Fry's Electronics is closing
February 24, 2021 3:39 AM Subscribe
Fry's Electronics is closing. Fry's was a chain and it was not as niche a taste as WeirdStuff or Halted Supply, both of which preceded Fry's into oblivion. If you have not visited Fry's alien invasion themed store, or their Alice in Wonderland store, amused yourself trying to communicate your needs to one of their customer service representatives, or waited in the Christmas season lines, it is too late now.
I always wanted to go to one.
posted by octothorpe at 4:21 AM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 4:21 AM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
Wow dang. Built several PCs with gear from Fry’s, back in day (including from the Burbank store, tho more frequently from the one in Fountain Valley).
posted by notyou at 4:23 AM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by notyou at 4:23 AM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
The only option here is BestBuy and they basically just want to sell phones and televisions.
posted by octothorpe at 4:26 AM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 4:26 AM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
Not surprised at all. I used to work in Fremont and go to Milpitas and Palo Alto branches all the time. They sell everything, from flashlights to appliances, from electronic components (DIYers) to PC components, from children's toys and books to magazines, even adult videos (and plenty of regular videos). They are probably best known for HUGE row of checkout counters (like 30+ of them) that even needed a "cashier usher" to remind you "sir, number X is ready for you". But with a store THAT large, there are PLENTY of small items that can succumb to "shrinkage", and they have a dedicated RETURNS department that's next to the entrance, and often those items are wrapped up and put back on the shelf with a barely noticeable discount.
IIRC, Fry's started to serve the Silicon Valley engineering crowd "back in the days". Now that the crowd has dispersed all over the nation and/or WFH, Fry's diversification bought it a decade or two, but the margins were never robust enough, esp. when competing against truly national chains like BestBuy and buying powers of CostCo and such... or even Amazon. With COVID, yeah, it's done for.
Guess that only leaves Best Buy as the electronics shop around here, unless you want to count local institutions (which for San Francisco, would be Central Computers).
posted by kschang at 4:47 AM on February 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
IIRC, Fry's started to serve the Silicon Valley engineering crowd "back in the days". Now that the crowd has dispersed all over the nation and/or WFH, Fry's diversification bought it a decade or two, but the margins were never robust enough, esp. when competing against truly national chains like BestBuy and buying powers of CostCo and such... or even Amazon. With COVID, yeah, it's done for.
Guess that only leaves Best Buy as the electronics shop around here, unless you want to count local institutions (which for San Francisco, would be Central Computers).
posted by kschang at 4:47 AM on February 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
amused yourself trying to communicate your needs to one of their customer service representatives
I've never been to a Fry's, but did they have the same oddly retro dystopian employee tracking system that Microcenter has? The one where each associate carries around a sheet of barcode stickers and affixes them on every item they help you find so their efforts can be logged at the cash register? Because that's super creepy and annoying, especially if I already know where something should be from the website and all I want to know is where it's been inexplicably moved to.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:49 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
I've never been to a Fry's, but did they have the same oddly retro dystopian employee tracking system that Microcenter has? The one where each associate carries around a sheet of barcode stickers and affixes them on every item they help you find so their efforts can be logged at the cash register? Because that's super creepy and annoying, especially if I already know where something should be from the website and all I want to know is where it's been inexplicably moved to.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:49 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
When I moved to the US in 2004 Fry’s was one of the very first stores I ever went into. It was the flagship Sunnyvale store which had the theme of “History of Silicon Valley”. I walked there - using a physical book of maps for directions - from a house in Santa Clara I was renting a room in off the El Camino Real. The route took me past Applied Materials, Nvidia, and a bunch of other tech companies. I had just read Microserfs on the plane over. For someone coming from New Zealand, who had never been in a store like it, the whole experience was truly peak Silicon Valley to me.
Although I’m not big on retail shopping, there are a few stores I’m sad my kids may never experience / remember going into because they were destinations in a way - a really large Toy’s R Us is one, and now a large themed Fry’s is another.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 4:50 AM on February 24, 2021 [37 favorites]
Although I’m not big on retail shopping, there are a few stores I’m sad my kids may never experience / remember going into because they were destinations in a way - a really large Toy’s R Us is one, and now a large themed Fry’s is another.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 4:50 AM on February 24, 2021 [37 favorites]
.
posted by jquinby at 5:14 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by jquinby at 5:14 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
The retail aficionados have been documenting the decline of Fry's for some time now. Empty stores, miles of bare shelves and an increasing reliance on "As Seen on TV" and adult-themed products.
Fry's reminded me a bit of Best back in the day with their themed stores.
posted by drstrangelove at 5:23 AM on February 24, 2021 [9 favorites]
Fry's reminded me a bit of Best back in the day with their themed stores.
posted by drstrangelove at 5:23 AM on February 24, 2021 [9 favorites]
.
Anytime I went to an US city with a Fry's (typically for conferences or training or consulting gigs), I always ensured that I made the pilgrimage. But, other than some odd-ball things that I had never seen stocked anywhere, after factoring the exchange-rate the prices were never compelling enough to make large purchases. But, OMG - the selection of things was just amazing. But, even I saw a decline over a 10-year span of visits - the last time was in 2015.
a really large Toy’s R Us is one
They still exist in Canada (maybe not as mega as in the US) - and they were doing ok - until, well the last year...
posted by rozcakj at 5:28 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
Anytime I went to an US city with a Fry's (typically for conferences or training or consulting gigs), I always ensured that I made the pilgrimage. But, other than some odd-ball things that I had never seen stocked anywhere, after factoring the exchange-rate the prices were never compelling enough to make large purchases. But, OMG - the selection of things was just amazing. But, even I saw a decline over a 10-year span of visits - the last time was in 2015.
a really large Toy’s R Us is one
They still exist in Canada (maybe not as mega as in the US) - and they were doing ok - until, well the last year...
posted by rozcakj at 5:28 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
Honestly? Good riddance and I can't believe it took this long.
The last time I was in a Fry's was at the Renton one about 9-10 years ago now and it was already a ghost town wasteland back then with what looked like 50-70% of the shelving empty and in total disarray. It was filthy and depressing and it reminded me very much of going to some very beat down K-Mart in a recession and in an economically repressed area.
And I've been to almost every single Fry's on the West Coast from Fountain Valley to Renton.
I remember that last time in Renton. I was just there to find a replacement motherboard for a computer repair job and one of those "We need this yesterday!" kind of jobs. It wasn't even an older motherboard or rarity or anything, just a bog standard motherboard of the day, perhaps less than 12 months old from the bleeding edge. I even called ahead to make sure they had it in stock. I got there and they had one in stock but it was screwed to the display wall with wood screws right through the PCB. I couldn't even find any similar motherboard that would work at all without buying too many other additional parts like upgrading the CPU, RAM and other components and basically rebuilding the entire system except for the case.
I remember looking around and realizing that it was probably the last time I was going to step into a Fry's in my life, and I was right about that. I never went back to one after that. The whole store stank of corporate death spiral and desperation.
And even as recently as last month I've read about rumors from Fry's employees that Fry's was going to restock and renegotiate with suppliers any day now, but they'd been saying that for, oh, ten years.
Fry's treated their employees like absolute garbage and - surprise - had some of the worst customer service on the planet. I knew many smart, nerdy people that tried working there and they all crumbled and ran away. There have been so many stories about people being refused even simple hygiene and bathroom breaks and pissing their pants working the registers or having to wear diapers, not to mention huge amounts of sexual harassment.
Ever notice that Fry's stores almost always had a lot of young, attractive women of mostly of Asian, Indian or other non-white ethnicity or backgrounds, people who weren't exactly focused on tech? Especially in sales positions? Never stopped to ask yourself why that might be?
It's because Fry's was greasier than a bad used car sales lot and it was a huge part of the corporate culture. Shoot I heard about them mandating dress codes for women with skirts, heels, makeup and stockings well into the early 2000s. I remember watching line managers harassing cashiers and putting hands on them and everything and the pained, frightened looks those poor women would have the whole time while working.
In addition to *waves hands* all of this they also had some seriously dodgy business practices like reselling returned product "as new" or "like new" as a kind of fucked up inventory arbitrage, knowing that if they resold a returned component, part or gadget enough times eventually some poor sucker would take it home and forget to return it before the 30 days were up.
If your returns department always has a line and looks like a prison visitation lobby or a really sketchy Greyhound station and sometimes most of the stock on the shelves has Fry's infamous "Sold as new!" sticker on it you're probably doing it totally wrong.
And Fry's has been like this for as long as I've known Fry's. It was like this way back into the early 1990s. Sure, it was one of the only places in the US if not the world where you could pick up a soldering station, a tube full of 555s, all the parts to build a PC (in theory, anyway), a licensed amatuer band transceiver, a new fridge or TV and furniture as well as some freeze dried "astronaut ice cream" all under the same roof.
But it was like going into battle, and it sucked.
And if it didn't leave you feeling frustrated or greasy? You either got lucky, you weren't paying attention or you might have difficulties with empathy.
It was a perfectly encapsulated example of bad tech bro culture.
That company was absolute bullshit. I can't wait to hear accounts of the last days because there must have been serious shenanigans going on for them to have survived on life support for an entire decade. Or two, really.
posted by loquacious at 5:31 AM on February 24, 2021 [62 favorites]
The last time I was in a Fry's was at the Renton one about 9-10 years ago now and it was already a ghost town wasteland back then with what looked like 50-70% of the shelving empty and in total disarray. It was filthy and depressing and it reminded me very much of going to some very beat down K-Mart in a recession and in an economically repressed area.
And I've been to almost every single Fry's on the West Coast from Fountain Valley to Renton.
I remember that last time in Renton. I was just there to find a replacement motherboard for a computer repair job and one of those "We need this yesterday!" kind of jobs. It wasn't even an older motherboard or rarity or anything, just a bog standard motherboard of the day, perhaps less than 12 months old from the bleeding edge. I even called ahead to make sure they had it in stock. I got there and they had one in stock but it was screwed to the display wall with wood screws right through the PCB. I couldn't even find any similar motherboard that would work at all without buying too many other additional parts like upgrading the CPU, RAM and other components and basically rebuilding the entire system except for the case.
I remember looking around and realizing that it was probably the last time I was going to step into a Fry's in my life, and I was right about that. I never went back to one after that. The whole store stank of corporate death spiral and desperation.
And even as recently as last month I've read about rumors from Fry's employees that Fry's was going to restock and renegotiate with suppliers any day now, but they'd been saying that for, oh, ten years.
Fry's treated their employees like absolute garbage and - surprise - had some of the worst customer service on the planet. I knew many smart, nerdy people that tried working there and they all crumbled and ran away. There have been so many stories about people being refused even simple hygiene and bathroom breaks and pissing their pants working the registers or having to wear diapers, not to mention huge amounts of sexual harassment.
Ever notice that Fry's stores almost always had a lot of young, attractive women of mostly of Asian, Indian or other non-white ethnicity or backgrounds, people who weren't exactly focused on tech? Especially in sales positions? Never stopped to ask yourself why that might be?
It's because Fry's was greasier than a bad used car sales lot and it was a huge part of the corporate culture. Shoot I heard about them mandating dress codes for women with skirts, heels, makeup and stockings well into the early 2000s. I remember watching line managers harassing cashiers and putting hands on them and everything and the pained, frightened looks those poor women would have the whole time while working.
In addition to *waves hands* all of this they also had some seriously dodgy business practices like reselling returned product "as new" or "like new" as a kind of fucked up inventory arbitrage, knowing that if they resold a returned component, part or gadget enough times eventually some poor sucker would take it home and forget to return it before the 30 days were up.
If your returns department always has a line and looks like a prison visitation lobby or a really sketchy Greyhound station and sometimes most of the stock on the shelves has Fry's infamous "Sold as new!" sticker on it you're probably doing it totally wrong.
And Fry's has been like this for as long as I've known Fry's. It was like this way back into the early 1990s. Sure, it was one of the only places in the US if not the world where you could pick up a soldering station, a tube full of 555s, all the parts to build a PC (in theory, anyway), a licensed amatuer band transceiver, a new fridge or TV and furniture as well as some freeze dried "astronaut ice cream" all under the same roof.
But it was like going into battle, and it sucked.
And if it didn't leave you feeling frustrated or greasy? You either got lucky, you weren't paying attention or you might have difficulties with empathy.
It was a perfectly encapsulated example of bad tech bro culture.
That company was absolute bullshit. I can't wait to hear accounts of the last days because there must have been serious shenanigans going on for them to have survived on life support for an entire decade. Or two, really.
posted by loquacious at 5:31 AM on February 24, 2021 [62 favorites]
>When I moved to the US in 2004 Fry’s was one of the very first stores I ever went into. It was the flagship Sunnyvale store
heh similar here, my first day of work at a new tech job (having flown back to the Bay Area from Japan the previous day) I stopped by the Fry's in Campbell to pick up a MS split keyboard and mouse since I knew work would have stock Macintosh kit.
Checking my Amazon history, I see for my next job in 2006 I just ordered an MS Natural 4000 from them. So it goes...
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 5:34 AM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
heh similar here, my first day of work at a new tech job (having flown back to the Bay Area from Japan the previous day) I stopped by the Fry's in Campbell to pick up a MS split keyboard and mouse since I knew work would have stock Macintosh kit.
Checking my Amazon history, I see for my next job in 2006 I just ordered an MS Natural 4000 from them. So it goes...
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 5:34 AM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
Also I remember when I was young my parents suggesting I should work there because I was good with computers, and even back in the 90s anyone who was good with computers had the immediate response of "Oh hell no. They pay less than McDonald's and treat employees like crap." and trying to explain and articulate how bad it really was there, but like most out of touch boomer parents they had no idea how awful a big corporation could be and thrive or how pitifully low minimum wage was even back then.
No dot from me. See you in hell, Fry's!
posted by loquacious at 5:37 AM on February 24, 2021 [10 favorites]
No dot from me. See you in hell, Fry's!
posted by loquacious at 5:37 AM on February 24, 2021 [10 favorites]
I'm pretty sure the first thing I ever ordered online was from Cyberian Outpost, and because they got bought by Fry's, I kept getting emails from Fry's even though I'm pretty sure I'm not within 500 miles of a Fry's.
Remember when you ordered different types of products from different stores instead of just the one? THat's the only thing that made me say "oh, huh" to this news.
posted by Ampersand692 at 5:51 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Remember when you ordered different types of products from different stores instead of just the one? THat's the only thing that made me say "oh, huh" to this news.
posted by Ampersand692 at 5:51 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
I was one of their earliest customers, in 1985. They had only one store. It was a small location in Sunnyvale. My coworker, J. Pitts Jarvis, and I would go to Fry's for "chips and chips". We'd purchase potato chips as a point of honor while purchasing electronic components. That store eventually moved to a 4x bigger store around the corner, and then to the mega store lot they've occupied until now.
In the early days, they were making money hand-over-fist, and were actually a fun place to shop (if you consider shopping fun.) As they got larger and opened more and more stores, their customer service and employee happiness clearly took a nose dive. We started seeing examples of fraudulent returns. In one case in the early 1990s, a friend purchased a "returned" hard disk only to discover the box contained a brick. Fry's took it back with no questions, but I made it a hard policy to never purchase anything with a returned label on it. (Fry's had to start labelling returns due to a lawsuit in the 1990s.)
From Fry's history (on archive.org)
Fry's Electronics, Inc. was founded in 1985 in Sunnyvale, California in a 20,000 square-foot location by the three Fry brothers, John, Randy, and Dave; and Kathy Kolder. Fry's is a closely-held private company, and all of the founders are actively involved in the daily operation of the business.
posted by blob at 5:53 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
In the early days, they were making money hand-over-fist, and were actually a fun place to shop (if you consider shopping fun.) As they got larger and opened more and more stores, their customer service and employee happiness clearly took a nose dive. We started seeing examples of fraudulent returns. In one case in the early 1990s, a friend purchased a "returned" hard disk only to discover the box contained a brick. Fry's took it back with no questions, but I made it a hard policy to never purchase anything with a returned label on it. (Fry's had to start labelling returns due to a lawsuit in the 1990s.)
From Fry's history (on archive.org)
Fry's Electronics, Inc. was founded in 1985 in Sunnyvale, California in a 20,000 square-foot location by the three Fry brothers, John, Randy, and Dave; and Kathy Kolder. Fry's is a closely-held private company, and all of the founders are actively involved in the daily operation of the business.
posted by blob at 5:53 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
In memoriam, one of the very first Internet joke webpages.
