I went to a Fry's recently to buy some breadboards and simple chips and was pretty surprised to how hollow (the article's choice of word is totally right) they've become. I was surprised at first, but then realized it really made a lot of sense given how commerce has changed. Seeing it gave me a sad childhood nostalgia I never expected when going to an electronics store. I guess change really is the only constant.
I felt the same nostalgia when Radio Shack started folding up, but then I went to one of the stores and realized they'd become a hollow shell of their former greatness - just hawking cell phones. Just as Radio Shack couldn't compete with Amazon, neither can Fry's.
We're going to have the same nostalgia about Best Buy when that shoe drops. I was in a Best Buy recently when I forgot my headphones on a trip, and I was dumbfounded at how bad the gear was. It's less about good gear now, and more about Beats headphones and gold-plated cables. The writing's on the wall.
Best buy was much worse off a few years ago. The company and the stores are in much better shape these days, they hired a CEO that did many improvements.
I agree. It seems like BestBuy is really adapting to the changing market. Then when you couple online purchasing with in store pickup, it seems like they might just make it.
I think the parent comment about headphones isn’t a BestBuy problem — its a universal headphone problem.
> I was in a Best Buy recently when I forgot my headphones on a trip, and I was dumbfounded at how bad the gear was. It's less about good gear now, and more about Beats headphones and gold-plated cables.
Stocking something high-end and good is a losers bet. People who know what "good" is are going to get it online.
You want to stock the cheap stuff that moves, and the gold-plated stuff that suckers buy.
This is the sad reality of retail in the age of online.
The funny thing is, based on this article and Fry's (the person) business acumen, why is it allowed to continue this way? The author emphasizes that John Fry is a bright guy with attention to retail detail.
Bare shelves are incredibly bad for customers to see. So why is there no retooling, downsizing, ditching the huge warehouse-size storefronts, focusing on service, etc.
This is an important question that no one seems to be addressing. Why is Fry’s closing only one store if they’re all hollowed out? One would think it’s because they have some plan to revamp the other stores, but there is no sign of that.
I went to the Fry’s in Austin a few nights ago and knew something was up when the parking lot only had 10 cars in it. Normally there’s 50+. Walking into the store was eerie - no one inside, no one in line. The shelves, especially in the computer section, were totally empty. Where they once had stacks of graphics cards, they had nothing. They had a couple desktops and a few high end monitors. The TV section was similar, a few high end big (75” and more) TV’s and empty shelves. When I asked an employee what happened they said the trade war in China. (Not believable cause Sony and Samsung are not Chinese) Kind of sad, it was always a fun 1-2 hours every time I went there.
I had the same experience just a couple of weeks ago. Even the center aisle where they used to keep the baskets of miscellaneous cheap stuff was empty.
That's pretty tragic. I built my gaming PC with parts I bought there about 2 years ago. I've since moved back to the east coast, and I miss being able to stop by after work and just browse, and pick up some unusual candy in the checkout lane.
I was in San Jose, and visited their store there (Which I believe is also their headquarters / central distribution point), and it was just sad. The CPU section / MB was completely bare. I hadn’t heard of what was going on, so I assumed that they were revamping the area or something.
That said, I am not sure we can put the blame only on Amazon. I was in Microcenter the day after, and it was stupid busy - took 30 minutes to check out and was packed to gills. They crammed all of the good stuff of Frys into a much smaller space - mostly focused around PC electronics.
Won't be the first time. People used to live in towns too small to support specialty shops, and either the general store has something, you make one yourself, or you mail order it from Sears and wait weeks.
I think what changed is the speed of shipping. Retail only adds value if there's a more convenient local warehouse, or you trust the salesman.
I was going to make the same comment. After recently revisiting my old home in Minneapolis, I had a need for something and the local Microcenter was significantly improved in the few years I'd been gone. Hobby electronics had 4x the shelf space and everything seemed a little better packed and organized.
Compare that with an experience searching for CA glue accelerant (a pretty standard item I had seen at Fry's before) had me driving to three separate stores, finding nothing, and locating a model shop nearby just before close, a several hour ordeal.
It is not hard to compete with Amazon. Having reliable stock I can go out and grab today has huge value. I don't want to delay my project by a few days (or because weekends, a whole week) waiting for Amazon shipping and having to spend the additional effort trying to make sure I don't buy cheap knockoffs (or wondering if what I got was a cheap knockoff)
I think Fry's in the bay area are suffering from high labor and real estate costs.
Two hour delivery is expensive, and online stores are much harder to search and navigate than well-stocked brick&mortar (it's not impossible to do, but nobody does it).
In the end the cost for the person to pick up and deliver an item on demand like that goes somewhere and that in particular is something that doesn't scale away. The margin improvement from having a warehouse instead of a box store won't make up for that last mile delivery charge, especially when the box store can do the same kind of delivery and benefit from impulse or high margin items from in person shoppers.
Amazon is like wading through sewage to find what you want, and rarely if ever do you find something you weren't already explicitly looking for.
I completely agree with your point about brick and mortar stores. Having a showroom with multiple sizes and brands of product on display, and able to purchase on the spot is a great convenience over waiting for an item to ship. Yes, its a slight inconvenience to commute to and from the store, but it often beats waiting multiple days for something, and having no idea of its quality (or worse if you accidentally purchased a counterfeit product). After doing that a few times on Amazon, and having an issue with a return once, I have stuck to supporting B&M retailers, especially those like Micro Center who provide online stock numbers, indicate where a product is located in their showroom, and match prices (though I have mostly found Micro Center's prices to be the cheapest).
