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Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

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Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#11

Post by denimnerd42 »

rossdavidh wrote: post #8
blantonl wrote: post #4

Answer: of course, yes. 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…

How is the Micro Center in DFW doing? I see other electronics retailers doing ok, so I think Amazon is just the coup de grace.

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.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#13

Post by wronglebowski »

TheAdamist wrote: post #10
madengr wrote: post #3

Micro Center seems to be going fine. Fully stocked (with the exception of CPU) and always busy. No issues price matching online either.

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 Ank…

That whole shopping center is getting remodeled and the management has been arguing about renovating the space.

It's just a bunch of back and forth on who will pay for what, since they only lease half of that building. I have heard they are doing quite well.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#14

Post by ulkesh »

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.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#15

Post by josephwegner »

madengr wrote: post #3

Micro Center seems to be going fine. Fully stocked (with the exception of CPU) and always busy. No issues price matching online either.

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.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#17

Post by fortytw2 »

mikelward wrote: post #5
madengr wrote: post #3

Micro Center seems to be going fine. Fully stocked (with the exception of CPU) and always busy. No issues price matching online either.

The one in the Bay Area (Santa Clara Mercado) closed years ago and became a Walmart. As far as I know, there's only one in SoCal still open (Tustin).

Kinda anecdotal, but the one in Richardson (DFW) is almost always packed. Easily one of my favorite brick and mortar stores anywhere.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#18

Post by corysama »

josephwegner wrote: post #15
madengr wrote: post #3

Micro Center seems to be going fine. Fully stocked (with the exception of CPU) and always busy. No issues price matching online either.

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 k…

So, what did Microcenter do right to avoid having the same fate as Fry’s?

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#19

Post by dsfyu404ed »

ulkesh wrote: post #14

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 w…

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.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#20

Post by taxicabjesus »

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.

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