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The slow, agonizing death of Fry's Electronics
- Thread starter Marty Chinn
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AstroNut325
Member
Yup. I mostly use Best Buy and Amazon now for my electronic purchases. My local Best Buy is fantastic.
The City of Industry Fry's is still a good store. But they rarely have any good deals.
The City of Industry Fry's is still a good store. But they rarely have any good deals.
weird I've noticed none of thing physical things you mentioned about the stores for our stores in Houston. The store closest to me is always full. They still have all kinds of product in the register aisle.
I dont really follow the ads so I can't speak to those.
The one in my area basically has help wanted fliers plastered across all the register stations and throughout the store.
Even the grocery stores aren't as aggressive in advertising their need for workers, and they are always hiring.
theepicoftyler
Member
I went to the Fry's nearby my apartment in the Chicago burbs the other weekend to look at camera gear only to find that that section was completely gone. A handful of used cameras still around, but that was about it outside of tripods and stuff. Still a ton of people shopping there, though. I'd rather go there in a pinch looking for tech stuff over Best Buy, but it's definitely on the decline.
No Fry's here, but BestBuy is the same way. They sell a bunch of odds and ends now. But the biggest problem is selection. All of the laptops they sell, which the exception of Apple, are just terrible deals. Their TV selection has dwindled, probably appropriately, but still. I will go there for movies though - by far the best selection of blurays in town, and generally the same price as Amazon - sometimes slightly more expensive, sometimes cheaper.
Enter Here
Banned
I usually go to BestBuy for their 10% off Movers coupon. Do BestBuy still offer those?
Man, Fry's when it first opened near me around 2004 was magical. Massive DVD and game selection with the deepest discounts on new stuff I'd ever seen and a great stock of older stuff. They even started carrying imports for PSP and DS for the first year or so of those systems' lives. It was a godsend after the bitter medicine of Media Play twisting in the wind after Best Buy gutted 'em.
Their DVD/Blu selection's still as good at you're going to find at a brick and mortar, but it's a far, far cry from what it was.
Their DVD/Blu selection's still as good at you're going to find at a brick and mortar, but it's a far, far cry from what it was.
Okay I worked at a Frys for about two and a half months. There were so many things wrong about that store. I worked in the electronic entertainment section or also known as the shitty commission section. There I would try to sell software, musical instruments, speakers, toys, and video games. Oh yeah,and for some reason we had freaking perfume in our section!
I'm a very shy and introverted person so sales might have not been the best thing for me. However, I was able to actually be good at it in the short amount of time I was there. Once you learned the system, you could make alright money on good days. The pay was minimum wage ($7.25 where I was at). My problem came from my managers who were oblivious and vapid half of the time. They would expect the sales people to be merchandisers as well. I once got chewed out because I was helping out customers instead of doinf my assigned task of putting up prices. Engaging the customers was our first priority and somewhere along the line managers forgot that.
Let me tell you about a thing we called TSR also known as touching shit randomly. When there was practically nothing to do and no sales to make we were supposed to go up and down the aisles making them look nice. Well a lot of the times there was nothing to actually do, so I found a way to look busy but not too busy. Lol, I guess that's the retail experience.
I quit sometimes after black friday week which killed me. The money I made that week was the peak I was going to get. My coworkers were really cool and we would have fun. Managers and higher ups ruined the job for us though. You could close and be there till 1:00 am and then expect to open up at 7:00 am. They would do that shit to us.
I'm a very shy and introverted person so sales might have not been the best thing for me. However, I was able to actually be good at it in the short amount of time I was there. Once you learned the system, you could make alright money on good days. The pay was minimum wage ($7.25 where I was at). My problem came from my managers who were oblivious and vapid half of the time. They would expect the sales people to be merchandisers as well. I once got chewed out because I was helping out customers instead of doinf my assigned task of putting up prices. Engaging the customers was our first priority and somewhere along the line managers forgot that.
Let me tell you about a thing we called TSR also known as touching shit randomly. When there was practically nothing to do and no sales to make we were supposed to go up and down the aisles making them look nice. Well a lot of the times there was nothing to actually do, so I found a way to look busy but not too busy. Lol, I guess that's the retail experience.
I quit sometimes after black friday week which killed me. The money I made that week was the peak I was going to get. My coworkers were really cool and we would have fun. Managers and higher ups ruined the job for us though. You could close and be there till 1:00 am and then expect to open up at 7:00 am. They would do that shit to us.
FYE is a better place for Blu Rays than BB. You're in Va Beach right? That FYE at Town Center right around the corner from Best Buy has a pretty big selection of Blu Rays. And they won't be any more expensive than BB would be.
dskillzhtown
keep your strippers out of my American football
I used to go to the one up north near West Road. I haven't been in years though. This thread is making me want to go check it out to see if anything changed at that location. I liked their massive blu-ray section, even though the organization was really weird. I thought it was a Radio Shack on steroids for the most part. A huge PC parts section, along with accessories is hard to find. I would think Best Buy is now the only other brick and mortar option.
