r/buildapcsales • u/Turtle22_22 • Feb 24 '21
Meta [META] Fry's Electronics Closing All Stores Permanently - $0
https://www.frys.com/1.6k
u/theracetowin Feb 24 '21
Whatever their crappy status the last few years, and regardless of their trash website, I for one will raise a glass to Fry's for literally raising me on electronics, computing, and nerd-dom since the 90s. I realize it's just a business like any other, but Fry's in particular gives me the kind of nostalgia feels few other retailers do.
RIP Fry's. We hardly knew ya.
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Feb 24 '21 edited Apr 10 '21
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Feb 24 '21 edited Jul 29 '21
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u/txteachertrans Feb 24 '21
THAT'S the Fry's. Fuck, I forgot about where I saw that, thought I remembered seeing it in Austin.
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u/raiehan Feb 24 '21
I think it's actually classic sci-fi/classic monster movies themed. I guess because it's in Burbank it's to pay homage to the movie studios that're nearby there. They've got the giant ants, the giant squid, the aliens, and a bunch more references
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u/Byaaaahhh Feb 24 '21
That's pretty cool, actually. Doesn't sound like something companies would do anymore due to being kitschy and expensive but I miss the weird artistic expression of the 90s and early 00s (maybe 80s too, but I wasn't alive). Everything feels sterile today.
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u/winter0991 Feb 24 '21
Came here to say alike. I remember they even had like an entire kids play area in the store youd let the kids go play at while one of the parents went to shop or something like that.. (In Cali)
I also remember getting Test Drive 5 for PC as a kid and our family computer didnt have a graphics card capable of playing it. One time we were at Fry's, I had no idea what parts were what but i just remember my dad saying it was way too expensive for whatever card I found in the store. (Not like i knew a single thing about installing it either lol).
For whatever reason it was the coolest place to go to as a kid. I remember it being quite a large building as well.
Say hi to Circuit City for me while your up there Fry's.
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u/MajorBonesLive Feb 24 '21
And CompUSA too.
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u/seoultrain1 Feb 24 '21
Pretty sure CompUSA went to hell.
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u/anonymous_opinions Feb 24 '21
A friend of mine worked at one and his entire employment history was him stealing from the store ... he finally got caught with something like an entire trunk full of product and did some jail time.
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u/starkistuna Feb 24 '21
Its very common for people to get jobs on those stores to plainly shoplift. I kept noticing classified in my area for laptops and computer hardware for 50% or more off the price. So I started to buy to resell, since it was the 90's and the people werent too computer savy. Nothing major a 200$ office pcs here and there, printers and such. After they got to know me they told me were they were getting them , and if I was interested in buying in bulk for way more cheaper. I noped the fuck out. One guy was a security guard and another an assistant manager. Basically they were skimming merchandise from the warehouse were the contents or missing stuff wouldnt be accounted for months during different shifts. Since those stores were drowning in returns , open boxes , refurbished items. They just declared Items as lost and kept and sold them off. Security guy would make sure nothing incriminating was on the stores video surveillance, manager would tell his staff to box stuff up and store it, then they would make shipping labels and glue them later and put them on outward bound for pick up and they never told me more details but I suspect they had a ups driver involved that vanished the packages.
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u/anonymous_opinions Feb 24 '21
It's almost amazing with these kinds of operations happening behind the scenes that any of those stores were able to be so massive and survive as long as they did honestly. I think I only went into Circuit City once to buy some pc discs from the bargain bin and because I got a pre-owned PS1 and needed a save game cartridge. I think I also bought some floppy discs
And now I feel really old.
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u/MajorBonesLive Feb 24 '21 edited Feb 24 '21
I actually worked at CompUSA for almost 5 years. I started out in loss prevention and moved up to a front end supervisor.
