RIP FRY'S. My favorite local "computer stuff" retailer

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I went in to Fry's just before the pandemic and it was a ghost town....the shelves weren't fully stocked, lots of items missing, hardly any activity or sales personnel. I asked one of the workers if they were closing and he said no they were just waiting for more inventory. I thought yeah right. It was kinda creepy.
 
I have fond nostalgia of the motherboard return/refurb aisle, but online reviews became a thing not long after that so it's very time-and-place specific.

I do wish there was a store more technical than Best Buy near me, but there's just not enough nerds-per-sq-mi.
 
Reminds me of PC Club...used to be right down the street. Small little place, had everything I needed. Then one day it was gone. We do have Micro Center, but it's 20 min away....aww the internet has made everything so wonderful......
 
I went in to Fry's just before the pandemic and it was a ghost town....the shelves weren't fully stocked, lots of items missing, hardly any activity or sales personnel. I asked one of the workers if they were closing and he said no they were just waiting for more inventory. I thought yeah right. It was kinda creepy.
Fry’s switched to a sale by consignment method a couple years ago. Not many electronics vendors were willing to go along with that. So the inventory dwindled to almost nothing.
 
It must of been a couple years since I was at Fry's and even then I was under the impression they weren't going to be around. I noticed them starting to carry more non computer stuff such as appliances and toys etc, not that its bad, but it just seemed odd if you know what I mean?
 
The ones in Phoenix have been dying a slow death for the past 5 years. A depressing shell of their former selves. I miss the day where you could fill an actual shopping cart with all the parts for a new computer build. And the. Go back later to grab all the details you forgot the first time!
 
Damn! I liked going to Frys with my tech savvy friend. We'd go there for just about anything we needed tech wise.
 
The one in Renton, Washington was like others described....it's looked like it was holding a going-out-of-business sale (but without the markdown) for literally years now. Every time I drove by on the way to Sixty Acres I was surprised to see cars in the parking lot - as recently as this past Saturday. So I'm saddened but not surprised.

And yes they were carrying Estes stuff in a small way the last time I was in there, and had been for quite a few years. Several of my stashed PSII kits came from there when they were being clearanced out. That was back when I worked just a walk away at the Boeing Renton facility.
 
I went to the Fry's in Irving last year and the year before it, both times the entire store was empty with maybe 4 people on shift. To put it as eloquently as someone on reddit, "You could shoot a cannon ball across the store without risking hitting a customer, employee, or any merchandise."
 
I went to the Fry's in Irving last year and the year before it, both times the entire store was empty with maybe 4 people on shift. To put it as eloquently as someone on reddit, "You could shoot a cannon ball across the store without risking hitting a customer, employee, or any merchandise."

Yeah, that one was weird, full zombie mode for at least the last 2 years. The one in Plano was ok-ish until about a year ago. The writing was very much on the wall.
 
I used to go to the Fishers, IN store every few months, and bought a computer there in 2008, a monitor in 2018, and assorted stuff now and then. Haven't been there since before COVID.

First the Shack, now Fry's... Where's a guy to go when he needs technical fiddly bits today rather than shipped?
 
I remember going to the original one in Sunnyvale back around 1987, they had rows of books and rows of components, with snacks at the checkout. Once they decided to expand, that model obviously wasn't going to scale up, so they started selling PC clone stuff, then phones, then appliances, etc... until they became a much worse Best Buy, with legendarily bad customer service. They made the same mistake that Radio Shack made... overexpanding beyond their business model until they lost any semblence of profitability.
 
I remember going to frys when I built a PC in the late 90s. The store in Fremont/milpitas was closest to me and the place was a madhouse. They had huge parking lots that were always packed. Going over to the area with motherboards it was like what you would see on the trading floor of wall street - people packed shoulder to shoulder, customers yelling at eachother fighting to get DDR memory. I actually remember employees on ladders tossing boxes out to customers. The checkout had 30 lanes fully staffed with cashiers.

I stopped by there last November and it was a ghost town. Empty parking lot, bare shelves, empty floor space and 1 cashier. I knew it would not be long before they pulled the plug
 
Microcenter is the last bastion of hope... for those lucky enough to live near one.
I've driven up to the one in Orange County twice for computer builds. Even with the price of gas it came out cheaper than going to the Fry's near my house, or buying online.
 
I went to one back in the late 2000's in San Jose. Seemed to have a great range and lots of activity at that time. I'm sure they will be missed, although it sounds like they have been sliding for a while.
 
I loved grabbing like 20 bawls before a lan party weekend. Probably took years off my life.
 
Twice the caffeine, none of the taste.

First was Elek-Tek then CompUSA, then RS and now Fry's. Nothing left in my area.
The computers so slowly and steathly start to control our lives. Now we can't even look them in the eyes before we commit to them on line. ok another bitch about no extreme sarcasm emoji! Dammit!!
 
Now that I finally live in a house where I gave a decent workshop set up, more than ever I mourn the passing of any place that you could drop in and pick up resistors, capacitors, meters, and other components that you need for various projects without ordering a dozen of them and waiting for them to be delivered.
 
I also fondly remember Fry's from the '90s and early 2000s. I haven't been in one for probably a decade so I didn't witness the decline. It's interesting that they failed in slow motion. I guess management was asleep or incapable of a pivot.
 
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