News Fry's done gone bankrupt

[hal2kilo]

Wow, I was so amazed the first time I went to one (on La Palma, next to the 91 in either Placentia, or Anaheim). They had this big mock space shuttle in the front of the store, had Bose speaker demo rooms. And massive amounts of grey ware. With the realization that, I don't need to go to the swap meets anymore. Their ads were the only reason to pick up an Orange County Register.
But they have closed their doors

Fry’s Electronics to Shut Stores, Cease Operations - WSJ

 

[fskimospy]

I saw this, a sad day. I got the parts for the first computer I put together myself from Fry’s. Athlon XP 1900 represent!

 

[brycejones]

It’s a sad time for sure. Whenever I would travel to where a Fry’s was I would visit. Microcenter has kind of claimed their spot in the retail market but Fry’s back in the day had enough selection for you to be able to start a hardware company with what you could purchase in store.

 

[fleshconsumed]

Yeah, sad day that was a few years in the making. I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did. I will forever fondly remember buying the infamous ecs/c2d6300 combos under $200 and overlocking them using pinmod trick, or buying 4TB Hitachis for $89 every time they'd go on sale, or 4790K for around $200. Most recent purchase was 3400G for $100 at the end of 2019 (should have gotten 2 silly me). Those were the days.

Sad to see them gone. I just hope Microcenter stays alive to provide some semblance of competition to Newegg/Amazon.

 

[hal2kilo]

Yeah, sad day that was a few years in the making. I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did. I will forever fondly remember buying the infamous ecs/c2d6300 combos under $200 and overlocking them using pinmod trick, or buying 4TB Hitachis for $89 every time they'd go on sale, or 4790K for around $200. Most recent purchase was 3400G for $100 at the end of 2019 (should have gotten 2 silly me). Those were the days.

Sad to see them gone. I just hope Microcenter stays alive to provide some semblance of competition to Newegg/Amazon.

That's basically what happened, i.e. the Newegg phenomena. That's just where I go to when looking for hardware. Since probably 2002. And being Prime member, I'll back check the same item if I can and buy it there if cheaper.

 

[fleshconsumed]

That's basically what happened, i.e. the Newegg phenomena. That's just where I go to when looking for hardware. Since probably 2002. And being Prime member, I'll back check the same item if I can and buy it there if cheaper.

Yeah, sadly it's newegg/amazon monopoly now. I remember shopping at googlegear (urban legend goes they had to change their name to zipzoomfly because google sued them), and jab-tech, both excellent stores but both dead now. I tried giving business to non-newegg outlets whenever possible, but newegg undercut everybody on the price in those early days and most people just went to newegg for convenience alone.

Nowadays I try to use BestBuy (they're good for WD easystores and razer/logitech mice) or Microcenter whenever possible as opposed to newegg/amazon. Hopefully it'll help them to stay afloat to provide some kind of competition in retail space.

 

[imported_tajmahal]

Agree, it's a sad day for consumers and old time electronic heads.

 

[repoman0]

Microcenter at least here in Cambridge MA is always packed. How the hell did Fry’s manage to shut down? Legit electronics and computing stores seem like a winning formula these days. I never had one locally but remember visiting at age 10 or 12 near Phoenix AZ and it feeling like a wonderland. Now I feel the same at MC 20 years later lol.

 

[zzyzxroad]

Wow, I was so amazed the first time I went to one (on La Palma, next to the 91 in either Placentia, or Anaheim). They had this big mock space shuttle in the front of the store, had Bose speaker demo rooms. And massive amounts of grey ware. With the realization that, I don't need to go to the swap meets anymore. Their ads were the only reason to pick up an Orange County Register.
But they have closed their doors

Fry’s Electronics to Shut Stores, Cease Operations - WSJ

I used to work very close to that Fry's and would visit it weekly. I seem to recall preferring the location near the South Coast Plaza though. In the mid 90s they were amazing (outside of their returns line) and enabled me to easily build my first serval systems.

 

[zzyzxroad]

Microcenter at least here in Cambridge MA is always packed. How the hell did Fry’s manage to shut down? Legit electronics and computing stores seem like a winning formula these days. I never had one locally but remember visiting at age 10 or 12 near Phoenix AZ and it feeling like a wonderland. Now I feel the same at MC 20 years later lol.

MC has much better management than Fry's did and a very different model.

Yeah, sadly it's newegg/amazon monopoly now. I remember shopping at googlegear (urban legend goes they had to change their name to zipzoomfly because google sued them), and jab-tech, both excellent stores but both dead now. I tried giving business to non-newegg outlets whenever possible, but newegg undercut everybody on the price in those early days and most people just went to newegg for convenience alone.

Nowadays I try to use BestBuy (they're good for WD easystores and razer/logitech mice) or Microcenter whenever possible as opposed to newegg/amazon. Hopefully it'll help them to stay afloat to provide some kind of competition in retail space.

Not sure how googlegear ever thought google was going to let them get away with that.

Agree Microcenter is a great organization and if I buy anything computer related (extremely rare these days) I send it their way. As for Newegg, thy are probably much smaller then you think. Compared to Amazon no one in the online space is significant.

 

[Burpo]

Yes, I'm surprised they lasted this long. Selling mass quantities of loss leaders will never be a model for longevity..