I've been going to Microcenter in cambridge MA for years. They've got a decent selection (If you need it they'll likely have something that fits the bill) and decent prices.
They're always changing though: they had a console video game section for a while, now thats hobby computers (rasbery pi and co). They had a camera section, but thats gone. Computer books, gone. So they seem to be paying attention and a few years back they finaly went to a one line checkout (still takes too long, but its better).
> I've been going to Microcenter in cambridge MA for years. They've got a decent selection (If you need it they'll likely have something that fits the bill) and decent prices.
This wildly depends (for that store, at least)--if you need something very mainstream you'll find it but they don't have a lot of things that I'd consider pretty obvious for a tech store. Their computer cases, for example, are mostly X-TREME in nature and they have few-if-any HTPC cases at any given time, and definitely nothing that can rack.
On the other hand, what I do really like about them is that they sometimes, for high-demand items, don't actually update the online stock numbers. I was able to walk into the store to pick up some RAM and walk out with a 3900X because they were saving them for in-store customers.
>Their computer cases, for example, are mostly X-TREME in nature and they have few-if-any HTPC cases at any given time, and definitely nothing that can rack.
Cases that aren't designed to appeal to 12 year old boys are hard to come by, period. Manufacturers have decided that everything needs to have sexy angry facades and RGB lights - this has a lot more to do with product people at the manufacturers and less to do with the actual market. Ditto motherboards, especially.
Motherboards I'll give you, but Silverstone, Cooler Master, and Fractal Design all have plenty of simple and normal models. (This list brought to you by looking around my office.)
It would be nice to not have to wait for Amazon to get something for a project, is all.
I completely agree with you about Micro Center frequently changing. I remember when visiting their SoCal store, the books section was moved to what appeared to be a clearance area and found a large drone display in its place. The Fry's in my area seemed like it had 2-3x the square footage, but maybe the same amount of inventory (or less) than Micro Center did.
The Micro Center also used to have this awesome display of old logos (such as the rainbow Apple logo, Compaq, Packard-Bell, old Microsoft logo, etc) from various hardware and software companies that wrapped around the front and sides of the building in all its 90s glory. Sadly, I found it missing as of earlier this year. I wish I took a picture of it while it was still up. Did the Cambridge store have a similar "logo ribbon"?
I remember those, the one in Tustin also had pictures of industry luminaries (RMS, Bill Gates, Grace Hopper, Steve Jobs, Woz, etc) inside, posted high on the walls around the edge of the building.
Just going there takes me back to the proper “computer stores” that ceased to exist after the 90s. Actual PC parts and not full of appliances and movies/music
You got me excited for a minute thinking there was a Micro Center in the Bay Area that I didn’t know about, but Maps still shows the nearest one as Denver. Darn :)
When I moved here I was really surprised that I couldn’t find a store with the selection and prices of Micro Center in SV of all places.
No, that was MicroCenter, in the West end of Mercado. There has never been a Santa Clara Fry's Electronics. All 3 Sunnyvale locations were around Lawrence (Lakeside, Kern, now Arques).
Back in the time period this story is about there was a Micro Center in Santa Clara, off of Great America Parkway & 101 on the left in the shop center that now has the movies and In-and-Out. I lived near there (almost in the middle between the Micro Center and the Sunnyvale Frys). At the time the Frys was much cooler, with more kit and better prices. You could get anything at Frys at the time. CPU, RAM, latest SciFi book, tee shirts, heck I remember getting cereal and milk at Frys once.
I wouldn't blame Amazon at all. Long before they had any impact on my tech buying habits I had already switched entirely to Newegg. Newegg was the best place to shop for computer components by far during the 2000s. They had the perfect mix of good selection, good community (ie. high quality reviews), great return policy, etc. It was only after they added 'partners' and were bought out that they started going down hill.
Microcenter is a great counterexample. The one here in Denver is always full of customers, and it's stuffed with all manner of computer parts, hobby electronics, and so on. It's how I too remember Fry's being back in the day.
I don't really understand how Microcenter does it, but they often have equal or better prices than Amazon, and in any case, they'll price-match. Also, there's no worry about whatever I buy turning out to be counterfeit.
The one slightly odd thing about the Microcenter experience is how all of the salespeople have little stickers to take credit for when they help a customer find something. Are they on commission? Is this Microcenter's way of identifying the most useful floor staff? They're never pushy about it, but it does stand out in stark contrast to pretty much every other retail shop I can think of.
It's been a long time since I was in a Fry's, but at least at the Austin location, whenever I talked with a salesperson and decided to buy something (hard drivers, processors) they'd print up something for me to take to the cashier along with the product. I always assumed this was for commission purposes.
I've never heard of microcenter or their sticker system but I'm curious. Does the customer get given stickers that they award to staff or does this happen at checkout or what is it?
Fry’s have always had the stigma that they hired unknowledgeable floor staff. If you knew what you were after you were fine. On the non technical side, half the time the staff didn’t know where to find items and would take you on wild goose chases.
The stock was better than Microcrocenter or Central Computers (when they were relevant), and their sandwiches weren’t held bad. But the floor staff and that stupid thing where they have people at the exits pretend to check receipts on the purchase side. On the return side it was just awful. Today in age their return policies are just bad. On some items they have restocking fees.