Hahaha. Renton is such a shitstain.
possiblyphil
Member
got a 4k/60fps tv I am using for a monitor a few weeks ago... The sale was for Easter sundae, but they weren't open... Thankfully they honored it on Monday. I am very happy.
spazchicken
Member
I love Frys. I went there yesterday to pick up a lap top case, HDMI cable and some batteries. I went TV shopping a few weeks ago and could actually see, hear and touch what I was purchasing.
Amazon is cool and all but when you need something right now, I can't be messing around with prime and all that.
I would also never buy a hot item and expect to get it on launch from Amazon, as proven by so many gaffers stressed and depressed on launch day of their favorite games and systems because the mail man never showed up or the order was delayed. I'll never understand why you guys do that to yourselves.
Amazon is cool and all but when you need something right now, I can't be messing around with prime and all that.
I would also never buy a hot item and expect to get it on launch from Amazon, as proven by so many gaffers stressed and depressed on launch day of their favorite games and systems because the mail man never showed up or the order was delayed. I'll never understand why you guys do that to yourselves.
I remember going to the San Jose Fry's in '96 when I was 12 (I'm pretty sure it was Fry's at that point). I had just received "my" first computer, one specifically for just me. Pentium 166MHz, 64MB of RAM, 2GB hard drive. Eventually got a Riva TNT video card.
anyway, the store was amazing. walls and walls of cool stuff everywhere, and I went home with the coolest buy you could get in the story; Alien Trilogy for the PC.
I spun that game disc in my CD player and listened to the soundtrack for like an entire year.
Since then I've been to their locations in Sacramento, Roseville, and Phoenix. They were tragedies.
anyway, the store was amazing. walls and walls of cool stuff everywhere, and I went home with the coolest buy you could get in the story; Alien Trilogy for the PC.
I spun that game disc in my CD player and listened to the soundtrack for like an entire year.
Since then I've been to their locations in Sacramento, Roseville, and Phoenix. They were tragedies.
If giant Angry Birds displays count as good, then I guess Irving is doing great.
And yeah, that poor Arlington one bums me out. Partially because it's so dead, but mostly because it used to be Incredible Universe and going there as a kid felt like I was going somewhere magic.
Don't even get me started on the Walmart over there that used to be HyperMartUSA!
Sucks you had to go through that but that is retail in a nutshell.
Yea, I am about two minutes from Town Center by car. I have been in that FYE a few times. I noticed they had a much larger selection of anime, and some older movies, but the selection of new and recent stuff isn't always as good and was more expensive from what I saw. I admit though, I didn't really give it a thorough look, I was just passing through with a friend who came for a specific item they had once, and wandered in a different day after picking up books at the B&N next to it. I'll give them another look next week or something.
whiterabbit
Member
I lived in Lake Oswego, so Wilsonville wasn't too far out of the way. I bought my 2DS there in 2013 and some other 3DS stuff.
I remember going to Incredible Universe when I was a kid, and trying out some video games! (Before it became Fry's.)
Now I live in So Cal and I passed a Fry's the other day in San Marcos, but I didn't get to go in... Hopefully they stick around!
Marty Chinn
Member
Lucky.
There was a Microcenter in the Sunnyvale, CA and Santa Clara, CA area. Got Fatal Frame 1 and 2 for $30 each there. (Ebay prices were in the $60s). Sadly turned into a Neighborhood Walmart.
Everyone here is talking about Microcenter, but when that one in Santa Clara existed, it was just way too close to Sunnyvale Fry's and it was so terrible in comparison. There was just no reason to go to Microcenter when you could just go up the street to Fry's. So it seems odd to me to hear the praise of Microcenter.
Have they got the new registers? It seems like they got rid of all the counter products when they switched to the new registers. That's also when they decided not to replace all of them so that's why the number of registers is cut by at least half and now there's just a ton of open counter gaps in between them. It looks bad.
Oi.
As someone who saw the death of compusa, tower records, sam goody, borders, radio shack and circuit city this makes me sad. I'd go to frys over best buy any day if there was one near me. That's painful to read.
Not to mention the benefits of seeing/holding products first hand and not waiting for shipping.
As someone who saw the death of compusa, tower records, sam goody, borders, radio shack and circuit city this makes me sad. I'd go to frys over best buy any day if there was one near me. That's painful to read.
Not to mention the benefits of seeing/holding products first hand and not waiting for shipping.
cr0w
Old Member
I worked at the one in Webster, TX for years, and my friend is the current store manager. I still go in occasionally for random parts here and there.
