thought they were turned off in areas without merchandise, but ended up finding what I was looking for in those dark nooks and crannies. The lighting made the area look oppressive, and the "As Seen On TV" just gave it an acerbic vibe. The employees actively walked away when I approached them asking where things were, and the one I finally cornered (after chasing him to the checkout counter) had no idea where their electrical tape was. Verrrrry sad :/
I remember Fry’s original, non-tech retail store at Camden & Kooser in San Jose before they opened the first Fry’s Electronics in Sunnyvale.
Also, in high school, I worked at Egghead Software which was killed off by CompUSA, NCA Peripherals, MicroCenter and other large retailers, most of which have been since killed off by online retailers.
For the past 15+ years, I’ve used pricewatch.com to shop for computer parts because they tend to scrape more sites than Google Shopping does.
Fry’s Electronics anecdote from 1996:
So Fry’s Electronics used to buy full-page ads in the San Jose Mercury News where they would advertise their sales and loss-leaders. In red, 192 point font, Fry’s advertised the launch of OS/2 4 “WRAP [sic]” on three (3) separate lines. Ooof IBM.
The Seattle frys has been dead for 2 years. Both times I needed a usb drive or power supply and the had none. Found a local mom and pop up near mill creek that had seasonic power supplies in all sizes (wanted an 850), and a collectibles shop. Thanks @ https://computerconceptsbothell.com
Back in the day, compusa was the place, then it went oob. Then hard drives northwest bought compustop and closed them.
For a tech town, this place is missing good computer hardware stores, little strips of computer stores in Redmond just disappeared in the early 2000's. Use to call it little silicon valley (near hdnw).
I had to fly to California for work a few months ago, and made a trip to Fry's, since I usually have fun there, and it was one of the most depressing things I've seen in my entire life.
This was a huge one, and I think I might have actually been the only customer walking around, and it was weird...For a moment, there was a part of me that wondered if the store was closed and they forgot to lock up, but then I bought something without any problems.
I grew up in Florida, where there aren't any Fry's, but whenever we went to Texas or California I always looked forward to going, and when I lived in Dallas I went almost every weekend. Pretty sad to see that it's basically dead.
Literally just did this last week. Needed some more RAM for my laptop, and figured a quick drop into Fry's would work. It was pitiful and absolutely shocking. I have to say 70% of the store was empty, with multiple departments worth of shelving completely empty. They didn't have the RAM I needed, and the options they did have were poorly price... and hard to find... and the sales associate in the area seemed to not know what customers were for and completely ignored me.
Left, drove to Microcenter, and had to fight my way through the crowds to get to the RAM. They had multiple options, happy associates, and I even poked around with fun 3d printing stuff because the store was so well stocked. It's wild that their situation is so different.
Just stopped in my local microcenter (Wayne, pa) after not being in for a year or two and they had blocked off a third of the store with ugly shelving, Hopefully they are using the space for shipping or something, but I'm somewhat worried as they are the last physical store with a decent selection in the wide area.
Multiple aisles of cheap cellphone accessories aren't a good look either, but there were a bunch of Anker boxes - whose cables I like.
Yeah, I was in there about a month ago, needed a few long ethernet cables while at a datacenter.
Same thing everyone else reports: it was dark with a few bored employees wondering around aimlessly. Alternating messy and bare shelves. Absurd amounts of floor space compared to the trade they were doing.
Fry's was a great place to shop for electronics, back when the only alternatives was WeirdStuff and Quements, both in San Jose/Santa Clara area. I was always entertained by the spill-over merchandise (personal care, snacks, etc.), reportedly from the founders' Dad's grocery store line...
I still hit the stores in Campbell or Sunnyvale, as needed, although we got to referring to it as the "F" word due to the frequent trips to have to return "re-certified" parts. Their testing of returned merchandise frequently left much to be desired. I learned to avoid those stickers ("... Frys warrants this product...").
I go all the way back to when there was only one store, on Lawrence (near the current big brown box, but they moved twice between the original one with IC legs painted on the side and the current location). I also lived a couple blocks away for a few years in the 90s.