I’ve bought resealed items from Fry’s. So long as I can take a peek and make sure it’s all in there, I’m okay with that. I’m kinda upset they charged someone 15% restock and turn around and charge me full price, but materially if there is no difference in contents, I don’t care about the packaging.
Packaging isn't a concern. To put something back on the shelf, they should not only make sure the contents are complete and not physically damaged, but actually working.
Anecdotally speaking, I had a high rate of those items not working and had to return them myself. So while all the parts were typically there and the devices powered on, the product often times didn't work. I finally concluded that they likely didn't differentiate returns that were caused by the customer changing their mind vs. customers claiming the stuff didn't work... or that the only check they made for "not working" product was a simple power on type test; given the quality of staff and costs of doing any thing more probably made it difficult to do better (maybe they didn't have good vendor return terms, good vendor allowances, etc. ... who knows) Again, my experience, but I felt like I was playing for slot machine odds when I bought those products... your mileage may have varied.
I stopped shopping there years ago because the quality of the experience and that I didn't trust the open box product and wasn't sure I could reliably get unopened product... the trip to the store just wasn't worth the aggravation. I think that must have been before the restock fees as I don't recall ever having that issue myself (those the returns process was not exactly fun). I did like the store theming, particularly in the Southern CA stores (which is where I shopped them the most).
If you ever do visit a Fry's again, the trick for that "let me check your receipt and mark it with a pink sharpie" person is to just smile and walk right by. They won't stop you or question you, because they have been trained that it would be unlawful to do so. They can ask to see your receipt and check it, but they can't demand it.
More than once there has been a line of a half dozen people at the pink sharpie exit, and I've just walked on by, much to the amazement of the people waiting in line.
Note: I'm talking about Fry's, not Costco. I'm told Costco is different because it's a membership club and you have to agree to their terms and conditions to shop there. (I'm also told that even Costco can't demand to see your receipt, but they can cancel your membership if you don't show it.)
Pretty quick to watch the tapes and see what register you bought from. You have to scan membership id at checkout, so then seeing whos membership was used is simple.
In some areas, yes, like anywhere else. For a counterexample, the female manager(?) in Components in Sunnyvale has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of everything in the department.
The receipt-check theft-deterrence theater is annoying. I never wait for it.
Today in age their return policies are just bad.
Oh, I disagree. As long as you keep proof of purchase (which can be as minimal as saving the invoice number), return friction within 15 days is as low as Costco... and they usually make reasonable extensions beyond 15 days ("I missed the rebate period").
> all of the salespeople have little stickers to take credit for when they help a customer find something
I was in Fry's recently and they seemed to do the same thing. After asking for some help they asked me to print a "quote," which meant printing out a receipt at a kiosk on the sales floor with their name. They pulled it up when I checked out. I kind of understood what they were doing, but the process seemed a bit awkward--especially when my question was more along the lines of, "Do you have more stock in the back? When you do you think you'll have more?"
This is just my anecdotal experience but the Fry's Electronics stores in Texas are way better than the ones in California. They are better stocked, better cooled, and have nicer cafeterias.
Thats because all this thought that Frys was a victim to Amazon is complete bollocks. Every Frys Ive been in since 2010 has been poorly stocked and full of employees who know absolutely nothing about what they are selling... You go into MicroCenter - Every Single Time - Stocked to the teeth with everything you wanted and a bunch of things you didnt even know you wanted - and the folks who work in the store are super nerds, who impress you with the depth of their nerdiness. Worst part is the 30 minute+ line to check out around Christmas.
My last Fry's trip, coincidentally at the Palo Alto store, I was searching for an 2-3ft HDMI extender, female to male. I figured since this was for connecting to a Raspi, I should start there. Plenty of small HDMI cables, but no dice.
I happened upon another isle with 100m cables, by the ethernet cables, but a bit of searching saw they were not there.
Lets check out the computer area, I see tonnes of options, search through them all, can't find it. break down and ask a guy, after much confusion he hauls be back to the raspi section. i told him I've already looked there.
I walk back and see the tv/video section, of course, lots of high-end cables but no extender cable. Ask a guy, do you even have these? He shrugs, asked me if I looked through the computer section, I said yes, and I already looked in components. He started arguing with me that they didn't have ANY HDMI-anything there. "Why would you think they were there?!?!"
Finally as I'm walking away, I spot some random sub-section of the tv isle. And around 8 cables there, I look over, there's one that's 5m long, weighs what seems to be 10lbs and cost $30. And I got my 10k steps in.
OMG you are describing my most recent visit to the Palo Alto Fry's. I needed some kind of USB cable, I don't remember exactly what it was. Nothing unusual, maybe an A to C, or an A to B Minor, or whatever.
I asked when I walked in and they said "yes, look in aisle Foo". No luck, so I asked there. "Oh, you should check aisle Bar".
Nothing there either, but the person in that aisle helpfully directed me to aisle Fizz. No luck there, but the person said "you might try aisle Buzz."
And there was yet one more aisle after that.
Yes, they had five different aisles with various selections of USB cables, many of them overlapping but a few different ones in each location.
In the end, I had no luck finding what I needed - and I'd really hoped to get it on the spot to use for a project that evening.
So I walked out a bit disappointed and spent two minutes on Amazon, ordered the exact cable I needed, and had it the next day.
But the exercise of walking around the store was worth it!
