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https://goo.gl/maps/bwVeeWYWSNjL1X4dA
Fry's should have been sold to better managers. I go to Central Computer for what I used to go to Fry's for.
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 live in the midwest and there's a Frys up by Chicago. I drove up there during the holidays in hopes I might be able to snag my wife a nice monitor off the floor. I was absolutely gutted to see the state of the store. It's immense, which makes its hollowness even more shocking. I remember when the store opened during my highschool years (2004'ish?) it was a pilgrimage to go there and see double-stacked shelves of ev…
The one near Indianapolis is like that, too. I'd never been in one before (none anywhere near me in Michigan), and was excited to experience it when vacationing with my family last year. Was shocked at how bad it was—it looked like it was in the process of being liquidated (huge empty spaces), and the merchandise was mostly garbage. It was like a junky flea market without the energy.
The roof leaks water everywhere, so they have shopping carts with buckets all over the store; the computer section is now entirely empty ("we're switching to a consignment model") is what one employee told me; just very, very sad.
I'd guess perhaps they spent too much on real estate (that store could be 1/3rd its size and still fit everything) but no idea.
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…
You should see the Fry's on Northwest Hwy near Garland. It's almost scary, it has a sketchy bazaar feeling. A couple rows of shelves have just random perfume and colognes. All the televisions and stuff have 1/8" of dust on them. It must be more expensive to shut it down than to keep it running.
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I've been to the Boston, Chicago, and DC-area Microcenters, and had good experiences with all of them (although the Boston one could use a larger parking lot). Never actually been to a Fry's store--it seems that Fry's mostly set up west of the Mississippi and Microcenter east of it.
Are the prices better than Amazon? I've never been to an electronics store that is doing better since 2000 except for the Apple Store, but I live in CA. Even Best Buy in CA is empty and more expensive for the most part.
I don't buy anything complex on Amazon anymore, just books and stuff that I don't care are fake.
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> Fry's is dead. Chalk one up for Amazon and automation a-la Andrew Yang. It's easy to say that, but then the retort is why isn't Micro Center suffering the same issues? The two should be facing exactly the same pressure from Amazon, so the reasons for Fry's failures has to be more nuanced than "internet retailers are sucking everyone dry." For my part, I'm much more willing to buy computer parts in person because a)…
I've been to a Micro center once in my life, in Sunnyvale, in Mercado. The prices were worse than Staples for computer equipment so I never went back. I don't even know if it's still there anymore. I have no idea which part of the country you live in, but I would be shocked if in the Bay Area, Micro Center would be considered a "success". I can see how some stores, depending on their business agreements, might be abl…
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.
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Or even best buy (at least in canada)
Canada has nothing that compares to what Fry's was. Best Buy is about as good as you can get in Canada for computer equipment or electronics, and Amazon.ca is too expensive for Canadians, compared to the prices for Amazon.com for Americans.
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…
> Fry's is dead. Chalk one up for Amazon and automation a-la Andrew Yang. It's easy to say that, but then the retort is why isn't Micro Center suffering the same issues? The two should be facing exactly the same pressure from Amazon, so the reasons for Fry's failures has to be more nuanced than "internet retailers are sucking everyone dry." For my part, I'm much more willing to buy computer parts in person because a)…
One possibility is that Fry's didn't focus enough on it's core competency: computer components for enthusiasts. Last I was there they were selling a bunch of very tangentially related things, like a lot of kids toys.
That's the kind of stuff that nobody really cares so much about seeing before they but them, so easy for online retailers to serve.
Seems like many successful post Amazon businesses focus on a particular niche. Of course, I imagine that with their huge retail buildings, Fry's had to fill them with something to justify the cost of that space.
Retailers are just as much selling an experience as they are selling goods. The novelty of the Fry's experience just wore off for most people. Believe it or not there was a time when people would take their families there all weekend long as an outing.
People just aren't as impressed with consumer technology now as they were then ... and they're sort of right. The changes in recent years haven't been that wonder-inducing from a consumer perspective.
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…