This is too bad. But, it's not surprising. In speaking with a colleague recently, I found out that his local Fry's Electronics was a shell of what it once was, and that they were doing some strange consignment sale things that weren't even through their normal retail channels. Another COVID casualty, I suspect.
And the only reason I went in is a friend mentioned it was a ghost town a month before, I had to see it for myself. I'm still curious why they even bothered to pretend to be a business at this point.
I’m not surprised, but this makes me feel incredibly sad. I built my first PC using parts from there. I’m going to miss it.
But once Fry’s pivoted to be a consignment store that was mostly empty and selling pallets of bottled water and perfume, it was obvious the business was about to die.
Curiously, Microcenter has managed to live on and seems fairly robust. I can’t help but think Fry’s tried to sell too many different products and had a massive amount of floorspace to keep up. Whereas my local Microcenter just sticks to electronics and the store is much smaller and feels cramped in comparison.
The only time I've ever been into a Fry's (due to not living near one) was around 2010 in the Sacramento CA area. It was so huge that I genuinely got dizzy and had to work hard to focus to see individual items (It's a thing that happens to me when there is a lot of "input" for lack of a better term). I suspect that the cavernous real estate (and its cost) only hastened their demise.
Cavernous is such an apt description. Fry’s uses giant warehouse sized buildings and even the distance in between racks and aisles is wide.
I also remember the checkout lines having dozens of empty checkout stations that I never saw used. I always assumed they were there for Black Friday or something.
Sports Basement - they kept the enter key on the door though.
To be fair when Fry's left that building, it's because they built a bigger one down the street, the one with the sinc function as a logo.
It was a glorious experience in the 90s.
They were from back in the day when Fry’s would hire extra people for the holidays and staff nearly every register.
Also back then stores would fill space with extra registers. I was nostalgic and sad when I saw they had removed half their local registers. They had (bought) one of the earliest web retail stores. They ought to have become New Egg with a mini Best Buy and RadioShack for locals. But that’s hindsight and I couldn’t have done it.
Thanks for commenting! I appreciate knowing I'm not alone in this. It's very unnerving when it happens. I pride myself in being spatially oriented, and when I get into huge spaces with lots of distractions, my brain does weird things.
I was in Bangkok and at one of the largest electronics stores in Southeast Asia, that place put Fry's to shame. I think I spent an entire day in there.
Central Computer is still kicking around -for now.
This is all changing. It's not the same. You used to have a bunch of grey market PC parts distributors all over the east bay (uProcessor, add on Cards, RAM, HDD, etc) that used to sell to beige box PC makers (and individuals) but they went the way of the dodo too (ASI is legit distributor now). Also, remember WeirdStuff? Gone too.
It's a mature industry and the biz has gone largely to Amazon and NewEgg with some at BestBuy (regular people) and to large distributors like Ingram for larger players that can't buy direct from MFG or huge players who build their own.
SARS-CoV2 might have hastened their demise, but it was coming none the less.
PS. The sandwiches + a bag of chips/crisps & drink were not bad at all. Maybe it's nostalgia.
GPUs were always the dumbest possible products for brick and mortar. Extremely limited customer base, fast tech iteration cycle, and inflexible margins.
CPUs and RAM used to go up and down weekly at least in the grey market "distributor" segment. Fry's and Central, etc, had enough markup they didn't have to worry too much about that. Also, I think Central and other smaller ones were more JIT for low margin products with unstable pricing (they'd have daily deliveries from their grey market distributors).
But surprisingly, GPUs hold their value these days.
True! It's effectively come full circle. Although a ton of that seems like increased "industrial" (mining, render, etc) use of chips + retail segmentation + supply limits.
The RTX cards are going for 2-3x retail on the secondary market, without bundle restrictions they'd be instantly scalped. It's a temporary situation that benefits both CC and normal customers.
HSC is gone too, sadly. The last surplus store standing in the Bay Area (I think - at least in the South Bay and Peninsula) is Excess Solutions in San Jose (http://www.excesssolutions.com/)
You haven't lived the life of a late 90's bay area nerd if you've never grabbed your copy of Computer Shopper and hit Fry's, Weird Stuff and Central Computer in a single afternoon. With friends. :D
Early 2000s here but yes it contributed so much to my feeling that it was an engineer/hackers paradise. Now it’s all consolidated so much it feels like it’s just corporate. Hoping I’ll get the chance to find that sort of feeling sometime again in life. I hear shenzen is incredible for that since they still make stuff.
Central Computers can have decent pricing on items, it can be really convenient. They also were reserving gpus for instore customers for awhile, albeit marked up.
I went into central (on Lawrence) a few weeks looking for a new monitor. I’m the kind of guy who does my research beforehand, and generally go in knowing what I want already. But I asked for help and a recommendation. I told the guy my basic requirements and he basically just looked at all the boxes to see if they had the specs I wanted. He had no experience with the products, and was really no help. I get better advice from reading the reviews on Amazon, sad to say.
As someone who got back to PC building in the last few years, I’m jealous of people with a micro center in their city. Amazon and Newegg are not up to par
As some one who went to a microcenter exactly once for a GPU that wasn't ridiculously marked up when I was getting in to Ethereum,but would like to start building my own computer, what does Microcenter offer I can't get from New Egg and Amazon?
They sometimes have deals that beat NewEgg and Amazon prices, like CPU motherboard combos, parts on clearance, etc. They also will price match Amazon and NewEgg prices. The staff at my closest Micro Center is knowledgeable, and of course it’s nice going to a physical store. Shopping for monitors was much nicer being able to physically look at it, rather than trying to comb reviews and hope the one you ordered online looks good.
Same-day shopping, returns, being able to look at things, and talk to people count for something too.
I can't count the number of times when I bought a motherboard, and didn't realize my old AT power supply no longer worked with an ATX motherboard, or some other random standard, connector, or form factor changed. You can ask an employee "Will these five parts make a computer?" and get an answer, or even configure one up on their web site.