Aah the entitled generation. Wait until they realize they need to create and not just consume. Unless we get Bernie in. Then we just wait for the government to give us everything.
Another thing that happened is that not as many folks build their own computers. It used to be a rite of passage to build your own gaming rig, and your own linux servers.
Fry’s was indispensable because out of the ten to twenty parts that went into your machine, one would invariably be a dud. If you ordered on Newegg you’d have to wait for returns, wait for delivery, etc. At least this particular system-builder turned to Fry’s because turnaround was so quick with a physical storefront.
I knew Fry's by reputation but they weren't nearby. I used to drive to http://www.infotechnow.com/ because they would POST new CPUs and mobos at the counter. Got my first SMP app server (two Durons!) for a startup from there and squeezed it into the server room (AKA founder's guest house coat closet, where the DSL terminated).
But now we'd rent instances instead of buying on-prem hardware only to get rid of when the company either dies (and no longer needs it) or lives (and outgrows it). Which makes two ways Amazon outran Fry's.
With the end of cheap international shipping from China via USPS looming on the horizon, I wonder if we'll start to see a resurgence in specialty electronic stores like Fry's.
That may affect people buying onesey twosey bits off AliExpress, but that stuff is still available on amazon from resellers who buy and ship it stateside to a fulfillment warehouse in bulk.
Yeah, now that I think about it I suppose it is natural for businesses to find ways to minimize those types of costs. I guess part of me doesn't want to see Fry's become another Radio Shack.
Brick and mortal shops for almost all categories of goods will have a hard time competing with the breadth of products, convenience and the price that web shops will be able to offer.
The consequences of this, together with the rise of remote work will most probably affect the process of urbanization itself to the extent that it will even have a 'revolution' name of its own, like the preceding 'agricultural', ' industrial', 'internet' etc.
As a counter to this, my local Micro Center is absolutely booming. I built a fast gaming machine earlier this year, and found all of my desired components in-stock there, with no compromises. Their prices were identical to the lowest prices online, and they offer price match anyway. All of my Ubiquiti stuff I got there as well. They have an expanding hobbyist electronics section that consumed the old physical software/gaming space. They have other great hobbyist stuff like retro gaming and drones. I've just taken it for granted, not realizing that many people consider Micro Center a PC builder "Mecca".[0]
I shop at the other DC area MicroCenter, in Rockville, and have had similar positive experiences. It's the closest thing I know of to the Fry's shopping experiences I had in the late 90s when I lived in the SF Bay Area. The biggest difference between the Rockville MicroCenter and the Fairfax one is that Rockville has more stuff locked up for theft control.
Same, I bought almost all the parts for my Ryzen 3600 upgrade from Micro Center. Prices were great, pick up was easy, and they reflashed the BIOS for free in 30 mins.
There were some rumors a few weeks ago about whether Fry's was going to close for good in the next few months (unrelated to the lease ending at the Palo Alto store).
This store has changed a lot. A friend and I visited the Fry's on Lawrence Expressway back in the late 80's. Across the street from WeirdStuff.
I'd never seen anything like the selection of stuff. We bought several 256-bit memory modules and a six pack of soda. It carried the biggest and only selection of electronics components and equipment/supplies for assembly/testing I'd ever seen. It also had candy and sodas. That was about it.
A few years later I visited again and couldn't believe: (a) how big it had become; and (b) how many finished products it was selling.
I wonder if that was the same one I went to for the first time back in the 80's? I was kind of blown away by a store that both chips (potato) and chips (silicon).
The very first Fry's was at 541 Lakeside Drive in Sunnyvale, on the east side of Lawrence Expy. Sometime around late 1990 that store moved to 1177 Kern Ave in Sunnyvale, and then by the late '90s moved again to the current location at 1077 E. Arques.
The second store to open was in Fremont (though not at the Fremont store's current location), and the third was the Palo Alto (at the current location).
Source: I worked some summer jobs at the Lakeside Dr. store in the late '80s.
> A friend and I visited the Fry's on Lawrence Expressway back in the late 80's. Across the street from WeirdStuff.
Even better, there was Fry's and WeirdStuff on the west side of Lawrence, and nearby on the east side was a Computer Literacy Bookstore and a Togo's. Many a Saturday of mine was spent visiting that Fry's and WeirdStuff, then crossing Lawrence to pick up some books and magazines at Computer Literacy, then reading the magazines while enjoying a large hot #7 at Togo's.
I was at the first grand opening. I moved to TX in 90s, Fry's followed and took over the defunct Incredible Universe building a handful of years later, I was excited. When they started to sell appliances and As Seen on TV stuff, I knew it was the start of the downwatd spiral. While sad to see them go, it's been a frustrating number of years of having to correct their sales people on talking BS to customers and the deals they used to have on computer components have dried up many years ago. Maybe they will make a come back like Radio Shack, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Not mentioned in the post: Fry's web presence has always been terrible. Absolutely, hopelessly, utterly terrible. A lot of people in this thread have brought up MicroCenter as a strong counter-example--I'd also throw Best Buy into that mix. Different product line at Best Buy; but, if you look at the web presence, these companies are doing great with Buy-Online-Pickup-In-Store. I often use Best Buy for items that I can't (or just don't want to) wait for even the 2-day shipping from Amazon.
I cannot recall a single time that I was able to find what I was looking for on the Fry's website--including many times I was able to walk into the store and find an item sitting on the shelf. That was even 10-15 years ago and it never improved.
