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Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

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Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#191

Post by bluedino »

macintux wrote: post #167
duxup wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Reinforces Apple's decision to launch their own retail business. Circuit City was where I rediscovered Macs after having been away for a decade.

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....

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#192

Post by dekhn »

sn wrote: post #41

SF Bay Area folks: for buying new your options (depending on what you are trying to buy) are now https://www.centralcomputers.com/ for enterprise/personal computers, https://www.bestbuy.com/ for consumer electronics, https://anchor-electronics.com/ for electronic components. Central computers just opened a store almost right across the road from the Sunnyvale Fry's.

yes, I would go to Central before Fry's any day.

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).

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#193

Post by macintux »

duxup wrote: post #188
macintux wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reinforces Apple's decision to launch their own retail business. Circuit City was where I rediscovered Macs after having been away for a decade.

I didn't even know they had Macs...

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.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#194

Post by furgooswft13 »

rossdavidh wrote: post #145
furgooswft13 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 obn…

Are we talking about Fry's or Microcenter?

Microcenter

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#195

Post by geerlingguy »

banana_giraffe wrote: post #184

This was the hard drive section at my local fry's a couple of weeks ago: https://imgur.com/a/fptZufK 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.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#196

Post by duxup »

macintux wrote: post #167
duxup wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Reinforces Apple's decision to launch their own retail business. Circuit City was where I rediscovered Macs after having been away for a decade.

You certainly can't be a premium type brand / provide good service ... in someone else's cavernous store.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#197

Post by agoodthrowaway »

theYipster wrote: post #189

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…

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.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#198

Post by batt4good »

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.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#199

Post by [deleted] »

ping_pong wrote: post #28

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 wh…

[deleted]

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#200

Post by chaoticmass »

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…

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.
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