(Or the smoking remains thereof)
https://web.archive.org/web/20200130175501/http://homepage.smc.edu/engfer_mark/frys.htm
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 5:56 AM on February 24, 2021 [11 favorites]
(Or the smoking remains thereof)
https://web.archive.org/web/20200130175501/http://homepage.smc.edu/engfer_mark/frys.htm
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 5:56 AM on February 24, 2021 [11 favorites]
There used to be a number of local electronics stores, fed mostly by the presence of Kodak and Xerox in the area. The last one closed in 2020 when the owner retired and no one wanted to take over. There’s something special about wandering aisles full of oddball stuff and imagining what you could do with it. There’s no website experience that's ever come close.
posted by tommasz at 6:03 AM on February 24, 2021 [15 favorites]
posted by tommasz at 6:03 AM on February 24, 2021 [15 favorites]
The one where each associate carries around a sheet of barcode stickers and affixes them on every item they help you find so their efforts can be logged at the cash register?
Fry's had a system where for certain products you needed to hunt down an associate, who were identifiable primarily by their rumpled suits and strangely dissociated expressions. You stood with them at brown-stained PC with a green or amber screen and completely text-based database as they searched it for the product you needed, and then proceeded to create some kind of invoice with your name (and often address!) that was printed out from a similarly brown-stained dot-matrix printer. You would both get copies then split up, where the employee would take the invoice to the inventory cage, while you would head to the checkout area, which was accessible via an aisle of candy and snack food several hundred feet long leading to another associate guarding a row of 30 checkout stations, approximately four of which would be manned. You would queue in front of this traffic-directing associate who would watch red/green signals mounted on poles at each checkout station, and as they changed status called out a number, and you were sent on your way to that station. You would then give the person at the checkout station your dot-matrix invoice, and they would then begin the trek to retrieve your inventory. Finally, once they returned, you would be asked if you had a Fry's card, if you wanted a Fry's card, and then make payment with something that was not a Fry's card. You would grab your new belongings and make the trek down the long aisle of checkouts - which inexplicably had purchasable products along the way and at the end, even though they were positioned so you would have to check out again if you saw something you wanted. Finally, as you were ready to leave, you would wait in yet another queue to have your receipt checked and your bag rifled through to ensure that you did not in fact take one of those products that were inexplicably positioned after the checkout stand without paying.
.
posted by eschatfische at 6:16 AM on February 24, 2021 [34 favorites]
Fry's had a system where for certain products you needed to hunt down an associate, who were identifiable primarily by their rumpled suits and strangely dissociated expressions. You stood with them at brown-stained PC with a green or amber screen and completely text-based database as they searched it for the product you needed, and then proceeded to create some kind of invoice with your name (and often address!) that was printed out from a similarly brown-stained dot-matrix printer. You would both get copies then split up, where the employee would take the invoice to the inventory cage, while you would head to the checkout area, which was accessible via an aisle of candy and snack food several hundred feet long leading to another associate guarding a row of 30 checkout stations, approximately four of which would be manned. You would queue in front of this traffic-directing associate who would watch red/green signals mounted on poles at each checkout station, and as they changed status called out a number, and you were sent on your way to that station. You would then give the person at the checkout station your dot-matrix invoice, and they would then begin the trek to retrieve your inventory. Finally, once they returned, you would be asked if you had a Fry's card, if you wanted a Fry's card, and then make payment with something that was not a Fry's card. You would grab your new belongings and make the trek down the long aisle of checkouts - which inexplicably had purchasable products along the way and at the end, even though they were positioned so you would have to check out again if you saw something you wanted. Finally, as you were ready to leave, you would wait in yet another queue to have your receipt checked and your bag rifled through to ensure that you did not in fact take one of those products that were inexplicably positioned after the checkout stand without paying.
.
posted by eschatfische at 6:16 AM on February 24, 2021 [34 favorites]
You guys, Microcenter is sure not perfect. I think their salespeople are on commission, for one thing, but the store at least has some kind of system to try to make sure it's as fair as commission sales can be. But still - commission sales bothers me.
I hope people are willing to support it anyway. They sales people know things! They have electronics components like Radio Shack used to, but less cheesy! They sell TVs and soldering irons (good ones)! The stock is actually useful stuff, too. They have the kind of computer book selection that Barnes and Noble used to! I don't know what is up with their management/stocking/whatever, but I am seriously intrigued and on the cusp of becoming a fan.
In short, Microcenter.
posted by amtho at 6:20 AM on February 24, 2021 [10 favorites]
I hope people are willing to support it anyway. They sales people know things! They have electronics components like Radio Shack used to, but less cheesy! They sell TVs and soldering irons (good ones)! The stock is actually useful stuff, too. They have the kind of computer book selection that Barnes and Noble used to! I don't know what is up with their management/stocking/whatever, but I am seriously intrigued and on the cusp of becoming a fan.
In short, Microcenter.
posted by amtho at 6:20 AM on February 24, 2021 [10 favorites]
September 2000: Me and @ev jumped in my car in SF and drove to the Palo Alto Fry's to buy a $500 Celeron-powered HP home computer that was on sale. We booted it up back in the office, installed Apache, and it started serving up every early *.blogspot.com site that evening.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 6:24 AM on February 24, 2021 [36 favorites]
posted by thatwhichfalls at 6:24 AM on February 24, 2021 [36 favorites]
.
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 6:33 AM on February 24, 2021
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 6:33 AM on February 24, 2021
Over the past ten years or so, every time I drove by the ginormous Fry's near me, I'd look at the parking lot practically devoid of cars and wonder how it stayed open. The place always had the look of a money-laundering front, somehow.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:38 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 6:38 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
I hope Limor Fried snags the trademark and uses it
posted by ocschwar at 6:41 AM on February 24, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by ocschwar at 6:41 AM on February 24, 2021 [8 favorites]
I think their salespeople are on commission, for one thing, but the store at least has some kind of system to try to make sure it's as fair as commission sales can be. But still - commission sales bothers me.
I've always been afraid of that. I like Microcenter because it's the best place to get everything You-Do-It-Electronics doesn't sell (i.e. computer parts, networking hardware, etc), but knowing that the sales reps work on commission makes me feel uneasy about going there.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:43 AM on February 24, 2021
I've always been afraid of that. I like Microcenter because it's the best place to get everything You-Do-It-Electronics doesn't sell (i.e. computer parts, networking hardware, etc), but knowing that the sales reps work on commission makes me feel uneasy about going there.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:43 AM on February 24, 2021
I live a hop, skip, and a jump from the flagship store and I've been waiting for it to close. It's a shame because I've had so much luck finding random things I need there but tons of empty shelves, or whole sections of marked up entertainment products (like is someone going to impulse buy a karaoke machine?) Last thing I bought there was a 100 ft ethernet cable for just a couple bucks, at the start of wfh. Their web storefront is pretty poor.
posted by muddgirl at 6:44 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by muddgirl at 6:44 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
Ironically, the last time I visited Fry's, it was to re-cycle some electronics. Seems fitting.
posted by SPrintF at 7:12 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by SPrintF at 7:12 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
I was excited when one opened near me in the Chicago area, but holy shit that store was an incredible contradiction in 40,000 square feet: a really interesting selection of products (raw electronic components! oscilloscopes!) combined with a soulless facility and a staff about as engaged as the DMV. Going there to get something was literally like going to the DMV for me, but at least they had 100-foot VGA extension cables in stock and on a shelf.
Maybe it was because the Chicago store wasn't themed with Mayan temples or spaceships and didn't have wacky surplus items like the Valley, but still.
...another associate guarding a row of 30 checkout stations, approximately four of which would be manned
Holy crap let's talk about that checkout area, right? I think ours had like 50 registers, a whole back row of them that never were used in the lifetime of the building.
And @Cabel for the win: "Suddenly remembering the casino zone behind the checkout where mafia-looking workers would sit at tables and literally count huge stacks of money openly during peak times."
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:29 AM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
Maybe it was because the Chicago store wasn't themed with Mayan temples or spaceships and didn't have wacky surplus items like the Valley, but still.
...another associate guarding a row of 30 checkout stations, approximately four of which would be manned
Holy crap let's talk about that checkout area, right? I think ours had like 50 registers, a whole back row of them that never were used in the lifetime of the building.
And @Cabel for the win: "Suddenly remembering the casino zone behind the checkout where mafia-looking workers would sit at tables and literally count huge stacks of money openly during peak times."
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:29 AM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
"WeirdStuff or Halted Supply, both of which preceded Fry's into oblivion"
[cries inconsolably]
Those two plus Triangle Industrial (also gone) were my Saturday morning triad for many years. Fry’s had long been a ghost of its 80s self by then. Honestly I’m glad to see it finally put out of its misery.
I’ve since moved to a city that I have occasionally cursed for its distinct lack of electronics recycling/surplus shops, but I guess if I was still in the valley I’d be facing the same problem.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:30 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
[cries inconsolably]
Those two plus Triangle Industrial (also gone) were my Saturday morning triad for many years. Fry’s had long been a ghost of its 80s self by then. Honestly I’m glad to see it finally put out of its misery.
I’ve since moved to a city that I have occasionally cursed for its distinct lack of electronics recycling/surplus shops, but I guess if I was still in the valley I’d be facing the same problem.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:30 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
Every store looked like it came straight from 1980 with no updates, no matter when it opened! From that alone, I always assumed it was on the brink of closing. Then...well, it's been a decade since I went into Fry's for the first time. So at this point my brain has turned it around and I assumed it would never close?
The best thing about Fry's if you went into a random one, you'd get surprised by, like, a giant Tesla coil at the front of the store. Also, sometimes you need some fiddly electronic bit and you don't want to have to wait a week to get it in the mail. The worst thing about Fry's is everything else.
posted by grandiloquiet at 7:40 AM on February 24, 2021 [8 favorites]
The best thing about Fry's if you went into a random one, you'd get surprised by, like, a giant Tesla coil at the front of the store. Also, sometimes you need some fiddly electronic bit and you don't want to have to wait a week to get it in the mail. The worst thing about Fry's is everything else.
posted by grandiloquiet at 7:40 AM on February 24, 2021 [8 favorites]
Re: Microcenter staff on commission - I think it may help them get and keep knowledgeable, friendly people. They are rewarded for being good at their jobs, instead of forced to accept low but uniform pay. There should be a _better_ way of accomplishing this, but they do seem less soulless than, say, the people at Best Buy.
posted by amtho at 7:41 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by amtho at 7:41 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm glad someone else is here to mention the loss of Halted Supply. WeirdStuff closed just before I moved up to San Jose, and Halted went after I'd been there twice. At this point, Excess Solutions has (had?) all of Halted's stock, but it just didn't feel the same to me the one time I went, in the before times.
Also, it was pretty clear that Frys was circling the drain for the past few years. Every time I visited the one near my office (Fremont, I guess) for a "we need this NOW" cable or adapter or random component, there was less stock on the shelves..
posted by Alterscape at 7:42 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Also, it was pretty clear that Frys was circling the drain for the past few years. Every time I visited the one near my office (Fremont, I guess) for a "we need this NOW" cable or adapter or random component, there was less stock on the shelves..
posted by Alterscape at 7:42 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
I went to our local Frys about a month ago, looking for a cheap but serviceable desktop. There was almost no inventory other than some charging cables, books, and some random other stuff in this giant store, and there were 3-4 floor employees milling about. I might have been the only customer. So I just walked around for like 10 minutes just checking it out.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:49 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:49 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
I miss the original Sunnyvale Fry’s back when it first opened in the early 80’s. We would go there at lunch time. It was packed. With a huge number of middle aged and older men, wearing dark slacks, white short sleeve shirts stuffed with a giant pocket protector full of pens, pencils, and other sundry cylindrical objects. Nerd heaven.
posted by njohnson23 at 7:50 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 7:50 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
I loved shopping at Fry’s in the early 00’s (Vegas location). I thought it might be a fun place to work, too. Boy, was I stupid with that decision. I spent just under a year with them, from 06 to 07, before leaving in part by volunteering for a stint of active duty.
On the good side, during their heyday they really were a one-stop shop for almost everything. Also, the in-store cafe surprisingly had what I still list as the best club sandwich I’ve ever had.
On the bad side...
Most of their employees were gone within 2-3 months of starting. They constantly pressured us to sign up every customer for a store credit card, and penalized us if we couldn’t get enough. They pushed Monster Cables and other scam components like crazy. Any limited-availability item, like the PS3 (which launched while I worked there) was only allowed to be sold as a bundle with a bunch of expensive crap games and accessories in order to pad the margins. Those on commission had to actively push worse items with better margins to a much stronger degree than other stores, because if you fell too far behind for multiple weeks you were let go (commission employees earned server wages as a base, but were required to take home at least 8/hr, so if your commissions didn’t make up the difference then they paid 8 but it was a deficit that carried over). They underpaid in general, even for non-commission positions, and the training was lacking at best. They engaged in timecard theft in a variety of ways (adjusting your timecard after you’d swiped in/out, forcing some additional off the clock work before/after clocking, etc.). There was almost no way to make supervisor because all supervisors and managers were part of a select club of old friends, and in the Vegas store more than half were direct relatives. Return counter was always insanely busy, and they basically just repackaged and restocked anything they could. The website looked like it was from 1998 (in 2007) and the employee system was an MS DOS app that ran virtual (similar to DosBox) and had more unpatched security holes than Flash.
I could go on, but between this and the other comments here, I don’t think anyone has any illusions about why Fry’s failed.
I visited once about 5-6 years ago, probably only the second time I had been there after I stopped working there. It was crazy how much they had already downsized. Shelves that were 10ft with stock above were now 5 ft browsing aisles and were spaced 50% farther apart. Stock was thinner, and the tv and car audio areas were almost ghost towns. It was clear they were stuck in a downward spiral, and this was still several years before the switch to consignment model. I heard that they shipped tons of inventory to my old store last year because CES was in town, then immediately sent it away after. I saw pictures someone took on New Year’s Day this past month, and they were down to a few magazine racks and the service desk with not much else and most of the store cordoned off.
Even 2-3 years ago, I already knew that if I ever went to that shopping center again, it would either be for the Total Wine store that opened in what was previously the dirt lot behind them, or as overflow parking for the town center across the street. Them closing just cements that reality more firmly.
posted by mystyk at 7:57 AM on February 24, 2021 [9 favorites]
On the good side, during their heyday they really were a one-stop shop for almost everything. Also, the in-store cafe surprisingly had what I still list as the best club sandwich I’ve ever had.
On the bad side...
Most of their employees were gone within 2-3 months of starting. They constantly pressured us to sign up every customer for a store credit card, and penalized us if we couldn’t get enough. They pushed Monster Cables and other scam components like crazy. Any limited-availability item, like the PS3 (which launched while I worked there) was only allowed to be sold as a bundle with a bunch of expensive crap games and accessories in order to pad the margins. Those on commission had to actively push worse items with better margins to a much stronger degree than other stores, because if you fell too far behind for multiple weeks you were let go (commission employees earned server wages as a base, but were required to take home at least 8/hr, so if your commissions didn’t make up the difference then they paid 8 but it was a deficit that carried over). They underpaid in general, even for non-commission positions, and the training was lacking at best. They engaged in timecard theft in a variety of ways (adjusting your timecard after you’d swiped in/out, forcing some additional off the clock work before/after clocking, etc.). There was almost no way to make supervisor because all supervisors and managers were part of a select club of old friends, and in the Vegas store more than half were direct relatives. Return counter was always insanely busy, and they basically just repackaged and restocked anything they could. The website looked like it was from 1998 (in 2007) and the employee system was an MS DOS app that ran virtual (similar to DosBox) and had more unpatched security holes than Flash.
I could go on, but between this and the other comments here, I don’t think anyone has any illusions about why Fry’s failed.
I visited once about 5-6 years ago, probably only the second time I had been there after I stopped working there. It was crazy how much they had already downsized. Shelves that were 10ft with stock above were now 5 ft browsing aisles and were spaced 50% farther apart. Stock was thinner, and the tv and car audio areas were almost ghost towns. It was clear they were stuck in a downward spiral, and this was still several years before the switch to consignment model. I heard that they shipped tons of inventory to my old store last year because CES was in town, then immediately sent it away after. I saw pictures someone took on New Year’s Day this past month, and they were down to a few magazine racks and the service desk with not much else and most of the store cordoned off.
Even 2-3 years ago, I already knew that if I ever went to that shopping center again, it would either be for the Total Wine store that opened in what was previously the dirt lot behind them, or as overflow parking for the town center across the street. Them closing just cements that reality more firmly.
posted by mystyk at 7:57 AM on February 24, 2021 [9 favorites]
I used to live in Sunnyvale and went to the flagship store All. The. Time. This was about 12 or 13 years ago, and even then it was obvious that there was something seriously wrong with the store, but they had a delightful mish-mash of literally anything and everything you could need for a computer. And if you dug hard enough you'd find stock that must have been sitting on the shelves since the 1990s - a narrow SCSI ribbon cable? In 2006? Why? How? But they had an entire rack of them. And the hobbyist stuff! Model rockets! Electronic components! All kinds of weird gewgaws to fascinate and confuse!
Sometimes a salesperson would ask you if you needed help finding something. This was a trap - that person not only didn't know where the item in question was, but had never heard of the item in question, and possibly didn't know what a computer was.