There are a whole lot of reasons that Fry's is on its death-bed; their clear lack of commitment to a strong web presence to drive instant-gratification shopping is an important lesson for other brick-and-mortar retailers.
Yep--I remember that, for a very long time, trying to go to Frys.com would simply redirect you Outpost.com. Even when they changed that, it went on for several more years that if you went to frys.com you would find yourself on the Outpost.com site with the logo replaced with a Fry's logo. The online selection was useless. It had little to no understanding of local store inventory. But the worst part was that the search function just fundamentally didn't work. You could type the exact model of a part into the search and it would give you random, unrelated things and not give you the part itself.
This! They needed better integration with their B&M store. I couldn't buy things online from their weekend ads.
I used Fry's exclusively for building custom PCs since returning a failed motherboard and/or components was a drive away instead of days away with Newegg/Amazon. They had much better selection than Best Buy. Best Buy survived by adjusting to users habits, that is browsing in-store then buying on Amazon. Best Buy site isn't great but useable.
Fry's took nerd mecca from Radio Shack. I have ... memories...
1. Arguing with an employee over signal loss over different types of antenna connectors after I had just installed and analyzed my umpteenth outdoor network. He insisted I was full of shit.
2. Seeing (who I believe to be) Linus Torvalds in a BMW. I had a minor fan moment, girlfriend was like "who's that".
3. Being treated like a potential thief every single time.
4. My two year old having a melt down in one of the isles because dad had been geeking out for too long and it was way past nap/snack time.
Sound like the one time my dad and I, who where Whiterock Networks employees at the time, overheard some misinformation about about some wifi router, and we interjected and the sales kid was saying we were wrong.
When I came from Europe (~ 2000) for an interview, the hiring manager took me to Fry's to impress me (something like "you seem like the type who'd appreciate this" -- I did).
One very Silicon Valley story he related was a guy correcting a sales guy (or shopper?) with the words "No! I know because I designed it!"
We asked for about something and the sales assistance gave useful information -- to which my manager quietly added after he left "He won't be here next week ... he will have found a better job". The job market was really good.
I have never been to Fry's during its glory days but when my sister visited 2 years ago we had to quickly get a USB cable so went a Fry's close. I was shocked how empty the store was and that they didn't make any effort to hide the empty shelves. It felt a little like shopping in communist East Germany.
I'm sure you can get rid of them if you've got any sort of local giveaway group. Somebody near you is still listening to music in their car via cd-rs or etc.
Yeah, I mean I burn stuff to disc all the time. Mostly Blu-Rays, but DVDs and CDs for smaller content.
Tip: use dvdisaster when recording to fill up the empty space on the iso file for error-correction later, and time and date-stamp the disc so you know when to reburn it.
Wow, this takes me back to the era of building my own machine. I had an old clunker of S478 Celeron eMachines and upgraded the motherboard, case and video card. I still remember getting a great Black Friday deal on a Nvidia 5900SE at an otherwise barren CompUSA and finally being able to play almost any game in 2005 that I wanted to with what amounted to a $220 upgrade. Good times.
That was a fun read. Kind of nostalgic and jealous. I dreamed of places like that as a kid in rural Ontario. The closest we had was some receding Radio Shack that carried a small selection of parts and had 0 knowledge or enthusiasm for any of it. Back home even that is gone now.
Loved Frys when i lived near one. When we moved, i tried to order parts online. It was pittiful. Their sakes didn't apply to online and not all stock was available to be delivered or sold online. They were completely blind to the online insurgence and get what they deserve. They're the Sears of tech parts.
Surprised there is no mention here about the physical state of the products at Frys - I stopped going back around 2005 because I was burned too many times by resealed boxes that where obviously returns and missed basic things like power cables.
The trend varies. We have one Fry's location and two MicroCenter stores in the Chicago area. All of these stores seem to be doing well. They are the only places to walk in and buy motherboards, CPU's, GPU's, etc. and people here take advantage of that.
They say it's Amazon that killed Fry's. Maybe, to a measure, but also not. One thing Amazon can't do is human contact. When I first came to Fry's, sometime in 2000s, attracted by its still living image of a store for geeks, and tried to ask for a finer details of this and that camera and this and that laptop - both available on Amazon, but I needed some help figuring out which one I want, and if they helped me I'd buy one there and then, even if it would be slightly more expensive, because only thing that beats 2-day delivery is 0-second delivery, I already hold it in my hands!
But most that I got from the local store workers is "huh, I'm not sure, let me check the manual" and "well, this says it has got these specs, and that one got those specs, and the price is different, so that's the difference". Thanks, helpful workers, I can read too, I was looking for something that isn't in the label directly in front of my face. Looks like you're not paid enough to care.
There are only three things that brick-and-mortar retailers can compete with Amazon and other online shops now - being able to physically touch the merchandize before buying, being able to get it immediately and being able to talk to a human that can answer questions and provide advice. Unfortunately, it looks like the majority of retailers still do not realize this, especially the last one. Maybe they just don't have the money to hire somebody who would know and care - but in this case there's no reason to prolong their suffering by shopping there, just let them die and release the real estate for more productive uses. I, however, while being an extreme introvert, would still would like to have some stores where I can talk to a knowledgeable human. And yes, I'd pay a reasonable money for it, if only there would be somebody who wants to earn it.