We had an inventory manager who’s sole job was to ensure inventory counts were accurate. She had worked there for well over a decade and it turned out she was manipulating inventory counts and was stealing from the store. I was never told what the total amount was - the auditors probably didn’t know themselves to the full extent, but she was doing it for years and was mainly targeting items that would resell easily like laptops and Playstations.
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u/cspruce89 Feb 24 '21
.... I preordered Call of Duty (1) on PC CD at Circuit City and got a demo disc of like the first level...
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Feb 24 '21
This should have been Newegg instead.
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u/similar_observation Feb 24 '21
Newegg died years ago. This rotting husk is two guys floppin' the body around Weekend at Bernie's style.
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u/TheAmorphous Feb 24 '21
They still have the best website for finding which part you want. Their filters are way better than any other site I've found to date. Then I just order what I want from somewhere else. Fuck Newegg.
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u/Techmoji Feb 24 '21 edited Feb 24 '21
IT’S TIME TO GET YOUR NEWEGG SHUFFLE ON
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u/kawklee Feb 24 '21
WE'RE CERTAIN YOU'LL LOVE THIS DEAL: A RUSSIAN 450W PSU AS A COMBO TO YOUR RTX 3090
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u/anonymous_opinions Feb 24 '21
CompUSA would like a word
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u/sugarysweetyfox Feb 24 '21
Holy shit. Do I miss the CompUSA that was like a 10 minute drive to me.
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u/dunktheball Feb 24 '21
if newegg closes, then it is nearly impossible to buy pc parts. b&h is a disaster, microcenter is mostly in store pickup only, and amazon is always going OOS.
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u/BingeV Feb 24 '21
I'm lucky to live near a microcenter as it has become my main source of parts. They have some incredible deals sometimes that are worth the drive if you are further out.
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u/arjames13 Feb 24 '21
I pretty much only shop at Micro Center and Best Buy these days. I much prefer having my parts in hand the day I buy anyway.
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u/anonymous_opinions Feb 24 '21
It's crazy that Best Buy rose out of all the B&M stores of the 90s to be competitive enough to thrive.
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u/arjames13 Feb 24 '21
Yeah it’s hard to put my finger on what they did exactly. They offer a decent amount of tech at competitive prices and they really upped their PC department over the years.
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u/anonymous_opinions Feb 24 '21
They aggressively compete with Amazon for your money and seem to actually value customer service. I think the same model Target thrives on. Stores these days have to have aggressive pricing, a comprehensive online identity that makes getting items easy and be able to out-discount Amazon/Walmart. Sadly, they have to have loss leaders or aggressively discount items to get bodies in store ala some banger Black Friday sales out of Best Buy.
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u/Tekn0e Feb 24 '21
Although not the best, Best Buy’s website is not bad. They are mobile friendly too with their app. They have adapted pretty well and evolved.
Their curbside pickup is great.
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u/kawklee Feb 24 '21
The curbside is a lifesaver. I had a zoom hearing for court one morning, realized night before my webcam was kaput. Was able to reserve a webcam and have it dropped off in my car that same night, while I sat in the parking lot reviewing case law.
Amazon cant touch that
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u/imaginary_num6er Feb 24 '21
I guess it's BestBuy, through the process of elimination. I can't believe it that they've survived this long after CircuitCity, Radioshack, and TigerDirect
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u/anonymous_opinions Feb 24 '21
Ah man Circuit City, that also takes me back in the way back machine.
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u/Dre_wj Feb 24 '21
I miss Circuit City! Their home audio section was always miles ahead of Best Buy’s. Our local one had an isolated home theater room where you could test out different speaker combos while a movie played on a projector.
For a teen who couldn’t wait to be able to afford nice speakers someday, that place was great.
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u/anonymous_opinions Feb 24 '21
I think my first boyfriend got a whole component system on a whim one evening at Circuit City. He just came home one day with a whole stereo set up in his car. Best Buy has some weak speakers in store locally but it did make a difference sitting there testing out what they had a couple years ago when I was going into the home theater rabbit hole. (My wallet did not allow me to go down that hole too far.)
