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Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

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Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#251

I’m not surprised, but this makes me feel incredibly sad. I built my first PC using parts from there. I’m going to miss it. But once Fry’s pivoted to be a consignment store that was mostly empty and selling pallets of bottled water and perfume, it was obvious the business was about to die. Curiously, Microcenter has managed to live on and seems fairly robust. I can’t help but think Fry’s tried to sell too many differ…

> I’m not surprised, but this makes me feel incredibly sad. I built my first PC using parts from there. I’m going to miss it. Same, the last one I stepped foot in was in 2018 at the one near the Tesla factory in Fremont after my interview, and it looked absolutely dead. I thought with so many tech nerds in that town you'd be bound to see a bunch guys getting together after work and just buying up carts of stuff of th…

"covid" didn't claim shit - the fucking piece of shit hair jell nazi from sacramento did

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#252

This is too bad. But, it's not surprising. In speaking with a colleague recently, I found out that his local Fry's Electronics was a shell of what it once was, and that they were doing some strange consignment sale things that weren't even through their normal retail channels. Another COVID casualty, I suspect.

"covid" - a disease didn't do this - GAVIN FUCKING NEWSOM did!

I hope you all like Richard Grenell - he'll be our new california governor - Gavin is getting his ass recalled!

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#253

This explains a lot. I recently, as of October, was building a new workstation and _tried_ to buy things from Fry's but there was quite literally _nothing_ for sale. I was confused if was just because of covid (temporary closure) or permanent... really bummed it's permanent. Fry's was awesome. I always wanted to go to one of their more epic looking stores (the one closest to me wasn't), like this bad mamajama https:/…

it doesn't take too many "emergency orders" to kill a business - and in california we've been locked up for the past year (first to lock down, last to open)

If any of you support lockdowns you are the problem. Not covid.

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#254

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…

Honestly, except for the commissions bit (I never had a commission job), that describes every retail job I had as a kid. I think margins are too thin to focus on cleaning, maintenance, and break rooms. I usually took my breaks anti-socially in my car.

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#255

I’m not surprised, but this makes me feel incredibly sad. I built my first PC using parts from there. I’m going to miss it. But once Fry’s pivoted to be a consignment store that was mostly empty and selling pallets of bottled water and perfume, it was obvious the business was about to die. Curiously, Microcenter has managed to live on and seems fairly robust. I can’t help but think Fry’s tried to sell too many differ…

I was pleasantly surprised by Microcenter in November of last year. I was looking for a laptop and apparently Microcenter has a house brand called Powerspec. It turns out they are a very user-focused brand that a) has no bloatware preinstalled and b) has high performance and every single port you could possibly want . When I went, there was a little bit of hovering but overall the staff were nice. Protip: whenever yo…

Since radioshack went out of business Microcenter is the only place I can get last minute electronic components if I'm trying to follow some tutorial that calls for something specific. The problem is that its 45 minutes away, and I cant seem to spend less than 3 hours and $300 every time i go there.

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#256

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…

My first real job was at CompUSA. And my experience was identical to what you just described.

I liked CompUSA. The employees I interacted with were great. Boise, ID. Was sad when they closed.

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#257
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…

it's still great!

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#258
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Best Buy realized they were going to be killed by Amazon and adapted, adding things like price match and more vendor support stuff (like the Samsung store within store thing). If you didn’t and didn’t sell staples (like groceries, where it’s difficult for Amazon to compete), it’s been a rough go of it for big box retailers.

That Samsung thing is annoying and maybe counter-productive for them. Pre-COVID, I went to a BestBuy for a specific Samsung microSD. Looked all over the flash memory and they didn’t have it, despite it showing in-stock online. Now, because I needed it, I asked for help, employee sighs and walks me over to flash area, we don’t find it. I show them my phone and they realize “oh, that’s over in the Samsung section!” Wha…

Keeping some SKUs separate may be annoying, but the employee not realizing that until you showed your phone is not an insurmountable problem. Some training and/or an internal memo and the next person in looking for that item will be directed properly.

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I'm roughly the same age, and while I can remember all the brick-and-mortar places I've gone to work, there was a period where I did temp work and I'm sure I couldn't name all the agencies I worked for and certainly not all the clients.

If you're younger and grew up in the gig economy, that might be much more common.

Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores

#260
What replaces Fry's? We still have a MicroCenter that overlaps many functions. And it is very crowded on weekends with covid restricted capacities.

Last time Radio Shack reopened it was mainly a cellphone dealer.

Best Buy, Targets and Walmarts are limited home electronics stores.

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