For me it went downhill at the time they bought Infinite Universe (or whatever that store they acquired was called) and expanded nationwide. Actually it was kind of going downhill by the time they opened a store in Campbell.
I think the Fry's unique proposition was that it sold the stuff the folks inside the industry used, but retail. I remember being amazed the very first time I entered the store (when there was only one, remember) that they sold heat shrink. All sizes. All colors. They carried products that otherwise the only way to get was to order from a distributor, which was a pain because you had to know exactly what you wanted, or trawl through paper catalogs, wait for delivery, all that. Or you could get in the car, zoom round to Fry's and pick up what you needed.
Then over the next few decades two things happened: first, in order to keep making more and more money Fry's expanded both geographically and with more product lines. This took them outside the bubble where orange 5mm heat shrink off-the-shelf is something people want, and into competition with Costco and Walmart for basic computers, fridges, etc. Second the differentiation vs old line distributors eroded as everyone bought everything online with next day delivery. If you want orange 5mm heat shrink today, Jeff can get it to a locker near you in 1/2 a day[1].
In addition, Fry's became just a painful place to shop. e.g. since the early 1990s if you tried to buy DRAM modules there, the sales person would give you hassle about being an idiot for wanting tin plated contacts vs gold. They began strip-searching customers on exit when they moved into the brown box. They stopped carrying most professional products: e.g. if you wanted the simplest thing for a data center cage such as a shelf or a 4U ATX case, they probably wouldn't have that.
My mom, in 4th grade, dated one of the Fry boys. Back then the family had a grocery business that the father of the family ran. He sold it to help fund Fry's Electronics. Sad to see it crumble.
Just got home from a visit to my local Frys (East San Jose) (tonight, around 7pm). My wife and I were probably 2 of 10 customers total, if that.
So many empty shelves. Every isle was capped with stacks of boxed paper reams.
Apple section had one MacMini and a broken Macbook. Car audio section was basically an empty shell, with only a few demo stereos and speakers left. The home theater section was an empty room. Toy section was empty.
I noticed the shelves at the Phoenix Fry's starting to get bare a year ago. In November an employee said they were "renegotiating" with their suppliers. This article explains "the shelves are empty because it has shifted to a consignment model, meaning that suppliers get paid for goods only after a store has sold them."
Fry's was the only store I visited on "Black Friday". Some of the other customers were looking at the bare shelves, like "what happened"? I bought a few items I thought would be useful, but I was not in the market for any big-ticket items.
On that day I overheard one of the employees say the "trade war" was the cause of the company's problems. Partially, I'm sure, but not totally. I'd read about an employee at the Fry's corporate office who was caught lining his own pocket with company money: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14906339
I think Fry's has a chance because it owns most of its buildings, and it's presumably not being looted by vulture capitalists (as happened to Sears). The stores have been well-staffed for months in spite of their having little to sell.
I still shop at Fry's because I don't always know what I'm looking for, and it's nice to be able to browse.
If there's anything to browse beyond water bottles, VGA cables, phone cases and year old DVDs, then your local Fry's is doing much better than the one I visited in early December.
The Fry's in Renton, WA doesn't have much stock, and what they do have is mostly very bad quality off-brand stuff (e.g., the keyboard section has just one or two brands of keyboards, I'm guessing from suppliers that weren't smart enough to ask for cash up front). They had a section of garden tools at one point.
Employees appear to be well trained not to say anything negative, mumbling vague promises of restocking soon.
It's been this way for months. I am surprised they have not shut the doors.
Used to love Fry's in Renton. Was great to go down and see what they had and browse all the items and options. I went to buy a new Ryzen build for my stepdaughter after the old AMD bulldozer I donated to her bought the farm (turned out to be the video card, all other parts recycled into my other ancient AMD bulldozer. Long story short, I had $2500 in my pocket to spend on this build so we could build it together. The MOBO shelves were empty. So were the vid card shelves. I walked out with 50 cents worth of shrink tubing for a different project. Told the cashier "you just lost a $2500 sale". She was indifferent. Stopped at costco on the way home and found an acceptable HP gaming machine for ~1000. The fire for a big build was gone, but the step daughter is happy. It's truly sad. I used to love ComputerStop and HDNW back in the Microserf days. I'm also of the point of view that I don't want to order thousands of dollars of parts without holding them in my hand in the store. Gen X here. We're the last to appreciate that experience I think.