 

[zzyzxroad]

This thread reminded me of Buy.com getting acquired by Rakuten. I get that they were an established brand in Japan but giving up the Buy.com name always seemed absurd to me.

I just pulled their .com site up and looks like they are no longer selling products.

https://www.rakuten.com/shop/

 

[Meghan54]

On one hand, sad to see Fry's and its competition go under. On the other hand, got really tired of having to inspect every damned part bought to ensure it wasn't a returned part being sold as new...and I got stuck with a few of those over the years, esp. with used cpus and memory.

Fry's had one impressive selection of computer cases and motherboards, for instance, yet had shit for power supplies and water cooling...both areas in which Microcenter beat them.

 

[woolfe9998]

Yeah, I got the parts for my first PC from Fry's, a Pentium 1. That's how long ago it was. Over the years, I began buying the parts online, but I always had Fry's every time I needed a weird cable or adaptor, such as when the PSU plugs didn't fit the motherboard. Also got PC games there, back before Steam. And other things like headphones. No computer store had the selection of Fry's. They had everything. A sad day.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I`m going to miss the food bar out here in the California fries in San Diego!!
They had the burgers and fry`s anywhere in San Jose!! damn shame!!

 

[JEDIYoda]

Doesn`t the closing of fry

 

[Viper1j]

Wow, I was so amazed the first time I went to one (on La Palma, next to the 91 in either Placentia, or Anaheim). They had this big mock space shuttle in the front of the store, had Bose speaker demo rooms. And massive amounts of grey ware. With the realization that, I don't need to go to the swap meets anymore. Their ads were the only reason to pick up an Orange County Register.
But they have closed their doors

Fry’s Electronics to Shut Stores, Cease Operations - WSJ

I'm officially in mourning.

I bought my very first hard drive there. A 10mb external hard drive for the C=128 with the Z80 microprocessor...

Cost: $532.00

Those days were good times..

 

[ch33zw1z]

I got to visit a fry's a couple times in ATL, it was fun. Just another victim of online shopping

 

[SMOGZINN]

Yeah, I got the parts for my first PC from Fry's, a Pentium 1. That's how long ago it was. Over the years, I began buying the parts online, but I always had Fry's every time I needed a weird cable or adaptor, such as when the PSU plugs didn't fit the motherboard. Also got PC games there, back before Steam. And other things like headphones. No computer store had the selection of Fry's. They had everything. A sad day.

They stopped doing that, and that in my opinion is what killed them. Last time I was at Fry's I went there for a HDMI to DVI converter. Not only did they not have any, the clerk that 'helped' me told me that such a thing did not exist, that converting HDMI to DVI was impossible without an expensive powered converter box.
I just shook my head, drove the extra 4 miles to Microcenter where they had an entire selection of them.
I was doing the IT work to set up a new Hospice in the area and that weekend I dropped probably $1000 at Microcenter even though from the window of the office I was setting up I could see Fry's. That little stuff makes a big difference. If you can't sell me the cable I need, I'm not going to buy the monitor from you.

 

[Thump553]

What amazes me is that Best Buy somehow manages to stay afloat.

 

[zzyzxroad]

What amazes me is that Best Buy somehow manages to stay afloat.

I don't know if you recall but Best Buy had some really bad years. They struggled to adapt but seem to have figured it out. I not sure they are out of the woods but they have at least modest grot the past couple of years.

On one hand, sad to see Fry's and its competition go under. On the other hand, got really tired of having to inspect every damned part bought to ensure it wasn't a returned part being sold as new...and I got stuck with a few of those over the years, esp. with used cpus and memory.

Fry's had one impressive selection of computer cases and motherboards, for instance, yet had shit for power supplies and water cooling...both areas in which Microcenter beat them.

Now that you bring this up, that was one of the reasons I ultimately would never shop there. They tried to intentionally mask returned parts that they put back on the shelf. Not sure why they set their business up that way either. I can't think of a brick and mortar operation that doesn't have return rights for returned product so it was not necessary. Vendors hated them because they were notorious for paying late so perhaps that policy made up for that in their mind.

 

[andy2000]

... Last time I was at Fry's I went there for a HDMI to DVI converter. Not only did they not have any, the clerk that 'helped' me told me that such a thing did not exist, that converting HDMI to DVI was impossible without an expensive powered converter box...

Fry's probably had a large selection of VGA cables and accessories though. The Austin Fry's had shelves that were always disorganized, and cluttered with tons of 15+ year old items that never sold.

 

[Dulanic]

Frys died because they failed to keep up with the times. Their web presence was shit. I even tried to order a motherboard there and all that happened what they never called me or emailed me, just canceled it.

I never thought best buy would be the only one to stay alive, but they have been doing well.

 

[Viper1j]

Frys died because they failed to keep up with the times. Their web presence was shit. I even tried to order a motherboard there and all that happened what they never called me or emailed me, just canceled it.

I never thought best buy would be the only one to stay alive, but they have been doing well.

Circuit City has a pretty decent online presence. Back in the day I was one of the tech department managers.

 

[zzyzxroad]

Circuit City has a pretty decent online presence. Back in the day I was one of the tech department managers.

I forgot all about that name being acquired by a company who intended on using it. I just looked and the site looks really clean but based only on their Alexa ranking I assume they are struggling to get traffic. Will have to remember to check their when i am shopping.