Plus, sometimes there are defective parts. You buy a part that doesn't work. You plug together motherboard, RAM, CPU, and power supply, hit the power switch, and very little happens, with no real way to debug. I won't say that's easy or seamless with Microcenter, but if you have five parts from Newegg and Amazon, you're basically SOL.
And if you forgot something -- and I've never built a computer where I didn't forget something -- you can pick it up. All the little things are just easier. Building a PC requires a ton of screws, cables, and adapters. I've never had the right set come with parts. Sometimes, the motherboard, case, and peripheral will all come with the same $0.50 part (Yay! I have two extra I don't need), or none will.
With COVID19, I've missed Microcenter; they don't do curbside pickup, and generally have avoided taking any sorts of basic safety measures. It's odd.
As someone who has frequently toyed with getting more serious about electronics over the years, I find the ability to browse components in person invaluable.
Unfortunately my Frys has been crumbling for years (nothing says “commitment to excellence” like dozens of buckets around the store capturing rain water), and I finally gave up going.
The last time I went to the Cambridge Microcenter (~1 month ago) they were spraying your hands with sanitizer the moment you walked in. I haven't seen any local grocery store do that.
It's a fantastic store, but it very clearly hasn't had a remodel since it opened.
I haven't been to that location since the coof hit hard last year. At that time, they were open but locked the fuck DOWN. Only 10 people allowed in the store at a time, and they checked your temperature and made you sanitize before shopping. I guess they got a pass to operate as a seller of "essential goods" (Chromebooks for school kids?) but they were NOT messing around with the pandemic.
I think computer and office supplies are just as essential as home repair goods, auto parts, or household goods in the economy. They're not as essential as food or running water, but they're in that very next tier I think.
I bought most of my PC from the Tustin (CA) Microcenter. I'm always shocked at how they manage to move enough custom-loop water-cooling equipment to stock it on shelves.
However, LA and OC have huge car modding communities, why not PCs as well I guess :)
I was sad to see the Santa Clara (CA) Microcenter go. It's now a Walmart. No more Microcenter in Silicon Valley.
I moved from Atlanta (where there were two Microcenter stores) to the LA/SFV (where there are 0 unless you count Tustin which is too damn far away), so you’ve caught my attention about the car modding community as being a replacement as hobby electronics source. Any suggestions for stores like that here?
I have been to All Electronics which is nice, but it’s one rung below what I need on the technology ladder.
I didn't mean the custom car shop are replacements for finding computing equipment, it was more a comment on "there are large communities of people who who like modding cars, so maybe the same sentiment exists for computers".
I just went to Central Computer for the first time a couple weeks ago! I got my PSU, AIO, and a smattering of other cables and cable wraps. The Microcenter near where I grew up was just too far away to drive and Fry’s never really had the stuff I want anyway. I hope CC sticks around; even though they feel like a relic of the 90’s and 00’s (much like Fry’s) they have a lot of nice components.
I really liked Fry's years ago. It was depressing to see inventory go down so quickly last couple years. I would like a local Microcenter. Their prices are decent and they have good motherboard/cpu combos.
Semi-off topic but Microcenter needs to fix their online presence.
I have five Microcenters within an hour of me, the closest is practically walking distance, yet I was so turned off by the few times I've tried to use their online services I essentially boycotted them.
The first time was using their site for pickup during the pandemic... then not being told until I reached the store that this wasn't curbside/contactless pickup like every other electronics store in the state was doing: you were simply having them being your item to the front, and you would then have to wait upwards of an hour to get into the store and check out manually. (Kind of defeats the 5 minutes you save over picking it up yourself and any possible safety benefit for you and their employees)
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The second time was trying to built my new gaming PC a few months back. I specifically wanted to buy from Microcenter to support a brick and mortar store...
I added thousands of dollars of parts to my cart, went to checkout and it wouldn't let me. It declined my card despite no fraud alerts, confirmed billing address, etc.
After two tries it cleared my entire cart.
Go through my history, re-add everything, and it fails to checkout again and again until my cart is cleared again and I give up and go to Newegg.
When I brought it up people said this was common, and the fix was to use another card because sometimes it randomly wouldn't accept certain types (!)
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I get Microcenter is "physically-oriented" but I don't get how long they can stay relevant with their abysmal online presence.
You shouldn't be losing sales because of a crusty checkout flow in 2021...
> I’m not surprised, but this makes me feel incredibly sad. I built my first PC using parts from there. I’m going to miss it.
Same, the last one I stepped foot in was in 2018 at the one near the Tesla factory in Fremont after my interview, and it looked absolutely dead. I thought with so many tech nerds in that town you'd be bound to see a bunch guys getting together after work and just buying up carts of stuff of the shelves and working on a side project.
But, nope... it was like 20 people max and it was actually really sad to me as years before I went to the ones in Orange County and we had lines out the door on certain days.
Well, COVID claims another retailer and thus the brick and mortar get another nail in it's coffin.
Fry's has been a dead company walking for a while. They went to their consignment model in 2019 before the holiday shopping season. I remember summer of 2019 there were fire sale prices all over the store. By late 2019 and into 2020 their shelves were empty or "stocked" with filler items. Even without COVID there hasn't been a reason to step into one of their stores for over a year.
What mystified me was how they thought the consignment shift would pan out, and didn't immediately reverse course when it didn't: Fry's was always heavily trafficked with people purchasing there every time I was there prior to the consignment shift.
The consignment model was because they didn't have any money to pay suppliers for merchandise. So it was something of a choice between having nearly empty shelves and completely empty shelves.
"I’m not surprised, but this makes me feel incredibly sad. I built my first PC using parts from there. I’m going to miss it."
