Fry's Electronics is closing all stores • Hacker News Board

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#221

Post by donatj » Wed, Feb 24, 2021, 2:06 PM UTC

We never had Fry’s in my area, but I’d heard a ton about it in online communities growing up. I was spending a week last spring in San Francisco and decided to go check one out. The store was huge, but mostly empty. A lot of the merchandise they did have seemed really beaten up. The aisles seemed kinda dirty, like not horrible, but not great. The employees all seemed like they didn’t want to be there. It was generally a dark experience.

Contrasting that with the Microcenter near my house was stark.

I’ve only been to Fry’s once, and I’m honestly shocked it took them this long to shut down.

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#222

Post by michaelcampbell » Wed, Feb 24, 2021, 2:10 PM UTC

shawn-furyan wrote: post #186

brundolf wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have reason to believe this was endemic to the whole company, or could it have just been your store?

As a possibly former employee (who among us can recall every place they've worked in the past?) who may not have looked at any number of prior employment agreements in an awfully long time, and completely apropos of nothing, I just want to note that endemic is such a good and relevant vocabulary word for current events. I mean, there's the global pandemic, and other things people are talking about, all kinds of uses!…

> who among us can recall every place they've worked in the past?

I'm in my mid/late 50's, and I can. Even one gig I had for 3 1/2 hours.

Not bragging here, but I suspect MOST people can remember all their jobs. Am I wrong?

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#223

Post by michaelcampbell » Wed, Feb 24, 2021, 2:12 PM UTC

donatj wrote: post #221

We never had Fry’s in my area, but I’d heard a ton about it in online communities growing up. I was spending a week last spring in San Francisco and decided to go check one out. The store was huge, but mostly empty. A lot of the merchandise they did have seemed really beaten up. The aisles seemed kinda dirty, like not horrible, but not great. The employees all seemed like they didn’t want to be there. It was generall…

In the North Atlanta (Georgia, USA), area the local-ish Microcenter has long been the place where the people "in the know" go. Plenty of stock, of good quality, knowledgable employees, ... (At least it was pre-pandemic; haven't been since then)

Fry's... not so much. Still, their demise makes me sad if for no other reason than my now 20 year old son and I really enjoyed going there when he was younger, so I have fond memories of it.

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#224

Post by lscotte » Wed, Feb 24, 2021, 2:12 PM UTC

BeetleB wrote: post #150

snapetom wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived near the Palo Alto Fry's around the same time when I was a kid, and I always remembered it as a supermarket with some electronics. It wasn't until college that I got interested in computers and electronics and started to go back to Fry's again. I was always sort of puzzled - did I remember the supermarket correctly? Was it a Fry's? Whenever I said to people, "Fry's was a supermarket," they looked at me like I…

You are thinking of this (owned by Kroger's): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_Food_and_Drug Similar logo, but different store, although they do share an origin.

Actually parent remembers it right. At that time, Fry's in the Bay Area was roughly half supermarket and half electronics.

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#225

Post by eplanit » Wed, Feb 24, 2021, 2:13 PM UTC

Finally. It has been 20+ years since they were anything like they were reputed to be (and actually were). When failure is inevitable, it's better that it happen sooner rather than later. They've been a sad shadow of their former self for a long time.

I would hope that something new and better might take their place, but it's too hard to be optimistic about any brick and mortar prospect.

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#226

Post by geoduck14 » Wed, Feb 24, 2021, 2:14 PM UTC

Fezzik wrote: post #158

brundolf wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have reason to believe this was endemic to the whole company, or could it have just been your store?

I was never employed at Fry’s, but regularly shopped at the Oregon and Washington stores, and to this day I always remember thinking that the employees looked more bedraggled than at any other store I had or have ever shopped at. There was a feeling of defeat, abuse, and under-appreciation in the air.

>bedraggled

Good word! I'm going to use it today

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#227

Post by lscotte » Wed, Feb 24, 2021, 2:15 PM UTC

someperson wrote: post #41

dlevine wrote: post #5

I remember going to Fry's for the first time in the late 90s. Having grown up on the East Coast, I had only heard about this magical place where you could buy pretty much anything computer-related. It was truly an experience, especially when compared with from CompUSA and Best Buy. When I moved to the Bay Area, I did enjoy going to Fry's and walking around ogling the hardware. Over time, I switched pretty much to buy…

In the Bay Area do people often bring dogs into retail stores?

Unfortunately yes, but seems to be everywhere not just Bay Area.

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#228

Post by epc » Wed, Feb 24, 2021, 2:19 PM UTC

_nothing wrote: post #140

It's cool to hear about everyone's good experiences with Fry's in the 90s; maybe they would have managed to stay in business longer if they'd ever updated since that period. I worked at a Fry's (the lone location near Chicago) for a few months in 2014 and it felt like they'd never upgraded anything since the 90s. Not the systems, not the decor-- nothing. If they were trying to make it seem retro, it failed. It just f…

The Downers Grove store was in a weird location, it's not really on the way to or from anywhere except the freeway exits or if you’re trying to bypass Highland.

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#229

Post by CivBase » Wed, Feb 24, 2021, 2:21 PM UTC

I live in a city in the midwest US. I like it here, but when it comes to electronics my only local shopping option is Best Buy. We used to have a Comp USA and RadioShack, but those are long gone now.

Whenever we travel to a city with a Fry's or a Micro Center, I always have to stop in just to browse. There's something exciting to me about having immediate access to so many computer and circuit components. On one trip we even needed a PC in a pinch and I was able to just grab everything I needed from Micro Center and have it together working in a few hours. That was a crazy experience for someone used to waiting weeks for everything to ship.

I get it. Electronics stores are a dying breed. When it comes to most of their products, people often prefer to wait for shipping to save a few bucks. Online retail has forced them to subsist on razor thin margins. Plus a lot of their inventory depreciates in value extremely quickly. And then there's the pandemic. In light of all that, they're also probably not great to work for.

I get why they're all disappearing. But I'm still disappointed. RIP brick-and-mortar electronics retail.

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#230

Post by halfmatthalfcat » Wed, Feb 24, 2021, 2:24 PM UTC

ericbarrett wrote: post #125

Lots of nostalgia about Fry’s here. Well, I have a different take. Fry’s was my first job, and my first introduction to wage slavery. They never at any point cared about employee health or well-being. Breaks were the state minimum. Pay was the state minimum. The entire staff (and there were hundreds back in the day, when the checkout line would back up into the store even with 20 registers open) shared one 7x7 beige…

Worked at Best Buy, same exact experience.