|
 I went into a Fry's Electronics the other day because I needed to buy a mouse and it was pretty shocking: mostly empty! What's the deal? The shelves were also looking pretty bare but I ended up making out with a decent enough clicker while they still had them, and I'm glad I did because this place is going kablooey -- and fast. Out of business! A one-way ticket to the electronics superstore afterlife. Down to one cashier too. It was so different only a few months ago. They still had the door guy though -- the one who highlights your receipt to make sure the cashier doesn't slip you a stolen item. A lingering reminder of the paranoid surveillance state that is/was Fry's Electronics. But they were concerned about insider theft of the kind which helped plunge Circuit City into bankruptcy. But it didn't save Fry's from bankruptcy. How interesting. I remember going to Fry's as a kid -- it was a farther drive than the Micro Center but dad took the family out there sometimes. This particular Fry's from my childhood had a bunch of cows on a second-story patio (and inside) that made mooing sounds. You'd park way in the back of the lot because there were so many cars, as business was booming back then, and as you walked closer the moos got louder and louder. Now the only thing that is booming is the sound of laid-off employees being thrown out onto their asses. See:  The gimmicky themes were nice... seemed very random and 80s like a Peter Gabriel video where there's a freight train doing circles around his head or something like that. Anyways what are your memories of Fry's Electronics?
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 04:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 03:19 |
|
|
Also ... don't be shy. I can smell nerd and posting on these forums, my nostrils are filling up with that particular fragrance. Collectively, goons have probably spent several hundred thousand hours inside Fry's Electronics.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 04:36
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mTlEGIiw4I
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 04:38
|
|
|
MicroCenter lmao if you don't live within 50 miles of one
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 04:41
|
|
|
Supreme Allah posted:MicroCenter
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 04:43
|
|
|
Last time I went into fry’s I asked a frail redhead kid who worked there about something and he was literally falling asleep on his feet. Just yawning and nodding off mid sentence. I felt bad for him. I know I’m boring but what the gently caress.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 04:51
|
|
|
I haven't been in a Fry's in about 10 years. Last time was to pick up a hard drive for my sister's laptop. It wasn't as impressive as I remembered them being when I was a child. I liked that they had a big Jacob's ladder they would run sometimes. The ozone was kind of obnoxious but as far as big shiny science things go, it was fun.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 04:52
|
|
|
that loving sucks. I would have loved to have visited one in their heyday.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 04:56
|
|
|
dang
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 05:02
|
|
|
they're just having some delays in shipments everything will be fine
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 05:15
|
|
|
went there as a kid and got electrocuted. gently caress that place
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 05:16
|
|
|
I remember when we figured out the different fry stores were using somewhat generic AOL handles to communicate between stores. Like all good things the internet ruined that fun in record time.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 05:53
|
|
|
I still go to mine from time to time.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 06:01
|
|
|
i got that sick Dawn of the Dead collector's set that has all the different cuts of it from a Fry's, years after it had gone OOP, for like 30 bucks no regerts
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 06:11
|
|
|
Micro Center is still awesome. It’s like the only place around to go and get computer components that isn’t some strip mall shop run by two dudes from Russia who spend their days unloading viruses for grandma. Way back in the day there was a store called Elek-Tek I used to go to because my family were the weird 1990s Macintosh people, and Elek-Tek had the best selection of Mac software. I remember it being mostly dark on the store floor but the shelves were very brightly lit? It was like a store out of Gattaca or Equilibrium or something.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 06:13
|
|
|
Yeah I went to the fry's in Austin recently and it was giving off really strong dead mall vibes. It looked normal earlier this year so I guess whatever happened to them happened fast. Sucks too because now if you need some obscure computer part you can't just drive over there and get it you gotta buy it online and wait and hope it actually shows up. Each store had it's own theme and they don't want people coming in and taking pictures because it's embarrassing to them so all that wacky decor will be lost in time like..... tears... in rain.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 06:17
|
|
|
Hell Yeah posted:went there as a kid and got electrocuted. gently caress that place B-but the demo room is for trying out the tech not loving it 
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 06:18
|
|
|
Hell Yeah posted:went there as a kid and got electrocuted. gently caress that place I was looking at computer parts there one day and an employee walked past me pulling a flatbed cart of CRTs loaded up like ten feet high. Then I heard a smack, and something dragging. I turned around and looked up just in time to see a lone monitor box being pushed off the top of the pile by an overhanging sign. I let out a surprised yell and caught it right before it would have hit me in the face. I stood there for a moment holding this giant box in the air, in shock, as the guy pushing the cart continued to walk away. I chased him down with the monitor and told him he just dropped it on me. His response was, "Oh, ok." Pretty typical day at Fry's.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 06:24
|
|
|
It was cool when it opened imo. I got a tv there my freshman year (03). I went to one south of Portland recently and it was depressing. Hadn’t been in one since the mid 00s.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 06:38
|
|
|
I bet what broke their finances was the special elite training needed for the exit receipt checkers. I mean that's some pro skills.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 06:53
|
|
|
Fry's has claimed that they're trying to transition their suppliers to consignment, which is the reason for their terrible stock levels, but you don't let 90% of your stores suffer like that for months or years on end because you're renegotiating contacts. This poo poo has been going on for years, but it's gotten really bad the past few months; the Companies Circling the Drain thread in PYF has talked about it. It basically feels like a drawn-out liquidation. There are youtubers that do videos on things like this and they post videos and pictures of the stores being ghost towns at prime hours, with miles of empty shelf space.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 06:55
|
|
|
I had a motherboard go out and decided to replace the processor while I was at it, so I called ahead to the local Fry's to see if they had what I wanted in stock. Apparently the local Fry's doesnt stock Intel processors... 
