I'm in a state that never had Fry's, but I was amazed when I finally got to visit one. Motherboards plugged in and on display, whaaat! All those PC parts I always thought you could order online were right there on the shelves at Fry's. They also had sweet looking telescopes and the biggest TVs I'd ever seen at the time. There is something sad about our turn to websites and Amazon warehouses over visiting the store and seeing and handling the product you want before buying.
Fry's Electronics is closing all stores
81–90 of 316 posts
Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores
#82I'm in a state that never had Fry's, but I was amazed when I finally got to visit one. Motherboards plugged in and on display , whaaat! All those PC parts I always thought you could order online were right there on the shelves at Fry's. They also had sweet looking telescopes and the biggest TVs I'd ever seen at the time. There is something sad about our turn to websites and Amazon warehouses over visiting the store a…
> All those PC parts I always thought you could order online were right there on the shelves at Fry's.
Imagine what it was like when you could only get such things from a catalog.
Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sports Basement - they kept the enter key on the door though. To be fair when Fry's left that building, it's because they built a bigger one down the street, the one with the sinc function as a logo. It was a glorious experience in the 90s.
> they kept the enter key on the door though That's a nice touch/nod! Thanks for the correction, yeah SportsBasement. I went mostly to the one off Portage.
I distinctly recall that location is where we bought the legend of Zelda back in the 80’s when it first came out. Gonna miss fry’s.
Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah weirdstuff is gone? I suppose the only businesses left along those lines are the startup graveyard furniture stores
Yeah, it closed several years ago. I think HSC is still alive, but changed its name. https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/08/sjm-l-weirdstuff-0408...
HSC is gone too, sadly. The last surplus store standing in the Bay Area (I think - at least in the South Bay and Peninsula) is Excess Solutions in San Jose (http://www.excesssolutions.com/)
Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores
#85I’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…
The only time I've ever been into a Fry's (due to not living near one) was around 2010 in the Sacramento CA area. It was so huge that I genuinely got dizzy and had to work hard to focus to see individual items (It's a thing that happens to me when there is a lot of "input" for lack of a better term). I suspect that the cavernous real estate (and its cost) only hastened their demise.
My one memory of the Sacramento Fry's is buying a 5 lb GummiBear to prank a friend. Not 5 lbs of GummiBears, a single 5 lb GummiBear.
Sorry to see the stores close.
Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, it closed several years ago. I think HSC is still alive, but changed its name. https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/08/sjm-l-weirdstuff-0408...
HSC is gone too, sadly. The last surplus store standing in the Bay Area (I think - at least in the South Bay and Peninsula) is Excess Solutions in San Jose ( http://www.excesssolutions.com/ )
I think HSC was sold to ES
Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Central Computer is still kicking around -for now. This is all changing. It's not the same. You used to have a bunch of grey market PC parts distributors all over the east bay (uProcessor, add on Cards, RAM, HDD, etc) that used to sell to beige box PC makers (and individuals) but they went the way of the dodo too (ASI is legit distributor now). Also, remember WeirdStuff? Gone too. It's a mature industry and the biz h…
Ah weirdstuff is gone? I suppose the only businesses left along those lines are the startup graveyard furniture stores
You haven't lived the life of a late 90's bay area nerd if you've never grabbed your copy of Computer Shopper and hit Fry's, Weird Stuff and Central Computer in a single afternoon. With friends. :D
Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores
#88Local Bay Area TV news channel says it has confirmed the story: https://www.kron4.com/news/national/frys-electronics-permane...
Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores
#89I’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 really liked Fry's years ago. It was depressing to see inventory go down so quickly last couple years. I would like a local Microcenter. Their prices are decent and they have good motherboard/cpu combos.
Semi-off topic but Microcenter needs to fix their online presence.
I have five Microcenters within an hour of me, the closest is practically walking distance, yet I was so turned off by the few times I've tried to use their online services I essentially boycotted them.
The first time was using their site for pickup during the pandemic... then not being told until I reached the store that this wasn't curbside/contactless pickup like every other electronics store in the state was doing: you were simply having them being your item to the front, and you would then have to wait upwards of an hour to get into the store and check out manually. (Kind of defeats the 5 minutes you save over picking it up yourself and any possible safety benefit for you and their employees)
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The second time was trying to built my new gaming PC a few months back. I specifically wanted to buy from Microcenter to support a brick and mortar store...
I added thousands of dollars of parts to my cart, went to checkout and it wouldn't let me. It declined my card despite no fraud alerts, confirmed billing address, etc.
After two tries it cleared my entire cart.
Go through my history, re-add everything, and it fails to checkout again and again until my cart is cleared again and I give up and go to Newegg.
When I brought it up people said this was common, and the fix was to use another card because sometimes it randomly wouldn't accept certain types (!)
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I get Microcenter is "physically-oriented" but I don't get how long they can stay relevant with their abysmal online presence.
You shouldn't be losing sales because of a crusty checkout flow in 2021...
Re: Fry's Electronics is closing all stores
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
HSC is gone too, sadly. The last surplus store standing in the Bay Area (I think - at least in the South Bay and Peninsula) is Excess Solutions in San Jose ( http://www.excesssolutions.com/ )
I think HSC was sold to ES
Yes, you’re correct.
If you’re just looking for electronics parts, Anchor Electronics in Santa Clara is still alive and (hopefully!) well: https://anchor-electronics.com/