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| Fry's Electronics Going Out of Business? |
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| Sal Ammoniac:
--- Quote from: djacobow on September 21, 2019, 08:40:22 pm ---A fun thing about Fry's is that the stores were themed. I think the one in Palo Alto has gigantic components on the wall, so it's like you're inside a computer. The one in Campbell is Egyptian themed because why not. They also have random "exhibits" of old SV stuff, including an Apple I under glass and some interesting power tubes for radar applications. --- End quote --- The Palo Alto store theme is the Old West. You're thinking of the second Sunnyvale store (there have been three)--that's the one with the gigantic components on the wall. --- Quote ---I don't live in SV anymore. Is Central Computer still going strong? --- End quote --- Yes, it is. They've opened new stores in San Mateo and Pleasanton. The Pleasanton store was very convenient for me, but, unfortunately, they closed it about a year ago. The Sunnyvale store burned down in April and they're about to open a replacement store at a different location in Sunnyvale. |
| Sal Ammoniac:
--- Quote from: CatalinaWOW on September 22, 2019, 03:57:46 am ---They can blame Amazon, but it has been a long downhill slide starting long before Amazon made any real difference. In my mind they reached their apex sometime in the mid 80s and it has been downhill since. It was once shear magic to go into one of their stores and see anything you could imagine stuffing in or around a desktop computer at prices at or below anyplace else I could find. --- End quote --- Fry's was amazing when it first opened. I went to the grand opening of the Sunnyvale store (Fry's store #1) back in 1985 and it was like nothing else around. You could pick up all sorts of computer components, from disk drives, memory, and even the little parts needed to put everything together. They literally had it all. You could also pick up a case of Jolt Cola or potato chips while you were at it because they had a big selection of nerd junk food in the middle of the big aisles. Customer service has never been good at Fry's, even in the old days. It has always mostly been immigrants with poor English skills and even poorer technical skills. Fry's was great if you knew exactly what you wanted, but not so great if you didn't. I've overheard lots of completely nonsense advice given to customers by some of these clueless idiots over the years. I've often stepped in and told the customer the real facts, sometimes to the disgust of the salesdroid. What people have said about Fry's selling returns is very true. Their shrinkwrap machine in the backroom got a constant workout as they repackaged returns and put them back on the shelf as new. I remember picking up a Jaz disk cartridge (anyone remember those?) from the shelf and noticed it had a stick-on label with "'97 Financials" written in ink that someone obviously tried to erase. I was tempted to buy it just to see if I could read the data. At some point in the past, Fry's did start to put a sticker on returned merchandise saying that it was a return and offering a slightly (very slightly) lower price. In some stores, re-shelved returned items outnumbered new items. Even before the shelves started getting bare, it was obvious that Fry's management was milking the cash cow and not bothering to update or maintain the stores. Most stores had worn out carpeting, scuffed up floors, and junk in shopping carts in the middle of the aisles. Demo hardware (like keyboards and cameras) were often in desperate shape, with missing keys and controls and smashed plastic parts. Fry's started out as Disneyland for nerds and evolved into a low-rent mecca for Joe Sixpack looking for the cheapest Chinese TV he could find. |
| EEVblog:
--- Quote from: Sal Ammoniac on September 22, 2019, 10:18:25 pm --- --- Quote from: djacobow on September 21, 2019, 08:40:22 pm ---A fun thing about Fry's is that the stores were themed. I think the one in Palo Alto has gigantic components on the wall, so it's like you're inside a computer. The one in Campbell is Egyptian themed because why not. They also have random "exhibits" of old SV stuff, including an Apple I under glass and some interesting power tubes for radar applications. --- End quote --- The Palo Alto store theme is the Old West. You're thinking of the second Sunnyvale store (there have been three)--that's the one with the gigantic components on the wall. --- End quote --- I've been to the Myan themed San Jose store, I thought it was fantastic. |
| maginnovision:
--- Quote from: EEVblog on September 23, 2019, 06:05:47 am --- --- Quote from: Sal Ammoniac on September 22, 2019, 10:18:25 pm --- --- Quote from: djacobow on September 21, 2019, 08:40:22 pm ---A fun thing about Fry's is that the stores were themed. I think the one in Palo Alto has gigantic components on the wall, so it's like you're inside a computer. The one in Campbell is Egyptian themed because why not. They also have random "exhibits" of old SV stuff, including an Apple I under glass and some interesting power tubes for radar applications. --- End quote --- The Palo Alto store theme is the Old West. You're thinking of the second Sunnyvale store (there have been three)--that's the one with the gigantic components on the wall. --- End quote --- I've been to the Myan themed San Jose store, I thought it was fantastic. --- End quote --- Anaheim is space themed. They have a replica shuttle control at the front. Makes sense since they're also right by rockwell/boeing and some other space companies. I was at Rockwell once and got to use their VERY expensive jet simulator. The shuttle sim wasn't powered up at the time but I still got to go through their lander and shuttle models(life size). |
| Sal Ammoniac:
The Fremont store has a gigantic Tesla coil that's very impressive in operation. They used to run it for a few minutes hourly, but I haven't seen it run in years. Like a lot of things at Fry's stores, they probably didn't maintain it properly and it fell into disrepair. |
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