Blaming it all on Amazon feels a bit quick. Silicon valley has grown insanely in economic strength and purchasing power; with Arduino, Raspberry Pi, drones, VR, 3D printing etc, plenty of folks in that area still like to toy around with new technology, hobbyist style, and now have no place to go satisfy their retail urge. I went to Fry's hoping to purchase hobbyist components which it turns out they didn't have; the level of knowledge from staff was dismal. I heard of someone who went to Fry's expecting to find a USB micro cable - and that relatively standard if aged connector cable wasn't in stock. There has to be a thought to the business's strategic management before declaring it by default as "killed by Amazon"
I moved to the Bay Area in 2006. I'm now appreciative that I got to experience things like Weird Stuff Warehouse, Fry's, the Electronics Flea Market, and a less than booming tech scene. Someone I work with who's been in tech longer commented that now there's a lot of people just going into it for the money. Before, maybe even in the 90's, people went into it because of a passion for technology, and all these things popped up to support it.
Fry's in Renton is still a great place to get stuff same day. Lots of parts available and the employees generally know their stuff. Many of them have been there several years since I started going there. Just be sure to online price match with Amazon direct only.
Micro center was insanely over price when I went a few times in St. Louis in June. Like $70 keyboard for $147. Razor chroma ($140 elsewhere) for $240. I basically cut my prices in half on several trips just price matching.
I had a really weird experience at Fry's in Renton a decade ago. They sold me an opened box priced as new. It didn't work. They refused to return it. Then they tried to physically remove it from me without having offered a refund. (As if to put it back on the shelf?) I grabbed it back from them and said it's mine, I paid for it. Nobody in store would talk to me about this with any clarity, so I wrote a complaint in email, got back some grammatically incorrect nonsense. Decided to eat the cost and order from newegg rather than deal with their weird customer service.
Every single trip I've made out to Silicon Valley has always included a visit to Fry's. Because it's every couple of years you'd think I'd see the changes but I haven't.
Bought my last laptop at MicroCenter in Detroit. It's the best there is in Michigan, but sorry it doesn't even compare to Fry's.
I do miss Computer Literacy bookstore and it's demise is definitely accountable to Amazon. BeOS was pretty damned cool but Jean-Louis do you ever wonder what would have happened if you'd ever taken his offer and created Fry's of France?
Even if they wanted to they have no money/credit to order much of anything...
I was at Oxnard Fry's yesterday and their magazine selection was at best 20-25% of the shelf. And there were only two network switches in that whole section... :(
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[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 226 ms ] threadI felt the same nostalgia when Radio Shack started folding up, but then I went to one of the stores and realized they'd become a hollow shell of their former greatness - just hawking cell phones. Just as Radio Shack couldn't compete with Amazon, neither can Fry's.
We're going to have the same nostalgia about Best Buy when that shoe drops. I was in a Best Buy recently when I forgot my headphones on a trip, and I was dumbfounded at how bad the gear was. It's less about good gear now, and more about Beats headphones and gold-plated cables. The writing's on the wall.
I think the parent comment about headphones isn’t a BestBuy problem — its a universal headphone problem.
Stocking something high-end and good is a losers bet. People who know what "good" is are going to get it online.
You want to stock the cheap stuff that moves, and the gold-plated stuff that suckers buy.
This is the sad reality of retail in the age of online.
Bare shelves are incredibly bad for customers to see. So why is there no retooling, downsizing, ditching the huge warehouse-size storefronts, focusing on service, etc.
At least it's only 3 hours to Micro Center.
That said, I am not sure we can put the blame only on Amazon. I was in Microcenter the day after, and it was stupid busy - took 30 minutes to check out and was packed to gills. They crammed all of the good stuff of Frys into a much smaller space - mostly focused around PC electronics.
I think what changed is the speed of shipping. Retail only adds value if there's a more convenient local warehouse, or you trust the salesman.
Compare that with an experience searching for CA glue accelerant (a pretty standard item I had seen at Fry's before) had me driving to three separate stores, finding nothing, and locating a model shop nearby just before close, a several hour ordeal.
It is not hard to compete with Amazon. Having reliable stock I can go out and grab today has huge value. I don't want to delay my project by a few days (or because weekends, a whole week) waiting for Amazon shipping and having to spend the additional effort trying to make sure I don't buy cheap knockoffs (or wondering if what I got was a cheap knockoff)
I think Fry's in the bay area are suffering from high labor and real estate costs.
In the end the cost for the person to pick up and deliver an item on demand like that goes somewhere and that in particular is something that doesn't scale away. The margin improvement from having a warehouse instead of a box store won't make up for that last mile delivery charge, especially when the box store can do the same kind of delivery and benefit from impulse or high margin items from in person shoppers.
Amazon is like wading through sewage to find what you want, and rarely if ever do you find something you weren't already explicitly looking for.
https://images.frys.com/art/deals/tralfaz/Free_Local_Deliver...
Once B&M stores offer same day delivery its going to be hard to be an online store.
They're always changing though: they had a console video game section for a while, now thats hobby computers (rasbery pi and co). They had a camera section, but thats gone. Computer books, gone. So they seem to be paying attention and a few years back they finaly went to a one line checkout (still takes too long, but its better).
This wildly depends (for that store, at least)--if you need something very mainstream you'll find it but they don't have a lot of things that I'd consider pretty obvious for a tech store. Their computer cases, for example, are mostly X-TREME in nature and they have few-if-any HTPC cases at any given time, and definitely nothing that can rack.