Yeah, same here. I'm not sure if the first PC I built was from Fry's parts but the second+ definitely were. I used to love going there in the late 90s-early 2000s – they put a lot of effort into demo areas/displays back then and the selection was unbeatable, especially for components and things that Best Buy wouldn't (and doesn't) even bother with. I get that paying retail rents to stock $2 patch cables doesn't work these days but I will miss it.
I hope microcenter doesn't go the same route as fry's. they need to keep the knowledgeable staff, I think they need to up their game in staff to be honest. also they need to update their fing stock more often and more accurately. also as much as it pains me to have to travel 40 mins to get to one, a limited number of locations is key, it helps reduce costs down.
I was pleasantly surprised by Microcenter in November of last year. I was looking for a laptop and apparently Microcenter has a house brand called Powerspec. It turns out they are a very user-focused brand that a) has no bloatware preinstalled and b) has high performance and every single port you could possibly want.
When I went, there was a little bit of hovering but overall the staff were nice.
Protip: whenever you shop there, even if no one helped you, choose an employee and let them put their sticker on the merchandise you are buying. They track who helped which customer by a sticker the staff can put on your item. If you like to be left alone to shop, find an employee who left you alone on your way to the registers!
I was in a Microcenter over the holidays, and was pleasantly surprised by the variety of things they stock. And the pricing was unexpectedly, for me at least, the same as or better than NewEgg on the items I checked.
Best of all, they weren't pushy and hostile when I refused to give my phone number, a pleasant change from years back.
Huh. I’m not sure about PowerSpec but they do have an in-house laptop and tablet brand: “WinBook”. I’ve owned 2 and had challenges with both. Most recently:
- Touchscreen driver wouldn’t shut off when lid closed
- Inadequate cooling leading to overheating
- The worst touchpad I’ve ever had the displeasure to use
I really do love MicroCenter, I built a gaming PC there myself, but I recommend using the known brands when it comes to systems.
I'm on a powerspec right now. I couldn't build this PC with the same parts this cheap and it comes with a windows license and as you stated, no bloatware. They are fantastic little machines.
I’ve always enjoyed micro center, other than a few of the employees trying to force their stickers on stuff. Similarly I’ll find someone I like to load up my items.
I’ve found they often have the best prices, even beating online retailers. At least on mobo/cpu combos.
I was also pleasantly surprised by MicroCenter recently. There's one in Brooklyn I had no idea about until I was searching online for places to buy a Raspberry Pi and accessories. Walked in there and it was like a (pleasant!) throwback to the computer store of the 90s.
I was maining a ThinkPad a few years back and wanted to switch to a beefy desktop. I went into Micro Center and, instead of doing my own build which I totally could have done in Micro Center also, bought a PowerSpec PC with a Ryzen for not much more money and considerable time savings, under the rubric that I could always upgrade it later.
I couldn't be happier. Their machines are pretty much white-box builds. Some of the cases are a little ricey but they are fairly easy to take the covers off of and the internals are nice to work with. The motherboard is a bit weak, but like I said, it can be upgraded, and it comes with enough power supply to support all but the most extreme loads. Not a bad starter choice if you want a new gaming or otherwise tweakable PC.
Since radioshack went out of business Microcenter is the only place I can get last minute electronic components if I'm trying to follow some tutorial that calls for something specific. The problem is that its 45 minutes away, and I cant seem to spend less than 3 hours and $300 every time i go there.
I remember going to Fry's for the first time in the late 90s. Having grown up on the East Coast, I had only heard about this magical place where you could buy pretty much anything computer-related. It was truly an experience, especially when compared with from CompUSA and Best Buy.
When I moved to the Bay Area, I did enjoy going to Fry's and walking around ogling the hardware. Over time, I switched pretty much to buying things online. I guess everyone else did too.
I used to bring my dog almost everywhere: work, stores, restaurants (seated outdoors), the bank. He only waited outside grocery shops and a few places like that. His photo was on my work ID badge.
He weighed about 150 lbs and was meek as a lamb and people rarely objected.
unfortunately dogs owner seem genuinely incapable to realize that some people are allergic and are simply not comfortable with unpredictable animals in public places.
Side note: The comment I responded to has since been edited. It originally said that that the last time he went to Fry's a customer's dog pooped and the next guy entering the store nearly stepped in it (and he made a joke about how the store is going to shit).
For a while there I would find my parts online and then have them price-match in the store. I'd get my item same-day, they'd get the sale. Of course they may have been losing money on those sales, who knows.
Best Buy created a high margin stream in repairs and warrantys, while cutting down on low volume goods and basically becoming a showroom for large brands. Companies pay them to display their wares prominently. So if you’re looking for some minor obscure dongle, the stereotype is that if you go Fry’s, you’ll buy the dongle and a bag of candy. If you go to Best Buy you’ll end up buying a TV instead.
Wikipedia has a lot more detail about him. Basically a Fry’s VP arranged for $65 million in kickbacks from companies that wanted to see at Fry’s, and then gambled away even more than that, and ended up $137 million in debt:
That reminds me of how TigerDirect ended up [0]. There's another one I sorely miss, especially since there was one store that was a ten-minute drive for me.
I guess almost the same as CompUSA (maybe not as bad as CrazyEddie's tough). Bad/corrupt management. BestBuy tough had and has a much much broader client base and does not have to carry the large number of SKUs.
Because Best Buy realized they were going to be killed by Amazon and adapted, adding things like price match and more vendor support stuff (like the Samsung store within store thing). If you didn’t and didn’t sell staples (like groceries, where it’s difficult for Amazon to compete), it’s been a rough go of it for big box retailers.
That Samsung thing is annoying and maybe counter-productive for them.
Pre-COVID, I went to a BestBuy for a specific Samsung microSD. Looked all over the flash memory and they didn’t have it, despite it showing in-stock online. Now, because I needed it, I asked for help, employee sighs and walks me over to flash area, we don’t find it. I show them my phone and they realize “oh, that’s over in the Samsung section!” What the hell?