Every time I go in there, the staff is more confused and lost than the previous visit. I know the company management changes things on a weekly basis, from endcaps and sales and merchandising to pay, positions and roles. There is quite literally no direction in the company, and it's only getting worse. The entire business is built on the whims of Randy Fry and his brothers.
I know they've been seeking buyouts for years, including Best Buy almost taking the plunge but deciding against it simply because the stores are just too damn big to be profitable. I'm shocked they're still around, to be honest.
Every time I go in there, the staff is more confused and lost than the previous visit. I know the company management changes things on a weekly basis, from endcaps and sales and merchandising to pay, positions and roles. There is quite literally no direction in the company, and it's only getting worse. The entire business is built on the whims of Randy Fry and his brothers.
I know they've been seeking buyouts for years, including Best Buy almost taking the plunge but deciding against it simply because the stores are just too damn big to be profitable. I'm shocked they're still around, to be honest.
They used to offer really great cpu/mobo deals, second only to Microcenter's.
Hey, remember Microcenter? They closed the ones near me.
They just opened in my city a couple years ago. Store is amazing and pretty busy when I go
Incredible Universe was literally incredible back in the day, especially as a kid. The console area had multiple playable kiosks of every single console out at the time (including the Jaguar, 3DO and Saturn). The computer areas had dozens of high end (for the time) PCs and Macs loaded with trial versions of tons of games you'd never heard of, and it was basically a nerdy kid's Disneyland (which was the point).
Funnily enough, it was bought out by Fry's right around the time I got into computer programming and tinkering with electronics, so rather than feeling like I lost something with the sale, the store felt like it was growing with me; it now had all of the weird little things for sale that I was now interested in. Times were good and I still went to Fry's regularly until the mid 2000's when places like MWave and NewEgg had better selection for lower prices.
I went into my local Fry's (in Sacramento) a few weeks ago, and it was about as depressing as it was barren. This was during what I would think is one of their busiest times of the week, and it was dead. The employees just stood around looking at you hoping maybe they could help because they were obviously so bored. There were entire rows of shelves that were either completely empty or littered with cheap junk that was obviously just stored there rather than in the back so they had as little empty shelving space as possible.
Anyhow, it was sad and I don't see how they make enough money to pay for a 185,000+ square foot building every month anymore.
Funnily enough, it was bought out by Fry's right around the time I got into computer programming and tinkering with electronics, so rather than feeling like I lost something with the sale, the store felt like it was growing with me; it now had all of the weird little things for sale that I was now interested in. Times were good and I still went to Fry's regularly until the mid 2000's when places like MWave and NewEgg had better selection for lower prices.
I went into my local Fry's (in Sacramento) a few weeks ago, and it was about as depressing as it was barren. This was during what I would think is one of their busiest times of the week, and it was dead. The employees just stood around looking at you hoping maybe they could help because they were obviously so bored. There were entire rows of shelves that were either completely empty or littered with cheap junk that was obviously just stored there rather than in the back so they had as little empty shelving space as possible.
Anyhow, it was sad and I don't see how they make enough money to pay for a 185,000+ square foot building every month anymore.
cr0w
Old Member
They have a shrink-wrap machine in the returns section that they would use to make re-wrap things and have them back on shelves by the end of the night. Unless something was visibly broken, they'd just mark it down slightly and put it right back out.
cr0w
Old Member
One crazy thing about them is they don't order stock like normal stores, they prefer to transfer items between stores rather than replenish stock normally. As an employee, we spent our entire week doing POTOs, which are items one store is lacking but we had multiples of. Our entire 8-hour shifts were spent with a list and a highlighter, going through piece by piece and pulling the items on the list and throwing them into a cart, then marking them off on the list as we went. We couldn't stop until the entire list was accounted for. In addition to this, they expected us to stock and sell, and if the POTOs weren't done by a certain time before the weekend, the managers had to stay and do them themselves since they were salaried. Sometimes the DVD lists alone were up to a thousand pieces.
Sir Abacus
Member
I used to work at Fry's in the service desk. It was fun. My manager didn't get on my case about upselling stupid shit. I got to help a lot of people with stuff where they might otherwise be screwed. I was 110% overqualified but I just needed to get out of the house. A lot of the PC sales people hated me for fucking up their sales.
Eventually though, I needed to take a vacation over Christmas. I needed to leave on the 21st. As you know, in retail in the US this is a no-no. My manager begged and pleaded with head office because I was one of the best techs he had. Nope. So I had to quit. Then I came back and reapplied. My manager was very enthusiastic but since I applied as a supplicant it had to go to head office and they came back with "fuck him for thinking he's an actual human being we're not rehiring him". So whatever, it was only $11/hr. Their loss.