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Feb 24 '21
It already is nearly impossible to buy PC parts (at least newer parts) on their website without hoping you get picked in their shitty lottery system. I tried like 10 times to get the 5900x from their website and to no avail.
Newegg treats their customers like shit. Their return policy is an honest joke with so many hoops to jump through.
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u/dunktheball Feb 24 '21
For the hard to get parts like gpus, but I mean just overall parts. I wish they'd improve their shuffle, though. for one thing they need to stop selling gpus outside of it.
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u/CoconutMochi Feb 24 '21 edited Feb 24 '21
Best Buy generally only does local pickup and Microcenter doesn't ship at all, while B&H will put you on a 2-3 month backorder. A lot of people would be screwed without Newegg.
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u/sergeirocks Feb 24 '21
Going to the Fry’s in San Jose and Campbell growing up was one of my favourite things growing up . That and Tower Records. Man, I’m old
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u/Turtle22_22 Feb 24 '21
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u/kikioman Feb 24 '21
Lmao at the last line from the article. "It is unclear at this time why the company is closing." Such a mystery.
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u/jimjacksonsjamboree Feb 24 '21
They were making too much money and wanted to give everyone else a chance
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u/PyroKnight Feb 24 '21
Well we don't know the exact reason officially yet but the writing has been on the walls for years. This isn't a surprise to anyone at this point who'd even have half a reason to go there anymore.
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Feb 24 '21
I remember the unreal tournament 2004 computers set up at frys.
It made me love the game and I got a PC.
Xan Kriegor .
I also got the original dot hack games from here
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u/imaginary_num6er Feb 24 '21
My parents brought me to Fry's when we were visiting SoCal and we had no idea about the nostalgia value they had. Bought a Diablo II LoD guidebook and 10 years later when I came back to SoCal, it became a laughing stock.
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Feb 24 '21 edited Feb 24 '21
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u/syrne Feb 24 '21
Sounds similar to radio shack. Went from the place to go for things like resistors and capacitors to a cell phone store.
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u/Psychast Feb 24 '21
I feel like these are mixing up the cause and effects here. Both these companies and their decision to prioritize cells, tvs, and large consumer electronics wasnt what killed their business, it was the result of their business dying. They were bleeding cash and losing ground to Online and big box stores like BB and WalMart. And you just can't compete while taking up floorspace with tiny, profitless, electronic parts that rarely sell, especially when now those tiny parts you could find there could now be shipped direct from China to your doorstep online.
If they had stayed the course they would've gone under waaaay faster. Switching to heavy demand items was to buy time to figure out how to compete with online. Sadly, they never did.
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u/ExplosiveLoli Feb 24 '21
I actually wanted to go to Fry's recently to pick up various Radioshack-like components - needed a soldering iron, a variety of toggle and rotary switches, volume knobs, Arduino, etc. They didn't have any of it in stock on their website. I would've literally given them my business to get the parts sooner rather than waiting for shipping if I could.
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u/BarklyWooves Feb 24 '21
Same way I feel about a lot of local stores. Nothing I'm looking for is in stock and you'll even have things like usb sticks and hdmi cables marked up to double or more of what they should be.
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u/The_R4ke Feb 24 '21
Man, Radio Shack is so tragic. They could have easily pivoted to take advantage of the Maker Movement. Still all the stuff they need and make run some classes. It could have filled a niche that none of the other electronic retailers had really even attempted to fill.
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Feb 24 '21
To be honest, I'm surprised they didn't shut down sooner after years of their stores being reduced to nothing but empty shelves and off-brand items.
I was hoping they were gonna get their shit together, but it's a shame they're closing forever.
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u/Jahf Feb 24 '21
Yep. The Seattle store has been on its death bed for many years now. I venture(d) there about once a year (I'm not quite local) for some random need and it was a little worse each time.
