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I visited Fry's last week. The shelves in most of the store were empty. Much of the store was blocked off with caution tape, with buckets out to collect rain water dripping from the ceiling. I looked for graphics cards, but the aisle was completely bare. There were very few workers in the store, and even fewer customers. In the front, I found fragrances. DVDs and Blu-rays were mainly obscure or poor films priced as h…
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You aren't actually required to have your receipt checked. I just walk straight out and ignore them.
You’re in their store. If you don’t want to follow their rules, don’t enter their store.
Their considering me a thief by default has provoked me to spend elsewhere. The poor buggers manning the front door never gave me any grief for blowing them off, but the unanswerable managerial thought that put them there in the first place makes it a no brainier to shop elsewhere.
And yea, that is despite the pull of preferring to fondle and drool on the merchandise in person.
The store in Phoenix not only had bare shelves, but the extra warehousing space in the back corner was all empty. I went there on Black Friday this year to find the shelves still empty.
So sad to see this. The Thunderbird store used to be about midway between work and home when I lived in AZ, 20 years ago. I'd often stop in just to walk around and see what was new. Now, the nearest Fry's is 45-60 minutes away from me, so I've only been in about 3 times in the last decade. The most recent was equally depressing. We didn't find what we were looking for and it probably would have been damaged even if w…
I know the history of computing technology pretty well... but it was striking to see it laid out like that, in the context of changes with art, culture, domestic and international politics.
Retrospecting on that, in the heyday when Moore's Law was so visible, before the PC revolution gave birth to the Internet revolution, new computing devices were changing so fast. You could go into a store a month later and see a lot of things that are new. I remember the Columbus OH Microcenter. There was a tiny used computer store nearby. Both were packed. That business worked because there was so much turnover.
You don't really see that nowadays. The most exciting thing that come out tbese days is the Threadripper, but for most consumers, it isn't necessary anymore.
Most of the rapid changes are taking place where people can't really see it anymore (unless you are an insider) -- in the cloud, with AI.
Even though changes are still happening rapidly, I think the _visible_ changes have petered out for the consumer.
What I am saying is that, even if Fry's were able to compete on price with internet retailers, something more fundamental has shifted.
Now maybe I am just saying this from the perspective of the US. I hear that in China, the development and competitiveness of smartphones is a lot greater there than in the US. Apple has a difficult time competing in China because there are many stylish, hot smartphones within that domestic market. If so, then perhaps it isn't that changes are no longer being visible ... but that the US is no longer the focal point of consumer product innovation that it one was.
At this point it's probably a better business move to close the store till they're able to stock shelves. No one walks into that store and thinks "oh, this is somewhere I should come back to for my tech needs in the future".
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…
I think smartphones, laptops, streaming and online shopping really decimated this retail sector. Even lots of power users just use laptops (and AWS) and don't buy components. And sales of consumer electronics like point and shoot cameras, DVD and CD players, GPSes, etc. have fallen off a cliff.
Anecdotally, my local Best Buy is always packed. I do a good amount of shopping online, but I also like to get certain things in person when possible. To me, it's much more satisfying to buy something and be able to use it on the same day.
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…
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> 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...
Which I find a bit annoying; what I like about Fry's is that they have low-level components in addition to the high-level stuff. With Radio Shack closing, and Fry's probably closing soon, the only non-internet place left that I'll be able to purchase components will be Micro Center. My point is, Best Buy has never been a one-to-one comparison to me. There are things that Fry's has that Best Buy simply doesn't.
[1]: https://www.frys.com/product/1000013 [2]: https://www.frys.com/product/1003503
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Reminds me of the late stages of Circuit City where the stores were just there ... but empty shelves, strange patterns in inventory, employees who just have given up on work .. look like they gave up on life. I was always amazed how long Circuit City stuck around like that.
Reinforces Apple's decision to launch their own retail business. Circuit City was where I rediscovered Macs after having been away for a decade.
I'm fortunate to live 15 minutes away from the only Microcenter in California, which has really picked up business over the last year. Every Fry's in our area is in thes same sad condition (the Fountain Valley and Anaheim Hills Fry's are both ghost towns.)
The folks who work at our nearby Microcenter are all enthusiasts, and the store has a similar vibe to the golden-era of Fry's stores in Silicon Valley (this is despite CA's Microcenter being in Orange County, about 400 miles south of Silicon Valley and the broader Bay Area.)
One thing I noticed even a decade ago is that Microcenter did a much better job catering to high end computer builds than Frys, which over the last decade felt like it had too much breadth of product at the expense of useful depth in any one area. For instance, Microcenters have long had full isles dedicated to water cooling. Back before AIOs, you'd be able to find parts you'd only otherwise get at online specialty stores -- Newegg didn't even cary them. (Today, the selection is smaller but that is mostly due to the proliferation of AIOs.)
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…