The one thing I liked about them more than anything? They were a huge employer of resettled refugees. Untold hundreds of desperate folks arriving from war-torn countries all over the world got their American start at Frys, which was just about as reliable as a job placement agency as our NGO had.
posted by 1adam12 at 7:57 AM on February 24, 2021 [20 favorites]
Sometimes a salesperson would ask you if you needed help finding something. This was a trap - that person not only didn't know where the item in question was, but had never heard of the item in question, and possibly didn't know what a computer was.
The one thing I liked about them more than anything? They were a huge employer of resettled refugees. Untold hundreds of desperate folks arriving from war-torn countries all over the world got their American start at Frys, which was just about as reliable as a job placement agency as our NGO had.
posted by 1adam12 at 7:57 AM on February 24, 2021 [20 favorites]
Man, the Fry's in Austin (well, I think maybe technically Pflugerville?) was shaped like a giant piano. It was so old school even 7ish years ago. I loved it.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 8:15 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 8:15 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
BTW: those living in the greater SF Bay Area: there's still some 'hobbyist action' to be had at Central Computer in SF: naked disk drives, CPUs, memory, chassis, etc.
Or at least it was like that last few times I ventured in.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 8:17 AM on February 24, 2021 [6 favorites]
Or at least it was like that last few times I ventured in.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 8:17 AM on February 24, 2021 [6 favorites]
Don't want to derail, but I get a hankering for looking at weird surplus stuff from time to time as well. Sadly our Fry's never had that, but at least I'm near American Science and Surplus.
Here's a shout out for surplustraders.net (the old 73.com) that is still going, in case you need that same feeling.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:29 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Here's a shout out for surplustraders.net (the old 73.com) that is still going, in case you need that same feeling.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:29 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
My experience was much like inflatablekiwi's; visits to Fry's were a part of feeling like you had really become part of SV, before nearly all the weird got knocked out of it. Down to having read Microserfs!
If I had heard that Weird Stuff had also closed, I had forgotten it. I mostly visited it to donate still working but old electronics, but a couple of times when I had to find something really obscure, that was the place.
posted by tavella at 8:31 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
If I had heard that Weird Stuff had also closed, I had forgotten it. I mostly visited it to donate still working but old electronics, but a couple of times when I had to find something really obscure, that was the place.
posted by tavella at 8:31 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
So many happy Frys memories.
Let's pour one out for the same HDMI cable sold with four different SKUs at radically different prices in different parts of the store. (Literally the same part number from the same manufacturer. In the random cables, it was like $5. By the video cards, $10. By the big-screen TVs, $25. In the seasonal loss-leader bargain bin, $3.)
How about a dot for the store in Southwest Houston, where they kept the AC set to something like 87F during the summer months? (The first time we experienced this, we assumed it was a malfunction. A month later, same deal.)
posted by sourcequench at 8:46 AM on February 24, 2021 [10 favorites]
Let's pour one out for the same HDMI cable sold with four different SKUs at radically different prices in different parts of the store. (Literally the same part number from the same manufacturer. In the random cables, it was like $5. By the video cards, $10. By the big-screen TVs, $25. In the seasonal loss-leader bargain bin, $3.)
How about a dot for the store in Southwest Houston, where they kept the AC set to something like 87F during the summer months? (The first time we experienced this, we assumed it was a malfunction. A month later, same deal.)
posted by sourcequench at 8:46 AM on February 24, 2021 [10 favorites]
I can't believe Microcenter has outlived everybody else...it's like the Jeb Bush flawless victory meme.
I was in the Mpls Microcenter a year and a half ago, buying a cheap laptop for my kid; it was maybe $400 at most. But the salesman made a big deal about bringing over his manager who shook my hand and spent a couple minutes chatting with me and thanking me for my patronage...I felt like I was in some 50's retro future.
posted by Esteemed Offendi at 8:47 AM on February 24, 2021 [6 favorites]
I was in the Mpls Microcenter a year and a half ago, buying a cheap laptop for my kid; it was maybe $400 at most. But the salesman made a big deal about bringing over his manager who shook my hand and spent a couple minutes chatting with me and thanking me for my patronage...I felt like I was in some 50's retro future.
posted by Esteemed Offendi at 8:47 AM on February 24, 2021 [6 favorites]
They were thanking you because you were the only customer in months that wasn't looking for a graphics card.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:57 AM on February 24, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:57 AM on February 24, 2021 [8 favorites]
Crap, there goes my go to place for random hardware that I need now. Online is great, but sometimes you just need a fiber jumper to complete an install now and cannot wait 2-3 days for one to come from an online store.
posted by jmauro at 9:01 AM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by jmauro at 9:01 AM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
When cyrusdogstar and I moved to the Bay Area in 2011, one of the things we missed about New York was J&R. We could and did get anything there: compressed air, a Wacom tablet, video editing equipment, console games, and so on. I even mail ordered a few things from them after our move. We mourned its closure in 2014.
We'd heard about Fry's, but our first and subsequent visits there didn't do much to impress us. Our local store (Concord) was dimly lit and had clearly seen better days, and the stock situation was dismal. I can't remember ever buying anything there, and tended to rely on Newegg for the types of computer parts that Fry's had been known for. I remember the video game section was especially depressing, with shelf space for interesting items that other chains retailers typically wouldn't carry, like RetroN consoles and arcade-style fight sticks, but good luck actually finding those things in stock.
After our move back to NJ, we visited a Microcenter for the first time, and have gone back at least once (for an urgently-needed UPS). It felt a bit more modern than that old Fry's, and cramped and jam-packed with stuff, like what would happen if Duane Reade started a chain of computer stores. We'll probably continue to give them our business, especially after all of this *waves hands* is over. Fry's, though? They might've been great back in the day, but based on our experiences with them: good riddance.
posted by May Kasahara at 9:08 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
We'd heard about Fry's, but our first and subsequent visits there didn't do much to impress us. Our local store (Concord) was dimly lit and had clearly seen better days, and the stock situation was dismal. I can't remember ever buying anything there, and tended to rely on Newegg for the types of computer parts that Fry's had been known for. I remember the video game section was especially depressing, with shelf space for interesting items that other chains retailers typically wouldn't carry, like RetroN consoles and arcade-style fight sticks, but good luck actually finding those things in stock.
After our move back to NJ, we visited a Microcenter for the first time, and have gone back at least once (for an urgently-needed UPS). It felt a bit more modern than that old Fry's, and cramped and jam-packed with stuff, like what would happen if Duane Reade started a chain of computer stores. We'll probably continue to give them our business, especially after all of this *waves hands* is over. Fry's, though? They might've been great back in the day, but based on our experiences with them: good riddance.
posted by May Kasahara at 9:08 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
I have very happy memories of working in the math institute in the back of Fry's headquarters.
Fellow mathematicians, AIM has a note on its website saying, "The closing of the Fry’s stores will have no impact on AIM’s ongoing activities." I might declare a goldfish-crackers happy hour in its honor today anyway.
posted by yarntheory at 9:17 AM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
Fellow mathematicians, AIM has a note on its website saying, "The closing of the Fry’s stores will have no impact on AIM’s ongoing activities." I might declare a goldfish-crackers happy hour in its honor today anyway.
posted by yarntheory at 9:17 AM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
My office (back when people worked in offices) was around the corner from the Alice in Wonderland store. I spent many hours there over the past 15 years killing time on my lunch break or wandering around after work waiting for traffic to die down. I watched the decline in real time. I was probably a part of it because I rarely bought anything. It was like old Radio Shack on steroids before Radio Shack became a phone and RC car retailer. Say what you want but the ability to get a weird cable without having to wait for shipping saved my butt more than once.
posted by downtohisturtles at 9:23 AM on February 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by downtohisturtles at 9:23 AM on February 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
Wow.
I live about two miles from the "Aztec Temple" Fry's Electronics store here in north Phoenix on Thunderbird Road. The storefront appeared in the film Napoleon Dynamite.
Thirty years ago, it was a prime vendor for our company. Twenty years ago, it was still the best option around. Better selection, customer service and cheaper prices than Best Buy, definitely.
But I haven't been in one for at least a decade now. The last time I went there, they didn't have the kind of uncommon adapter I was looking for, so I went home and found it easily on Amazon.
Online has been my go-to ever since. Broader choice, competitive prices, the ability to research and consumer shop from my bed.
End of an era, though.
posted by darkstar at 9:25 AM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
I live about two miles from the "Aztec Temple" Fry's Electronics store here in north Phoenix on Thunderbird Road. The storefront appeared in the film Napoleon Dynamite.
Thirty years ago, it was a prime vendor for our company. Twenty years ago, it was still the best option around. Better selection, customer service and cheaper prices than Best Buy, definitely.
But I haven't been in one for at least a decade now. The last time I went there, they didn't have the kind of uncommon adapter I was looking for, so I went home and found it easily on Amazon.
Online has been my go-to ever since. Broader choice, competitive prices, the ability to research and consumer shop from my bed.
End of an era, though.
posted by darkstar at 9:25 AM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
Going into a Fry's was like physically stepping into a physical representation of a shady online electronics retailer, for better and worse. I can't say I'm going to miss Fry's itself, but I do miss parts of the era of Silicon Valley it represented. Radio Shack on steroids is an apt description.
"Obviously a former Fry's" is going to be a notable variety of retail architecture in the near future I imagine.
posted by subocoyne at 9:28 AM on February 24, 2021 [12 favorites]
"Obviously a former Fry's" is going to be a notable variety of retail architecture in the near future I imagine.
posted by subocoyne at 9:28 AM on February 24, 2021 [12 favorites]
The original Fry's in Sunnyvale was a big deal when it opened. Before that most of electronic gear you had to get at old warehouses with bins of salvaged military surplus which was geared more to amateur radio than computers. Most tech manufacturers only sold to corporations.
Fry's had glass display cases where you could ogle Z80 cpus and 64Kbit memory chips like engagement rings at Tiffany's. You would point at what you wanted and a sales employee would pluck your chosen beauty, put it in a little static bag and hand it to you.
What made Fry's different from previous electronic stores was all the other stuff they sold near the checkout lines. Coke, chips, candy bars, toothpaste, soap, magazines, socks. You could almost survive never shopping anywhere else.
posted by JackFlash at 9:33 AM on February 24, 2021 [12 favorites]
Fry's had glass display cases where you could ogle Z80 cpus and 64Kbit memory chips like engagement rings at Tiffany's. You would point at what you wanted and a sales employee would pluck your chosen beauty, put it in a little static bag and hand it to you.
What made Fry's different from previous electronic stores was all the other stuff they sold near the checkout lines. Coke, chips, candy bars, toothpaste, soap, magazines, socks. You could almost survive never shopping anywhere else.
posted by JackFlash at 9:33 AM on February 24, 2021 [12 favorites]
"Obviously a former Fry's" is going to be a notable variety of retail architecture in the near future I imagine.
I used to work at a pizza place that had been an old-style Arby's. It was like working at Fred Flinstone's house.
posted by thelonius at 9:34 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
I used to work at a pizza place that had been an old-style Arby's. It was like working at Fred Flinstone's house.
posted by thelonius at 9:34 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
So many thoughts & feelings about Fry's finally closing. As everyone has noted, Frys has been the walking dead for years, probably over a decade. This is like hearing about a celebrity die at the age of 105 and being amazed they were still alive and didn't they die in '03?
I live pretty close to Sunnyvale Fry's and I probably go once a year, tops, and it has absolutely become a shell of it's former self. A literal shell in that there's huge empty sections of the store holding absolutely nothing. That said, they continued to sell stuff I don't know where to get anywhere else. A massive selection of ethernet cables in many lengths. Electronic components. Actual equipment like scopes. Single-sided copperclad circuit boards and acid if you felt the need to manually make your own through-hole board by masking it with a marker and drilling it by hand.
I've been coming to the Valley on business trips since '96 probably. I have a distinct memory of getting lost on what must have been Central Expressway at night (is this a highway? wft?) trying to get to Sunnyvale Frys. This was back when I had a paper map or maybe a mapquest printout telling me where to go. Back in the heyday of PCs they had a selection that was unequalled anywhere I had seen - an entire 100+ foot aisle of modems. Another aisle of CD & DVD drives. Every PC component and cable imaginable. Coming from Toronto it had this combination of being extremely specific, yet incredibly huge, the kind of American retail excess that I think Americans just don't even understand because they're so immersed in it from birth. Other countries just don't have stores like this. It was like walking into the Sistine Chapel of computer engineering. And books! And boxed software! in the early 2000s it had it all.
Then there were the store themes. The Old West. A spaceship. An Aztec pyramid. The SUnnyvale one was the least exciting, the history of Silicon Valley but iirc it had some immense microwave parts used in radar installations or something. Again, going there now and seeing the extremely threadbare shelves it's a little sad, but a store with actual museum pieces and this sort of elaborate decoration was pretty novel - it was up there with FAO Schwartz in terms of a retail experience. Yes, except for the dreary employees and the general messiness of it all. But again, as a Canadian used to the sloppiness of small-town Zellers stores, this seemed normal to me. The days of Target's bright white cleanliness had yet to arrive.
And as others have mentioned, those checkouts! And their refusal to actually let you hold anything of value - if you bought a drive or memory they gave you a slip and the actual good got handed to you after payment. But they were clearly overbuilt for a 1999 type of retail activity that in retrospect turned out to be their peak. I think the only really funny thing I ever saw there was two guys with a shopping cart full of high-end video cards probably back around 2017-ish, they were clearly buying as many 1080's as they could, probably for bitcoin mining or something.
But Fry's died due to so many reasons. The PC as a box of unrelated components that you assembled has gone. Much of what they sold simply no longer exists - no one buys modems or DVD burners or USB cards anymore. Fry's web site has always been a joke, an ugly, terrible joke. It's not just like they didn't get internet retail, it's like they actively shunned it. Boxed software is gone. Books went to being bought online to simply not existing for the kind of technical books Fry's sold. Unlike developing for Windows 95, no one goes and buys a book about AWS development, not even from Amazon. Fry's other lines of business like TVs or appliances got eaten by companies that were just better retailers.
But I'll miss Fry's as I have no idea where to go locally to get stuff like electronics cleaning spray or ethernet cables or a cheap ethernet switch or stuff like that. I'm sure it's out there somewhere. Fry's time had long passed and it actively refused to adapt. But when it was great, it was great. Sic transit gloria mundi.
posted by GuyZero at 9:39 AM on February 24, 2021 [15 favorites]
I live pretty close to Sunnyvale Fry's and I probably go once a year, tops, and it has absolutely become a shell of it's former self. A literal shell in that there's huge empty sections of the store holding absolutely nothing. That said, they continued to sell stuff I don't know where to get anywhere else. A massive selection of ethernet cables in many lengths. Electronic components. Actual equipment like scopes. Single-sided copperclad circuit boards and acid if you felt the need to manually make your own through-hole board by masking it with a marker and drilling it by hand.
I've been coming to the Valley on business trips since '96 probably. I have a distinct memory of getting lost on what must have been Central Expressway at night (is this a highway? wft?) trying to get to Sunnyvale Frys. This was back when I had a paper map or maybe a mapquest printout telling me where to go. Back in the heyday of PCs they had a selection that was unequalled anywhere I had seen - an entire 100+ foot aisle of modems. Another aisle of CD & DVD drives. Every PC component and cable imaginable. Coming from Toronto it had this combination of being extremely specific, yet incredibly huge, the kind of American retail excess that I think Americans just don't even understand because they're so immersed in it from birth. Other countries just don't have stores like this. It was like walking into the Sistine Chapel of computer engineering. And books! And boxed software! in the early 2000s it had it all.
Then there were the store themes. The Old West. A spaceship. An Aztec pyramid. The SUnnyvale one was the least exciting, the history of Silicon Valley but iirc it had some immense microwave parts used in radar installations or something. Again, going there now and seeing the extremely threadbare shelves it's a little sad, but a store with actual museum pieces and this sort of elaborate decoration was pretty novel - it was up there with FAO Schwartz in terms of a retail experience. Yes, except for the dreary employees and the general messiness of it all. But again, as a Canadian used to the sloppiness of small-town Zellers stores, this seemed normal to me. The days of Target's bright white cleanliness had yet to arrive.
And as others have mentioned, those checkouts! And their refusal to actually let you hold anything of value - if you bought a drive or memory they gave you a slip and the actual good got handed to you after payment. But they were clearly overbuilt for a 1999 type of retail activity that in retrospect turned out to be their peak. I think the only really funny thing I ever saw there was two guys with a shopping cart full of high-end video cards probably back around 2017-ish, they were clearly buying as many 1080's as they could, probably for bitcoin mining or something.