Keeping some SKUs separate may be annoying, but the employee not realizing that until you showed your phone is not an insurmountable problem. Some training and/or an internal memo and the next person in looking for that item will be directed properly.
I'm sure the next person will be directed correctly, provided they bother to ask.
I think more common will be someone will find the flash area and buy a non-Samsung part than it will be that someone
will find the Samsung area and being torn between buying a television or some flash storage.
Fixing it so shoppers can serve themselves effectively seems more beneficial for shoppers and BestBuy than fixing it so employees can more effectively cover over the inability to self-serve.
I have a friend who's worked at Best Buy for the past ~7 years. According to him, they:
- Beefed up their online presence. It's honestly a better experience than Amazon because it's specialized (which is a low bar, but still).
- Use stores as distribution centers. You can make an online purchase and then go pick it up that day if you feel like it, which Amazon struggles to compete with.
- Focus on customer service; both sales and Geek Squad. People who don't know exactly what they want will be lost on Amazon; Best Buy not only has people who will give recommendations, they'll even send someone to your house for free to evaluate your needs. Then after you purchase you can get in-person customer support (which can also go to your house if you want). Almost an "Apple Store for all the other tech products" kind of idea. There's an angle here, of course, but I think there's also genuine value for non-techies.
Contrasting the way they and Fry's responded to the e-commerce era is actually really striking as a case-study
Looks like they finally figured out where to store the rolling ladder (what they used to fetch merchandise from the overhead shelves). This was back when Apple had their store-within-a-store feature at BestBuy.
People in online Apple forums remarked that the ladder was always parked in the Apple section no matter which Best Buy you went to (probably due to the fact that not a lot of people went to BB to buy Apple stuff, this was pre-Apple Store).
Every Fry's I have been to in the last decade has felt like the store was already in the process of going out of business. That said, I will miss the place. Sometimes you just need a piece of electronics today and Fry's had a much wider selection than stores like Best Buy.
Very true. They also tried to serve so many different niches that it was often interesting to just walk around the store to see products I would never buy and often didn't even know existed.
I can confirm; at least for the Seattle area (Renton, WA) location it opened to much fanfare, but went downhill years ago.
Elaborating; this must have been around the start of the consignment era. Looking back that's clearly what the deal bins and such at the front of the store were. It was a lack of new parts in the higher end sections that I initially noticed.
No kidding, one day I needed simple DDR4 RAM to get a computer to boot. Didn't care the size, didn't care the speed. Most stores had nothing at all, I remember Best Buy had some older DDR3 (in 2020, and by older I mean I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it was from the mid 2000s). Fry's didn't have anything I would have ordered online but they did have 2x16 GB DDR4.
I hope this is fake. Few stores remain with a good selection of maker parts. Though the shelves have been pretty bare for a couple years now.
I have tried to support them recently with a few purchases. With limited stock it has been tricky, though, which I'm sure doesn't help when competing with huge online stores.
For anyone who has never been, most (all?) stores are themed, with huge decorations, statues, and props. Somewhere I read they hired a Disney designer to come up with the themes.
They cleared out all the maker stuff in the last year at the Seattle area location. It was a wasteland. Search around for local small electronics stores--there are a few still out there.
I went to a Fry's in San Jose (jungle themed I think) on a Saturday afternoon at 3PM and there were literally 7 cars in the parking lot. I went inside and there were few people and the shelves were loosely stocked with junk from China and random crap like towel warmers.
Same for the Renton location. Although the stock is a little better since my last visit it is woefully inadequate. Most of the brands are things I have never heard of.
The entire trip I was just thinking they have to be close to shutting down.
Well I’ll grab some essentials on the liquidation sale.
At the Fry's in Fountain Valley California, I remember looking among the huge list of CPU price stickers for anything ARM-related, because I'd read on Slashdot that ARM was the future.
ARM, I glumly concluded, would be decades away. Now here I am with an M1; ARM is arriving, while Fry's fades.
This makes me so sad. I was just there not too long ago and it looked like a ghost town, the selection all gone, mainly just empty spaces. I think to experience a store like that ever again one has to travel somewhere like Shenzhen [0]
It's sad to see them go. When I moved to the Bay area 20 years ago it was the place to go to see what was the coolest things in tech. I built my first PC from components that I got there, generally had a pretty good price. It was good talking with a lot of the store staff because they knew what they were talking about. They were generally younger kids who you knew were going to move into tech so it was fun chatting with them.
I went to the Palo Alto store about a year and a half ago and it was so empty it was depressing. I also stopped off at the San Jose store on Hamilton around the same time and there were more employees than customers, It was funny/tragic some older gentleman was walking his dog in the store and it took a s*. Someone almost walked on it and said I thought this place had gone to s* but I didn't think that they'd taken it this literally. I never went back again, it felt too painful.
I remember growing up seeing own in Atlanta, but never got a chance to visit one. A few years ago I was in KC and visited a Microcenter. It was neat, I was able to pick up a few things that otherwise would have taken shipping time. I live in Florida now and was surprised when I couldn’t find either of those in the entire state. The things I need are often extremely limited or non existent at consumer electronics / business stores and if it’s not available via Prime it means waiting a week or two to get.
This explains a lot. I recently, as of October, was building a new workstation and _tried_ to buy things from Fry's but there was quite literally _nothing_ for sale. I was confused if was just because of covid (temporary closure) or permanent... really bummed it's permanent.
it doesn't take too many "emergency orders" to kill a business - and in california we've been locked up for the past year (first to lock down, last to open)
If any of you support lockdowns you are the problem. Not covid.
Wilsonville, Oregon is home to Oregon’s only Fry’s location. I grew up there. I remember running into people from all across the state that would come down for its crazy deals.