Eventually though, I needed to take a vacation over Christmas. I needed to leave on the 21st. As you know, in retail in the US this is a no-no. My manager begged and pleaded with head office because I was one of the best techs he had. Nope. So I had to quit. Then I came back and reapplied. My manager was very enthusiastic but since I applied as a supplicant it had to go to head office and they came back with "fuck him for thinking he's an actual human being we're not rehiring him". So whatever, it was only $11/hr. Their loss.
cr0w
Old Member
Yep, at a certain point, no matter the reasoning or if you left the store the right way, you were ineligible for rehire. That's a directive from Ken Lutz, one of the company executives.
pinsomniac
Member
Wonder who else might have been interested, considering Best Buy is really the only major electronics retailer left. I can't imagine why they were considering buying them out, as they already had a pretty strong presence in the markets Fry's is located in (or at least those in CA). Maybe they were going to keep the Fry's name & use their larger stores to do something different?
Sir Abacus
Member
The entire company from top to bottom is penny wise, pound foolish. Like for instance they put a T1 into the service desk. In 2015. So not only were they paying hundreds of dollars a month, they were paying it for vastly inferior service as say, a humble fucking Comcast connection.
So yeah, they're all so concerned with sucking their own loot from the company and stabbing other people in the back that the management is in shambles.
A Serious Man
Member
I go to the one in Arlington on occasion, it's basically just a giant cavern of sadness. It might actually do decent business but the amount of empty space in there makes it feel dead no matter what. Being forced to walk past 20 unmanned registers on your way out probably doesn't help the vibe.
ss_lemonade
Member
I think I spend more time there browsing than actually buying stuff. Frys Renton is pretty memorable though because I was still new here in the US and it was my first time seeing a retail store like that. I also got to meet up with mkenyon of the pc gaf side there (he gave me all sorts of stuff like a case and ram).
I also bought my laptop there just a couple of months ago. Its great for actually seeing the products on display
I also bought my laptop there just a couple of months ago. Its great for actually seeing the products on display
TheWrathOfSean
Member
This pretty much. DVD's were the reason I went in as often as I did. Streaming hit, so I never got into Blu Rays.
They were always the place to go in order to get Atlus titles too.
I go in once in a while when there's some sort of electronics thing that I want that day, but often they don't seem to have what I'm looking for anymore.
Sir Abacus
Member
The sad thing is they used to need that many registers for holiday shopping.
Fry's used to be the place to go 1999-early 2000s. Normal priced import games / cool DVD selection, and great sales on PC tech / games. Now...it just feels like Sears.
thekonamicode
Member
I'm sad I missed out on the awesomeness of Fry's and even 90s Best Buy.
The Fry's In Dallas just off 635 and Northwest Highway is in pretty bad shape, but a few years ago it was in HORRIBLE shape. I remember stopping there before going to Studio Movie Grill down the street to watch Prometheus in 2012. It was raining that day, and the store was literally filled with shopping carts lined with plastic trash bags catching water dripping from holes in the roof. All the carpet was wet and the store had a mildew smell. Some of the shelves had tarps over them to keep the merchandise dry.
I took photos of the store and reported them to the Dallas health department, fire marshal, and building inspector. I even emailed their corporate office. About a week later, the manager called me to apologize for his store and promised that they are working to fix the problems. Funny enough, I never contacted that store directly about the problems, so clearly my message got back to them. A few months later, the store did have a new roof and the store no longer rains inside when its raining outside.
Even funnier, soon after, they started getting crazy serious about people taking photos of their store. They even had a sign as you walked in that says photos of the store are prohibited.
I took photos of the store and reported them to the Dallas health department, fire marshal, and building inspector. I even emailed their corporate office. About a week later, the manager called me to apologize for his store and promised that they are working to fix the problems. Funny enough, I never contacted that store directly about the problems, so clearly my message got back to them. A few months later, the store did have a new roof and the store no longer rains inside when its raining outside.
Even funnier, soon after, they started getting crazy serious about people taking photos of their store. They even had a sign as you walked in that says photos of the store are prohibited.
Mad Season
Banned
The frys in Austin Texas is huge and busy. I price match amazon all the time and get it locally
Found 2 of the photos I took... Imagine the entire store looking like this with rain dripping from the roof.
CarpeDeezNutz
Member
People were shopping in that mess?!
That is sort of good to hear. I had never been to a Fry's, but always heard about them online. I went to Dallas for work and stopped by Frys and Babe's Chicken House one night just so see what it was like.. I was pretty disappointed. I drove an hour round trip just to get there.. The chicken was amazing, though!
Gonna check out the Fry's in Phoenix next week.
I recall it being pretty empty that day. I typically only find myself in Fry's when I happen to be in the area of a store and have free time. I'll just kill time and maybe pick up a blu-ray or two that happens to be on sale for $5 or I had no idea was even released. That is a nice thing about Fry's, they stock a lot of uncommon movies. I got Miami Connection there for $15 and had no idea that Alamo Drafthouse Films had released it on blu-ray.
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