Who wants to buy a Fry's store with me?

[riyadh144]

Hi,
So I really miss Fry's. And I think I have a model that would make the store work in a great way and make it sustainable.
I would buy the store and turn a section of it into a maker space, where nerds can corporate with each other and help each other. Because let us be honest you can never hire nerds who know what they are talking about for retail wages.
The store would not focus on profit, I would even go further and call it a non profit. It will return our initial investment and the rest will go back into the store and the community.
All the profits made from the sales would go into buying more equipment and if high enough would go into buying other locations.

I know I am silly and probably will never happen but that is what I want.

Thanks for humoring my silly thoughts.

[xrunner]

Few would go there.

It's all on the internet now - meetings, tutorials, parts, forums, live video. That's why brick and mortar is failing.

That civilization is gone with the wind.

[riyadh144]

Well my argument for that would be the following, I do go to the store to be inspired for the community, to talk to people who are like minded. And by integrating a maker space in that it will enhance the sense of community. And by removing the profit motive it will drive prices down.

[ataradov]

That what TechShop was. And it failed miserably.

You need to be profit motivated enough to come up with rent or payments for the place. And that's not cheap at all. And if you only buy one, then you will be limited to a fixed location. So the question is - where are you located? Why would I be even theoretically interested in buying a store across the country?

[riyadh144]

Oh no I want it to be very well managed, and I want it to be profitable but for the stores own success it would mainly profit its workers. It should be a tightly run ship.

Also It can be people from the same geographical area buying their store. I might want to buy the one in Burbank but you might want to buy the one in the Bay area we can have multiple groups working on multiple ones at the same time.

[ataradov]

Do you think current owners did not want them to be "very well managed"? What is your experience in managing organizations like this?

And how exactly you want to buy one? How are you going to come up with the money? There is no way you can just collectively scrap enough money from local people. You need a business plan and a loan.

Again, you want TechShop. It failed, even though it operated from rented places on much-much smaller scale.

[riyadh144]

Fry's wasn't well run or well managed at least not of late. You want to see a well managed shop go and look at MicroCenter, that place is hopping. I never claimed that I have the skills to run a place, I am just a nerd who wants this to happen enough that I am ready to pour time and money into it, but sadly I don't have all the means necessary nor all the experience necessary, that is why I am asking here if anyone cares to collaborate.

[ataradov]

It was not. But do you thuik they wanted it that way? It is not easy to manage a place like this. Or do you plan to steal managers from MicroCenter? How do you plan to pay their salaries?

There is no amount of desire that will cover inexperience.

The best thing you can do is start small. Rent a small(-ish) office space and start from there. You don't need a huge warehouse for 15 people. And I doubt you will get more.

[riyadh144]

The problem is I completely agree with you. Thanks for crushing a dream, you couldn't humor me for a few minute!!!   

[ataradov]

The idea of organizing a local maker space is not crazy and doable with some level of enthusiasm.  But again, study the path of TechShop and see why they failed. A primary issue here is that the level of involvement and interest from participants changes with economy, but the rent is due every month.

The idea of making another Fry's is simply crazy.

[riyadh144]

Well, the thing is I want it to be self sustaining, and to have it be that I would want it to be able to sell profitable hardware, such as computer components and TV's That would be a core part of the business of making it sustainable.

But as you said it doesn't need to be the size of fry's as that would be unnecessary at best.

Another thing that could help in my opinion with space is the trend of working from home and abandoned offices which in my opinion would result in the crash of the commercial real state giving us cheaper path to a place.
Saying that actually made me realize that this might actually harm us in a way as there will be less population concentration in the future, which will make our business slower and less appealing.

[ataradov]

Starting a new retail business is not a good idea. Nobody would want to buy a TV from you. You would have to spend millions on marketing first so people even know you exist.  And you would not even get the stuff at a good price from suppliers with the low volume. So I'm not sure how that can ever make any profit.

The only path that makes any sense is a maker space with membership fee.

[riyadh144]

Yeah that is a great point but I will say again the motive isn't to be profitable, the motive is to be sustainable. Yeah didn't think of the fact that we would be getting merchandise at a high price. Great point there.

[Stray Electron]

Well my argument for that would be the following, I do go to the store to be inspired for the community, to talk to people who are like minded.

   If that's your goal, then open a coffee shop! Serious.

And by integrating a maker space in that it will enhance the sense of community.

    I don't see how any maker space will ever be able to break even much less make a profit. The insurance covering people doing stupid things must just eat them alive! And I can only imagine the horrors of what some people would do to expensive equipment that they don't own!

And by removing the profit motive it will drive prices down.

   Ha! Ha! Umm Nope! A completely different market.

   Face it, Fry's had a big head start in this market, and were initially successful, and if they couldn't even stay in business, you're not going to be able to start a new business and make it profitable or even break even IMO.

   Have you ever talked to the owner of a business and asked what it costs to start a new business these days and the amount of time that THEY have to put into running it?  If you haven't, you should!