The building is huge and prime real estate in a rather affluent town. I wonder who or what they will do with the property. Maybe microcenter could come in. More likely though BestBuy is the only retailer likely to want such a large place but there’s already a BestBuy one town north in Tualatin.
True. It is gigantic. I heard rumors that an outdoor mall operator wanted to develop the space. But it’s anyone guess. I’m sure the Wilsonville city council and others are working to not let it go undeveloped and turn into a blight.
I just walked by the one in Woodland Hills, CA (Alice in Wonderland theme). I first started my career in IT and that store was my go to for parts. I went there in November and it was depressing, empty shelves, no customers, small staff. End of an era.
When I first moved out to Woodland Hills, I could walk from my apartment to Frys easily. I bought more junk than I really needed because of that arrangement, but I guess not enough to keep 'em in business. :'(
I’ll be very sad to see them go. I enjoyed spending time in that location (OR), as well as visiting other locations in SV. I tried to always give them my business, but it’s hard when the shelves don’t have anything on them... :(
Save what exactly? Have you been to one before this news? They were not even selling electronics (almost). All I could see was cheap chinese gadgets like handheld fans and screw driver tips. They were dead years ago.
Fry's was great in its heyday. They had so much stuff!
Well, somewhat great anyway. Sometimes you would get a box that looked brand new - without one of their "discount" stickers that gave you at best 5% off on a returned item. I bought a modem that had the previous buyer's dirty old phone cord in the box.
I would sometimes stop in at a Fry's just to walk around and see if there was anything new and interesting. I'd leave empty-handed as often as not, but it was fun just to experience the place, and you never knew who you might see there.
One time I ran into Linus Torvalds at the Campbell Fry's and we compared notes on whatever it was we were both buying.
The worst part of shopping at Fry's - other than the returned items - was the salespeople who would try to make you follow them to their computer so they could print you a "quote". I am guilty of sometimes throwing these quotes away as I walked to the cash register, just because I was annoyed by this. Why waste my time printing a "quote" for the exact same price listed on the shelf tag when you didn't even help me pick out the item? At least give me a percent or two off the price in return for the hassle.
One time I was shopping for a case for a compact camera. The salesman hovered over me offering to help me find a case from the rack in front of me, until I said, "Look, I brought my camera to see how it fits in different cases and find one I like. I don't need any help." When he saw that I'd picked one out, he snatched the $20 case out of my hand: "I need to print you a quote!" He wrapped the quote around the case and put tape all over it so I wouldn't be tempted to toss it. That one time I didn't have the heart to throw away the quote and deny him his 20 cent commission.
But if I knew the exact item I wanted to pick up, I would wait until there was no salesperson in sight of the aisle, do a quick walk-by pickup, and make a beeline for the cash register.
The other bad thing was the person at the store exit with the pink pen who had to "check your receipt." I played along with this for years like everyone else, until I read that there was absolutely no legal requirement to wait for them to check your receipt. You'd paid for your goods, you now owned them, and you were free to go.
So the next time there was a long line waiting for the exit checker at the Campbell store, I just smiled and nodded with my item and receipt visible and walked on by. A few people in line looked shocked, but the checker ignored me - as he was trained to do - and told the next customer in line "I need to check your receipt."
I don't think it was just online shopping that did Fry's in. They did themselves in with these shoddy business practices.
And their website! I did occasionally buy something online for store pickup. That was pretty convenient if I knew the exact item I wanted. But if I had to search for anything... Forget it! They had the worst search algorithm ever. I think it just "or'ed" all the words, so if you searched for, say, "netgear cable modem", it would list all the products that included any of those words, without giving any priority to an actual Netgear cable modem.
My last visit to a Fry's was the Sunnyvale store in 2019. I had a store credit for about $10, and I was in the neighborhood and figured I ought to stop in to buy something and use up the store credit. I found a USB extension cable that I could use that was marked at $10.99, so I figured that would do.
When I got to the register (the only one out of 20 that was staffed, because there were only a few customers in the store), it turned out that the cable was on sale for $7.99. Even with tax this was less than my store credit. I guess they could have given me another store credit slip, but the cashier asked for a manager to approve a cash refund. This angry looking manager walked up, scowling at the cashier and me all ...
whenever i'm at a store with a receipt checker I -out of sight of the checker- always take everything out of the bag and throw the bag itself away and pocket the receipt so i'm just carrying an armful of stuff, and then when I actually get to the receipt checker I just bolt and run right past them, trying to look as suspicious as possible.
Okay, so how is everyone feeling about MicroCenter now? I used to live in Allston and would ride my bike to the one in Cambridge, it was sick. I live 45 minutes (in no traffic conditions) away now and rarely make the drive.
Depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for parts for a last minute electronics weekend project, Microcenter is a mess. (I am closest to the Cincinnati location). I still found what I needed, but it was a mess.
Don’t get me wrong, you can find a lot of parts, but mainly things from companies like Adafruit. But the section was so disorganized it made it take forever to find the one specific part I needed (and their website said was in stock). And if you need electronics components, the Microcenter stock is nothing like Frys. A few random LEDs, switches, etc. but not much selection. I half wonder if the disorganization is part of the appeal — you have to actively find what you’re looking for. And when you do — it’s a win.
However, for other things (hard drives, monitors, 3D supplies), I’ve found them to be great. Especially when you can find what you’re looking for and can get it faster than shipping from Amazon, et al. I’m thankful to have a store near me.
I usually just ask one of the kids working there, you let them put a sticker on what your buying and they get a commission so it's a win-win to me. I go to the one near me every couple weeks and buy something mostly because I can't imagine living without a decent computer parts store to browse in. Heck I bought a DJI drone there it was the same price as on amazon so why not? Support a physical store or they will disappear.
> Support a physical store or they will disappear.
Exactly. Even though finding the part I was looking for (a LiPo charging circuit) was a pain, it was still priced the same as if it was online, and I could get it fast. And yes, the kid that helped find a locked up RPi pico for me was extremely excited to tag the rest of my stuff.