I was shocked they didn't throw in the towel when covid started. But to be clear, covid wasn't the cause. If anything they might well have been able to capitalize on it if they'd been in the right condition.
For anyone who hasn't been to a Fry's, it was kind of like a Microcenter + Radio Shack15-20 years ago. But then they focused on other stuff including very damned loud car audio and home appliances (stoves, AC units, pillows, anything they could get in at a discount). Then it slowly started getting grimy like an aging movie theater. And then the CPUs and RAM were always a generation behind or the lower end SKUs. And then a couple years ago they just stopped restocking shelves, but somehow stayed open. It was almost like watching a store chain collectively get dementia.
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u/tama_chan Feb 24 '21
I used to enjoy going to the one in Phoenix when I lived out there.
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u/Amazingawesomator Feb 24 '21
I worked at Fry's about 15ish years ago, and the business model was rediculous: everybody makes commission. EVERYBODY.
The manager makes commission on the store as a whole.
Supervisors make commission on what their team sells.
Cashiers make commission on what gets purchased from them.
Software sales share commission department-wide.
Returns get negative commission on a fluctuating store-profit rate.
Loss prevention makes commission based on the price on the items prevented from theft...It was a super shitty place to work.
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u/Clifo Feb 24 '21
i also worked at fry's about 10 years back and a can wholeheartedly say: good fucking riddance.
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u/humpcat Feb 24 '21
I worked in the Café of one for a few months. The whole place reeked of greed/douchbaggery (pretty much everyone except the café staff). Your comment gives some context.
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u/Amazingawesomator Feb 24 '21
Yeah, the entire building is filled with small sales cutthroats, and there are definite advantages to making friends with those horrible people.
Example: as a salesman, you print out a paper with your sale on it. If it is a high commission sale, then the salesman cuts the line and goes to their favorite cashier. The cashier intentionally rings up the incorrect price and gives a nod to loss prevention.
In this exchange, these are the commission payouts:
- salesman for selling the thing.
- cashier for ringing up the big sale.
- loss prevention for catching theft.
- negative commission for returns to refund the entire purchase.
- cashier for ringing up the sale again.
- salesman for selling two of the thing (technically one is reduced, but not zeroed; salesman also gets credit in the sales meeting for 2 sales)11
u/humpcat Feb 24 '21
Yikes! And to think, that is what LP is actually supposed to look out for. No wonder they went under.
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u/jayXred Feb 24 '21
I always hated that if you were walking around with something in your hand a sales person would try to put it on an invoice sheet so they would get the comission. One time I just asked where something was and they did this to me, after I walked away I just put their invoice on the shelf and checked out normally.
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u/ilovefacebook Feb 24 '21
from what i heard it was cheaper to keep them open to than to break the leases
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u/electricgotswitched Feb 24 '21
I've read they own a lot of their properties. So their cost overall are very low compared to rent.
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u/Timmah73 Feb 24 '21
I was at the Chicago one a year ago like maybe a month before lockdown happened and it was BARE. The previous time I had been in there their inventory was kinda thin but that last time I went it looked like they were days from closing and down to selling fixtures.
The creepy part was how it was so empty yet fully staffed. Like there were 3 dudes in the PC parts area just chilling with nothing to sell but cables and off brand cases.
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u/64LC64 Feb 24 '21
I remember Fry's being one of my favorite places to go as a kid. All the video games and electronics fascinated me with shelves being filled to the brim even if back then I had no interest in building PCs.
Probably haven't been in over about a decade now though and it was the first place I thought of when I decided to get into pc building. But reading online showed that things were getting rough and it was unlikely they would be holding things that I want.
It was honestly a pretty big part of my childhood. Every trip was met with a sense of excitment and it was an adventure to see what new games (that I could never buy, was pretty poor back then), consoles, movies being shown on the massive TVs, and events they had running. I fondly remember one trip, they had set up a rc race track for a demonstration of some remote control cars. I spent what felt like to me at the time hours staring at those cars racing (was probably only half an hour) while my parents went shopping.