But Fry's died due to so many reasons. The PC as a box of unrelated components that you assembled has gone. Much of what they sold simply no longer exists - no one buys modems or DVD burners or USB cards anymore. Fry's web site has always been a joke, an ugly, terrible joke. It's not just like they didn't get internet retail, it's like they actively shunned it. Boxed software is gone. Books went to being bought online to simply not existing for the kind of technical books Fry's sold. Unlike developing for Windows 95, no one goes and buys a book about AWS development, not even from Amazon. Fry's other lines of business like TVs or appliances got eaten by companies that were just better retailers.
But I'll miss Fry's as I have no idea where to go locally to get stuff like electronics cleaning spray or ethernet cables or a cheap ethernet switch or stuff like that. I'm sure it's out there somewhere. Fry's time had long passed and it actively refused to adapt. But when it was great, it was great. Sic transit gloria mundi.
posted by GuyZero at 9:39 AM on February 24, 2021 [15 favorites]
Fourteen years or so ago I modeled a lot of trends in consumer electronics and was introduced to Fry's and a host of accompanying WTF moments through Google Street View. It really looked like The Rainforest Café and Bugaboo Steakhouse had a baby and it rebelled and decided to become an electronics store...
At least there is still PC Richards and Son's in the mid-Atlantic...
posted by Nanukthedog at 9:40 AM on February 24, 2021
At least there is still PC Richards and Son's in the mid-Atlantic...
posted by Nanukthedog at 9:40 AM on February 24, 2021
Anyone who was buying computer parts by mail in the 80 or early 90s and then had a Fry's loved it. There were local computer stores from the beginning but none of them had any inventory nor (typically) expertise so the choice was to send away for a catalog from the back of PC Magazine (a week), place an order by phone or fax, and wait another week for it to show up. Whereas at Fry's you could actually buy the component you needed the same day, plus pick up a wildly standards flouting "USB" device such as a warmer for your coffee mug. As others have noted, the higher value parts were accompanied by a fascinating invoice process (not quite as bulletproof as B&H Photo in New York, but still) that was a terrible ballet in motion. For reasons that still aren't clear to me, it was dramatically cheaper to buy your own components than an off-the-shelf system, so those of us who wanted a computer with a graphics card saved thousands by building our own.
posted by wnissen at 9:43 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by wnissen at 9:43 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
It was a perfectly encapsulated example of bad tech bro culture.
I remember going to the Sunnyvale one in around 1998 or so. In the large magazine section near the checkout stands (which kept shrinking over time), 10-15 dudes would be standing around reading porn mags like NBD. I remember thinking distinctly to myself "this is why there are no women in the store".
The porn mags went away over the years but the checkout line kept getting longer and full of more snack and personal defense items. If you wanted to polish a CD-ROM while eating fistfuls of gummi worms and tasering someone, Fry's was your place.
posted by benzenedream at 9:43 AM on February 24, 2021 [19 favorites]
I remember going to the Sunnyvale one in around 1998 or so. In the large magazine section near the checkout stands (which kept shrinking over time), 10-15 dudes would be standing around reading porn mags like NBD. I remember thinking distinctly to myself "this is why there are no women in the store".
The porn mags went away over the years but the checkout line kept getting longer and full of more snack and personal defense items. If you wanted to polish a CD-ROM while eating fistfuls of gummi worms and tasering someone, Fry's was your place.
posted by benzenedream at 9:43 AM on February 24, 2021 [19 favorites]
In one case in the early 1990s, a friend purchased a "returned" hard disk only to discover the box contained a brick.
While the returns staffers were being sloppy, the brick might well have originated with MiniScribe. So it was two-party crime against your friend and Fry's should probably not be considered solely responsible.
posted by Bella Donna at 9:49 AM on February 24, 2021 [6 favorites]
While the returns staffers were being sloppy, the brick might well have originated with MiniScribe. So it was two-party crime against your friend and Fry's should probably not be considered solely responsible.
posted by Bella Donna at 9:49 AM on February 24, 2021 [6 favorites]
For reasons that still aren't clear to me, it was dramatically cheaper to buy your own components than an off-the-shelf system, so those of us who wanted a computer with a graphics card saved thousands by building our own.
There was a sort of golden age of PC clones from the late 80s through about the early 2000s where it was entirely possible to make a living doing nothing but building PC clones out of commodity parts, putting them together like Lego and turning around and selling complete systems for about 2-3x your parts cost, especially if you could buy bulk parts from the often shady parts resellers found in Computer Shopper and other phone book sized weekly (!!) publications.
I remember there used to be dozens of computer stores and garage shops doing this during that era.
Fry's was often a stand in for just in time inventory for these businesses.
Then companies like Dell got their shit together and started offering "custom" PCs where you could just pick out all your own parts, they built it and shipped it to you, generally at a lower price than these 3rd party resellers.
I used to know someone that ran a business like this and he was shady as fuck, but that's a different tangent.
He used to have a system called the "Fry's lunch break" where if he needed a computer component in a hurry and couldn't wait for shipping, where he'd go buy the part or parts, walk out of the store and then go to lunch. Then come back and return the part before even testing it because there was just so many times that the first part(s) would be sold "as new" stock that didn't work when he got back to the shop, and he'd go back to demand something that was still sealed new in box.
Some iterations of this "Fry's lunch" involved 2 or more returns before even taking the parts and installing or testing them. Like he'd leave the store and just walk right back to the returns department, get the second set of parts, then go to lunch, then come back for a third set of parts.
That's how bad it was at Fry's sometimes with the parts.
posted by loquacious at 9:55 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
There was a sort of golden age of PC clones from the late 80s through about the early 2000s where it was entirely possible to make a living doing nothing but building PC clones out of commodity parts, putting them together like Lego and turning around and selling complete systems for about 2-3x your parts cost, especially if you could buy bulk parts from the often shady parts resellers found in Computer Shopper and other phone book sized weekly (!!) publications.
I remember there used to be dozens of computer stores and garage shops doing this during that era.
Fry's was often a stand in for just in time inventory for these businesses.
Then companies like Dell got their shit together and started offering "custom" PCs where you could just pick out all your own parts, they built it and shipped it to you, generally at a lower price than these 3rd party resellers.
I used to know someone that ran a business like this and he was shady as fuck, but that's a different tangent.
He used to have a system called the "Fry's lunch break" where if he needed a computer component in a hurry and couldn't wait for shipping, where he'd go buy the part or parts, walk out of the store and then go to lunch. Then come back and return the part before even testing it because there was just so many times that the first part(s) would be sold "as new" stock that didn't work when he got back to the shop, and he'd go back to demand something that was still sealed new in box.
Some iterations of this "Fry's lunch" involved 2 or more returns before even taking the parts and installing or testing them. Like he'd leave the store and just walk right back to the returns department, get the second set of parts, then go to lunch, then come back for a third set of parts.
That's how bad it was at Fry's sometimes with the parts.
posted by loquacious at 9:55 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
loquacious: Ever notice that Fry's stores almost always had a lot of young, attractive women of mostly of Asian, Indian or other non-white ethnicity or backgrounds, people who weren't exactly focused on tech? Especially in sales positions? Never stopped to ask yourself why that might be?
It's because Fry's was greasier than a bad used car sales lot and it was a huge part of the corporate culture. Shoot I heard about them mandating dress codes for women with skirts, heels, makeup and stockings well into the early 2000s. I remember watching line managers harassing cashiers and putting hands on them and everything and the pained, frightened looks those poor women would have the whole time while working.
...
1adam12: They were a huge employer of resettled refugees. Untold hundreds of desperate folks arriving from war-torn countries all over the world got their American start at Frys, which was just about as reliable as a job placement agency as our NGO had.
When these two comments are combined, the result is really, really disturbing.
posted by theodolite at 9:57 AM on February 24, 2021 [20 favorites]
It's because Fry's was greasier than a bad used car sales lot and it was a huge part of the corporate culture. Shoot I heard about them mandating dress codes for women with skirts, heels, makeup and stockings well into the early 2000s. I remember watching line managers harassing cashiers and putting hands on them and everything and the pained, frightened looks those poor women would have the whole time while working.
...
1adam12: They were a huge employer of resettled refugees. Untold hundreds of desperate folks arriving from war-torn countries all over the world got their American start at Frys, which was just about as reliable as a job placement agency as our NGO had.
When these two comments are combined, the result is really, really disturbing.
posted by theodolite at 9:57 AM on February 24, 2021 [20 favorites]
the sloppiness of small-town Zellers stores
Man, that was a blast from the past moment (and also an apt description). I'd already forgotten about them.
posted by aramaic at 10:08 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Man, that was a blast from the past moment (and also an apt description). I'd already forgotten about them.
posted by aramaic at 10:08 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
.
Fry's was part of my upbringing as a young computer nerd in the Bay Area. I used to go in after school sometimes to look at the new computers and gadgets and software in boxes (imagine! buying software off the shelf!). Later as a young professional I'd go in to buy components for work sometimes. Where else were you going to find an Ethernet cable crimper, a CPU, an oscilloscope, a selection of paperback novels, deodorant, and a new washing machine all in the same place? We all knew the hazards—the zoo of a checkout area, not to ask the staff for any technical advice, the extremely shady restocking of used goods as new-in-box—but often it was the fastest way to get what we needed.
It's been several years since I went into a Fry's. I can't say I'll miss it exactly, but it sure was fun in its way.
posted by 4rtemis at 10:11 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
Fry's was part of my upbringing as a young computer nerd in the Bay Area. I used to go in after school sometimes to look at the new computers and gadgets and software in boxes (imagine! buying software off the shelf!). Later as a young professional I'd go in to buy components for work sometimes. Where else were you going to find an Ethernet cable crimper, a CPU, an oscilloscope, a selection of paperback novels, deodorant, and a new washing machine all in the same place? We all knew the hazards—the zoo of a checkout area, not to ask the staff for any technical advice, the extremely shady restocking of used goods as new-in-box—but often it was the fastest way to get what we needed.
It's been several years since I went into a Fry's. I can't say I'll miss it exactly, but it sure was fun in its way.
posted by 4rtemis at 10:11 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
When these two comments are combined, the result is really, really disturbing.
There were a lot of disturbing things about shopping there and if you went frequently enough and looked around you couldn't help but to see them.
BTW: again for Bay Area folks, there's also Lasher's on University Ave in Berkeley. More of an analog kind of place but it's funky inside and the staff is family and knowledgeable. And we should do our best to support a local business when possible.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 10:12 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
There were a lot of disturbing things about shopping there and if you went frequently enough and looked around you couldn't help but to see them.
BTW: again for Bay Area folks, there's also Lasher's on University Ave in Berkeley. More of an analog kind of place but it's funky inside and the staff is family and knowledgeable. And we should do our best to support a local business when possible.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 10:12 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Also the facades of the stores are the real end-of-an-era situation: some of the Fry's storefronts. Were they ugly as sin? Absolutely yes. Will we ever see their like again? Absolutely not.
posted by GuyZero at 10:19 AM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by GuyZero at 10:19 AM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
I really shouldn't miss Fry's, but I will. I hadn't set foot in it for years now, but I remember it being the place where I could find anything electronics related. They even, for a while, had shrink-wrapped Linux software, which is something that I still have to remind myself existed at some point.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 10:40 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 10:40 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
If you wanted to polish a CD-ROM while eating fistfuls of gummi worms and tasering someone, Fry's was your place.
I legit LOLed at this! :)
posted by darkstar at 10:55 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
I legit LOLed at this! :)
posted by darkstar at 10:55 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Our local store (Concord) was dimly lit and had clearly seen better days, and the stock situation was dismal
I have to say that I was just a kid in the 90s, but in my memories the stock situation at Fry's was better but the lighting was still dim and it was all a bit dingy even then. To me going to Fry's was like visiting your parent at work - it was an unknowable space for adults. Of course it was dimly lit and smelled of burnt plastic, in contrast with The Outdoors which is the world of children.
posted by muddgirl at 10:56 AM on February 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
I have to say that I was just a kid in the 90s, but in my memories the stock situation at Fry's was better but the lighting was still dim and it was all a bit dingy even then. To me going to Fry's was like visiting your parent at work - it was an unknowable space for adults. Of course it was dimly lit and smelled of burnt plastic, in contrast with The Outdoors which is the world of children.
posted by muddgirl at 10:56 AM on February 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
Metafilter: it was dimly lit and smelled of burnt plastic
posted by biogeo at 11:17 AM on February 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 11:17 AM on February 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
Metafilter: it was dimly lit and smelled of burnt plastic
This may also describe my bedroom and/or the inside of my head.
posted by loquacious at 11:22 AM on February 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
This may also describe my bedroom and/or the inside of my head.
posted by loquacious at 11:22 AM on February 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
They were a huge employer of resettled refugees. Untold hundreds of desperate folks arriving from war-torn countries all over the world got their American start at Frys, which was just about as reliable as a job placement agency as our NGO had.
Yeah, I knew about this, too, and forgot to include it in my rant, and I think I got hung up trying to figure out how to word it, because my take about this isn't racist or any weirdness about the demographics of the employees themselves but the fact they were taking advantage of a cheap labor pool.
So, yeah. I can't help but feel this is hagiographic. I mean, yeah, we built our railroads with cheap immigrant labor from China that history is totally fucked.
"Come work at Fry's! It's marginally better than what you experienced in your war torn country!"
"..."
"Wait, that was probably us, wasn't it? Sorry about that. No you can't go to the bathroom yet, get back to work."
posted by loquacious at 11:30 AM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
Yeah, I knew about this, too, and forgot to include it in my rant, and I think I got hung up trying to figure out how to word it, because my take about this isn't racist or any weirdness about the demographics of the employees themselves but the fact they were taking advantage of a cheap labor pool.
So, yeah. I can't help but feel this is hagiographic. I mean, yeah, we built our railroads with cheap immigrant labor from China that history is totally fucked.
"Come work at Fry's! It's marginally better than what you experienced in your war torn country!"
"..."
"Wait, that was probably us, wasn't it? Sorry about that. No you can't go to the bathroom yet, get back to work."
posted by loquacious at 11:30 AM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
@foone: In memoriam of Frys, here's my pictures of times I went there and it was empty for no reason
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:37 AM on February 24, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:37 AM on February 24, 2021 [12 favorites]
I think I will be telling my grandkids about the Myth of Fry's and how I almost died one black friday 1998.... and like my first kiss, I will always remember where I bought my first PCI ethernet card, and made many trips through the early 2000's
I both took advantage and was victimised by the liberal return policy.
My last fry's purchase was a multi-meter after I fried my old one about 5 years ago. I had to find a white shirt to partially price match online.
Three years ago I went in looking for a car backup camera to install for my parents that day. Fry's had nothing, and half the story seem empty. Huge contrast to Black Friday or almost any weekend growing up. Best buy didn't carry anything. I needed up ordering Amazon with Same day delivery, although I didn't get the item until 9pm that night
posted by CostcoCultist at 11:41 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
I both took advantage and was victimised by the liberal return policy.
My last fry's purchase was a multi-meter after I fried my old one about 5 years ago. I had to find a white shirt to partially price match online.
Three years ago I went in looking for a car backup camera to install for my parents that day. Fry's had nothing, and half the story seem empty. Huge contrast to Black Friday or almost any weekend growing up. Best buy didn't carry anything. I needed up ordering Amazon with Same day delivery, although I didn't get the item until 9pm that night
posted by CostcoCultist at 11:41 AM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
The one in Wilsonville, Oregon lived like a hermit crab in the barely-renovated shell of Incredible Universe, the Tandy corporation's version of Fry's.
I assume a Spirit of Halloween will be in there soon.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 11:44 AM on February 24, 2021 [6 favorites]
I assume a Spirit of Halloween will be in there soon.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 11:44 AM on February 24, 2021 [6 favorites]
I find myself deeply conflicted. I agree with all the worst things that have been said about Fry's here, and have one or two of my own I could add. And on the other hand, it's feels very end-of-an-epoch that was very important in my life (not going to Fry's mind you, at least if I could help it. But many of the other stores have passed, or will never have a presence here.).
posted by wotsac at 11:47 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by wotsac at 11:47 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
What's even more unbelievable is that their flagship stores died in the face of a huge increase in local population - the st louis fed #s for employment in Sunnyvale show thatthe number of workers in the area has doubled over it's peak in 2000... twice as many computer nerds in driving distance and the store still got run into the ground. It's an amazing testament to bad management.
posted by GuyZero at 11:55 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by GuyZero at 11:55 AM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
They were thanking you because you were the only customer in months that wasn't looking for a graphics card.
Yeah, the California MicroCenter is down the street from me in Tustin, and it has people camping out in front almost every day (I think there are certain days they are guaranteed to not get stock).
But, things are wild at that store anyway.
I was there in April to build my first PC in like 15 years, and even through I was only doing an order pickup, I had to join a virtual line for a slot 3 hours in the future. Even after getting inside, I had to wait in a 45 minute line to finally start the pick up process, which took another 20 mins.
They had 12 min (or so) online order pickup time pre-covid, but post Covid they came into the office every single day to be greeted with a printed stack of web orders way over a foot tall. I think my computer took a week to be fulfilled.
posted by sideshow at 11:57 AM on February 24, 2021
Yeah, the California MicroCenter is down the street from me in Tustin, and it has people camping out in front almost every day (I think there are certain days they are guaranteed to not get stock).
