Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank • Hacker News Board

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#41

Post by bsder » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 3:32 AM UTC

LeoPanthera wrote: post #9

For those in the bay area, Micro Center is opening a branch in Santa Clara. https://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/santa-clara.aspx Well, maybe. It's delayed months at this point.

When the hell are we going to get an Austin or San Antonio Microcenter?

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#42

Post by TimTheTinker » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 3:32 AM UTC

I used to shop at this Fry's for supplies when I was an ECE major at Cal Poly Pomona. Sad to see it go.

(I'm sad to see local electronics supply stores in general disappear.)

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#43

Post by raincom » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 3:37 AM UTC

Fry's brothers made a biggest mistake of not taking the company public during the dot com bubble era. Had they taken these stores public, they would have diversified their investments.

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#44

Post by ChuckMcM » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 3:38 AM UTC

LeoPanthera wrote: post #9

For those in the bay area, Micro Center is opening a branch in Santa Clara. https://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/santa-clara.aspx Well, maybe. It's delayed months at this point.

Fascinating, I drove by it and thought "Oh look, they forgot to take down the sign when the store closed." It will be interesting to see how they do. For computer stuff, Central Computers has been the 'go to' store for a while. Central also has a store on Steven's Creek (a bit further down toward San Jose).

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#45

Post by Cerium » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 3:53 AM UTC

classichasclass wrote: post #15

pjs_ wrote: post #5

Where else could you simultaneously purchase through-hole transistors, a gaming motherboard, a 19" rack, a leafblower, a loudspeaker disguised as a plastic rock, pornography, a taser, a sandwich and a decent cup of coffee while surrounded by fiberglass cowboys and aliens... sad to see

Sandwiches, too. Ate at the cafe a fair bit. When my buddy was living on Victory and Hollywood we hit Burbank on a regular basis. Of the Burbank, Fountain Valley, San Marcos, San Diego, Anaheim Hills, Roseville, Sacramento, Fremont, Las Vegas and Sunnyvale locations, I think I liked the San Diego one most for selection (it was a former Incredible Universe), but the Roseville and Las Vegas ones had the wildest themes,…

I used to stop by the Fremont location for a sandwich when traffic on the Sunol grade was bad.

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#46

Post by user3939382 » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 3:55 AM UTC

My dear dad drove me back and forth between Burbank and Palm Springs 3 times while I figured out motherboard/memory compatibility. Miss dad and miss Fry’s.

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#47

Post by ack_complete » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 3:56 AM UTC

bigmattystyles wrote: post #34

What always bugged me about Fry's at the end was how disrespectful people eventually got to the sample goods on the floor. I swear, every motherboard had their pins smooshed in. Maybe this is `old man remembers` but it wasn't that trashy in its heyday, when admittedly, I was a kid so maybe I didn't notice. Maybe it's because they had to pivot hard to cheap trinkets towards the end and that brought in a different crow…

Given the kinds of returns that Fry's would accept, I wouldn't be surprised if those were returns they had accepted that way. The one near me would attempt to resell laptop power bricks that had been returned with no AC power cord, and one time I got "new" RAM sticks that turned out to be actually used and so busted that a quarter of the data bus lines were inoperative.

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#48

Post by DataJunkie » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 3:59 AM UTC

My dad and I spent so many days in that place. The Burbank one wasn’t my favorite. My favorite was the Alice in Wonderland theme in Woodland Hills. Also liked the tropical theme in Manhattan Beach. Our local Fry’s, one of the last ones to open, was sad. Some kind of California nostalgia theme. Palo Alto, cowboy/Wild West… that one was so cramped. I remember the Santa Clara one had a lot of hardware that others didn’t have like large plotters etc.

Definitely miss it. Even the low quality of the items and the rude or useless sales staff lol.

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#49

Post by 01100011 » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 4:02 AM UTC

unclebucknasty wrote: post #19

pjs_ wrote: post #5

Where else could you simultaneously purchase through-hole transistors, a gaming motherboard, a 19" rack, a leafblower, a loudspeaker disguised as a plastic rock, pornography, a taser, a sandwich and a decent cup of coffee while surrounded by fiberglass cowboys and aliens... sad to see

And each one of those items would somehow have a dead pixel.

I loved Fry's and shopped there often in the 90s and 00s but it did seem like half of the things I bought there had to be returned for one reason or another.

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#50

Post by draculero » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 4:07 AM UTC

bsder wrote: post #41

LeoPanthera wrote: post #9

For those in the bay area, Micro Center is opening a branch in Santa Clara. https://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/santa-clara.aspx Well, maybe. It's delayed months at this point.

When the hell are we going to get an Austin or San Antonio Microcenter?

According this Reddit thread, it's going to be in the same place as Frys:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/1h5r409/microcenter...