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Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

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Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#71

Post by hbarka »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #55
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

When I first moved out to the Bay Area in 1995 and discovered Fry's it was wire-wrapping tools, sockets, enclosures, electronic components, porn magazines, junk food, soft drinks, Computer Shopper magazines....

The Computer Shopper magazine. How it was 3/4” thick full of content every edition just amazed me.

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#72

Post by theturtle32 »

coobird wrote: post #62
jallmann wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember buying a Radeon at Fry's (Fountain Valley, Roman Empire), going home, opening it up and... it was something else, a cheap VGA card. They gave me a hard time about taking it back too, 16-year old me didn't know how to cut through the BS so my dad had to go back with me on a 3rd trip and get it sorted out. What a place.

That was my local Fry's and I wouldn't touch any returned item with a 10-foot pole given the stories I heard about them, despite them being on discount. This was back in the late 90s before social media, so it must of been word of mouth through my high school friends. I had the impression that their return process was very lax so you'd have "customers" returning broken items or worse... And they'd end up on the shelv…

And the discount was never even big enough for me to even consider taking that risk for a moment! $395 new, but then returned and restocked with that sticker and only marked down to $390? Nah. I always wondered who was actually dumb enough to fall for that.

Only time I ever considered it was when the returned one was the only one left.

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#74

Post by walterbell »

iancmceachern wrote: post #65
JKCalhoun wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I first moved out to the Bay Area in 1995 and discovered Fry's it was wire-wrapping tools, sockets, enclosures, electronic components, porn magazines, junk food, soft drinks, Computer Shopper magazines....

Computer shopper!

https://archive.org/details/computer_shopper

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#75

Post by dimator »

user3939382 wrote: post #46

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.

that's so sweet. :')

reminds me of my mom taking me to radio shack, so many times.

thank you for sharing.

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#76

Post by brundolf »

My dad and I used to make a habit of going to the Plano, TX location together and just walking around. I'd want to look at the software and the games, he'd want to look at the big TVs. It was one of the few activities we could do together. Lots of nice memories doing that

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#77

Post by jrapdx3 »

I remember when Fry's opened in the Portland, OR area (actually ~15 miles south). It occupied the former Incredible Universe site. We considered it a notable upgrade.

Fry's was like a museum of common and obscure electronic parts, devices and strangely miscellaneous stuff (mundane office supplies, home appliance accessories, etc.). It was definitely the go to place for computer building blocks and related supplies.

It was amazing what could be found there. One really great thing was relay racks and all kinds of shelves and attachments for them. Too good to pass up I bought one. It was used in my office (for webserver and LAN) and still houses my home server.

Like everywhere else Fry's closed unceremoniously. I guess the chain couldn't withstand the growing online competition and waning interest in desktop machines. Too bad they had to go, now and then it would be so convenient if neighborhood purveyors of "exotic" electronics were still around.

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#78

Post by dimator »

otterpro wrote: post #11

I'm sad to see it end like this. About 20 years ago, I used to go to this Burbank Fry's after work whenever I could and spend hours just browsing. They had this cool 50's sci-fi alien/ufo movie theme inside. Another favorite is the Fry's in Anaheim where I got pc parts to build my first 486 PC in the early 90's. So many memories. I remember buying my first laptop ever, a monochrome thinkpad with personal check (as my…

on top of the selection, the experience of going there is something that doesn't exist anymore: it was just packed with people. i remember more than once deciding to forego a purchase because of the line of people waiting to check out. all those fellow nerds, just wandering the aisles...

those were indeed the days.

Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

#79

Post by ignormies »

krish98sai wrote: post #61
pimlottc wrote: post #53

I just recently learned from the last Not Just Bikes video [0] that these big box stores tend to be very hard to reuse (even when they don't include a giant spaceship). 99 Percent Invisible has a good article [1] on some of the challenges and a few success stories, but it takes a major effort. 0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7-e_yhEzIw 1: https://99percentinvisible.org/article/ghost-boxes-reusing-a...

The construction guy in the video said 95% of the building is being recycled. Don't know how accurate that is, but good if true.

The comment you're replying to is referring to the difficulty to repurpose these buildings without complete replacement.

Recycling raw materials is important, but ideally we shouldn't be constructing buildings that are single-tenant, requiring a complete demolition just to make the land have utility again.

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