If I want to make sure that the store is still around, it’s important to keep supporting it. That’s been my basic COVID lesson.
What is interesting, for me, I prefer to buy big ticket items such as TV’s and computers from a physical store. With Amazon, I am worried about getting an counterfeit. Even with other online stores, I worry about how it will be shipped and will porch thieves steal it, and will it be delayed.
With a physical store, I can go it, check out a model myself to see how it really feels to me, and walk out the store with my purchase.
With Frys no longer around, I am now limited mainly to Best Buy and Costco.
When I moved to California in the early 2000s, i made my trip to Fry’s, but it was kind of disappointing, although I have no idea what I was expecting. I will say that Fry’s was the only nonsexshop I’ve ever been in that sold hardcore pornography DVDs. I always wondered how many they actually sold.
My uncle used to care for Donald Fry (started Fry's original supermarket) at his mansion in Arizona. We got to visit and hang out with him and his wife. The place was a palace. And yet two of the nicest, down-to-earth people I ever met. They insisted on us staying the night and fixing us breakfast in the morning. This was a couple years before he passed, and he was already suffering from Parkinson's, but I'll always remember how sweet they were, and nothing like I expected.
Fry’s was a junkyard for years, I’m not even sure how they lasted as long as they did. Playing the “Is this a returned item” game every time you went to buy something was never much fun.
I did get a few great deals there, but it seemed like a long ugly slide into oblivion and I haven’t wanted to go in there for years.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 296 ms ] threadhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21949585
And the only reason I went in is a friend mentioned it was a ghost town a month before, I had to see it for myself. I'm still curious why they even bothered to pretend to be a business at this point.
I hope you all like Richard Grenell - he'll be our new california governor - Gavin is getting his ass recalled!
But once Fry’s pivoted to be a consignment store that was mostly empty and selling pallets of bottled water and perfume, it was obvious the business was about to die.
Curiously, Microcenter has managed to live on and seems fairly robust. I can’t help but think Fry’s tried to sell too many different products and had a massive amount of floorspace to keep up. Whereas my local Microcenter just sticks to electronics and the store is much smaller and feels cramped in comparison.
I also remember the checkout lines having dozens of empty checkout stations that I never saw used. I always assumed they were there for Black Friday or something.
Apropos, didn't the one in Sunnyvale become an REI?
That's a nice touch/nod!
Thanks for the correction, yeah SportsBasement. I went mostly to the one off Portage.
Also back then stores would fill space with extra registers. I was nostalgic and sad when I saw they had removed half their local registers. They had (bought) one of the earliest web retail stores. They ought to have become New Egg with a mini Best Buy and RadioShack for locals. But that’s hindsight and I couldn’t have done it.
I could blow 3 hours in a Fry's just browsing and barely notice the time that had passed.
Sorry to see the stores close.
This is all changing. It's not the same. You used to have a bunch of grey market PC parts distributors all over the east bay (uProcessor, add on Cards, RAM, HDD, etc) that used to sell to beige box PC makers (and individuals) but they went the way of the dodo too (ASI is legit distributor now). Also, remember WeirdStuff? Gone too.
It's a mature industry and the biz has gone largely to Amazon and NewEgg with some at BestBuy (regular people) and to large distributors like Ingram for larger players that can't buy direct from MFG or huge players who build their own.
SARS-CoV2 might have hastened their demise, but it was coming none the less.
PS. The sandwiches + a bag of chips/crisps & drink were not bad at all. Maybe it's nostalgia.
I used to be a big fun of them. But their markup + must be a bundle, buy 3 more items rule for RTX30x0 cards, really put me off.
But surprisingly, GPUs hold their value these days.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/04/08/sjm-l-weirdstuff-0408...
If you’re just looking for electronics parts, Anchor Electronics in Santa Clara is still alive and (hopefully!) well: https://anchor-electronics.com/
It's not really Silicon Valley anymore without Weird Stuff and Fry's.
Of course, the valley companies aren't really tech companies anymore either. Just adware wrapped in tech, so sad.
I can't count the number of times when I bought a motherboard, and didn't realize my old AT power supply no longer worked with an ATX motherboard, or some other random standard, connector, or form factor changed. You can ask an employee "Will these five parts make a computer?" and get an answer, or even configure one up on their web site.
Plus, sometimes there are defective parts. You buy a part that doesn't work. You plug together motherboard, RAM, CPU, and power supply, hit the power switch, and very little happens, with no real way to debug. I won't say that's easy or seamless with Microcenter, but if you have five parts from Newegg and Amazon, you're basically SOL.
And if you forgot something -- and I've never built a computer where I didn't forget something -- you can pick it up. All the little things are just easier. Building a PC requires a ton of screws, cables, and adapters. I've never had the right set come with parts. Sometimes, the motherboard, case, and peripheral will all come with the same $0.50 part (Yay! I have two extra I don't need), or none will.
With COVID19, I've missed Microcenter; they don't do curbside pickup, and generally have avoided taking any sorts of basic safety measures. It's odd.
Unfortunately my Frys has been crumbling for years (nothing says “commitment to excellence” like dozens of buckets around the store capturing rain water), and I finally gave up going.
It's a fantastic store, but it very clearly hasn't had a remodel since it opened.
However, LA and OC have huge car modding communities, why not PCs as well I guess :)
I was sad to see the Santa Clara (CA) Microcenter go. It's now a Walmart. No more Microcenter in Silicon Valley.
I didn't mean the custom car shop are replacements for finding computing equipment, it was more a comment on "there are large communities of people who who like modding cars, so maybe the same sentiment exists for computers".
I moved from Birmingham, AL :)
I have five Microcenters within an hour of me, the closest is practically walking distance, yet I was so turned off by the few times I've tried to use their online services I essentially boycotted them.
