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Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

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Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#231

Post by upbeatlinux »

A week before Thanksgiving I went to the Fry's in Roseville. The Northgate (Sacramento) location has always been busy (haven't been back since 2018). Fry's has always been my go to for last minute electronics (i.e. I can't wait for next day shipping).

The entire computer/networking section was bare. They had a wireless IP camera and a $400 "small-business class" Cisco router (can't remember which model). No cable modems, no other routers, nothing. The only stocked shelves were media (CDs and Blu-ray). The Christmas shoppers were disgruntled they had made the trip.

A sales associate I talked to was confounded. When asked whether Fry's was going out of business he said they were told no. He mentioned there had been no deliveries in months and the storage they did have was empty.

I don't think it can be attributed to just Prime or better service at Best Buy. The market is saturated with tech. Everyone has a cell phone, laptop/desktop, TV, smart-device, etc. Fry's should've been downsizing about 10 years ago. It's possible they could've done more with their service department (the tire, car audio system installers always seemed busy)

I'll always remember Fry's as

- being packed during the holidays

- having ridiculous long checkout lines b/t 1998-2016 even an hour before close

- being able to find cool/rare last minute gifts

- massive selection of photography equipment

- in recent years (?) having price-match guarantee

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#232

Post by bluedino »

chrisseaton wrote: post #226
bluedino wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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....

> nobody wanted them. We got 25 at our store and almost every one of them came back. People wanted PC's.... I thought the iMac was a massive success? Didn't it save Apple from ruin almost single handedly?

It did...but this was the first one, and we were just Best Buy. Not sure if it was just or store or what.

The iMac did get a lot of bad reviews and was $1299, in the days of $399 eMachines

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#233

Post by Skunkleton »

rickyc091 wrote: post #157
jonny_eh wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 price matches to Amazon. They also work with cashback services and often times gives you a $5 coupon after purchasing a certain amount. Finally, they also let you return open boxes, no questions asked. Forgot to mention, you can do same day pick up for an item.

Around three years ago, bestbuy realized that they would need to make some sort of change. They did and their stores got better. It still isn't a replacement for what Fry's used to be.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#234

Post by grendelt »

upbeatlinux wrote: post #231

A week before Thanksgiving I went to the Fry's in Roseville. The Northgate (Sacramento) location has always been busy (haven't been back since 2018). Fry's has always been my go to for last minute electronics (i.e. I can't wait for next day shipping). The entire computer/networking section was bare. They had a wireless IP camera and a $400 "small-business class" Cisco router (can't remember which model). No cable mod…

> he said they were told no

This is what companies that are going out of business tell their employees in order to keep enough people around to help liquidate/pack up when it's time to shut down.

Curious to know if employee paychecks are still arriving on time and clearing.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#235

Post by Stratoscope »

spookthesunset wrote: post #201

I haven't been to Fry's in a while, but every time I went I always wondered how the hell they managed to stay in business. My random observations over the years of dealing with Fry's: - Almost all the floor people are paid in part on commission. Even the cashiers salary is in some part commission based. Like, how can a cashier have any control over what somebody purchases in order to maximize their commission? - Thei…

> Almost all the floor people are paid in part on commission.

Yeah, every time I picked my item off the shelf, if anyone was nearby they would grab it from me and say "I need to give you a quote."

The first few times, I dutifully followed them to their terminal hoping that the "quote" might be a buck or two off the sticker price. Nope. The quote was for exactly the same price.

After a while I got in the habit of saying "just browsing", and as soon as they left the aisle I would grab my item and make a beeline out of that area.

One time I bought a $20 case for my compact camera. I told the guy I would be a while trying different cases to see how they fit. As soon as I picked one and started to walk away... Yes, you guessed it, "I need to give you a quote." And he wrapped it around my little case and taped it all over the place to make sure I wouldn't throw the quote away.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#236

Post by mark-r »

logfromblammo wrote: post #178
idiot900 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re in their store. If you don’t want to follow their rules, don’t enter their store.

Ownership changes at the point of sale. At the time they do the check, they no longer have any legal basis for preventing the customer from leaving. Costco and Sam's Club can only get away with it because they can revoke membership for non-compliance. At Fry's, stopping someone for a search risks civil suit for kidnapping. Aside from that, it's a security theater tactic to discourage shoplifting, which also happens t…

Costco and Sam's check your receipt to make sure you're leaving with everything you paid for. They're much more likely to find you've left something at the checkout rather than find you shoplifting.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#237

Post by sswaner »

shakezula wrote: post #208
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 had almost this exact same experience three weeks ago at a Fry's in LA. It was honestly sad to see it. I kept joking to my friend that it felt post-apocalyptic because it looked like it had been looted. There were rough and cut-open boxes on empty shelves, empty and open packaging on the floor, no signs for the aisles to show what they had on them, employees that looked dead in the eyes, rows of shelves that were j…

I had the same thought at the Fry's on Canoga in Woodland Hills, it felt like the only items left on the shelves were the things nobody would steal.

Sad to see them slip away, one of the joys was wandering the aisles looking for things I didn't know I needed/wanted.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#238

Post by hellisothers »

stevespang wrote: post #114
linguae wrote: post #107

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 st…

Our Fry's in Austin had a "real tough front" on returns. You had to go through a lot of BS to return anything. I wonder if that contributed to the downfall, and if Fry's in other states were tough on returns as well . . . obviously Bezos and company has had an impact

Same here in CA, you had to wait in line forever, have them dig through your boxes taking everything out, then stand waiting for a manager to also come over and do the same thing and then approve it.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#239

Post by iamthirsty »

whalesalad wrote: post #227
jedberg wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity where are you located? As far as I can tell, all the Microcenters in the Bay Area have closed down. We still have Central Computer, which is where I had to go to get my last part when Fry's didn't have it (the special screwdriver for opening the newish Mac laptops).

I'm in Southern California, Costa Mesa to be exact (near Irvine and Huntington Beach). Microcenter is in Tustin.

My dad basically runs his business through that Microcenter, and has for the past 5+ years—prior to that Fry's was the place to go, especially the one off the 91 & Kramer.

Re: Is Fry’s Electronics in trouble?

#240

Post by chubot »

option wrote: post #104
jonny_eh wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

The funny thing is that Best Buy also price matches bestbuy.com :)

Every time I go in there I have to ask the cashier for the price on the web site. The stores and site have different prices. I guess it makes sense because you capture 5% from everyone who doesn't bother to do that.

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