Frys electronics to close all stores

rooftop59

And no one is surprised... https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/02/frys-electronics-is-no-more-and-all-30-stores-will-soon-close/

mhardy6647

I am surprised they clung to life for so long.

I will always have fond memories of the Frys in Sunnyvale, CA, from my days in the Silly Silicon Valley. It was an easy walk from my place of employment, and I used to go up there often and... spend money on stuff. That was a long, long time ago (1989 to 91).

sucks2beme

The ones around Dallas used to have a line out front for Friday (fryday)
sales to buy whatever hot deal was on. It always seemed the employees
were being held there against there will. Like dealing with the walking dead.
When Microcenter showed up, like night and day. Strictly pc related
and the employees were so much better. Microcenter was pretty busy last time
I went. Their raspberry Pi section was huge.

rooftop59

mhardy6647 wrote: »

I am surprised they clung to life for so long.

I will always have fond memories of the Frys in Sunnyvale, CA, from my days in the Silly Silicon Valley. It was an easy walk from my place of employment, and I used to go up there often and... spend money on stuff. That was a long, long time ago (1989 to 91).

Yea, and I thought the most interesting part was the whole consignment part. I think Loren mentioned the barren shelves a while back...makes sense now.

rooftop59

sucks2beme wrote: »

The ones around Dallas used to have a line out front for Friday (fryday)
sales to buy whatever hot deal was on. It always seemed the employees
were being held there against there will. Like dealing with the walking dead.
When Microcenter showed up, like night and day. Strictly pc related
and the employees were so much better. Microcenter was pretty busy last time
I went. Their raspberry Pi section was huge.

Honestly kind of shocked that a place like microcenter can survive?!? Perhaps that shows that there is still room in the market for socialized B&m stores with knowledgeable employees...as long as you are in a LARGE market like DFW...

mrbigbluelight

There weren't any Frys in our neck of the woods but back in the day their "Hot Deals" weren't limited to "In Store Only".
Shipping wasn't bad so it was all good.

But times changed. Used to buy a lot of stuff from them and Newegg and Accessories4Less.
Good deals, good times.

BlueBirdMusic

I liked all of the small electronics stuff and beyond at the Fry's in Milton GA.

A person could spend a day looking at things. A soldering iron was my last purchase about 5-6 years ago.

I think microcenter survives because it's strictly computer oriented.

tophatjohnny

😢 sad

txcoastal1

The article states it couldn't survive Covid. I have been all the stores in both Houston and Dallas area and couldn't even by something as simple as a wireless mouse as the shelves have been empty for the last couple years. We had to quit going to Frys because sadly, it was a waste of time.

In my line of work Fry's was a staple backup that we used on a weekly basis all over the state picking up parts for service or last minute install needs. I have built many computers with parts purchased from Frys. We have spent 10's of thousands of dollars with this company. We really miss them.

mhardy6647

We were supremely lucky in MA to have a small, local parts store 10 minutes from my house. Amazingly (?!) he's still in business, right in the adorbs little center (such as it is) of Littleton, MA.

http://www.electronicsplus.com/

Not anything like a Frys, but more like the Radio Shack of days long gone (in fact, he was a R/S "affiliated store" for years, way back when). Bailed my b-u-tt out many times when I needed a passive or (especially) a weird battery!

Of course, closer to Boston, in Needham ('right by the TV towers'), Massholes still have "You Blew It" Electronics, too!
https://www.youdoitelectronics.com/

Milito

Bought a lot of computer stuff from them 2000 - 2010. Then started buying from Newegg and Microcenter. I was never really that impressed with their sales staff and customer service.

txcoastal1

I used to be a big Newegg guy too, until they tried to model Amazon using 3rd party sales. I was scammed a couple times and/or received wrong parts and Newegg wouldn't back me up on trying to get exchange or refund from the vendor and never got my product nor my money back.

Newegg would just say "oh well they are not responsible" . Newegg was not monitoring these vendors and weeding them out.

billbillw

BlueBirdMusic wrote: »

I think microcenter survives because it's strictly computer oriented.

Not entirely true...they sell phones, TVs, and lots of miscellaneous stuff...

I do think their core business is PC parts for DIY builds though. They are always busy. They have almost always had the best prices on CPU/Motherboard combos (at least since Frys stopped being a real competitor). It is not significant, but $40 savings on a combo is worth the drive compared to Newegg. It is also nice to be able to talk to someone who is fairly knowledgeable and make sure you are putting together the right parts, and not forgetting anything. Oh yeah, you don't have to wait 3-4 days for a package to arrive either! I visit Microcenter at least a few times a year. I'm lucky there is one that is not far out of the way coming to/from work.

motorhead43026

One of the founders of Microcenter lives 3 miles up the road from me, has quite the spread.

I like MC, I can usually find just about anything I need there on the shelf.