But, things are wild at that store anyway.
I was there in April to build my first PC in like 15 years, and even through I was only doing an order pickup, I had to join a virtual line for a slot 3 hours in the future. Even after getting inside, I had to wait in a 45 minute line to finally start the pick up process, which took another 20 mins.
They had 12 min (or so) online order pickup time pre-covid, but post Covid they came into the office every single day to be greeted with a printed stack of web orders way over a foot tall. I think my computer took a week to be fulfilled.
posted by sideshow at 11:57 AM on February 24, 2021
Our local store (Concord) was dimly lit and had clearly seen better days
Yes, Concord was my local Frys too and it was always just grim to visit, in a way that the South Bay stores weren't. Wikipedia says its theme was "regional history" which in that list feels like a euphemism for "minimal possible effort" because it felt like its theme was basically "big featureless white box".
I always liked the Fremont store's somewhat-terrifying Tesla coil; wonder what's going to happen to that now?
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:58 AM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
Yes, Concord was my local Frys too and it was always just grim to visit, in a way that the South Bay stores weren't. Wikipedia says its theme was "regional history" which in that list feels like a euphemism for "minimal possible effort" because it felt like its theme was basically "big featureless white box".
I always liked the Fremont store's somewhat-terrifying Tesla coil; wonder what's going to happen to that now?
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:58 AM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
I am an east coast guy so never really went to Fry's except one time as a visual tourist. I did just build a PC about two months ago from parts I purchased at MicroCenter. I went online, priced all the parts I wanted, made a shopping list and went in. I actually had a salesperson help me and put his sticker on my sheet, but to his credit, he talked me out of buying a more expensive item when I could get the same thing from a reputable company for less. He also was able to get me the last case they had in stock even when it was not where it was supposed to be. He took the time to track it down. And, when I screwed up the install on one item causing damage to said item, he advocated for me the next day to make an even exchange even though it was my fault. Not every salesperson is like that, but I got lucky and regardless of his commission, I got straight talk. He was in the pc components section.
When I went to the laptop and tv section to look around, I had the experience of wanting to wash my hands after talking to those sales people.
Now ask me about Crutchfield and car stereos...
posted by AugustWest at 12:04 PM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
When I went to the laptop and tv section to look around, I had the experience of wanting to wash my hands after talking to those sales people.
Now ask me about Crutchfield and car stereos...
posted by AugustWest at 12:04 PM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
I've only been to two Fry's: one in Arizona c.2011 and one in Indiana (I think: it had a replica vintage racing car) in late 2019. The 2011 visit was stunning for this expat Scot: so much everything! The 2019 visit was sad: store almost totally stripped, the only carts in the store were filled with trash bags under leaks in the roof, and there was an inexplicable pile of mattresses stacked in the middle of the floor. The audio section was full of 30-pin connector iPod dock devices, which were already vastly old hat. The only person I saw there was the cashier.
Fry's at its crappiest was better than anything we had in Scotland. If you were lucky, you might be able to take a bus to a dingy Maplin's (also gone) and not find half of what you were looking for. Tandy was long gone, and even they didn't have the "in every mall" aspect that Radio Shack had in North America. I'm amazed anyone (outside London, which had actual electronic stores and even [eep!] electronic surplus) in the UK managed to do anything with electronics at all. It's so taken for granted as part of the US American tech background noise: you could joke how bad they were, but they were …
posted by scruss at 1:06 PM on February 24, 2021 [8 favorites]
Fry's at its crappiest was better than anything we had in Scotland. If you were lucky, you might be able to take a bus to a dingy Maplin's (also gone) and not find half of what you were looking for. Tandy was long gone, and even they didn't have the "in every mall" aspect that Radio Shack had in North America. I'm amazed anyone (outside London, which had actual electronic stores and even [eep!] electronic surplus) in the UK managed to do anything with electronics at all. It's so taken for granted as part of the US American tech background noise: you could joke how bad they were, but they were …
posted by scruss at 1:06 PM on February 24, 2021 [8 favorites]
I moved to California in '05, and it was pretty amazing going in to Fry's for the first time (even though the Sacramento location, as a former Incredible Universe, was unthemed at the time). Going there with a specific purpose was a different matter, however, and became more of a disappointing experience as time went on. The bag check at the exit always bothered me, and eventually I learned to just pretend to be too distracted looking at my phone to notice the employee standing by the exit.
Of all the reactions to the news I've seen, I've noticed none of them have been surprise. The vibe hasn't been thriving business for a long time. I moved away a few years ago and am in Microcenter territory now, though that doesn't match what Fry's had for weird but occasionally useful crap. My feelings are about the same as for Radio Shack: I'm not sad for the loss of the store so much as for the hole in the retail landscape that probably won't get filled.
posted by ckape at 1:08 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Of all the reactions to the news I've seen, I've noticed none of them have been surprise. The vibe hasn't been thriving business for a long time. I moved away a few years ago and am in Microcenter territory now, though that doesn't match what Fry's had for weird but occasionally useful crap. My feelings are about the same as for Radio Shack: I'm not sad for the loss of the store so much as for the hole in the retail landscape that probably won't get filled.
posted by ckape at 1:08 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
I virtually lived in the Palo Alto Fry’s for a stretch in the mid-90s. I couldn’t afford to buy anything, I’d just spend a few hours browsing around.
People have airways complained about the clueless staff, and it has always missed the point — Fry’s correctly understood that if I’m speccing and building my own equipment, I’m not looking for random sales dude in Aisle 3 to hold my hand.
posted by bjrubble at 1:15 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
People have airways complained about the clueless staff, and it has always missed the point — Fry’s correctly understood that if I’m speccing and building my own equipment, I’m not looking for random sales dude in Aisle 3 to hold my hand.
posted by bjrubble at 1:15 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Has anybody mentioned the wild embezzlement scandal of 2008 yet?
posted by sjswitzer at 1:24 PM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by sjswitzer at 1:24 PM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
Many memories of Fry’s, the early ones pleasant... later ones much less so.
I recall that the Campbell location seemed to employ half of the south bay’s Ethiopian immigrant population, which I thought was pretty cool.
posted by sjswitzer at 1:29 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
I recall that the Campbell location seemed to employ half of the south bay’s Ethiopian immigrant population, which I thought was pretty cool.
posted by sjswitzer at 1:29 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
People on Reddit have mentioned that Frys had moved to a consignment model in the last few years - they just didn't have capital to purchase inventory, which is pretty appalling. And apparently Samsung had cut them off after repeated non-payment of invoices. More indicators that they just couldn't even handle their core business of basic retail.
posted by GuyZero at 1:44 PM on February 24, 2021
posted by GuyZero at 1:44 PM on February 24, 2021
I wonder if they own the land under the stores or if they were leased? Either way it seems a bit odd; if they owned I'd have thought they would have closed some of the SF Bay area locations and sold the land off when the real estate market was red hot, if only to manage cash flow. If leasing, I'm surprised they continued to pay rent for so long on what were clearly (from the photos and stories people have been posting) no longer even modestly functional stores. I wonder if there were disputes among the owners that kept things from being folded earlier?
posted by tavella at 2:17 PM on February 24, 2021
posted by tavella at 2:17 PM on February 24, 2021
Like many people, I have fond memories of early Fry's back when it was sort of a Radio Shack on steroids. Haven't been to one in many years, I didn't even realize they'd made it to Illinois or Georgia.
But, yeah, once they became Best Buy with worse service, the writing was on the wall.
posted by madajb at 2:23 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
But, yeah, once they became Best Buy with worse service, the writing was on the wall.
posted by madajb at 2:23 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
I live a stone's throw from the San Marcos CA Fry's (which is Atlantis themed and had these beautiful giant fish tanks and I am genuinely worried about the fish*)
The last time I was in there was not quite a year ago, as Covid started locking things down. My partner's office went work from home, we discovered that their work computer did not have wifi, nor would IT give admin rights so they could install a USB wifi receiver, so for the first time in ages I had to buy network cable for my house.
I joked after leaving the store (with 50 feet of cable, several rolls of electrical tape in different colors and a roll of painter's tape) that Fry's was the end of the world superstore. If I'd have more time and energy, I could've gotten out of there with bulk bottled water, a few miles of different kinds of tape, a few miles of network cable, several sets of probably-awful kitchen knives, a grill, four or five different flammable substances...
But for the first time since moving to CA, and the first time in probably several dozen times of going in to buy (computer or computer-adjacent items) none of the employees came over to assume I didn't know what I was doing, no one stared down my shirt, and nobody asked me if I was buying things for my (boyfriend/husband/dad/brother).
Because there were maybe six employees in the entire store including the receipt checker and the barista at the cafe.
* For a few years there on rough days I'd take my kiddo over to the Fry's and just watch fish for an hour to chill out in the cafe. Cup of coffee, a turnover and an hour of small child just blissed out by watching fish was a great way to manage depression. I am REALLY worried about the fish (and all the people who just lost their jobs).
posted by FritoKAL at 2:30 PM on February 24, 2021 [10 favorites]
The last time I was in there was not quite a year ago, as Covid started locking things down. My partner's office went work from home, we discovered that their work computer did not have wifi, nor would IT give admin rights so they could install a USB wifi receiver, so for the first time in ages I had to buy network cable for my house.
I joked after leaving the store (with 50 feet of cable, several rolls of electrical tape in different colors and a roll of painter's tape) that Fry's was the end of the world superstore. If I'd have more time and energy, I could've gotten out of there with bulk bottled water, a few miles of different kinds of tape, a few miles of network cable, several sets of probably-awful kitchen knives, a grill, four or five different flammable substances...
But for the first time since moving to CA, and the first time in probably several dozen times of going in to buy (computer or computer-adjacent items) none of the employees came over to assume I didn't know what I was doing, no one stared down my shirt, and nobody asked me if I was buying things for my (boyfriend/husband/dad/brother).
Because there were maybe six employees in the entire store including the receipt checker and the barista at the cafe.
* For a few years there on rough days I'd take my kiddo over to the Fry's and just watch fish for an hour to chill out in the cafe. Cup of coffee, a turnover and an hour of small child just blissed out by watching fish was a great way to manage depression. I am REALLY worried about the fish (and all the people who just lost their jobs).
posted by FritoKAL at 2:30 PM on February 24, 2021 [10 favorites]
Contrary to what I expected after hearing about Fry’s closure, The PC market just had its first big growth in 10 years — The PC is far from dead, The Verge, Tom Warren, Jan 11, 2021:
The PC was supposed to die 10 years ago, but it’s just experienced its first big growth in a decade. Market research firm Canalys reports that PC shipments reached 297 million units in 2020, up an impressive 11 percent from 2019. IDC puts the year at 302 million shipments, up 13.1 percent year over year. Gartner also agrees that 2020 was a big year for PCs and the biggest growth we’ve seen since 2010.posted by cenoxo at 2:42 PM on February 24, 2021
PC shipments are up thanks to demand related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Supply constraints made it difficult to buy a new laptop halfway through the year, and demand continued throughout 2020. “Demand is pushing the PC market forward and all signs indicate this surge still has a way to go,” says IDC’s Ryan Reith. While home working and remote learning have been big drivers, people are also turning to PCs and laptops for entertainment....
Lasher’s! Yeah.
For Seattlites & neighbors, Vetco is still open.
posted by clew at 2:48 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
For Seattlites & neighbors, Vetco is still open.
posted by clew at 2:48 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Lasher’s closed end of 2020.
posted by njohnson23 at 2:52 PM on February 24, 2021
posted by njohnson23 at 2:52 PM on February 24, 2021
When I looked up the Tempe location today google tells me I last visited seven years ago. It wasn't grim and I don't recall it being understocked. But the funniest bit is that I have no recollection that the theme was "golf". Even looking at pictures doesn't show me anything that reminds me that I ever knew the theme even though I visited the store many times in the two decades I lived nearby.
I don't even recall any really pushy salespeople though I do recall making sure that any that helped me did get their credit.
End of an (mini) era kind of like speedrunning Sears.
posted by jclarkin at 2:53 PM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
I don't even recall any really pushy salespeople though I do recall making sure that any that helped me did get their credit.
End of an (mini) era kind of like speedrunning Sears.
posted by jclarkin at 2:53 PM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
Also the location of Trenton & Mobley's purgatory in the season 2 post-credits finale of Mr Robot. Hi Leon!
posted by googly at 2:54 PM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by googly at 2:54 PM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
They even, for a while, had shrink-wrapped Linux software, which is something that I still have to remind myself existed at some point.
Funny enough, I got a boxed copy of Quake III for Linux in a metal tin at Software Etc at the mall. That was before the town I was living in even had a Best Buy and the Circuit City had only been open a couple of months.
posted by wierdo at 3:50 PM on February 24, 2021
Funny enough, I got a boxed copy of Quake III for Linux in a metal tin at Software Etc at the mall. That was before the town I was living in even had a Best Buy and the Circuit City had only been open a couple of months.
posted by wierdo at 3:50 PM on February 24, 2021
→
Based on my experience with Best Buy Canada, this is not in fact possible.
posted by scruss at 3:55 PM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
they became Best Buy with worse service
Based on my experience with Best Buy Canada, this is not in fact possible.
posted by scruss at 3:55 PM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
Jean-Louis Gassée: The Fry’s Era (from 2019)
@lemay on Twitter: With respect to all my fellow Silicon Valley nerds of a certain age, my nostalgia for Fry’s is … extremely mixed, and I’m not mourning their passing.
posted by GuyZero at 5:04 PM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
@lemay on Twitter: With respect to all my fellow Silicon Valley nerds of a certain age, my nostalgia for Fry’s is … extremely mixed, and I’m not mourning their passing.
posted by GuyZero at 5:04 PM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
I think it's like video stores, for me. When Blockbuster died a few years ago, I didn't mourn the loss of it, given I hadn't visited one since the turn of the century; rather it was nostalgia for a time of my life in the 90s when a bunch of us going to a video store to pick out movies was a regular weekend recreation. Sitting around someone's house, watching whatever stuff we had found, just hanging out. And the same for Fry's; I moved to SV at the end of 1999, and for some years after that wandering around a Fry's, picking up stuff I needed then a bunch of random stuff I didn't, was something we did that made us feel part of a pack.
Going by my google timeline, the last time I set foot in one was eight years ago (though I ordered a few things from them later when Google Express was a thing), so it's no practical loss. But there's nostalgia for an era of my life.
posted by tavella at 5:13 PM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
Going by my google timeline, the last time I set foot in one was eight years ago (though I ordered a few things from them later when Google Express was a thing), so it's no practical loss. But there's nostalgia for an era of my life.
posted by tavella at 5:13 PM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
One of my first trips out of Seattle metro, once I moved here before the Amazon boom. Bought my first soldering iron there and some other stuff for electronics. I will miss Fry's, but I won't.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:18 PM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:18 PM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
Based on my experience with Best Buy Canada, this is not in fact possible.
You should really be careful what you taunt the universe with at this point with this thread in particular, because the malaise that was once Fry's is probably hungry for a new home.
I once watched someone go through a total melt down at Fry's after returning yet another defective "sold as new" 5.25" IDE HDD, start screaming like someone had just murdered a family member and then rapidly escalate into beaning the poor checkout clerk in the head with the bare drive, knocking the clerk out cold and drawing an alarming amount of blood from the deep scalp laceration.
Said customer was rightly arrested. That poor hapless clerk probably had a pretty serious concussion and TBI. A multi-platter 5.25" HDD is probably more dangerous than getting hit in the head with a rock.
Fry's is also the only store or retail situation on the planet where I've actually yelled at someone and made any kind of scene, and to put some perspective on that I once calmly stood at a payphone in 115 degree heat for nearly and hour and a half in Phoenix talking to a Comcast CSR trying to defuck a new internet installation after a move because we didn't yet have a phone at home.
I've spent some time recollecting and I'm pretty sure I've been to every Fry's in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Nevada, which is pretty much all of the Fry's locations. I think there was like one or two I was missing. It was either the San Jose or Sunnyvale locations.
The customer service was really that abysmal. Imagine Vogons selling computer parts and electronics.
Except now imagine that all of the Vogons were in a really bad mood. And they had headaches. And they derived perverse sexual pleasure from frustrating people with their customer service skills and stonewalling.
posted by loquacious at 5:18 PM on February 24, 2021 [6 favorites]
You should really be careful what you taunt the universe with at this point with this thread in particular, because the malaise that was once Fry's is probably hungry for a new home.
I once watched someone go through a total melt down at Fry's after returning yet another defective "sold as new" 5.25" IDE HDD, start screaming like someone had just murdered a family member and then rapidly escalate into beaning the poor checkout clerk in the head with the bare drive, knocking the clerk out cold and drawing an alarming amount of blood from the deep scalp laceration.