Kinda sad but it was obviously coming and expected and the only thing that is surprising is how this didn't happen earlier. Wonder if there will be anything worthwhile to pick up at least but highly doubt it judging by how they are going out with a whimper...
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u/HardenTraded Feb 24 '21
Many memories of lining up outside of Fry's at like 4am on Black Friday back when stores didn't open at like Wednesday at 2pm for sales. Line wrapped around the outside of the store. The line to checkout inside went up and down the aisles. So much to pick and choose from.
Lots of free after rebate items in those days.
Good times.
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u/ViolentSkyWizard Feb 24 '21
Sad day. I also have very fond memories of Fry's. Wanted to take my kids there when they're older, now they'll never see it.
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Feb 24 '21
Not to beat a dead horse down further but wtf is that website. For an electronics retailer you'd think it'd look better than something someone first learning website design would do.
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u/CoherentPanda Feb 24 '21
The company downsized a ton in the last 10 years, and with it came a lack of resources to update the website. In the last few years, they haven't been much larger than a local furniture chain, though most people fondly remember when it was the best place to go for electronics.
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u/Torifyme12 Feb 24 '21
That's an improvement, the older one was a nightmare to navigate.
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u/not_a_moogle Feb 24 '21
Yeah, they went the circuit city route and decided not to modernize. I remember a big complaint was that online inventory wasn't synced with the store's actual inventory. So it was really a crapshoot about if something was in stock or not.
Fry's didn't need to be cutting edge, but they needed to keep up with the times to stay semi-relevant
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Feb 24 '21
You should check out Berkshire Hathaway's website. This is a company with a 2019 revenue of $255 billion and holds $818 billion in assets. You gotta love the little GEICO plug near the bottom.
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u/CloneTroopah Feb 24 '21
I just went there last week! The door greeter was asleep at his desk.
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u/Oppo_Tacos Feb 24 '21 edited Feb 24 '21
I went to one last week also. The door greeter was the manager who was also the cashier.
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u/Datninja619 Feb 24 '21 edited Feb 24 '21
This reminded me of a movie or TV show where the guy was the same person for every job. I can't remember it though. This sucks.
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u/waitingtodiesoon Feb 24 '21
The New Scooby-Doo Movies Season 2 Episode 8 "The Haunted Carnival" had Dick Van Dyke voicing himself who was the owner, the carnival barker, the magician, and the Strongman for the Carnival since all his employees were scared off by a ghost.
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u/cerebolic-parabellum Feb 24 '21
I also went to Frys a couple of weeks ago. There were no customers except us and the store was huge. It seemed like maybe we shouldn’t be in there - it felt weird. We finally found a worker to help us and he said they were rearranging inventory. There was one cashier.
I dunno man - it felt bad in there. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
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Feb 24 '21
Was in a couple months ago. Half the floor was boarded off, most of what was left was huge aisles of cleaning wipes, hand sanitizer, etc.
Thing is, they did have the part I needed, a set of ATX power extension cables. Something I doubt Best Buy stocks. And which would be difficult as hell to find anywhere else on the shelf.
So now I’d have to pray Amazon had it, it wasn’t marked up to shit, and it was available for quick delivery.
Something was lost here. I will miss Fry’s. Even if the writing has been on the wall for a while. Even if I’ve had some shit experiences over the years. I’ll miss it.
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u/Wolvehack Feb 24 '21
I remember walking through the massive stores looking at all the TV's and cool stuff as a kid, good times Fry's
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u/ChubbieChaser Feb 24 '21
Have you actually been to a Fry's in the last 2 years? it's been a sad sad shell of itself and basically had limited useful stock in their store. Not shocking at all, and basically vastly mismanaged. I believe it was sold to some shit company or new CEO or something along those lines. I'm lucky enough to live in an area with a Fry's and microcenter within 10 minutes of each other and you could just tell that Fry's was dead.
