I went to the Phoenix (Baseline) location maybe two years ago and it looked fine; I went back six months later and it was a ghost town with most of the shelves picked clean. (I was looking to buy a keyboard. The website said they only had one in stock. I assumed that must have been a mistake, so I went to look in person. It wasn’t a mistake. One keyboard for sale in the entire store.)
I said then that I wouldn’t be surprised if it was closed up in six months, but a glance at the website has holiday hours posted and, since they have December 31 on a Thursday, they appear to be current. So I guess it’s still open, even though it was picked clean months before COVID-19.
What I’ve heard is that they own the land and it’s worth more to keep it in use even if the stores aren’t doing good business. Don’t know if that’s true but it’s the best explanation I’ve seen for why they’d keep it running.
Since the iPhone went on the market the “wow this is cool” pipeline into DIY electronics is gone. The devices that get attention and excitement now are factory sealed and disposable. People have a completely different concept of how to relate to technology
and our concepts of what’s convenient and what’s inconvienient also seem to have changed a lot.
It was maybe a year ago when I went to the Campbell store only to find near-bare shelves throughout. Surprised the hell out of me. Over the years, I went there for a lot of different things, from internal and external drives (of all types), security camera systems, cables (bulk, printer and patch), keyboards and mice, blank media, cameras (still and pro-sumer video), our first flat screen TV, and even kites before a family camping trip.
Winter solstice holiday a year ago, my boy was gonna build his first PC, a gaming rig. Good thing Central Computers in Santa Clara is around (and thriving? Haven’t been in a while). We got great service from they guys there.
Was there more than one? The store I remember used to be a big-box home improvement store (HQ, and Builder’s Square before that).
The Fry’s in Arlington, TX was in a former Incredible Universe, itself (part?)-owned by Radio Shack Tandy. So when IU closed and Fry’s brought in that kind of inventory, it became more like a Radio Shack than IU had been. That store also had a big CD collection (I got my Ray Charles boxed set there) and tech book section (I still have an HTML book from there, but I think it’s HTML 3).
The Arlington and Austin stores just more-or-less recycled the buildings they’d moved into and, in my experience, the themed-stores were more of a SoCal thing (e.g. El Segundo).
I never lived near a Fry’s but know the reverence them. But this post was somehow the first I’d heard of their themed stores. It reminds me of Best Products Co., a long-defunct retail chain that was known for its high-concept store architecture, and each store was completely different.
A couple of these stores were in my area as a kid, and while I was a little too young to appreciate them conceptually, I could tell that the exploded facade building was different than anything else I’d ever seen I loved walking through it.
Edit: It’s not hard to find photos and descriptions of the Best Products stores, but there’s something to gain by seeing them in action, especially the location where the corner of the building literally slides out every morning, revealing the entrance to the store!
About a decade ago I found a video documentary about this chain, complete with contemporaneous reactions from people who tended to either love or almost irrationally hate the design of the stores. Extensive, fruitless searching suggests that this video is no longer available on the internets, so I just threw the copy I had the foresight to save up on the Internet Archive.
I lived in California during Fry’s’ heyday and I can’t say that going there was ever a particularly “enjoyable” experience. The clueless staff, the messy and randomly empty shelves, the “this box looks like it may have been a restocked return - do I want to take the gamble?” game, the slow checkout, the “kryptonite cage” delays, no American Express, the “point of final humiliation” when you try to leave and the overzealous bag checkers accosting you, the dumb people in the parking lots. It was all there then just like today. When I moved to WA the Fry’s there was more of the same, just more loosely aviation themed (given that Boeing is right across the street).
The only reason to go to Fry’s was that you could get a whole shitload of tech products at a decent price that you couldn’t really get anywhere else. It was the place to go for building your own computer since they had basically everything you need and at better prices than the specialty stores.
ETA from others’ accounts here, it looks like it’s become far far worse over the past couple of years. Eesh.
Yep. I was just at the Fremont Fry’s just a week ago, and it was similar. They’d closed off half the floorspace because they’ve dropped probably 75% of their inventory. One section of shelves had been replaced with an aisle full of perfumes. I glanced at their selection of projectors, and they had 3 models from a single no-name brand all under $200. Nothing worth even considering.
They were still in the process of some sort of reorganization, so presumably they’ll achieve some sort of “new normal” in the coming months, but I wouldn’t expect things to improve much.