Said customer was rightly arrested. That poor hapless clerk probably had a pretty serious concussion and TBI. A multi-platter 5.25" HDD is probably more dangerous than getting hit in the head with a rock.
Fry's is also the only store or retail situation on the planet where I've actually yelled at someone and made any kind of scene, and to put some perspective on that I once calmly stood at a payphone in 115 degree heat for nearly and hour and a half in Phoenix talking to a Comcast CSR trying to defuck a new internet installation after a move because we didn't yet have a phone at home.
I've spent some time recollecting and I'm pretty sure I've been to every Fry's in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Nevada, which is pretty much all of the Fry's locations. I think there was like one or two I was missing. It was either the San Jose or Sunnyvale locations.
The customer service was really that abysmal. Imagine Vogons selling computer parts and electronics.
Except now imagine that all of the Vogons were in a really bad mood. And they had headaches. And they derived perverse sexual pleasure from frustrating people with their customer service skills and stonewalling.
posted by loquacious at 5:18 PM on February 24, 2021 [6 favorites]
I'd be more than happy if BB Canada shuttered. If you can find a product in stock, it's a return.
posted by scruss at 5:36 PM on February 24, 2021
posted by scruss at 5:36 PM on February 24, 2021
I didn't shop at Fry's often but 15+ years ago I made a few trips to buy a hard drive that I could install the same day. I did usually buy online, but there were a few instances where I wanted to get that drive replaced that day! The worst part was in the computer components area you had to get assistance but I, being a hippie woman, didn't look like someone who would install their own components. This led to being ignored by the sales people until all the men were served.
The best thing about Fry's was lolling in the store model massage chairs and looking at all the flashlights.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 5:42 PM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
The best thing about Fry's was lolling in the store model massage chairs and looking at all the flashlights.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 5:42 PM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
Fifteen years ago we lost Tower Records. A few years later, Borders Books, followed by Blockbuster, Radio Shack and Toys'R'Us. And now Fry's, because "of changes in the retail landscape." Away we go!
posted by Rash at 6:12 PM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by Rash at 6:12 PM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
Last time I went to Fry’s it was to do drugs in the parking lot. That was a few years ago.
posted by infinitewindow at 6:12 PM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by infinitewindow at 6:12 PM on February 24, 2021 [5 favorites]
What makes me saddest here is that the Renton store wasn’t all architecturally fancy like all the others. Just like the Best store my wife used to work at in Tacoma was just a strip mall storefront. It’s like everyone ran out of imagination before they got to the Puget Sound.
We were there a couple of years ago, ogling headphones. I really don’t remember the place looking all that bad, but it was definitely a strange store. We got some good stuff there over the years; a visit to Fry’s was always an adventure.
posted by lhauser at 6:19 PM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
We were there a couple of years ago, ogling headphones. I really don’t remember the place looking all that bad, but it was definitely a strange store. We got some good stuff there over the years; a visit to Fry’s was always an adventure.
posted by lhauser at 6:19 PM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
My other fond memory of the Sunnyvale Fry's is being approached by headhunters during equipment runs on weekdays. I never followed up with them but I admired the hustle.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:18 PM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:18 PM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
I've spent some time recollecting and I'm pretty sure I've been to every Fry's in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Nevada, which is pretty much all of the Fry's locations. I think there was like one or two I was missing. It was either the San Jose or Sunnyvale locations.
There were eight of them in Texas: Dallas had four, Houston three, and Austin one. I can't be the only one in Austin who got drunk at Opal Divine's and wandered around Fry's buying junk food, weather stations, and DVDs.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 8:02 PM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
There were eight of them in Texas: Dallas had four, Houston three, and Austin one. I can't be the only one in Austin who got drunk at Opal Divine's and wandered around Fry's buying junk food, weather stations, and DVDs.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 8:02 PM on February 24, 2021 [4 favorites]
Last time I went to Fry’s it was to do drugs in the parking lot. That was a few years ago.
Well, shit, there's one I'll never check off my bucket list.
To be honest the thought of being off my face in a Fry's sounds terrifying and overwhelming.
On that note I think I recall that Fry's used to sell whipped cream cartridges in the housewares but they were - obviously - more expensive than going to a catering supply store, adult book store or head shop.
posted by loquacious at 8:13 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
Well, shit, there's one I'll never check off my bucket list.
To be honest the thought of being off my face in a Fry's sounds terrifying and overwhelming.
On that note I think I recall that Fry's used to sell whipped cream cartridges in the housewares but they were - obviously - more expensive than going to a catering supply store, adult book store or head shop.
posted by loquacious at 8:13 PM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]
There were eight of them in Texas: Dallas had four, Houston three, and Austin one. I can't be the only one in Austin who got drunk at Opal Divine's and wandered around Fry's buying junk food, weather stations, and DVDs.
Right, forgot about those. And that I've been to the Austin one.
posted by loquacious at 8:14 PM on February 24, 2021
Right, forgot about those. And that I've been to the Austin one.
posted by loquacious at 8:14 PM on February 24, 2021
I live about two miles from the "Aztec Temple" Fry's Electronics store here in north Phoenix on Thunderbird Road.
never went to that one because I live closer to the south Tempe "golf" one which, without consulting a list of all of Fry's themes, has got to be the worst Fry's theme, right? "golf"
like the carpets were green & the PC display tables looked like golf tees, woo "golf"
unrelatedly I was just at Best Buy grabbing a SATA cable thinking "idk if they even have computer parts at Best Buy, I should just go to Fry's"
they did though so I guess this is life now
posted by taquito sunrise at 8:39 PM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
never went to that one because I live closer to the south Tempe "golf" one which, without consulting a list of all of Fry's themes, has got to be the worst Fry's theme, right? "golf"
like the carpets were green & the PC display tables looked like golf tees, woo "golf"
unrelatedly I was just at Best Buy grabbing a SATA cable thinking "idk if they even have computer parts at Best Buy, I should just go to Fry's"
they did though so I guess this is life now
posted by taquito sunrise at 8:39 PM on February 24, 2021 [1 favorite]
I have fond memories of Fry's from the late 90's through mid 20teens from building my own PCs and buying components. it was just a fun day out. but in deference to all the horror stories of employees working there, i will shut up about that.
the PC as a box of unrelated components that you assembled has gone.
no way! i'm still at it.
posted by wibari at 10:13 PM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
the PC as a box of unrelated components that you assembled has gone.
no way! i'm still at it.
posted by wibari at 10:13 PM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
My local store growing up was the Alice in Wonderland Fry's, which really was an achievement in weird retail environments. And the origin story of my first tech industry job was that the team had gone out and personally purchased the servers for their product on their corporate p-cards at the Sunnyvale Fry's hoping they could hack together a prototype that worked before their manager got the purchase notification and asked them what they spent those thousands of dollars on, which apparently ended better than those stories sometimes do.
It was never a great place to shop, but still...warm fuzzy memories.
posted by potrzebie at 10:16 PM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
It was never a great place to shop, but still...warm fuzzy memories.
posted by potrzebie at 10:16 PM on February 24, 2021 [3 favorites]
I was perusing books at the Santa Trinita Fry's and my vision grayed out slowly enough that I just had time to reach out to a bookshelf to steady myself against the natural loss of proprioception that seemed certain to follow. Good thing I did, too: I went entirely blind.
Got better in a minute. Couldn't figure it out: not a TIA, not in both eyes, or my scintillating scotoma. Never had seizures or migraines before or since.
Over a decade later, partner nailed it: I'd been dazzled by a laser in both eyes by a customer.
St John's is still open, though. Never suffered blindness of any sort there.
posted by the Real Dan at 10:26 PM on February 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
Got better in a minute. Couldn't figure it out: not a TIA, not in both eyes, or my scintillating scotoma. Never had seizures or migraines before or since.
Over a decade later, partner nailed it: I'd been dazzled by a laser in both eyes by a customer.
St John's is still open, though. Never suffered blindness of any sort there.
posted by the Real Dan at 10:26 PM on February 24, 2021 [7 favorites]
The customer service was really that abysmal. Imagine Vogons selling computer parts and electronics.
The day I was hired, I spent half an hour helping customers in the components section while waiting between interviews. The fact that actual employees were not performing that function despite plenty being present should have alerted me to the problem.
About one month in, I got chastised - in front of customers - for assisting a customer by merely guiding them to the shelves in another department for something they’d asked for after I had just helped them find half a dozen items in my own department.
They didn’t merely have bad customer service; they explicitly discouraged attempts at good customer service. That was in 2006, and I doubt that was the worst it got.
posted by mystyk at 2:40 AM on February 25, 2021 [7 favorites]
The day I was hired, I spent half an hour helping customers in the components section while waiting between interviews. The fact that actual employees were not performing that function despite plenty being present should have alerted me to the problem.
About one month in, I got chastised - in front of customers - for assisting a customer by merely guiding them to the shelves in another department for something they’d asked for after I had just helped them find half a dozen items in my own department.
They didn’t merely have bad customer service; they explicitly discouraged attempts at good customer service. That was in 2006, and I doubt that was the worst it got.
posted by mystyk at 2:40 AM on February 25, 2021 [7 favorites]
Ollie Fretter
After buying our first VHS recorder there, my parents vowed never to shop Fretter ever again. As far back as I can remember it was the "bad" store, and even a decade later when I had some Christmas money to burn on my very own mini-stereo system, my father flat out refused to take me to the store to even browse.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:29 AM on February 25, 2021
After buying our first VHS recorder there, my parents vowed never to shop Fretter ever again. As far back as I can remember it was the "bad" store, and even a decade later when I had some Christmas money to burn on my very own mini-stereo system, my father flat out refused to take me to the store to even browse.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:29 AM on February 25, 2021
Damn. I loved it and I often hated it, but I'm sad to see it go. I hated the way many salespeople were required to interact with customers, the paranoid security, and the sales on items they clearly knew would run out of stock immediately. I loved the themes, and the fact that you could get most common parts in town immediately in a pinch. They weren't always the ideal parts and they were never the ideal tools, but if you needed a specific connector or a security bit *today,* it was a hell of a resource to have a short drive away. Just walking into the store and seeing all the stuff always filled me with a sense of the possible. (Like office supply stores and art stores.)
When I was in high-school and scrounging for change to buy electronics parts, eating cheap lunch in the drive-in theater restaurant in the Burbank store was a treat. When I got delayed at the airport as an adult, I'd always try to figure out whether or not there was enough time to leave the airport for a visit. I never quite understood how the range of products they carried made any sense, but it somehow worked.
The world needs more themed stores. I'd visit the hell out of a space-station or zombie-invasion themed department store or cafeteria. I'll miss Fry's. I'm not going to find out what it would cost to acquire some of the themed props. I don't need larger-than-lifesized Wonderland characters in my home. But, it's tempting.
posted by eotvos at 9:34 AM on February 25, 2021 [4 favorites]
When I was in high-school and scrounging for change to buy electronics parts, eating cheap lunch in the drive-in theater restaurant in the Burbank store was a treat. When I got delayed at the airport as an adult, I'd always try to figure out whether or not there was enough time to leave the airport for a visit. I never quite understood how the range of products they carried made any sense, but it somehow worked.
The world needs more themed stores. I'd visit the hell out of a space-station or zombie-invasion themed department store or cafeteria. I'll miss Fry's. I'm not going to find out what it would cost to acquire some of the themed props. I don't need larger-than-lifesized Wonderland characters in my home. But, it's tempting.
posted by eotvos at 9:34 AM on February 25, 2021 [4 favorites]
The Campbell (Egyptian) Fry's was a regular part of my forays down Bascom Avenue in San Jose. This trip often included stops at Space Cat Comics, Time Tunnel Toys, Big Al's Record Barn, Streetlight Records, Tower Records and later Rasputin Music. Rasputin and Streetlight are still going!
I believe that the last purchases I made at Fry's were a jug of 100% isopropyl alcohol or a set of Mystery Science Theater DVDs. The DVD/Blu-ray sections slowly became smaller and less organized; at it's peak, the store was well-stocked with the unusual offerings from smaller specialty DVD publishers like Arrow.
It's apparent from the comments here that the company had serious financial and internal cultural problems, and this was not an undeserved demise. I think that some of the better-themed Fry's buildings should be converted into similarly-themed indoor miniature golf courses.
posted by JDC8 at 9:54 AM on February 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
I believe that the last purchases I made at Fry's were a jug of 100% isopropyl alcohol or a set of Mystery Science Theater DVDs. The DVD/Blu-ray sections slowly became smaller and less organized; at it's peak, the store was well-stocked with the unusual offerings from smaller specialty DVD publishers like Arrow.
It's apparent from the comments here that the company had serious financial and internal cultural problems, and this was not an undeserved demise. I think that some of the better-themed Fry's buildings should be converted into similarly-themed indoor miniature golf courses.
posted by JDC8 at 9:54 AM on February 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
My motto when shopping there used to be "Be prepared to buy three and return two."
So much of their stuff was junk. Now I shop at Microcenter. A lot of their stuff is junk, but the overall quality of junk has improved, I think.
posted by etherist at 10:22 AM on February 25, 2021
So much of their stuff was junk. Now I shop at Microcenter. A lot of their stuff is junk, but the overall quality of junk has improved, I think.
posted by etherist at 10:22 AM on February 25, 2021
One of my cherished Fry's memories is that I and my spouse found about $100 cash on the floor of an aisle in a SoCal Fry's. We tried customer service but they said they would have no way to verify who it belonged to and intimated that we may simply want to keep it, so we spent it on party supplies and had a nice party.
posted by subocoyne at 11:26 AM on February 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by subocoyne at 11:26 AM on February 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
But Fry's died due to so many reasons. The PC as a box of unrelated components that you assembled has gone. Much of what they sold simply no longer exists - no one buys modems or DVD burners or USB cards anymore.
PC Part Picker
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 11:36 AM on February 25, 2021
PC Part Picker
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 11:36 AM on February 25, 2021
I worked for an organization that was under the Fry's Electronics' wing as one of John Fry's personal interests - a ballet company that he basically underwrote.
This brings back many memories, I'm not sure which are appropriate to share, but I will say that when the Warriors won the NBA Finals in 2015, our millionaire benefactor definitely arrived at our offices resplendent in brand new Warriors merch, down to blue and gold Nikes.
Weird guy. Friendly enough in my experience, but definite low-key 'deranged billionaire' vibes.
I was kind of taken aback when I saw the IT equipment used in the office of his national chain of electronics stores. I don't think there was a workstation less than 10 years old in that building. Our company was graced with their hand-me-downs, which I (for my sins) found various ways to keep in operation long past expiration.
As a loving resident of the state, everything associated with Fry's was always simultaneously gaudy and starved of cash in a way that feels (felt) distinctively Californian. Always managing to be too complicated AND to informal. Too expensive AND too cheap. It was a weird place. I won't miss it, but I'll sure remember it.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 12:05 PM on February 25, 2021 [8 favorites]
This brings back many memories, I'm not sure which are appropriate to share, but I will say that when the Warriors won the NBA Finals in 2015, our millionaire benefactor definitely arrived at our offices resplendent in brand new Warriors merch, down to blue and gold Nikes.
Weird guy. Friendly enough in my experience, but definite low-key 'deranged billionaire' vibes.
I was kind of taken aback when I saw the IT equipment used in the office of his national chain of electronics stores. I don't think there was a workstation less than 10 years old in that building. Our company was graced with their hand-me-downs, which I (for my sins) found various ways to keep in operation long past expiration.
As a loving resident of the state, everything associated with Fry's was always simultaneously gaudy and starved of cash in a way that feels (felt) distinctively Californian. Always managing to be too complicated AND to informal. Too expensive AND too cheap. It was a weird place. I won't miss it, but I'll sure remember it.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 12:05 PM on February 25, 2021 [8 favorites]
Wow. Burbank was my Fry's. Like others I built a lot of computers with gear from there. Mostly I used NewEgg before they became an incomprehensible "marketplace," but when I invariably needed something right away and couldn't wait for shipping, it was off to Fry's for me.
It was often frustrating to shop there, but it always felt like unlimited potential when I went in there.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 12:27 PM on February 25, 2021 [6 favorites]
It was often frustrating to shop there, but it always felt like unlimited potential when I went in there.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 12:27 PM on February 25, 2021 [6 favorites]
I can't leave this thread alone because, as it should be obvious, I do have a bunch of feelings about Fry's and not all of them are bad right out of the box.
I mean I have gone on road trips with friends just to go to Fry's.
If anything all my negative feelings stem from the idea that it could have been so much better. They didn't have to underpay or treat employees like dirt. They didn't have to be such a shitshow.
They could have been super awesome and put Radio Shack out of business twenty years earlier. They could have stolen ideas from places like Walmart and started a chain of smaller more local shops with well curated inventory that were in turn supported by the megasized Fry's.
They didn't need to keep an entire stock of parts in every store and only have giant stores with almost everything in them, they needed more surface area and market penetration and to do some pretty basic customer service that didn't suck.