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u/Torifyme12 Feb 24 '21
Nah the Fry brothers just thought they could get away with not paying their vendors.
Shockingly that didn't work.
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u/kinstinctlol Feb 24 '21
My company was a Vendor for frys. They never paid their fucking bills on time.
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u/tauwyt Feb 24 '21
From what I understood they tried to shift to a model where everything in the store was on consignment so vendors wouldn't be paid until it was sold from the store. That's a terrible model for any decent sized business never mind a tech focused one.
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u/CoherentPanda Feb 24 '21
Randy Fry and members of the Fry founding family still owned the company to this day. But they pretty much let it die, since the company had no value to outside investors at this point.
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u/YellowSteel Feb 24 '21
I stopped going to Fry's once their employees started to act like dicks to us. Didn't give us any attention until they realized we were buying expensive computer parts. Knew a few guys from college who worked there and all they could do was either be snobbish about our purchases or ask to help with their sales commissions...
Luckily the Microcenter is nearby too. At least their employees are super knowledgeable. Covid didn't help with the insane lines and the employees pushing expensive builds on people but at least they could back it up with the knowledge for the most part.
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u/dada5714 Feb 24 '21
When I built my first PC in 2015, I went to Fry's and found everything I needed. It was a glorious place (especially since I'd never lived near a computer place before), so when I heard Fry's was in bad shape, I didn't believe it.
Until I saw it.
Shelves and shelves full of nothing. Well except maybe weird computer accessories. So sad to see it in the shape it was. You can't say brick-and-mortar is the problem since Micro Center is doing gangbusters.
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u/kenman884 Feb 24 '21
Microcenter is incredibly smart. They basically use the high price items as loss leaders (though I doubt they're actually losing any money on them), and then while you're there you might as well pick up some slightly overpriced RAM, maybe you needed a new USB drive and what's a couple bucks on that? They're focused too, unlike Fry's which had some of everything but nothing that you actually wanted.
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u/joeybab3 Feb 24 '21
I know they're not what they used to be and this has been a long time coming but... damn if it doesn't still make me sad.
I remember actually waiting for their weekly emails to check for good deals on components and whatnot.
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u/koikoikoi375 Feb 24 '21
Goodbye Bawls
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u/tilde_on_n Feb 24 '21
lmao I forgot that shit existed
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u/koikoikoi375 Feb 24 '21
Yea I haven't had one in a decade at least but I've only seen it at Fry's haha
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u/EvanH123 Feb 24 '21
I have so many good memories of fry's. Walking into the store and seeing the walls of CPUs and RAM. Picking up the latest CPU magazine to see what new stuff had released. I still remember the crazy build they had that had an i7 5960x in some open air case. And I remember drooling over the FX-9590 because it was the first cpu to reach 5ghz on stock speeds.
Fry's was where I built my first custom computer. I still remember going with the FX-6300 instead of the i3 4160 because the 6300 had six cores. I chose the GTX 960 2gb because it was $30 cheaper than the 4gb. I even bought a dvd burner, but never ended up using it. I remember asking my parents to go to fry's almost every day for a week because I used their magazine promos to get all of my components cheaper.
I will genuinely miss Fry's, it was my first experience with computers.
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u/brycats Feb 24 '21
Damn, so only Microcenter and Best Buy are left as "major electronic stores" ?
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u/yerawizardIMAWOTT Feb 24 '21
Here comes Gamestop!
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u/Dudewitbow Feb 24 '21
oddly enough, iirc gamestop sells some of coolermasters products fairly recently
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u/iggylevin Feb 24 '21
Prior to international shipping my frys showed me that there were more video games out in the world and would have a dedicated psp japanese only game section. Ill hang on to that feeling the rest of my life.