(Before anyone gets snarky about substituting an HP for a true custom build... it was my money not hers and she's happy, so I did save $1500 in the deal. That makes my wallet happy) :)
(Before anyone gets snarky about substituting an HP for a true custom build... it was my money not hers and she's happy, so I did save $1500 in the deal. That makes my wallet happy) :)
I subscribe to the theory that they're trying to set up a model where they own most of the checkout employees and the building, and rent the shelf space to subcontractors who are financially responsible for inventory. This would be interesting and would take a lot of liability off of their books, but it doesn't seem to be going well.
The receipt-check at the exit was already enough to send my business elsewhere, but the dismal, "perpetually looks like a going out of business sale", store interior cemented it.
I recently went to the store in Austin TX. Like others are saying - the entire PC Hardware / sales department was empty most of the store had empty shelves or shelves that looked very picked over.
The only interesting thing they seemed to have plenty of was UV reactive Sata cables (so wholesome) and Bawls Guarana energy drinks (a favorite past time of mine going to MicroCenter in Cambridge MA).
Sad to say but I think the demise of Fry's is close - but boy was their "western" styled Palo Alto store bizarre and fantastic at the same time.
I stopped going there after they sold me a previously used item as new (I'd been a customer for at least 20 years). Kind of gross to get a mouse that someone else had used, and was DOA anyway.
If they're going to lie and sell returned items as new, they could at least try to refurbish them and see if they work. As much as I don't like best buy (and don't go there anymore either), I don't think they'd ever try to pull that BS.
Going to frys as a kid was a lot of fun, but it would be a last resort for me now.
What are we going to do with all this empty retail. Osh, Sears, K-Mart all in the past few years. It should probably be demolished for high density housing.
I only go to Fry's for geeky gifts. My local store seems to always carry a full selection of "As Seen On TV" merch, for instance. And they have a lot of video game themed plushies and other toys.
But I haven't bought computer parts from them in years. I think I got a CPU fan there maybe three or four years ago. Meanwhile I bought a Das Keyboard from Micro Center in the past year because the price beat anything online.
I’m having a really hard time tinkering away at my beginner electronics project in San Francisco because I keep sitting down to do it and then realise I need a new component and then having to stop, place an order on adafruit and then wait a week for it to arrive.
Online stores aren’t great when you are just in need of a $1 component. ideally you’d be able to just nip to a real store and quickly get what you need
The closest Fry's is almost 800 miles away from me according to Google Maps. Currently if I want something local I go to Best Buy, but I remember the days of CompUSA...
In its inimitable way, Maps responds to "Fry's Electronics near <my town>" by crossing out "Fry's Electronics" rather than showing the closest one.
Ah miss that Palo Alto Fry's. 2011 or early 2012 was the time when I got my TV and bunch of other stuffs from Fry's. Not a big TV buff, so the old one still runs well.
+1 to Best Buy as well, they always surprise me with great customer experience.
They have so much space and such few ideas. They could for example organize hackathons, electronics fairs, gaming conventions, etc.. things that an online retailer cannot do. Oh well, seems to me that they are poorly managed.
I was just at the San Diego Fry's hoping to pick up a cheap mouse and keyboard... it was slim pickings for both. Last year the shelves had plenty at all price points but not anymore.
Amazon is still good for comparison and reviews, sort of. Hard time filtering the real ones from paid ones. It's no fun buying top line electronics from a 1D scrolling list.
The Microcenter in my midwest city is doing really well. They recently renovated the entire store and always have the latest computer hardware and knowledgeable staff.
