General > General Technical Chat
Fry's Electronics Going Out of Business?
james_s:
I remember the excitement going around where I worked at a major software company when the Fry's in Renton was being built. I'd heard of Fry's before but I'd never actually been to one. The one they opened near here wasn't themed but I do remember it being pretty amazing, it was the walk-in equivalent to Amazon. You could buy anything you needed for your computer, some snacks, replacement components for another project, furniture to set it on, anything. I still have the Onkyo home theater in a box I bought there probably close to 15 years ago.
bson:
Back in the day Fry's was great, because they had everything. Needed a PCMCIA SCSI adapter? No problem. If it was sold, they had it. They often had great specials on memory, PC mainboards, hard drives, monitors, enclosures, power supplies, etc - from back when we built our own PCs. (I switched to Macs around 2003 and never looked back.) It used to be great to just walk around and discover both new and interesting stuff I had never seen before, and look for bargains. And stop for a pastrami sandwich at Togo's across from the Sunnyvale store. (And maybe tour Weird Stuff.) Grab a case of drinks and some random snacks on the way out.
They haven't had anything I've wanted or needed for well over 10 years. Togo's has closed. Weird Stuff is closed. Fry's still hosts the Electronics Flea Market on their parking lot. But it's mostly trash, rarely do I see anything remotely interesting there.
cdev:
Lots of stores are like that. They dont want other stores to copy their "look" - But now they cant enforce it because everybody is always messing with their cell phones.
One HUGE Asian market (H-Mart) near here has given me a hard time for taking photos many times in the past, because I actually was using a camera that looked like one.. But of course now with cell phones its impossible to stop. But actually, lots of stores in NYC are like that too. The really nice stores. Also I think Ikea doesnt like it. (strange because i bet they repeat the same layouts from store to store all around the world).
--- Quote from: james_s on September 25, 2019, 05:20:45 am ---That's bizarre, had I know about a policy like that I would have been far more inclined to sneak a covert camera in there and take a bunch of pictures just because. Can't imagine why they'd care about that.
--- End quote ---
cdev:
Weird Stuff.. I used to love that store..
There were a bunch of great electronics surplus stores around there, are any still in operation?
--- Quote from: bson on August 22, 2020, 01:08:21 am ---Back in the day Fry's was great, because they had everything. Needed a PCMCIA SCSI adapter? No problem. If it was sold, they had it. They often had great specials on memory, PC mainboards, hard drives, monitors, enclosures, power supplies, etc - from back when we built our own PCs. (I switched to Macs around 2003 and never looked back.) It used to be great to just walk around and discover both new and interesting stuff I had never seen before, and look for bargains. And stop for a pastrami sandwich at Togo's across from the Sunnyvale store. (And maybe tour Weird Stuff.) Grab a case of drinks and some random snacks on the way out.
They haven't had anything I've wanted or needed for well over 10 years. Togo's has closed. Weird Stuff is closed. Fry's still hosts the Electronics Flea Market on their parking lot. But it's mostly trash, rarely do I see anything remotely interesting there.
--- End quote ---
Adafruit, whose office is in lower Manhattan should open up a pick up counter at least on the ground floor of their building, to bring back the grand tradition of going to radio row and picking up the parts you need. A very long time ago, really before my time the area was electronics nirvana.. however even by the time I started going there despite the buiding of the WTC, there still were dozens of shops there.. But theywere all driven away by the WTO and rising rents, propbably.
Real estate is expensive but they literally would almost have the area to themselves, there is just one store - the back of a store actually on Canal St. Have not been there in a while. And there is a store that sells CCTV stuff mostly, and there is an old electronics surplus store, Leeds in Brooklyn, and of course Mini Circuits which I have never gone to, but should. (it would be dangerous going there for me)
NYU has a bookstore that has a selection of electronics parts parts aimed at students..
Also, there is a chain here, that seems to be thriving, (East coast, US) MicroCenter. Why is Micro Center thriving? Maybe because electronics as a hobby is part of it, they sell computers too, and seem to be doing okay. Their prices are good. Their stores are fairly large.
Sal Ammoniac:
--- Quote from: cdev on August 22, 2020, 02:20:29 am ---Weird Stuff.. I used to love that store..
There were a bunch of great electronics surplus stores around there, are any still in operation?
--- End quote ---
Halted moved from their big store into a smaller store a few years ago and a year or two after they moved they sold their operation to another company and moved their operations to the new owner’s facility near the SJ State campus. All of the old people seem to be gone and the new owners sell a bunch of junk in addition to what they acquired in the Halted purchase. The whole feel of the place is different and just not the same. :--
Although not really a surplus store, Anchor Electronics on Walsh Avenue is still there (or at least it was before Covid shut everything down) and, although small, it has a lot of useful stuff.
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