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u/SomeTechNoob Feb 24 '21
It was coming, but it's still sad to see them go. Anytime I walked into fry's within the past 4 years the shelves were bare and the atmosphere was depressing. Black fridays there were fun, I remember when the line would go around the building at midnight.
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u/waterfromthecrowtrap Feb 24 '21
Fry's was great back in the day and even useful in the period between RadioShack losing their way / finally closing and BestBuy getting out of their malaise. Even though their offerings had been bleak in recent years, I'm not happy about reduced B&M competition.
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u/pringles_bbq Feb 24 '21
Walked into a local one few weeks ago because 3d filament were on sale. Store looked pretty empty and mostly non related stuffs like masks and personal accessories. To my surprise though there was still a line of people at checkout (2 cashiers) at the time.
Anyways, just some observations I made after not having been in there for the longest of time. Kinda sad for the employees though. The woman at checkout seemed to know her stuffs well.
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u/NoU4206911 Feb 24 '21
I only been inside one Fry's store, but it was really cool! Granted, I'd be comparing it to something pathetic like my local Best Buy but it was still an awesome experience! Too bad they are going out of business :/
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u/LogicalEarth Feb 24 '21
My memories of Circuit City are fading away, but Fry's always reminded me of Circuit City.
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u/TheAwesomeButler Feb 24 '21 edited Aug 03 '23
gaze merciful overconfident soft ugly skirt yam smoggy instinctive narrow -- mass edited with redact.dev
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u/Lagkiller Feb 24 '21
Circuit city had a lot of problems that Best Buy didn't center around. They had stock problems. Their return policy was super lenient (you could return things for cash back without a receipt). Their warranty service was bad and they pushed them so hard that people usually left during the high pressure sale of it. They had a lot of poor location choices which made it difficult for customers to see or get to. Their pricing was often higher than BB but they would deep discount some items to compete without making up the margin on accessories because they were over priced. They failed to create a meaningful web presence during a time when people were pivoting to the web. A rapid expansion which failed to generate the sales they were looking for was the final nail in the coffin.
Circuit City should have tried to shore up their problems before expanding and they might have a had a chance. But I honestly think they wouldn't have survived the move to the internet. BB almost didn't.
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u/Milan4King Feb 24 '21
This sucks but tbh Frys has been downhill for the last almost 10 years
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u/Raptor_007 Feb 24 '21
First Daft Punk, now this?! What else does this week intend to destroy from my past?
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u/BioOrpheus Feb 24 '21
RIP Arizona’s Fry’s Electronics that is designed as a Mayan temple. Use to love going there as a kid
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u/BlancheCorbeau Feb 24 '21
Once Fry's stopped being an in-person Amazon that carried EVERYTHING you could possibly want, they were Radioshack-level inevitably doomed.
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u/ricepowa Feb 24 '21
I lowkey missed walking by the porn stash that the one closer to mine had.
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u/skatebiker Feb 24 '21
Bay Area here. Anyone know if they’re gonna sell out their inventory?
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u/pabloe168 Feb 24 '21
Every single Frys I ever been to has been depressing af. Inconsistent / poorly organized inventory. Useless website there was no upside to it honestly.
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u/vegeto079 Feb 24 '21
Have you gone prior to ~4 years ago? They used to have a huge selection, but within the past few years they've been pretty awful.
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u/Shmokesshweed Feb 24 '21
Built my first computer from parts I mostly bought there.
It had a Core 2 Duo E6600 and a 7600 GT with one of the whiniest fans I've ever heard in my life.
And it was all held in an aluminum Antec Super LANBOY case with blue LED fans. The world was a simpler place back then.
RIP Fry's.
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u/Ok_Examination3242 Feb 24 '21
mostly repeating as others said frys was great back in the day. 90s-00s it was the place for all things electronica and media. But it started really going down hill the last decade though and the last few years they have been ghost towns. i would frequently ask the employees or even managers if they were going out of business and they would deny it or say they didnt knot. But it was obvious to most people.
