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Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

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Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#101

Post by nightski »

jonny_eh wrote: post #93
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…

> It's clear Amazon and online retailing has decimated them And yet, somehow, Best Buy is doing fine apparently. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillgriffin/2018/07/27/best-buy...

I'll admit it, I love shopping at Best Buy. I much prefer purchasing anything at the local store and actively avoid Amazon if at all possible.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#102

Post by tombert »

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.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#103

Post by wenc »

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.

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.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#104

Post by option »

jonny_eh wrote: post #93
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…

> It's clear Amazon and online retailing has decimated them And yet, somehow, Best Buy is doing fine apparently. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillgriffin/2018/07/27/best-buy...

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.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#105

Post by Ocerge »

taborj wrote: post #74

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 ditc…

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.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#106

Post by danesparza »

whalesalad wrote: post #84

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…

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.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#107

Post by linguae »

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.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#109

Post by mesh »

ozzyoli wrote: post #51

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

Might want to check out Jameco on the Peninsula: https://www.jameco.com

Not a walk in store, but you can order online and pickup.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#110

Post by tartoran »

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.
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