They could have totally cornered the computer store, home theater, cell phone and even home appliance markets and become the Walmart of electronics and electric appliances and even been an even better net good for STEM education, hobbyist and DIY inventor technology and more. They could have totally dominated the maker space market and people could or would have adored them.
I mean just imagine a Fry's that had maker labs and workshops. Imagine a Fry's with on-demand 3D printing and PCB manufacturing. Imagine a Fry's that had pick-and-place machines and laser PCB etchers.
Imagine a Fry's where you could tap all those vast resources out on the sales floor where they had everything from commodity ICs and jellybean parts and breadboards and all kinds of things and bring stuff right into the lab by paying for it right there on entry so you could play with it right now.
They already had cafes and all of the caffeine and sugary snacks to feed even the dankest nerds.
I mean take away the price tags and check out lines and you basically already have a maker space or startup lab ready to go right out of the box.
But they never saw this. They said "Ok, here's a bunch of parts that may or may not work but don't ask questions or ask for refunds, and now I'm going to rub sand in your eyes because you deserve it, nerd!"
If I was in charge of Fry's I would look to China and Shenzhen try to emulate the ideas of their massive hardware markets and offer floor space for consignment and direct sales by smaller entrepreneurs that could afford to specialize.
Imagine Fry's as nothing more than a giant swap meet or farmer's market filled with stalls stocked and curated by people who could focus on that one area and letting them compete.
At this point in the technological history of the US it's a crying shame we're not directly teaching trades and skills in public schools and giving kids access to, say, the ability to design and build a basic PCB or how to repair something.
But, no, Fry's chose to be awful and totally blew it.
posted by loquacious at 1:34 PM on February 25, 2021 [16 favorites]
I mean I have gone on road trips with friends just to go to Fry's.
If anything all my negative feelings stem from the idea that it could have been so much better. They didn't have to underpay or treat employees like dirt. They didn't have to be such a shitshow.
They could have been super awesome and put Radio Shack out of business twenty years earlier. They could have stolen ideas from places like Walmart and started a chain of smaller more local shops with well curated inventory that were in turn supported by the megasized Fry's.
They didn't need to keep an entire stock of parts in every store and only have giant stores with almost everything in them, they needed more surface area and market penetration and to do some pretty basic customer service that didn't suck.
They could have totally cornered the computer store, home theater, cell phone and even home appliance markets and become the Walmart of electronics and electric appliances and even been an even better net good for STEM education, hobbyist and DIY inventor technology and more. They could have totally dominated the maker space market and people could or would have adored them.
I mean just imagine a Fry's that had maker labs and workshops. Imagine a Fry's with on-demand 3D printing and PCB manufacturing. Imagine a Fry's that had pick-and-place machines and laser PCB etchers.
Imagine a Fry's where you could tap all those vast resources out on the sales floor where they had everything from commodity ICs and jellybean parts and breadboards and all kinds of things and bring stuff right into the lab by paying for it right there on entry so you could play with it right now.
They already had cafes and all of the caffeine and sugary snacks to feed even the dankest nerds.
I mean take away the price tags and check out lines and you basically already have a maker space or startup lab ready to go right out of the box.
But they never saw this. They said "Ok, here's a bunch of parts that may or may not work but don't ask questions or ask for refunds, and now I'm going to rub sand in your eyes because you deserve it, nerd!"
If I was in charge of Fry's I would look to China and Shenzhen try to emulate the ideas of their massive hardware markets and offer floor space for consignment and direct sales by smaller entrepreneurs that could afford to specialize.
Imagine Fry's as nothing more than a giant swap meet or farmer's market filled with stalls stocked and curated by people who could focus on that one area and letting them compete.
At this point in the technological history of the US it's a crying shame we're not directly teaching trades and skills in public schools and giving kids access to, say, the ability to design and build a basic PCB or how to repair something.
But, no, Fry's chose to be awful and totally blew it.
posted by loquacious at 1:34 PM on February 25, 2021 [16 favorites]
It's interesting that I'm seeing a lot of both local and national press uncritically echoing the Fry's press release that "Covid killed Fry's." When clearly every geek in Silicon Valley has been waiting for them to go out of business for years.
posted by muddgirl at 1:38 PM on February 25, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by muddgirl at 1:38 PM on February 25, 2021 [9 favorites]
@loquacious, I lived near a Fry's Electronics for years and barely found a reason to go. If they'd followed your suggestions, I'd have been there every weekend!
posted by lock robster at 3:37 PM on February 25, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by lock robster at 3:37 PM on February 25, 2021 [5 favorites]
I moved to the Bay Area in the mid-90s, and already had heard tales of Fry's shops. Unfortunately they (unlike their grocery store antecedents) were all located out in car-dominated exurban wastes, mounted high atop vast car parks the likes of which the Great Plains envy for their unending flatness.
But then in the early 2000s, a shop opened up right by Concord BART station. All I needed to do was cross the street and brave the vast car park and I was there! I went a few times, most notably on sweltering days to enjoy the air conditioning.
My first solo trip out to Concord Fry's (my soon-to-be-Mrs. Hobo would ask "What are concord fries? Do they have cheese or something?") happened to be the one when I spotted Bram Cohen, whom I'd met at the Berkeley Unix User Group meetings. He told me he'd quit his job and to pad his résumé he'd written a filesharing protocol that was better than Napster or Gnutella. He said it was actually kind of easy to write, but hard to test.
A few weeks later I found bittorrent and saw his post saying he'd purchased the rights to redistribute a gigabyte of pornography as an incentive for nerds to help him test the thing out. He was soon frustrated that nobody bothered to join in on this, but when Linux ISO files (each about 700MB) were released, he found his test corpus and BitTorrent was off to the races!
I don't think I'd ever found Fry's retail services that enticing, in the end. I preferred Central Computer for purchasing raw hardware, and they had an office actually in San Francisco instead of somewhere 40 miles from the heart of San Automóvil or whatever.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 3:50 PM on February 25, 2021 [3 favorites]
But then in the early 2000s, a shop opened up right by Concord BART station. All I needed to do was cross the street and brave the vast car park and I was there! I went a few times, most notably on sweltering days to enjoy the air conditioning.
My first solo trip out to Concord Fry's (my soon-to-be-Mrs. Hobo would ask "What are concord fries? Do they have cheese or something?") happened to be the one when I spotted Bram Cohen, whom I'd met at the Berkeley Unix User Group meetings. He told me he'd quit his job and to pad his résumé he'd written a filesharing protocol that was better than Napster or Gnutella. He said it was actually kind of easy to write, but hard to test.
A few weeks later I found bittorrent and saw his post saying he'd purchased the rights to redistribute a gigabyte of pornography as an incentive for nerds to help him test the thing out. He was soon frustrated that nobody bothered to join in on this, but when Linux ISO files (each about 700MB) were released, he found his test corpus and BitTorrent was off to the races!
I don't think I'd ever found Fry's retail services that enticing, in the end. I preferred Central Computer for purchasing raw hardware, and they had an office actually in San Francisco instead of somewhere 40 miles from the heart of San Automóvil or whatever.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 3:50 PM on February 25, 2021 [3 favorites]
By the way, I did manage in the 90s to bluff my way past the receipt-scribbling-dudes with a cheery "no thanks!" once when a friend drove us out to one of the motoring-hell sites.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 3:56 PM on February 25, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 3:56 PM on February 25, 2021 [4 favorites]
I'm glad someone else is here to mention the loss of Halted Supply.
Halted was my fave place to visit on a weekend - many happy memories of finding oddball gems there.
posted by HiroProtagonist at 6:15 PM on February 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
Halted was my fave place to visit on a weekend - many happy memories of finding oddball gems there.
posted by HiroProtagonist at 6:15 PM on February 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
It's interesting that I'm seeing a lot of both local and national press uncritically echoing the Fry's press release that "Covid killed Fry's." When clearly every geek in Silicon Valley has been waiting for them to go out of business for years.
Yeah, I'm trying to remember what phenomenon people claimed killed Radio Shack in the end. Millennials maybe?
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:35 PM on February 25, 2021
Yeah, I'm trying to remember what phenomenon people claimed killed Radio Shack in the end. Millennials maybe?
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:35 PM on February 25, 2021
Video.
posted by Meatbomb at 11:28 PM on February 25, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by Meatbomb at 11:28 PM on February 25, 2021 [6 favorites]
I hope Limor Fried snags the trademark and uses it
Not likely. It shares the trademark and logo with Fry’s Food Stores As it started as a spin off of the grocer.
posted by jmauro at 1:31 AM on February 26, 2021
Not likely. It shares the trademark and logo with Fry’s Food Stores As it started as a spin off of the grocer.
posted by jmauro at 1:31 AM on February 26, 2021
I've really enjoyed reading loquacious' comments here, and those of many others.
But, I'm always a bit skeptical of the idea that physical maker/hacker spaces can be successful businesses. The hand full of large, dense urban areas I know well seem to be able to support 1-2 perpetually struggling hacker spaces, one old-school electronics supply shop, and half a ham radio store. In some ways, Radio Shack started out as a hacker space. By the time I was a teenager, it was a stereo and toy vendor that had a small aisle in the back for people who wanted to make things. When I was an adult, I didn't even try to find basic components there. It could be because the company leadership was stupid - and I'm sure they were in many ways - but it's also true that there are a whole lot more people who want to watch things than who want to make things. (One can do both, of course.)
The academic institution I work for has two 3D printers that are free and accessible to everyone in at least three departments. I've seen them used three times, once because I insisted that a summer student prototype a thing before sending it out to a mail-order CNC shop to be made out of metal. It could be they're being used secretly for stuff I don't know about. (Which would be great!) Or it could be that we assign too much homework or have selected against students who want to make things. But, if a thousand of the geekiest and most interesting young people I've met can't figure out what to do with a 3D printer enough to justify an educational non-profit keeping it running, I'm not sure it would keep Fry's alive. The very small number of mail-order, small-batch CNC shops and PCB shops in the US that I've ever heard the names of suggests there aren't actually that many people who would be excited to visit one in person. My cynical suspicion is that such things need to be funded by the government or big donors to really work. (Which seems like a great idea. And an even better idea with giant space robots in between the cad workstations.)
To dramatically paraphrase radio host Ira Glass talking about the Medieval Times theaters, it's surprising to realize that nothing I spend time on will ever be as popular in the US as contemporary jousting.
posted by eotvos at 8:02 AM on February 26, 2021 [6 favorites]
I mean just imagine a Fry's that had maker labs and workshops. Imagine a Fry's with on-demand 3D printing and PCB manufacturing. Imagine a Fry's that had pick-and-place machines and laser PCB etchers.I love the idea. I'd use it. Realistically, I'd probably become a member and use it less often than intended. But, I'd absolutely sign up, both for personal and professional use.
But, I'm always a bit skeptical of the idea that physical maker/hacker spaces can be successful businesses. The hand full of large, dense urban areas I know well seem to be able to support 1-2 perpetually struggling hacker spaces, one old-school electronics supply shop, and half a ham radio store. In some ways, Radio Shack started out as a hacker space. By the time I was a teenager, it was a stereo and toy vendor that had a small aisle in the back for people who wanted to make things. When I was an adult, I didn't even try to find basic components there. It could be because the company leadership was stupid - and I'm sure they were in many ways - but it's also true that there are a whole lot more people who want to watch things than who want to make things. (One can do both, of course.)
The academic institution I work for has two 3D printers that are free and accessible to everyone in at least three departments. I've seen them used three times, once because I insisted that a summer student prototype a thing before sending it out to a mail-order CNC shop to be made out of metal. It could be they're being used secretly for stuff I don't know about. (Which would be great!) Or it could be that we assign too much homework or have selected against students who want to make things. But, if a thousand of the geekiest and most interesting young people I've met can't figure out what to do with a 3D printer enough to justify an educational non-profit keeping it running, I'm not sure it would keep Fry's alive. The very small number of mail-order, small-batch CNC shops and PCB shops in the US that I've ever heard the names of suggests there aren't actually that many people who would be excited to visit one in person. My cynical suspicion is that such things need to be funded by the government or big donors to really work. (Which seems like a great idea. And an even better idea with giant space robots in between the cad workstations.)
To dramatically paraphrase radio host Ira Glass talking about the Medieval Times theaters, it's surprising to realize that nothing I spend time on will ever be as popular in the US as contemporary jousting.
posted by eotvos at 8:02 AM on February 26, 2021 [6 favorites]
First time I visited the west coast in '95 I probably made a beeline for Fry's. Worked a block from one in Palo Alto in the early 2010s and would walk there at lunch for something to do.
I almost never got anything at Fry's, but when I wanting something that day, like every Raspberry Pi module, they were the place.
Their reputation for selling obviously opened and returned items, even early on, was well deserved.
I don't feel good about their passing. But shopping there was, at least in the past decade, a battle between promise and frustration.
posted by zippy at 8:20 AM on February 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
I almost never got anything at Fry's, but when I wanting something that day, like every Raspberry Pi module, they were the place.
Their reputation for selling obviously opened and returned items, even early on, was well deserved.
I don't feel good about their passing. But shopping there was, at least in the past decade, a battle between promise and frustration.
posted by zippy at 8:20 AM on February 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
I usually went to the alien one, and have spent way more time than necessary trying to figure out the logic behind where things were shelved. I also bought a certain amount of weird small-brand sodas and obscure DVDs there. But the last time I went was years ago when I was looking for a new TV, and got so condescended to by the rude misogynistic TV sales guy who refused to believe that I knew what I was talking about (I did) that I just never went back. I drive by the alien one every so often and go oh, yeah, Fry's. I wonder what they'll do with the flying saucer.
posted by OolooKitty at 9:17 AM on February 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by OolooKitty at 9:17 AM on February 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
So I'd like to point out that there was a Fry's with 3d printers and a machine shop and it was called TechShop and it went out of business a few years ago.
posted by GuyZero at 9:23 AM on February 26, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by GuyZero at 9:23 AM on February 26, 2021 [7 favorites]
But, I'm always a bit skeptical of the idea that physical maker/hacker spaces can be successful businesses.
Yeah, this is totally true and I'm glad you called it out. Most long-lived maker spaces aren't profit centers but non-profit LLCs that tend to - as you said - survive on the good will of others who often buy expensive monthly subscriptions or make donations just to support the space and then underutilize the resources they're allowed to use under their subscriptions.
To be honest and clear, I don't think my fantasy-world Fry's could be viable in the economic and business climate of the US.
One of the reasons the Shenzhen parts markets work - as much as they do, at least - is specifically because of a number of key factors. One is a manufacturing-focused economy. Another is a lax environmental and employment law environment. Another not so hidden factor is a distinct lack of respect for copyright and trademark laws.
There's also the fact that many of the parts stalls are stocked with reclaimed and recycled parts that are sourced from back yard or shade tree recycling businesses where they really don't care about electronic waste pollution where they'll do things like, say, specialize in recycling and reclaiming cell phone PCBs with little more than a backyard or alleyway fire and knocking the de-soldered parts off the board, cleaning them up and collecting and sorting everything for resale using a great deal of incredibly cheap or free human labor.
If you tried that in the US not only would there be the environmental and labor regulations to deal with but companies like Apple would sue you so fast that the paperwork would emit alarming amounts of Cherenkov radiation due to the relativistic speeds that it attained.
But one of the main factors is the proximity and direct access to parts makers and users, so there's a huge market for that to be able to go into a permanent hardware and parts market and be able to go from stall to stall sourcing parts for projects both small and large, whether it's cloning or repairing name brand phones and other grey market practices.
The regulatory aspects of trying to recreate or do any of this in the US would be daunting.
The other part of my equation of this fantasy Fry's is that we just don't have the maker and manufacturing culture to support it. There's just not much incentive to repair a bunch of outdated smartphones for resale, and if anything there is significant regulatory friction baked in to trying to do this in the US.
The culture just isn't there because we have, by and large, lost a lot of the innovative DIY ethics and drive that the US used to have, and my idea of a mega maker's space chain just wouldn't be sustainable as a real business without that drive and culture to support it.
For fuck's sake, we're currently barely fighting for "right to repair laws" which probably seem totally hilarious and ludicrous to any innovators or makers in China. "What do you mean I can't repair this? How about I repair it anyway and I circumvent your protected hardware with little more than some paper clips and sweat? And then I sell kits to do the same to anyone and everyone? Do you even JTAG?"
posted by loquacious at 9:47 AM on February 26, 2021 [9 favorites]
Yeah, this is totally true and I'm glad you called it out. Most long-lived maker spaces aren't profit centers but non-profit LLCs that tend to - as you said - survive on the good will of others who often buy expensive monthly subscriptions or make donations just to support the space and then underutilize the resources they're allowed to use under their subscriptions.
To be honest and clear, I don't think my fantasy-world Fry's could be viable in the economic and business climate of the US.
