"Fry's Electronics" - what's going on with this store? (1 Viewer)

[Steve Y]

I know this is just another electronics retailer shutting down, but this really is kind of sad. The writing's been on the wall for a while now, with multiple locations closing down, but Fry's has been a huge part of tech culture in Silicon Valley for a long time. They had televisions, sound systems, oscillating fans, massage chairs, snack foods, cell phones, cables, hard drives, video games, movies, computers, and much more.

Whether you needed it for work or home, it was really convenient being able to "run over to Fry's" and purchase obscure components and hardware without having to wait for a shipment or confirm if it was the correct product once it arrived. But as others have said, the store's processes (for replacement, refund, or purchasing) could be downright draconian. A few times I was denied a same-day replacement or refund for no reason at all.

Things I'll miss (and not miss):

• The overzealous announcer coming on the store's PA every hour to announce the "BOSE PRESENTATION" in the back room. "BBBBOSSSE!"
• People hired to play cocktail jazz sitting at the baby grand piano in the middle of the store.
• Salesmen following you around while you carried your snacks, cables, or movies, trying to get you to sign a commission form that would give them a percentage of your purchase, although they had no part in procuring or assisting you with it.
• Hot dog and coke weekends in the parking lot - only fifty cents!
• The various stores in California, with themes like Edison/Tesla, a giant microchip, a South American pyramid, or the Old West.
• The free-for-all queue system, where you'd stand at the front of the line looking left and right for the next available station. In later years, they would hire an older person to stand there sleepily to notify you when a new register opened up.
• Clerks refusing to ring me up or talk to me if they couldn't process a functioning credit card on their faulty machine. "Move along. Next!"
• Large families gathered all afternoon around the massage chairs, taking turns and relaxing with oscillating fans.

End of an era.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Unfortunate timing, as a number of economists forsee a retail boom in the second half of this year. Though it sounds like Fry's was slow to embrace online shopping, which was likely a contributing factor. Best Buy just reported their best quarter in 25 years, but they have a pretty robust online system.

Fry's.com (or Outpost.com as it was way back in the day) was one of the very first online retailers so it had nothing to do with not embracing online sales.

[MOD: political commentary removed]
Fry's was a store you went to if your wanted to build a computer instead of buying a notebook or something prefabricated but with overseas imports starting to slow to a crawl,the supply started dwindling rapidly (thanks Foxconn!) And then Covid made it worse. For this reason, I would start worrying about Micro Center too.

 

[B-ROLL]

Fry's.com (or Outpost.com as it was way back in the day) was one of the very first online retailers so it had nothing to do with not embracing online sales.

In my area Fry's Electronics took over two of the Incredible Universe (by RadioShack - a Tandy(Leather) Company) stores when they went under. The one I frequented was of the "Mayan Temple" type.

I noticed this year they hardly had any kind of decent Black Friday offers. Ironically, because of the way the store was built it would have been arguably safer to shop their during COVID lockdowns. Unfortunately for them - they didn't sell officially sell groceries while Target and Wal*Mart did.

It sounds like the president/chairman didn't even have the cajones to sign their own name to the shut-down notice.

I suspect they'll be using an liquidator who will advertise X% off - but that will be off SUGGESTED RETAIL not what it actually sold for in the store,

 

[The Drifter]

I know this is just another electronics retailer shutting down, but this really is kind of sad. The writing's been on the wall for a while now, with multiple locations closing down, but Fry's has been a huge part of tech culture in Silicon Valley for a long time. They had televisions, sound systems, oscillating fans, massage chairs, snack foods, cell phones, cables, hard drives, video games, movies, computers, and much more.

End of an era.

Agree with all of this. Though Fry's was not perfect, as I mentioned earlier it was my go-to place for Electronics for much of the late 200X's & the majority of the 20XX decade. I first noticed that they were going downhill several years ago, when I couldn't even find any Blu-ray players for sale at one of their biggest locations. Sad.

 

[DaveF]

No politics. Comments deleted.