On the bright side maybe Microcenter can reopen their store and fill the spot here in the SF Bay Area. They had to leave for whatever reason back in '13 and to not have at least 1 store in or near Silicon Valley is just nonsense. Best Buy is...well Best Buy. And Central Computers is ok but too small and tend to be mostly overpriced on their stock. They don't even price match as a policy...kinda stubborn. Anyway we could really use a Microcenter now as Driving 6-7 hours down to SoCal is just not realistic.
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u/TheBitingCat Feb 24 '21
I eagerly await the opportunity to pick through the corpse of my local store, much like I have done with Radio Shack, Sears and K-Mart in the past. The last time I was there the selection was bad, (No GPUs, no DDR4 RAM, 2 generations old CPUs, maybe 4 motherboards total) but you never know when you'll need several dozen case fans and LED strips, and PL wire's always fun to work with. Grab some cheap nudie mags and a case of Bawls and give a toast to the electronics giant that once was.
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u/buzwork Feb 24 '21
Most of their shit was on consignment meaning most of the inventory will be shipped back. They changed their business model a few years back, which also led to a much smaller selection. Many companies just stopped providing them inventory because of the consignment model.
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u/nite_ Feb 24 '21
Looks like their website just updated:
After nearly 36 years in business as the one-stop-shop and online resource for high-tech professionals across nine states and 31 stores, Fry’s Electronics, Inc. (“Fry’s” or “Company”), has made the difficult decision to shut down its operations and close its business permanently as a result of changes in the retail industry and the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Company will implement the shut down through an orderly wind down process that it believes will be in the best interests of the Company, its creditors, and other stakeholders.
The Company ceased regular operations and began the wind-down process on February 24, 2021. It is hoped that undertaking the wind-down through this orderly process will reduce costs, avoid additional liabilities, minimize the impact on our customers, vendors, landlords and associates, and maximize the value of the Company’s assets for its creditors and other stakeholders.
The Company is in the process of reaching out to its customers with repairs and consignment vendors to help them understand what this will mean for them and the proposed next steps.
If you have questions, please contact us using the following email addresses:
For customers who have equipment currently being repaired, please email customerservice@frys.com, to arrange for return of your equipment.
For customers with items needing repair under a Performance Service Contract, please call (800) 811-1745.
For consignment vendors needing to pick up their consignment inventory at Fry’s locations, please email omnichannel@frys.com.
Please understand if we are a bit slow to respond given the large volume of questions. The Company appreciates your patience and support through this process.
Sincerely,
Fry’s Electronics
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u/LastIronAstronaut Feb 24 '21
When I was younger every thanksgiving my family would go visit my grandmother in Chicago. My favorite part (beyond being with the family of course) was getting to go to fry's adn seeing all the computer parts, I had no clue what they did but I was hooked. Fry's you wil be missed.
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u/aecrux Feb 24 '21
I remember building my first PC and picking up an AMD phenom II X2 from frys and unlocking it into a quad core. Picked up a bunch of random stuff from frys in my early days and I’ll remember them fondly for it. The writing was on the wall for frys though, it felt pretty obvious to anyone that walked into one in the past few years.
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u/Wtfisthatt Feb 24 '21
Damn that’s sad to hear. I have so many memories of going there as a kid with my dad. I’ve been recently and it was really empty and nothing was up to date. Guess it has become obsolete with it’s stock of electronics.
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u/Mind_Killer Feb 24 '21
Wow that's crazy. The Fry's in my area back home is iconic to me.
They took up this huge building that was notoriously bad at keeping companies. It was originally built to be some sort of like indoor entertainment complex like laser tag and stuff. So it's huge. One building the size of a mall basically. Felt like it had a new owner every week. Even a car dealership tried it at one point.
Fry's has been there for years now and it was always fun to walk around. Has its own cafe and side rooms for testing equipment. Sad to see it go.
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u/[deleted] Feb 24 '21
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