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 06:56
|
|
|
The only time I ever shoplifted was from Fry's. This was so long ago I don't even remember what it was but it was a tiny computer component that I felt was way overpriced at about $30. Sorry for causing them to go out of business, I guess.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 07:10
|
|
|
Action-Bastard posted:Apparently the local Fry's doesnt stock Intel processors... They used to have these nice displays with a bunch of models up on boards so you could look at em all and, really, all they had were the sad empty spaces for where the new stock would be. And dusty, dusty boxes. Kind of sad I never got to sit in the Super Audio setup they had in the little spaceship.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 07:14
|
|
|
Fry's has sucked for at least 10 years now. The last time I went there was like 2 years ago to find an SSD because Amazon was out of the one I was looking for. All of their motherboards were knockoffs of knockoffs, the GPUs were names I had never heard of and it took them an hour just to find a Windows 10 USB stick. None of their shelves were stocked unless you were in the porn aisle.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 07:20
|
|
|
DiggityDoink posted:Fry's has sucked for at least 10 years now. The last time I went there was like 2 years ago to find an SSD because Amazon was out of the one I was looking for. All of their motherboards were knockoffs of knockoffs, the GPUs were names I had never heard of and it took them an hour just to find a Windows 10 USB stick. Glad to hear they still have some hot goods, even if the technology is a bit dated.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 07:28
|
|
|
I hope whoever takes over frys Burbank will keep the theme cuz it owns   but even when i went in to check it out I didnt buy anything
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 07:35
|
|
|
Alan Smithee posted:I hope whoever takes over frys Burbank will keep the theme cuz it owns Their little Cafe also had seats in the form of convertibles and they played 50s creature features.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 08:01
|
|
|
Kuato posted:It was cool when it opened imo. I got a tv there my freshman year (03). I went to one south of Portland recently and it was depressing. Hadn’t been in one since the mid 00s. The one in Wilsonville? Yeah its only got more depressing as of late. I was looking for audino components and they didn't even have that. Barely and monitors and a layer of dust on all the cases. Man to have visited during the hayday
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 08:05
|
|
|
What? Nooooo! Fry’s used to have the best selection of electronics. Amazon’s evil strikes again.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 08:07
|
|
|
The one south of Seattle doesn't have any theme that I can tell. And yeah it was so empty when I went in it the other day. Sad times.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 08:10
|
|
|
Fry’s Electronics: How this tech retailer has survived the fall of brick-and-mortar Morgan Freeman voice: "they did not."
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 09:02
|
|
|
in the radio commercials this guy that sounded like the guy from the b-52's but talked like the micromachines man would just rattle off misc electronic crap insanely fast and then at the end he'd go remember: your best buys ARE. AL-WAYS! *laser noise* at fry's guaranteed
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 09:40
|
|
|
I went there once and they turned me into a store gimmick. What the hell!! I'm still there. Send help.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 09:55
|
|
|
I fondly remember my first and only visit to Fry's in 1997, I was a kid on holiday in the US with my parents and dad wanted to go take a look at hard drives because he was into building PCs and the price difference plus exchange rate with the UK basically meant that they were half price. I wandered around the games section as a kid would and I spotted it. Fresh on release, Starfox 64... I eventually walked out of the store clutching my newly purchased game trying to figure out how I'd eventually manage to play it having a PAL N64. Fry's was cool and good imo.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 09:59
|
|
|
Applewhite posted:What? Nooooo! Fry’s used to have the best selection of electronics. I liked the blister packs of 5 x 1980s LEDs for only 8000% of contemporary digikey part prices. LM317s in individual blister packs but listed with a proprietary catalog number you can only find by thumbing through a tattered heap of pages lying forlorn in a corner burief beneath a heap of VHS tape rewinders.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 11:57
|
|
|
I went into one a couple years ago to get a new CPU for my wife's computer and it took like 4 people to find it in their locked case and then take it to the cashier for me
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 12:34
|
|
|
I remember the processor/ram case being super busy growing up. Like you had to take a number deli counter-style and come back like 20 minutes later
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 13:26
|
|
|
Our Frys also shared a shopping center with a big freestanding Compaq store which was weird
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 13:29
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 03:19 |
|
|
I don't think we have one of those in the frozen north. But they are going out of business so let's just call them future shop junior. Here we have vastly superior canadacomputers for all your computer part and bad customer service needs  Although it's way better to go to a shack run by Russian dudes and haggle imo
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2019 13:29
|
|