They were well known to re-shrink-wrap defective, returned products and put them back on the shelves for resale. I'm not sure I've ever followed the logic of this, unless it was to justify the necessity for a large returns department. Long-time customers learned the signs of repackaging (sometimes overt stickers, sometimes more subtle and you had to look for loose plastic wrap or bent cardboard flaps).
I once bought a PC from them that wouldn't boot reliably. In the process of trying to get an OS installed on it, I accidentally wiped the recovery partition on the drive. Eventually I gave up and tried to return the PC.
"Sorry, we can't take this back. We can't restore the OS," said the returns tech.
"It won't even boot. That's why I'm returning it."
"But it means that we can't put it back on the shelf."
I don't remember what I said to get my money back, but I did, and it was the last PC I ever bought there.
I've been going to Fry's since they opened on Lawrence Expressway in the 80s. Fry's was a fun, wacky place to take out-of-town guests to, and they were great for the occasional emergency keyboard or HDD, but you were taking a risk on expensive items. Won't miss them much.
Sorry to seem all pompous but I can't find another way to say this...
How are brick and mortar stores still a thing for products that are NOT either things I try on (clothes), things I need to see before they arrive (groceries) or impulse purchases? The fact that the last one didn't close in 2010 is a monument to how humans refuse to try anything new past a certain age, no matter how much cheaper, easier, faster or better quality you make it.
You're assuming that ecommerce is universally a better experience than brick-and-mortar. Given the abysmal reliability of Amazon listings these days, I'm not ready to agree.
Yeah, people do like to see physical items and browse around. And once you are there, for a lot of people, a modest market is worth not having to wait and do extra work later.
Hence the 25 dollar Best Buy USB cables; "Ah Crap.. Do I drive to Walmart?... Nah"
Edit: But actually yes. I was pretty peeved about the cost of a basic A/B USB cable there.
With the exceptions listed, it is isn't it? When was the last time you could by (say) computer hardware cheaper in a store than on amazon? You must have some fantastic local stores compared to me :(
SD cards. You buy those on Amazon and there's a not-so-small chance you're going to get a counterfeit item instead of the genuine thing. The odds that Best Buy are stocking their shelves with fake SD cards are much lower.
It's not just about price. Sometimes you want a reasonable assurance that what you're buying is the real deal. Amazon continues to get worse in that department.
Brick and mortar is also still faster. Not everyone or every item can be delivered on the same day, but going to a store can get me that item now instead of tomorrow or 2 days from now. Usually I'm not in that much of a hurry, but sometimes I am.
But enough about computers. I think the products that keep Best Buy in business are the vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, washing machines, and other large big-ticket items that people would rather not select from pictures on their phone, let alone ship.
I think there's a trend back to B&M (so called omnichannel) but even so, it is definitely not B&M retail as usual. Successful B&M retailers are finding they have to evolve to include BOPIS (Buy Online Pickup in Store), a digital store experience [1], price-matching, etc.
There's something about being able to browse, touch and discover new things that the online experience doesn't provide. Even Amazon's strategy includes B&M these days [2] (Amazon Books, Amazon Go, Amazon 4-star, Whole Foods, etc. -- all of these can be found in the Chicago area and other parts of the country)
It’s unfortunate to see Fry’s in the zombified state that it’s in. Back in the 2000s it was a really nice store, but recently it has fallen on hard times. I went to the Sunnyvale store a few months ago to try to find a TV antenna, and the selection was a bunch of beat-up boxes, some of them with discount stickers indicating that they were returned items, which left me not confident about the whole lot.
Meanwhile, I’m a little envious of the electronics stores of Tokyo, particularly Yodobashi Camera and Yamada Denki. I travel to Japan regularly, and every now and then I check out these stores. Their Akihabara flagships are a nice mix of Fry’s selection and Best Buy’s presentation. Sometimes I wonder why we don’t have that in Silicon Valley, but then I remember that Tokyo’s density and transit-oriented planning makes such retail operations more viable than Silicon Valley’s largely car-dependent, US suburbia-style planning, which favors online shopping. Still, these flagship Akihabara stores are wonderful places to shop.