BlueFox

Frys started out here in Silicon Valley, and I spent many a dollar in Frys over the years, but I haven't been there in 12-15 years. Amazon was/is a lot easier.

sucks2beme

In Dallas area, the thing I miss the most is Tanner surplus electronics.
You could wander around and find great deals on stuff. If you were doing repairs
or scratch building, they had a lot of parts a lot cheaper than Mouser.
My understanding is they went under in 2020. I used to go there every time
I went back to Dallas for a visit. I had a work thing where I needed a bunch of
2g industrial compact flash cards. They had a bin of them at $5 per.
I asked for a volume discount and got about 200 of them for a couple of bucks apiece.
Connectors, soldering supplies, blank project boxes, board standoffs, you name it.
I guess Altex is still alive and well in Dallas???

erniejade

Last year, I went to the Fry's out in Downers Grove Illinois. It was looking like a bad Kmart as far as stuff everywhere from T-****'s to mattresses. The sales people had no idea what they were talking about in the computer, audio and TV sections. The place was a mess. I had a feeling that store was going to go out soon but, I didn't then the company itself would close.

nooshinjohn

mrbigbluelight

In the St. Louis area we had "Gateway Electronics" off tbe Rock Road.
It was staffed by ex-Navy ET's and electronic enthusiasts who had knowledge out the wazoo.
Aisles and aisles of bins upon bins of just about any electrical/electronic part you could dream of.
They've since moved downtown. I hope they haven't lost their flavor. 🇺🇸

la2vegas

Frys is closing?

Who knew they were still open .

sucks2beme

mrbigbluelight wrote: »

In the St. Louis area we had "Gateway Electronics" off tbe Rock Road.
It was staffed by ex-Navy ET's and electronic enthusiasts who had knowledge out the wazoo.
Aisles and aisles of bins upon bins of just about any electrical/electronic part you could dream of.
They've since moved downtown. I hope they haven't lost their flavor. 🇺🇸

There used to be a bunch of places like that.
A lot of the people who went to places like that were ex military techs.
Or Hams. There was also a 1st Saturday open air flea market downtown Dallas.
IT started out as a Ham thing, but morphed into mostly a computer thing.
You could walk around and find just about ANYTHING. Want to buy a vax cluster?
Sun system? Want a pallet of routers? Motherboards?
The brick and mortar guys got tired of competing with it (low prices and often no taxes) so they pushed hard on the city to close it down.
IT ended up moving and downsizing. Then it just fizzled.
I remember getting up and driving down at 5 am to wander around.
And of course, a stop at the wurst wagon for a bratwurst before sunrise
was a must.

mrloren

Yup Fry's is totally toast. Been getting empty for the last few years. I did get lucky with my 4400H @ $699

The news said they were blaming the pandemic.. BS poor management. The way computer and home electronics have been selling the last year they could have made millions. They managed themselves right out of business. Can't sell anything if you don't have anything to sell.

I like Micro Center, problem is it's 106 miles each way. We in San Diego now only have Best Buy and a few high end stores.

txcoastal1

They had acquired so much debt that vendors cut them off

Milito

sucks2beme wrote: »

mrbigbluelight wrote: »

In the St. Louis area we had "Gateway Electronics" off tbe Rock Road.
It was staffed by ex-Navy ET's and electronic enthusiasts who had knowledge out the wazoo.
Aisles and aisles of bins upon bins of just about any electrical/electronic part you could dream of.
They've since moved downtown. I hope they haven't lost their flavor. 🇺🇸

There used to be a bunch of places like that.
A lot of the people who went to places like that were ex military techs.
Or Hams. There was also a 1st Saturday open air flea market downtown Dallas.
IT started out as a Ham thing, but morphed into mostly a computer thing.
You could walk around and find just about ANYTHING. Want to buy a vax cluster?
Sun system? Want a pallet of routers? Motherboards?
The brick and mortar guys got tired of competing with it (low prices and often no taxes) so they pushed hard on the city to close it down.
IT ended up moving and downsizing. Then it just fizzled.
I remember getting up and driving down at 5 am to wander around.
And of course, a stop at the wurst wagon for a bratwurst before sunrise
was a must.

Yea, I went to 1st Saturday numerous times in Downtown Dallas back in the day.

sucks2beme

It was quite the event.
PC parts all over, used and new.
When a company dumped their current pc's, they would show up there on a pallet.
Radio shack liquidators would also have a ton of returned stuff/broken stuff
in bulk. Sometimes you could get a pretty decent deal on something that just needed
a bit of work. My 1st laptop came from there. It was a 286 clone.

PSOVLSK

Frys is where I got my start with Polk. I think I paid $200 for some LSi7. I walked out of there on New Years Eve about 10 years ago with a pair of LSi15 for $450. That’s a lot of speaker fir $650.

I also bought an H/K 7200 AVR for about $700 on a separate occasion. Luckily I bought the extended warranty because it went South and they weren’t able to fix it. They tried to replace it with an 845 or some such as an “equivalent” replacement. I basically told them I wasn’t leaving the store without a 7300, the replacement TOTL AVR. It took a while, but we finally came to an agreement. I got the 7300, but the warranty I had purchased for the 7200 would be considered null and void. No worries there, the warranty had already served it’s purpose.