   Frys and most stores like it are as dead as Sears! (and Woolworth's and McCrorys and K-Mart).  And they're not going to return!

[Stray Electron]

Starting a new retail business is not a good idea. Nobody would want to buy a TV from you. You would have to spend millions on marketing first so people even know you exist.  And you would not even get the stuff at a good price from suppliers with the low volume.

  Great points. I briefly worked in a TV shop in the early 1980s and the owner wanted to retire so he tried to sell it to me. But I could look around and see that the TV repair business was already a dying industry.  Try to find one today!  Also I noticed that the Big Box stores were selling TVs for less than that our cost!  So again there was no profit to be made there.  Even in the few months that I worked there, I could see that people weren't buying from us but were buying from the Big Box stores instead but they immediately brought their TVs to use when they wanted them repaired under warranty! And the TV manufactures paid peanuts for repairs! All around it was a dying business so I got out and went to work elsewhere.

   In the last 30 years the same thing has happened to virtually all of the small independent computer shops that used to actually sell components and actually build computers. They've all been replaced by either mail-order or the Big Box stores that sell pre-built and pre-bundled computers.

[SL4P]

You’d be better off buying the name, and then franchising it out to local retailers.
Set the rules for styling, pricing, and customer service, arrange the wholesale contracts,and hope for the best.

It could be fun, if you manage the costs well enough, but it’s not the 90s any more.

[tom66]

Isn't rent for one of those stores going to be ca.$20k per month, minimum?

So you need to figure out how you get annual income of $240k/year just to pay the rent - after all other expenses like insurance, city taxes (if applicable), heat and power, and any staff.

Where I used to live, we had a hackspace in a dirty industrial area of town.  The rent on that was still £2,000 per month, for 2500 sqft.  You need 100 active members at £25 a month just to cover costs, and that's with directors putting in 10-20 hours a week of free time. Not to mention major headaches like health and safety for members - liability insurance for hackspaces is still very difficult to get, and rather expensive and has restrictions on what members can do (for instance, you're not even allowed near a cordless drill unless you've had a proper induction with trained members and it's all been signed off.  The circular saw requires a training course...)

I applaud you for considering it but work out whether there are 1,000 other people in your town that are just as interested and willing to put say $30 per month towards it.  If so, then it's probably a viable model, but, until then...

[nctnico]

Starting a new retail business is not a good idea. Nobody would want to buy a TV from you. You would have to spend millions on marketing first so people even know you exist.  And you would not even get the stuff at a good price from suppliers with the low volume. So I'm not sure how that can ever make any profit.

The only path that makes any sense is a maker space with membership fee.

Yep. Getting into retail starts with a massive amount of advertising and a clear focus on the target market. Even people experienced in retail can fail big. A couple of years ago a large retail chain selling household items, electronics and clothes went belly up in the NL. Hudson's Bay thought they could take over but they failed (and lost nearly a quarter billion US$) and now the stores are empty again. Analysts say the main problem was lack of strategy.

[jmelson]

That what TechShop was. And it failed miserably.

Yes, and it was a sad case.  BUT, I think they went about it wrong.  All the equipment was brand new, it was run like a **BUSINESS**!
And, the membership fees were astronomical.  Yes, some single guy in a high-tech job living in an apartment could see it making sense.  But, a married guy with a house with a basement would see it as a ton of expense for limited usefulness.

TX/RX labs in Houston is an AMAZING makerspace, caters to a bunch of different interests, and does NOT look much like a "business".
They DO seem to be making their crazy take on the makerspace idea work for them.  If you look them up, their web site just does not do them justice.

Jon

[duckduck]

Isn't rent for one of those stores going to be ca.$20k per month, minimum?

So you need to figure out how you get annual income of $240k/year just to pay the rent - after all other expenses like insurance, city taxes (if applicable), heat and power, and any staff.
<SNIP>

I started my IT career working at a small computer store. I did repairs and upgrades. One of the owners said "Can you imagine being the general manger at the local Fry's store: 'Oh no! Oh no! We only sold US$100,000 today!' "

[jmelson]

I started my IT career working at a small computer store. I did repairs and upgrades. One of the owners said "Can you imagine being the general manger at the local Fry's store: 'Oh no! Oh no! We only sold US$100,000 today!' "

If a single Fry's store EVER sold 100K in a single DAY, I'd be astounded!  Some of our larger chain grocery stores might actually hit that volume per store.  No doubt Wal Mart does.  But, FRY's?  I doubt it.

Jon

[penfold]

The maker space could business model is a bit flawed commercially for most... but...
Consider from the perspective of a freelancer/consultant, the value of somewhere (maybe with one or two skilled technicians) to handle some of the "highly valuable in terms of presentation to customer but not an ultimate deliverable" stuff like simple machining jobs, laser cutting acrylic front panels or enclosure sides, little test fixtures and stuff like that... maybe add some pre-compliance EMC gear if it takes off...
...surely that could be worth $300 a month to enough people locally that it could add some backbone to any other sales model or evening/weekend maker space geared around training individuals and leveraging some lower cost labour in doing some of these tasks,