One of the reasons the Shenzhen parts markets work - as much as they do, at least - is specifically because of a number of key factors. One is a manufacturing-focused economy. Another is a lax environmental and employment law environment. Another not so hidden factor is a distinct lack of respect for copyright and trademark laws.
There's also the fact that many of the parts stalls are stocked with reclaimed and recycled parts that are sourced from back yard or shade tree recycling businesses where they really don't care about electronic waste pollution where they'll do things like, say, specialize in recycling and reclaiming cell phone PCBs with little more than a backyard or alleyway fire and knocking the de-soldered parts off the board, cleaning them up and collecting and sorting everything for resale using a great deal of incredibly cheap or free human labor.
If you tried that in the US not only would there be the environmental and labor regulations to deal with but companies like Apple would sue you so fast that the paperwork would emit alarming amounts of Cherenkov radiation due to the relativistic speeds that it attained.
But one of the main factors is the proximity and direct access to parts makers and users, so there's a huge market for that to be able to go into a permanent hardware and parts market and be able to go from stall to stall sourcing parts for projects both small and large, whether it's cloning or repairing name brand phones and other grey market practices.
The regulatory aspects of trying to recreate or do any of this in the US would be daunting.
The other part of my equation of this fantasy Fry's is that we just don't have the maker and manufacturing culture to support it. There's just not much incentive to repair a bunch of outdated smartphones for resale, and if anything there is significant regulatory friction baked in to trying to do this in the US.
The culture just isn't there because we have, by and large, lost a lot of the innovative DIY ethics and drive that the US used to have, and my idea of a mega maker's space chain just wouldn't be sustainable as a real business without that drive and culture to support it.
For fuck's sake, we're currently barely fighting for "right to repair laws" which probably seem totally hilarious and ludicrous to any innovators or makers in China. "What do you mean I can't repair this? How about I repair it anyway and I circumvent your protected hardware with little more than some paper clips and sweat? And then I sell kits to do the same to anyone and everyone? Do you even JTAG?"
posted by loquacious at 9:47 AM on February 26, 2021 [9 favorites]
I think there is that kind of culture in the Bay Area which is why Frys started here and survived here as long as it did. It's just that running a shop is super-expensive and retail sadly isn't going to cross-subsidize anything. I was a TechShop member for a while and you had to take courses to get certified to use any machinery and the membership was a couple hundred dollars a month, which is a lot, even in the Bay Area.
All that said, we're nowhere near Shenzhen, not by a longshot and never will be for the reasons you lay out. TechShop had a pretty serious insurance burden plus it costs a lot to maintain all that equipment.
Still, it's sad that it didn't work because it was fun to have laser cutter access but I certainly don't use one enough to justify a $5K unit in my garage.
posted by GuyZero at 10:31 AM on February 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
All that said, we're nowhere near Shenzhen, not by a longshot and never will be for the reasons you lay out. TechShop had a pretty serious insurance burden plus it costs a lot to maintain all that equipment.
Still, it's sad that it didn't work because it was fun to have laser cutter access but I certainly don't use one enough to justify a $5K unit in my garage.
posted by GuyZero at 10:31 AM on February 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
I think there is that kind of culture in the Bay Area
I was walking down the street once, because I like walking, and saw a guy take delivery on a 160L tank full of liquid nitrogen. Literally into his garage, which was floor-to-ceiling filled with shelves of equipment. Dude had like three oscilloscopes/spectrum analyzers in there too (I can't tell the difference at a distance).
That's when I realized I wasn't in Chicago any more.
Just a random late-fifties house, a bit dumpy even, and god knows how much money in equipment sitting in his garage, now alongside more LN2 than I would ever want in the vague vicinity of my living quarters.
posted by aramaic at 12:19 PM on February 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
I was walking down the street once, because I like walking, and saw a guy take delivery on a 160L tank full of liquid nitrogen. Literally into his garage, which was floor-to-ceiling filled with shelves of equipment. Dude had like three oscilloscopes/spectrum analyzers in there too (I can't tell the difference at a distance).
That's when I realized I wasn't in Chicago any more.
Just a random late-fifties house, a bit dumpy even, and god knows how much money in equipment sitting in his garage, now alongside more LN2 than I would ever want in the vague vicinity of my living quarters.
posted by aramaic at 12:19 PM on February 26, 2021 [2 favorites]
Your comments about Shenzhen were so right on loquacious.
The culture just isn't there because we have, by and large, lost a lot of the innovative DIY ethics and drive that the US used to have, and my idea of a mega maker's space chain just wouldn't be sustainable as a real business without that drive and culture to support it.
And it seems like one more way the ladder got pulled up behind a certain cohort... Gates and Jobs were hanging out in garages bashing out cool new shit (or were at least adjacent to the people doing that stuff) but once it became an issue of their $$$ at stake, we care about corporate rights and IP.
posted by Meatbomb at 1:31 PM on February 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
The culture just isn't there because we have, by and large, lost a lot of the innovative DIY ethics and drive that the US used to have, and my idea of a mega maker's space chain just wouldn't be sustainable as a real business without that drive and culture to support it.
And it seems like one more way the ladder got pulled up behind a certain cohort... Gates and Jobs were hanging out in garages bashing out cool new shit (or were at least adjacent to the people doing that stuff) but once it became an issue of their $$$ at stake, we care about corporate rights and IP.
posted by Meatbomb at 1:31 PM on February 26, 2021 [1 favorite]
In some ways, Radio Shack started out as a hacker space. By the time I was a teenager, it was a stereo and toy vendor that had a small aisle in the back for people who wanted to make things. When I was an adult, I didn't even try to find basic components there.
I last went a couple of years before they went out of business, but I never had trouble finding a not great soldering iron, solder, an assortment of resistors, capacitors, 555 timers, SO239 connectors, BNCs, etc at any Radio Shack I walked into. In the smaller ones they were always crammed into a tiny back room by then, but in the larger ones they'd have an aisle full of drawers of random components.
I suspect the biggest thing that drove Radio Shack out of business was rent increases and the decline of the teenager working after school for pocket money. Even at Radio Shack prices, there wasn't enough money to be made on components, random batteries, and such to keep a store afloat.
posted by wierdo at 3:07 PM on February 26, 2021 [3 favorites]
I last went a couple of years before they went out of business, but I never had trouble finding a not great soldering iron, solder, an assortment of resistors, capacitors, 555 timers, SO239 connectors, BNCs, etc at any Radio Shack I walked into. In the smaller ones they were always crammed into a tiny back room by then, but in the larger ones they'd have an aisle full of drawers of random components.
I suspect the biggest thing that drove Radio Shack out of business was rent increases and the decline of the teenager working after school for pocket money. Even at Radio Shack prices, there wasn't enough money to be made on components, random batteries, and such to keep a store afloat.
posted by wierdo at 3:07 PM on February 26, 2021 [3 favorites]
Narrowing gap between the 1001 Electronic Projects jumper-kit and the Digikey online catalog, I thought.
posted by clew at 3:24 PM on February 26, 2021
posted by clew at 3:24 PM on February 26, 2021
Neither DigiKey nor Mouser helps one get a project done today, sadly.
posted by wierdo at 10:41 PM on February 26, 2021
posted by wierdo at 10:41 PM on February 26, 2021
And Radio Shack couldn’t pay its rent (plus some corporate barratry, iirc) on the proportion of projects that need to be done today.
posted by clew at 11:39 PM on February 26, 2021
posted by clew at 11:39 PM on February 26, 2021
Ha - just watched The War with Grandpa with my kids, and a scene in the movie is set inside the best stocked and most well lit Fry’s electronics you’ve ever seen - with Jane Seymour playing a ridiculously helpful Fry’s associate. Kids had no idea why I was laughing.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 1:02 PM on February 27, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by inflatablekiwi at 1:02 PM on February 27, 2021 [3 favorites]
No mention of the radio slogan? "Your Best Buys, are ... ALWAYS ... at Fry's!"
Kind of ironic that they included the name of a competitor in their radio slogan.
posted by benzenedream at 8:37 PM on February 27, 2021
Kind of ironic that they included the name of a competitor in their radio slogan.
posted by benzenedream at 8:37 PM on February 27, 2021
Well this thread prompted me to discover that there is in fact a Micro Center about 20 minutes from my house, when I had been convinced there were no places to buy retail electronics components. I visited it today and it was great. Nothing like the selection that Fry's used to have back in the day, but the place was packed (uncomfortably so for the pandemic, really) and store employees were everywhere, answering questions and seeming knowledgeable and helpful. I wish they had a bigger and better-organized selection of individual small components, but the large number of inexpensive kits from Ada Fruit and SparkFun was really nice to see. I managed to make it out with only a MOSFET, a small pack of PNP transistors (I wanted NPNs but they were out except for the overpriced version in the TO-18 casing, and I can adapt), and a decent prototyping breadboard, and not the $200 3D printer that I desperately wanted as soon as I saw it but seriously cannot afford.
posted by biogeo at 8:50 PM on February 27, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 8:50 PM on February 27, 2021 [2 favorites]
You know, at a lot of smaller/independent hardware stores, at least in places I've lived, there's a bunch of drawers containing screws, nuts, washers, etc., of every type and size, sold individually. If you want some you just grab what you need and put it in a paper bag, marking which items you've picked out on the bag for the cashier to ring up. (After moving to Philly, I was amused to discover that my local hardware store rings this up as "jawn.") There's generally no attempt made to verify that what you've put in the bag matches what you marked, since the price per item is usually a few tens of cents, so mistakes (or fraud) cost the store almost nothing anyway.
I assume that the profit margin on this stuff is basically zero, or even negative when you consider the added inventory labor to keep things sorted properly, and that these stores keep these sections primarily to attract people to the store. Got a project that requires some specific screw? Just head over to the Ace / TrueValue / independent hardware store, it'll only be $0.20. And while you're there, hey, don't you have a ding on your cabinet that needs patching? You can grab some wood filler for $5, and some stain to match what's there for another $5, as long as you're at it.
It really seems like a store like Micro Center, or like Fry's or RadioShack used to be, ought to take a similar approach with small electronic components. It's weird that there's this large amount of wallspace devoted to small electronic components, most of which seem to be either sold out or have only one or two left, packaged individually or in lots of 2 or 4 or 10, with big, bulky packages costing a couple of bucks, when the same items can be purchased individually for a few cents online. If Micro Center had a well-stocked parts drawer as a loss leader where I could get a handful of diodes, transistors, and LEDs for roughly the same cost as I'd get online, I'd be there every weekend -- and I would definitely end up spending money on other things I didn't plan to.
posted by biogeo at 9:15 PM on February 27, 2021 [1 favorite]
I assume that the profit margin on this stuff is basically zero, or even negative when you consider the added inventory labor to keep things sorted properly, and that these stores keep these sections primarily to attract people to the store. Got a project that requires some specific screw? Just head over to the Ace / TrueValue / independent hardware store, it'll only be $0.20. And while you're there, hey, don't you have a ding on your cabinet that needs patching? You can grab some wood filler for $5, and some stain to match what's there for another $5, as long as you're at it.
It really seems like a store like Micro Center, or like Fry's or RadioShack used to be, ought to take a similar approach with small electronic components. It's weird that there's this large amount of wallspace devoted to small electronic components, most of which seem to be either sold out or have only one or two left, packaged individually or in lots of 2 or 4 or 10, with big, bulky packages costing a couple of bucks, when the same items can be purchased individually for a few cents online. If Micro Center had a well-stocked parts drawer as a loss leader where I could get a handful of diodes, transistors, and LEDs for roughly the same cost as I'd get online, I'd be there every weekend -- and I would definitely end up spending money on other things I didn't plan to.
posted by biogeo at 9:15 PM on February 27, 2021 [1 favorite]
a scene in the movie is set inside the best stocked and most well lit Fry’s electronics you’ve ever seen - with Jane Seymour playing a ridiculously helpful Fry’s associate.
I thought it was really odd for a dying company to spend product placement money for that kind of thing, but looking up the movie it was filmed back in 2017, so I suppose they though they might still turn it around.
posted by tavella at 9:27 PM on February 27, 2021
I thought it was really odd for a dying company to spend product placement money for that kind of thing, but looking up the movie it was filmed back in 2017, so I suppose they though they might still turn it around.
posted by tavella at 9:27 PM on February 27, 2021
I remember being really, really excited for that renton Fry's a few people mentioned up thread to open. I was a very precocious like, 11 or something baby nerd and itching to build my own computer. My parents were both extremely, obnoxiously even, hesitant to order anything online. And the situation here prior to it was just a bunch of tiny local shops that were constantly churning in and out of business.
In the end, most of the parts were ordered online(with my own money! that i saved up for like, years). But in, idk, 2004 they had an impossibly good black friday ad and i was determined to go. It was something that sounds super silly now, like a 300gb hard drive for $79 and cheap flash drives.
What ended up happening was, to this day, one of the most ridiculous mob scene chaos zones i've ever seen. And like, i've had some gnarly nightlife/service/retail jobs. Big club door person, touristy strip club/sex shop, awful touristy foodservice, you name it. They literally didn't do any kind of line tokens or anything and just let people bum rush the place. My scrawny teenage self got body slammed through the air into a pegboard, trampled, and then someone tried to flip our cart over. We were in line to check out for probably 3 hours. Fights broke out all over the store with items there were only 5 or 10 of, or worse 2 or 3. I remember this was one of the years they did a $99 desktop... ugh. I distinctly remember my dad almost getting in a fist fight after someone threatened me.
After that, he was like "i am never setting foot in this store again, for any reason, you're on your own if you ever wanna come back to this asinine zany place". And the hard drive, of course, failed like a month later.
The next big time i went, i immediately went back because they had sold me a mobo/cpu combo that smoked itself to death when combined. I watched them assemble one in the store that actually burst into flames a candle sized tiny bit. They ended up giving me a way nicer set of parts, but from there on out it was the "store so stupid they'll sell you stuff that catches fire"
It always kind of bemused me they lasted so long. The entire place seemed like a sitcom joke. When i grew up and eventually got into IT for a while, they were well known as "the store with the useless website that will say stuffs in stock that isn't if you call". And it SUCKED, because there's no surviving small local pc parts shops anymore. If you need something yesterday immediately right now or you're fired, if fry's screwed you over you were... screwed.
Looking now, i'm pretty sure i still have a scar on my arm from how hard i got slammed into that pegboard. Heh
posted by emptythought at 11:55 PM on February 27, 2021 [5 favorites]
In the end, most of the parts were ordered online(with my own money! that i saved up for like, years). But in, idk, 2004 they had an impossibly good black friday ad and i was determined to go. It was something that sounds super silly now, like a 300gb hard drive for $79 and cheap flash drives.
What ended up happening was, to this day, one of the most ridiculous mob scene chaos zones i've ever seen. And like, i've had some gnarly nightlife/service/retail jobs. Big club door person, touristy strip club/sex shop, awful touristy foodservice, you name it. They literally didn't do any kind of line tokens or anything and just let people bum rush the place. My scrawny teenage self got body slammed through the air into a pegboard, trampled, and then someone tried to flip our cart over. We were in line to check out for probably 3 hours. Fights broke out all over the store with items there were only 5 or 10 of, or worse 2 or 3. I remember this was one of the years they did a $99 desktop... ugh. I distinctly remember my dad almost getting in a fist fight after someone threatened me.
After that, he was like "i am never setting foot in this store again, for any reason, you're on your own if you ever wanna come back to this asinine zany place". And the hard drive, of course, failed like a month later.
The next big time i went, i immediately went back because they had sold me a mobo/cpu combo that smoked itself to death when combined. I watched them assemble one in the store that actually burst into flames a candle sized tiny bit. They ended up giving me a way nicer set of parts, but from there on out it was the "store so stupid they'll sell you stuff that catches fire"
It always kind of bemused me they lasted so long. The entire place seemed like a sitcom joke. When i grew up and eventually got into IT for a while, they were well known as "the store with the useless website that will say stuffs in stock that isn't if you call". And it SUCKED, because there's no surviving small local pc parts shops anymore. If you need something yesterday immediately right now or you're fired, if fry's screwed you over you were... screwed.
Looking now, i'm pretty sure i still have a scar on my arm from how hard i got slammed into that pegboard. Heh
posted by emptythought at 11:55 PM on February 27, 2021 [5 favorites]
I am going to miss the offensively overpriced electronic components. I can buy them
Online but sometime you need to see them, you know? But, as others have said above, I went in early covid times and it felt like they were trying to sell retail shelving units.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 12:42 AM on February 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Online but sometime you need to see them, you know? But, as others have said above, I went in early covid times and it felt like they were trying to sell retail shelving units.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 12:42 AM on February 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
I assume Micro Center was some regional thing in a place I've never been. I'm surprised to learn that there are two in what might broadly be called my city. I'd never heard of them before this thread. I'm curious to see what they're about.
posted by eotvos at 9:08 AM on March 7, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by eotvos at 9:08 AM on March 7, 2021 [2 favorites]
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