Fry's Electronics closing permanently

[Questor]

One of the last signature Silicon Valley retail icons has fallen. Fry's
Electronics is closing its doors for good. Although they're blaming the
pandemic, the stores have been circling the drain for a couple of years. I read
reports of aisles and aisles of empty shelves, with nothing to buy. Employees
gave vague answers when asked about restocking. It was apparent that they were
having cash flow problems, and that their suppliers were no longer extending
credit. I'm surprised they held on this long.

Once the Silicon Valley was an electronics/computer nerd's retail paradise:
Fry's, Computer Literacy Bookstores, Weird Stuff Warehouse, and a handful of
lesser known, similar stores. All gone now.

[Daniel]

Post by Questor
One of the last signature Silicon Valley retail icons has fallen. Fry's
Electronics is closing its doors for good. Although they're blaming the
pandemic, the stores have been circling the drain for a couple of years. I read
reports of aisles and aisles of empty shelves, with nothing to buy. Employees
gave vague answers when asked about restocking. It was apparent that they were
having cash flow problems, and that their suppliers were no longer extending
credit. I'm surprised they held on this long.
Fry's, Computer Literacy Bookstores, Weird Stuff Warehouse, and a handful of
lesser known, similar stores. All gone now.

I never got to go to a Federated, as I was a child when those qwerky ads
were on tv, but it would've been great to visit it once.

[Bud Frede]

Post by Questor
Fry's, Computer Literacy Bookstores, Weird Stuff Warehouse, and a handful of
lesser known, similar stores. All gone now.

I live close to a city that once had a half-dozen surplus stores in one
neighborhood. They had electronics, mechanical stuff, and surplus
technology in general. I used to find all kinds of useful things in
these stores and I was always working on one project or another.

Then the city decided it needed a new football stadium and they rezoned
this area and the developer bought up the land and tore everything down
to build the stadium. That was the end of all the surplus stores and
they never re-opened anywhere else.

Sometimes "progress" brings improvements, and sometimes it does not.

[Adrian Caspersz]

Post by Questor
One of the last signature Silicon Valley retail icons has fallen. Fry's
Electronics is closing its doors for good. Although they're blaming the
pandemic, the stores have been circling the drain for a couple of years. I read
reports of aisles and aisles of empty shelves, with nothing to buy. Employees
gave vague answers when asked about restocking. It was apparent that they were
having cash flow problems, and that their suppliers were no longer extending
credit. I'm surprised they held on this long.

Visited the Las Vegas Fry's store in 2006 and later in 2016. Both times
it looked a real ramshackle of a department store (beds, furniture?),
domestic electricals, Audio, TV, a music store and an enthusiast section
of PC bits and tools. Scopes and meters, books, bagged individual
components.

All of this laid out, and as visitor from the UK, I really wanted to buy
something tech as a momento of the visit. I found nothing that was
keenly priced or immediately useful. The place looked kind of dated and
desolate on both visits.

I bought a Sony branded portable CD player from Radio Shack instead.

Oh well.... time for a slew of YouTube vids lamenting the demise.

[Adrian Caspersz]

Post by Adrian Caspersz
Visited the Las Vegas Fry's store in 2006 and later in 2016. Both times
it looked a real ramshackle of a department store (beds, furniture?), >
Oh well.... time for a slew of YouTube vids lamenting the demise.

Ah, here ye go, vid from an ex-employee

Fry's Electronics | End of an Era | Chris Titus Tech

Yeah, they had perfumery gift sets on sale in there. That was weird.

[Vir Campestris]

Post by Adrian Caspersz
Ah, here ye go, vid from an ex-employee
 Fry's Electronics | End of an Era | Chris Titus Tech
http://youtu.be/B-D3jAGsRTE
Yeah, they had perfumery gift sets on sale in there. That was weird.

Even geeks have mothers ;)

Andy