The first time was using their site for pickup during the pandemic... then not being told until I reached the store that this wasn't curbside/contactless pickup like every other electronics store in the state was doing: you were simply having them being your item to the front, and you would then have to wait upwards of an hour to get into the store and check out manually. (Kind of defeats the 5 minutes you save over picking it up yourself and any possible safety benefit for you and their employees)
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The second time was trying to built my new gaming PC a few months back. I specifically wanted to buy from Microcenter to support a brick and mortar store...
I added thousands of dollars of parts to my cart, went to checkout and it wouldn't let me. It declined my card despite no fraud alerts, confirmed billing address, etc.
After two tries it cleared my entire cart.
Go through my history, re-add everything, and it fails to checkout again and again until my cart is cleared again and I give up and go to Newegg.
When I brought it up people said this was common, and the fix was to use another card because sometimes it randomly wouldn't accept certain types (!)
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I get Microcenter is "physically-oriented" but I don't get how long they can stay relevant with their abysmal online presence.
You shouldn't be losing sales because of a crusty checkout flow in 2021...
Same, the last one I stepped foot in was in 2018 at the one near the Tesla factory in Fremont after my interview, and it looked absolutely dead. I thought with so many tech nerds in that town you'd be bound to see a bunch guys getting together after work and just buying up carts of stuff of the shelves and working on a side project.
But, nope... it was like 20 people max and it was actually really sad to me as years before I went to the ones in Orange County and we had lines out the door on certain days.
Well, COVID claims another retailer and thus the brick and mortar get another nail in it's coffin.
Yeah, same here. I'm not sure if the first PC I built was from Fry's parts but the second+ definitely were. I used to love going there in the late 90s-early 2000s – they put a lot of effort into demo areas/displays back then and the selection was unbeatable, especially for components and things that Best Buy wouldn't (and doesn't) even bother with. I get that paying retail rents to stock $2 patch cables doesn't work these days but I will miss it.
When I went, there was a little bit of hovering but overall the staff were nice.
Protip: whenever you shop there, even if no one helped you, choose an employee and let them put their sticker on the merchandise you are buying. They track who helped which customer by a sticker the staff can put on your item. If you like to be left alone to shop, find an employee who left you alone on your way to the registers!
Best of all, they weren't pushy and hostile when I refused to give my phone number, a pleasant change from years back.
- Touchscreen driver wouldn’t shut off when lid closed
- Inadequate cooling leading to overheating
- The worst touchpad I’ve ever had the displeasure to use
I really do love MicroCenter, I built a gaming PC there myself, but I recommend using the known brands when it comes to systems.
I’ve found they often have the best prices, even beating online retailers. At least on mobo/cpu combos.
I couldn't be happier. Their machines are pretty much white-box builds. Some of the cases are a little ricey but they are fairly easy to take the covers off of and the internals are nice to work with. The motherboard is a bit weak, but like I said, it can be upgraded, and it comes with enough power supply to support all but the most extreme loads. Not a bad starter choice if you want a new gaming or otherwise tweakable PC.
What a wonderful sentiment and comment.
When I moved to the Bay Area, I did enjoy going to Fry's and walking around ogling the hardware. Over time, I switched pretty much to buying things online. I guess everyone else did too.
He weighed about 150 lbs and was meek as a lamb and people rarely objected.
I just wanted a USB extension cable, and they only had one, and active extension cable that must have been languishing on the shelf for 10 years.
What I don't understand is how best buy has survived and Frys (I think a much better store) did not survive.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Former-Fry-s-executiv...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ausaf_Umar_Siddiqui
Really speaks to the mismanagement how an individual can receive tens of millions in kickbacks and no-one else in management identified the fraud.
I wonder how many other companies such behavior is happening in.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TigerDirect#Founders_convicted...
Pre-COVID, I went to a BestBuy for a specific Samsung microSD. Looked all over the flash memory and they didn’t have it, despite it showing in-stock online. Now, because I needed it, I asked for help, employee sighs and walks me over to flash area, we don’t find it. I show them my phone and they realize “oh, that’s over in the Samsung section!” What the hell?
I think more common will be someone will find the flash area and buy a non-Samsung part than it will be that someone will find the Samsung area and being torn between buying a television or some flash storage.
Fixing it so shoppers can serve themselves effectively seems more beneficial for shoppers and BestBuy than fixing it so employees can more effectively cover over the inability to self-serve.
- Beefed up their online presence. It's honestly a better experience than Amazon because it's specialized (which is a low bar, but still).
- Use stores as distribution centers. You can make an online purchase and then go pick it up that day if you feel like it, which Amazon struggles to compete with.
- Focus on customer service; both sales and Geek Squad. People who don't know exactly what they want will be lost on Amazon; Best Buy not only has people who will give recommendations, they'll even send someone to your house for free to evaluate your needs. Then after you purchase you can get in-person customer support (which can also go to your house if you want). Almost an "Apple Store for all the other tech products" kind of idea. There's an angle here, of course, but I think there's also genuine value for non-techies.
Contrasting the way they and Fry's responded to the e-commerce era is actually really striking as a case-study
People in online Apple forums remarked that the ladder was always parked in the Apple section no matter which Best Buy you went to (probably due to the fact that not a lot of people went to BB to buy Apple stuff, this was pre-Apple Store).
Elaborating; this must have been around the start of the consignment era. Looking back that's clearly what the deal bins and such at the front of the store were. It was a lack of new parts in the higher end sections that I initially noticed.
Ars Technica says it's because they tried to switch to a "consignment" inventory model, but the manufacturers weren't going along: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/02/frys-....
I had no idea that its competitors (Best Buy and Walmart) don't actually pay the manufacturers for their merchandise unless it sells.
I have tried to support them recently with a few purchases. With limited stock it has been tricky, though, which I'm sure doesn't help when competing with huge online stores.
