Earlier quoted context omitted.
That link you posted there says 2025! Wow that makes me excited. Big fan of microcenter.
Nice, and in that same plaza is Harbor Freight.
That sounds like a pretty dangerous combination for my wallet.
Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank
81–90 of 119 posts
Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank
#82I'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…
Similar... spent hours and hours at the one in Canoga Park during the 90s. (Sometimes DAK too.) Believe it had an "alice in wonderland" theme. Can't even remember what I bought but even perused the magazine section while there. Oh wait, I do remember buying a 20? foot long (several meter) orange crossover ethernet cable! Then I punched a hole thru the drywall in my apartment and connected my two PCs. One of which had…
Canoga Park was indeed Alice in Wonderland themed. That was my Fry's too. When the closed down they actioned off all of the Alice themed items inside.
I came this close to buying a 15ft tall Queen of Hearts.
Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank
#83I don’t know what kind of world we are leaving for the next generation. It’s completely devoid of any character or authenticity.
Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank
#84One of the things I loved most about Fry's was that clearly an engineer designed their checkout line. It's the only retail checkout line I've ever seen that fully embraced queueing theory.
They had one long line that everyone got into, and a load balancer up front that would direct you to an open check stand, and at least at the store I went to, in their hayday they had 30 registers open at once!
Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank
#85Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank
#86I 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. I…
> it would be so convenient if neighborhood purveyors of "exotic" electronics were still around
Speed up electronics prototyping in support of future manufacturing.
Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank
#87I 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. I…
I had gone there a few times probably several months before they closed. It was quite sad how empty it was. Product hangers were lined up in a single row with one item on each hanger. The only shelf that looked full was the one aisle filled with just the same two pack of canned air, nothing else.
Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank
#88One of the things I loved most about Fry's was that clearly an engineer designed their checkout line. It's the only retail checkout line I've ever seen that fully embraced queueing theory. They had one long line that everyone got into, and a load balancer up front that would direct you to an open check stand, and at least at the store I went to, in their hayday they had 30 registers open at once!
This sort of queuing system is also widely used in Post Office and bank branches in the UK since at least the 1980s.
Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank
#89Earlier 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....
The Computer Shopper magazine. How it was 3/4” thick full of content every edition just amazed me.
5/8” of that was ads. But, before the consumer internet, those ads were as interesting and valuable to readers as the articles.
Re: Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Once I was returning something at the Palo Alto Fry's and the couple ahead of me had a laptop where someone had removed the battery and replaced it with a sandwich. Only at Fry's.
I once returned a product that was not working to the Burbank Fry's location. I walked around the store for a bit, then passed by the section where that product was sold - and saw the product I had returned back on the shelf. Could tell by the way I had torn it open - they had just wrapped it back up and put a small discount on it.