A few others in this thread have commented to the effect that Fry’s had already failed 5+ years ago – but it’s gotten an order of magnitude worse in just the last in just the last year or so. It’s gone from underwhelming to a total waste of a trip.
I felt like I practically lived in the Anaheim Fry’s in the mid-late 90s. I loved it’s space theme as well as the fact that I could browse an incredible DVD section and also find Radio shack style DIY electronic parts under the same roof. Their snack bar was criminally underrated as well. I’ve not had a better tuna melt anywhere.
My last experience with Fry’s put me off them for good, and if they maintained their behavior since, it’s no wonder they were having problems.
I was trying to buy an inkjet printer for my father. Found something that looked decent enough, but the only box on the floor was a return. Finally found someone, asked if they had one that wasn’t returned, they did, and he nicely went back for one. Grabbed a color refill and a black and white refill, and went to checkout. Already not particularity happy because of how long it took to find someone to get the printer.
The checkout experience was something else altogether. The two inks rang up as different prices (uh, duh? They’re different products), and the cashier had to go check the prices. This took a good 5-10 minutes. They were finally satisfied, then went to ring up the printer. It didn’t have the Fry’s sticker on it, and they wanted me to go back and get one from the floor. That was the last straw. They went back for something they didn’t need to, and now want me to go back and do something that I spent a chunk of time getting? Yeah, no. Walked out, explained to a manager on the way out; they offered a gift certificate that I turned down and never went back.
Growing up in Santa Clara I remember when going to Fry’s meant the grocery store chain, before they entered the burgeoning nerd market and opened the first tiny store off of Lawrence Expressway where you could buy junk food, caffeine, and computer parts. I seem to remember they had another store there before they settled across the street from Weird Stuff Warehouse.
They were nearly always crap as far as I remember but they were MY KIND OF CRAP and I always enjoyed spending time there. I bought the components to build my first PC at a frys. First sound card and CD-ROM drive. A “travel accessory pack” for my Newton that someone had accidentally marked down to two cents and I had to fight with a store manager to honor the price (which they did).
The last time I went to one was the Renton/Seattle store in 2016 and, while it was still mostly stocked, it had an air of sadness around it that I hadn’t noticed before, even the year before in the Sacramento location.
The Manhattan Beach / Redondo Beach store sits at the corner of Sepulveda Blvd (PCH) and Manhattan Beach Blvd., talk about a piece of real estate that’s prime for redevelopment.
If those folks actually bought that land outright 25 or so years ago, they’re potentially sitting on a gold mine.
I didn’t experience Fry’s until about 15y ago (Wilsonville, OR). First few trips were pretty cool, and I could get Jolt in all three flavors (!!!).
Last time I went there, about 1.5y ago, it was disappointing. Very little stock, few staff, and worst of all no Jolt…I did snag a copy of JT’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling” on orange vinyl for $1! Score! That thing is worth at least $2!
I remember 15-20 years ago all the engineers in the office would be looking at the 4 page newspaper advertising insert on Fridays, often with a trek out during lunch for things. The most memorable items offered were the keyboards and mice the were <$1 after rebates, but I don’t think anyone in the office got them. At least not with any expectation of any kind of quality.
I used to frequent Fry’s when I used to work in Fremont and would visit the Milpitas one when I can.
Sadly, I can see why the Palo Alto one had to close. It was out of the way, parking is somewhat limited, and way too many open merchandise was put back on the shelves, and Associates rarely know what they’re doing.
Having been to AIM workshops at both locations, the San Jose location is probably better set up for actual work, but I completely agree that the Palo Alto location had a far better selection of good restaurants within walking distance. However, given its location and what’s happened to Palo Alto real estate, the rent there must have become prohibitive.
The Sacramento location (mentioned in @garethb2’s post) is officially only temporarily closed; I hope that ends up being true. It is the Fry’s I go to most often, and has been pretty crowded every time I’ve been there, even after the last BB article on Fry’s imminent demise.
That kinda makes sense, but why does it seem like they’d rather sell nothing than literally any other thing? I know we’d all be disappointed to see them change markets, but c’mon, do something with the space.
I know that feeling. While I can’t say I ever really enjoyed purchasing anything from Fry’s (for all of the usual reasons: Kafkaesque check-out, clueless and unhelpful staff, etc) I sure could spend a ton of time just aimlessly walking each aisle and just browsing. It stopped being fun a while ago, and I can confirm the “air of sadness” at the Renton store.