On the other hand, what I do really like about them is that they sometimes, for high-demand items, don't actually update the online stock numbers. I was able to walk into the store to pick up some RAM and walk out with a 3900X because they were saving them for in-store customers.
Cases that aren't designed to appeal to 12 year old boys are hard to come by, period. Manufacturers have decided that everything needs to have sexy angry facades and RGB lights - this has a lot more to do with product people at the manufacturers and less to do with the actual market. Ditto motherboards, especially.
It would be nice to not have to wait for Amazon to get something for a project, is all.
The Micro Center also used to have this awesome display of old logos (such as the rainbow Apple logo, Compaq, Packard-Bell, old Microsoft logo, etc) from various hardware and software companies that wrapped around the front and sides of the building in all its 90s glory. Sadly, I found it missing as of earlier this year. I wish I took a picture of it while it was still up. Did the Cambridge store have a similar "logo ribbon"?
Just going there takes me back to the proper “computer stores” that ceased to exist after the 90s. Actual PC parts and not full of appliances and movies/music
frankly a boring looking store
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3574429,-71.1149978,3a,75y,1...
Given how long they have been in the bay area they should already be owning most of their real estate.
When I moved here I was really surprised that I couldn’t find a store with the selection and prices of Micro Center in SV of all places.
https://www.centralcomputer.com/sunnyvale-store
I don't really understand how Microcenter does it, but they often have equal or better prices than Amazon, and in any case, they'll price-match. Also, there's no worry about whatever I buy turning out to be counterfeit.
The one slightly odd thing about the Microcenter experience is how all of the salespeople have little stickers to take credit for when they help a customer find something. Are they on commission? Is this Microcenter's way of identifying the most useful floor staff? They're never pushy about it, but it does stand out in stark contrast to pretty much every other retail shop I can think of.
The stock was better than Microcrocenter or Central Computers (when they were relevant), and their sandwiches weren’t held bad. But the floor staff and that stupid thing where they have people at the exits pretend to check receipts on the purchase side. On the return side it was just awful. Today in age their return policies are just bad. On some items they have restocking fees.
I find central computers is often staffed with people that are less than personable.
Anecdotally speaking, I had a high rate of those items not working and had to return them myself. So while all the parts were typically there and the devices powered on, the product often times didn't work. I finally concluded that they likely didn't differentiate returns that were caused by the customer changing their mind vs. customers claiming the stuff didn't work... or that the only check they made for "not working" product was a simple power on type test; given the quality of staff and costs of doing any thing more probably made it difficult to do better (maybe they didn't have good vendor return terms, good vendor allowances, etc. ... who knows) Again, my experience, but I felt like I was playing for slot machine odds when I bought those products... your mileage may have varied.
I stopped shopping there years ago because the quality of the experience and that I didn't trust the open box product and wasn't sure I could reliably get unopened product... the trip to the store just wasn't worth the aggravation. I think that must have been before the restock fees as I don't recall ever having that issue myself (those the returns process was not exactly fun). I did like the store theming, particularly in the Southern CA stores (which is where I shopped them the most).
More than once there has been a line of a half dozen people at the pink sharpie exit, and I've just walked on by, much to the amazement of the people waiting in line.
Note: I'm talking about Fry's, not Costco. I'm told Costco is different because it's a membership club and you have to agree to their terms and conditions to shop there. (I'm also told that even Costco can't demand to see your receipt, but they can cancel your membership if you don't show it.)
How does Costco figure out which membership to cancel? Surely they don't detain you if you refuse to show your receipt.
Current nearby Frys plays dirty. Has a severely physically disabled guy checking receipts.
Yea. Total guilt trip for not letting him mark receipt.
The receipt-check theft-deterrence theater is annoying. I never wait for it.
Oh, I disagree. As long as you keep proof of purchase (which can be as minimal as saving the invoice number), return friction within 15 days is as low as Costco... and they usually make reasonable extensions beyond 15 days ("I missed the rebate period").I was in Fry's recently and they seemed to do the same thing. After asking for some help they asked me to print a "quote," which meant printing out a receipt at a kiosk on the sales floor with their name. They pulled it up when I checked out. I kind of understood what they were doing, but the process seemed a bit awkward--especially when my question was more along the lines of, "Do you have more stock in the back? When you do you think you'll have more?"
I happened upon another isle with 100m cables, by the ethernet cables, but a bit of searching saw they were not there.
Lets check out the computer area, I see tonnes of options, search through them all, can't find it. break down and ask a guy, after much confusion he hauls be back to the raspi section. i told him I've already looked there.
I walk back and see the tv/video section, of course, lots of high-end cables but no extender cable. Ask a guy, do you even have these? He shrugs, asked me if I looked through the computer section, I said yes, and I already looked in components. He started arguing with me that they didn't have ANY HDMI-anything there. "Why would you think they were there?!?!"
Finally as I'm walking away, I spot some random sub-section of the tv isle. And around 8 cables there, I look over, there's one that's 5m long, weighs what seems to be 10lbs and cost $30. And I got my 10k steps in.
I asked when I walked in and they said "yes, look in aisle Foo". No luck, so I asked there. "Oh, you should check aisle Bar".
Nothing there either, but the person in that aisle helpfully directed me to aisle Fizz. No luck there, but the person said "you might try aisle Buzz."
And there was yet one more aisle after that.
Yes, they had five different aisles with various selections of USB cables, many of them overlapping but a few different ones in each location.