For anyone who has never been, most (all?) stores are themed, with huge decorations, statues, and props. Somewhere I read they hired a Disney designer to come up with the themes.
I hope to read the management post-mortem.
The entire trip I was just thinking they have to be close to shutting down.
Well I’ll grab some essentials on the liquidation sale.
ARM, I glumly concluded, would be decades away. Now here I am with an M1; ARM is arriving, while Fry's fades.
[0] https://yandex.com/images/search?text=shenzhen%20electronics...
I could do a lot reminiscing but I will leave that to others.
I went to the Palo Alto store about a year and a half ago and it was so empty it was depressing. I also stopped off at the San Jose store on Hamilton around the same time and there were more employees than customers, It was funny/tragic some older gentleman was walking his dog in the store and it took a s*. Someone almost walked on it and said I thought this place had gone to s* but I didn't think that they'd taken it this literally. I never went back again, it felt too painful.
Fry's was awesome. I always wanted to go to one of their more epic looking stores (the one closest to me wasn't), like this bad mamajama https://i2.wp.com/www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/201...
Sometimes a little capitalism is fun, even if it is corny. RIP, Fry's.
If any of you support lockdowns you are the problem. Not covid.
The building is huge and prime real estate in a rather affluent town. I wonder who or what they will do with the property. Maybe microcenter could come in. More likely though BestBuy is the only retailer likely to want such a large place but there’s already a BestBuy one town north in Tualatin.
I felt this was coming 5 years ago it was difficult to find the current models. Sad.
Wherever there is a Fry's there are smart people enabled by doing smart things.
Not exactly a socialist but man, we should try to save Fry's. It's one of the few retail entities I really wish was near me.
Well, somewhat great anyway. Sometimes you would get a box that looked brand new - without one of their "discount" stickers that gave you at best 5% off on a returned item. I bought a modem that had the previous buyer's dirty old phone cord in the box.
I would sometimes stop in at a Fry's just to walk around and see if there was anything new and interesting. I'd leave empty-handed as often as not, but it was fun just to experience the place, and you never knew who you might see there.
One time I ran into Linus Torvalds at the Campbell Fry's and we compared notes on whatever it was we were both buying.
The worst part of shopping at Fry's - other than the returned items - was the salespeople who would try to make you follow them to their computer so they could print you a "quote". I am guilty of sometimes throwing these quotes away as I walked to the cash register, just because I was annoyed by this. Why waste my time printing a "quote" for the exact same price listed on the shelf tag when you didn't even help me pick out the item? At least give me a percent or two off the price in return for the hassle.
One time I was shopping for a case for a compact camera. The salesman hovered over me offering to help me find a case from the rack in front of me, until I said, "Look, I brought my camera to see how it fits in different cases and find one I like. I don't need any help." When he saw that I'd picked one out, he snatched the $20 case out of my hand: "I need to print you a quote!" He wrapped the quote around the case and put tape all over it so I wouldn't be tempted to toss it. That one time I didn't have the heart to throw away the quote and deny him his 20 cent commission.
But if I knew the exact item I wanted to pick up, I would wait until there was no salesperson in sight of the aisle, do a quick walk-by pickup, and make a beeline for the cash register.
The other bad thing was the person at the store exit with the pink pen who had to "check your receipt." I played along with this for years like everyone else, until I read that there was absolutely no legal requirement to wait for them to check your receipt. You'd paid for your goods, you now owned them, and you were free to go.
So the next time there was a long line waiting for the exit checker at the Campbell store, I just smiled and nodded with my item and receipt visible and walked on by. A few people in line looked shocked, but the checker ignored me - as he was trained to do - and told the next customer in line "I need to check your receipt."
I don't think it was just online shopping that did Fry's in. They did themselves in with these shoddy business practices.
And their website! I did occasionally buy something online for store pickup. That was pretty convenient if I knew the exact item I wanted. But if I had to search for anything... Forget it! They had the worst search algorithm ever. I think it just "or'ed" all the words, so if you searched for, say, "netgear cable modem", it would list all the products that included any of those words, without giving any priority to an actual Netgear cable modem.
My last visit to a Fry's was the Sunnyvale store in 2019. I had a store credit for about $10, and I was in the neighborhood and figured I ought to stop in to buy something and use up the store credit. I found a USB extension cable that I could use that was marked at $10.99, so I figured that would do.
When I got to the register (the only one out of 20 that was staffed, because there were only a few customers in the store), it turned out that the cable was on sale for $7.99. Even with tax this was less than my store credit. I guess they could have given me another store credit slip, but the cashier asked for a manager to approve a cash refund. This angry looking manager walked up, scowling at the cashier and me all ...
Don’t get me wrong, you can find a lot of parts, but mainly things from companies like Adafruit. But the section was so disorganized it made it take forever to find the one specific part I needed (and their website said was in stock). And if you need electronics components, the Microcenter stock is nothing like Frys. A few random LEDs, switches, etc. but not much selection. I half wonder if the disorganization is part of the appeal — you have to actively find what you’re looking for. And when you do — it’s a win.
However, for other things (hard drives, monitors, 3D supplies), I’ve found them to be great. Especially when you can find what you’re looking for and can get it faster than shipping from Amazon, et al. I’m thankful to have a store near me.
Exactly. Even though finding the part I was looking for (a LiPo charging circuit) was a pain, it was still priced the same as if it was online, and I could get it fast. And yes, the kid that helped find a locked up RPi pico for me was extremely excited to tag the rest of my stuff.
If I want to make sure that the store is still around, it’s important to keep supporting it. That’s been my basic COVID lesson.
With a physical store, I can go it, check out a model myself to see how it really feels to me, and walk out the store with my purchase.
With Frys no longer around, I am now limited mainly to Best Buy and Costco.
I did get a few great deals there, but it seemed like a long ugly slide into oblivion and I haven’t wanted to go in there for years.