In the end, I had no luck finding what I needed - and I'd really hoped to get it on the spot to use for a project that evening.
So I walked out a bit disappointed and spent two minutes on Amazon, ordered the exact cable I needed, and had it the next day.
But the exercise of walking around the store was worth it!
But I still miss Weird Stuff, and I was just a bit too far out of the loop to get there before they closed.
Fry’s was indispensable because out of the ten to twenty parts that went into your machine, one would invariably be a dud. If you ordered on Newegg you’d have to wait for returns, wait for delivery, etc. At least this particular system-builder turned to Fry’s because turnaround was so quick with a physical storefront.
But now we'd rent instances instead of buying on-prem hardware only to get rid of when the company either dies (and no longer needs it) or lives (and outgrows it). Which makes two ways Amazon outran Fry's.
The consequences of this, together with the rise of remote work will most probably affect the process of urbanization itself to the extent that it will even have a 'revolution' name of its own, like the preceding 'agricultural', ' industrial', 'internet' etc.
[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/search?q=micro+center&...
It's a decent place to shop at if you need something quickly.
I think the instigator was this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgzDiMp4uY0
I'd never seen anything like the selection of stuff. We bought several 256-bit memory modules and a six pack of soda. It carried the biggest and only selection of electronics components and equipment/supplies for assembly/testing I'd ever seen. It also had candy and sodas. That was about it.
A few years later I visited again and couldn't believe: (a) how big it had become; and (b) how many finished products it was selling.
The second store to open was in Fremont (though not at the Fremont store's current location), and the third was the Palo Alto (at the current location).
Source: I worked some summer jobs at the Lakeside Dr. store in the late '80s.
Even better, there was Fry's and WeirdStuff on the west side of Lawrence, and nearby on the east side was a Computer Literacy Bookstore and a Togo's. Many a Saturday of mine was spent visiting that Fry's and WeirdStuff, then crossing Lawrence to pick up some books and magazines at Computer Literacy, then reading the magazines while enjoying a large hot #7 at Togo's.
I cannot recall a single time that I was able to find what I was looking for on the Fry's website--including many times I was able to walk into the store and find an item sitting on the shelf. That was even 10-15 years ago and it never improved.
There are a whole lot of reasons that Fry's is on its death-bed; their clear lack of commitment to a strong web presence to drive instant-gratification shopping is an important lesson for other brick-and-mortar retailers.
I used Fry's exclusively for building custom PCs since returning a failed motherboard and/or components was a drive away instead of days away with Newegg/Amazon. They had much better selection than Best Buy. Best Buy survived by adjusting to users habits, that is browsing in-store then buying on Amazon. Best Buy site isn't great but useable.
1. Arguing with an employee over signal loss over different types of antenna connectors after I had just installed and analyzed my umpteenth outdoor network. He insisted I was full of shit.
2. Seeing (who I believe to be) Linus Torvalds in a BMW. I had a minor fan moment, girlfriend was like "who's that".
3. Being treated like a potential thief every single time.
4. My two year old having a melt down in one of the isles because dad had been geeking out for too long and it was way past nap/snack time.
One very Silicon Valley story he related was a guy correcting a sales guy (or shopper?) with the words "No! I know because I designed it!"
We asked for about something and the sales assistance gave useful information -- to which my manager quietly added after he left "He won't be here next week ... he will have found a better job". The job market was really good.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hNzNhmX9TTSnCaqPA
Does anyone want them?
Tip: use dvdisaster when recording to fill up the empty space on the iso file for error-correction later, and time and date-stamp the disc so you know when to reburn it.
But most that I got from the local store workers is "huh, I'm not sure, let me check the manual" and "well, this says it has got these specs, and that one got those specs, and the price is different, so that's the difference". Thanks, helpful workers, I can read too, I was looking for something that isn't in the label directly in front of my face. Looks like you're not paid enough to care.
There are only three things that brick-and-mortar retailers can compete with Amazon and other online shops now - being able to physically touch the merchandize before buying, being able to get it immediately and being able to talk to a human that can answer questions and provide advice. Unfortunately, it looks like the majority of retailers still do not realize this, especially the last one. Maybe they just don't have the money to hire somebody who would know and care - but in this case there's no reason to prolong their suffering by shopping there, just let them die and release the real estate for more productive uses. I, however, while being an extreme introvert, would still would like to have some stores where I can talk to a knowledgeable human. And yes, I'd pay a reasonable money for it, if only there would be somebody who wants to earn it.
Micro center was insanely over price when I went a few times in St. Louis in June. Like $70 keyboard for $147. Razor chroma ($140 elsewhere) for $240. I basically cut my prices in half on several trips just price matching.
Bought my last laptop at MicroCenter in Detroit. It's the best there is in Michigan, but sorry it doesn't even compare to Fry's.
I do miss Computer Literacy bookstore and it's demise is definitely accountable to Amazon. BeOS was pretty damned cool but Jean-Louis do you ever wonder what would have happened if you'd ever taken his offer and created Fry's of France?
They're already carrying some books and magazines. The only reason I can think of them not doing it is because the margins would be lower.
I was at Oxnard Fry's yesterday and their magazine selection was at best 20-25% of the shelf. And there were only two network switches in that whole section... :(
And the farm theme sucks. I liked the Alice and Wonderland theme at the Woodland Hills one I used to shop at before the Oxnard one opened.