Yup, the selection and stock levels have been dropping noticeably in the Dallas and Houston stores since at least 2018 or earlier. By the middle to end of 2019, the stores had become ghost towns with very few shoppers and even fewer sales people to help when you are looking for something they should have. If anything, the surprise is in how long they have tried to hang on. What’s puzzling is that less than 5 years ago, they were some of the busiest stores and were always packed with long checkout lines even with a dozen registers open.
That’s unfortunate. We never had Fry’s but we had smaller parts stores and Radio Shack go extinct. They can’t keep up with the seemingly ‘infinite’ supply and convenience of web stores.
That’s sad, I miss their store in Duluth, GA. Used to go there every weekend for various parts and general shopping. They really took a hit around the Christmas 2018 season, I guess they didn’t have the sales they expected because their stock never really came back in the spring and then it was a slow slide into oblivion before they closed last year.
Oh no, sad to see them go! I suppose it was inevitable though all things considered. I had a Frys in Wilsonville, OR I would go to. I hadn’t been since summer 2019 before the pandemic hit though. I remember the last visit that the shelves were getting bare and inventory was down, plus the prices had gone up. After Radio Shack died they still had hard to find stuff like components, wire, etc not available off line. It was nice if you needed a PC part and didn’t want to wait for shipping from Amazon or Newegg, or pay ridiculous markups from PC repair places. Soon we will be buying almost exclusively online…
I doubt it. The whole business is shutting down. They may carry on though if someone buys them out and keep the online part going like what happened with Radio Shack. But then again, such stiff competition would probably make it a moot point. I don’t know how Radio Shack is still going even online.
Never heard of Fry’s but here in Canada the Radio Shacks filed for bankruptcy some time ago and were revived as The Source. Bell Canada is the sole owner and is using the storefront for promoting their Internet packages/cable TV/cell coverage. There are still some limited stores in my town, deserted with very few customers.
As CNCman pointed out, electronic part suppliers are on the web. Other novelties and general electronic devices are sold thru the mega-chain Best Buy.
Brick & mortar electronic stores that operated in my town either changed vocation, or have a special market as RC drones, or supplier of Energy Storage Solutions for solar/wind. There are but 2 independent stores for the general items (consumables) and some cheap trinkets. They do offer special orders which suit me (some items don’t ‘ePacket’ ship from China - but somehow commercial accounts pass-thru).
No use being sad if everybody keep buying direct from China many more to go the same way.
Everybody keeps doing there little part in destroying their own counties retail little by little. But we all keep doing it.
Odd, as I don’t even recall a Fry’s in NYC, not even a small Fry.
Rat Shack slit its own throat, first when they told ’lectronix geeks to f off, that they wanted to become a me-too cellphone store, then later when they were the only major chain-store to not offer rainchecks, ship-to-store let alone ship-to-customer, price-matching, anything most of us take for granted.
And they seemed genuinely puzzled and clueless as to why their business was irreversibly dying, despite a retarded name-change, like that’d fix anything. Lipstick on a pig…
Aw man, I used to shop in store in California quite often and after I moved to where there were no stores I still mailordered from them.
I bought my first Inova XO3, with the fancy TIROS optic, about >15 yrs ago when they were first released from Fry’s in Palo Alto.
Bought some stuff a couple of months back and still get their weekly email flyers, got one just this Monday! and not a thing was mentioned about closing.
I used to shop at the Fountain Valley store when I lived in CA. Looks like typical cash flow problems. This is what happens when you don’t pay your vendors, or drag them out way past the due date. They tire and quit selling to you. No product, no sales, no profit. Word gets around, it escalates, and goes downhill quickly. Even if they were struggling, California’s covid lockdown measures, was probably the final nail.
“…the stores had become ghost towns
with very few shoppers and even fewer sales people
to help when you are looking for something they should have.
If anything, the surprise is in how long they have tried to hang on.”
this could be said about a lot of retail right now.
Fry’s was a fun place to go, I remember rounding up friends once in a while and taking a trip to ours, about an hour away. We’d spend hours there, looking at stuff we couldn’t buy, eating at the cafe, sometimes we’d splurge on something. It was also a place to go if you had a hardware failure and needed a replacement ASAP.
But for the most part, building a new PC, or upgrading, it makes so much more sense to just order online and have it delivered to your door cheaper. You don’t have to worry about stock levels, deal with salespeople.
I bought a wireless keyboard there once, and I’d picked it out and was just making my way to the checkout when a salesman stopped me and asked if anyone had helped me. I told him no, I knew what I wanted. He said, “come over here, we have a special on that, just take this to the register”, and he printed out a slip with his name on it, but nothing about a discount/savings. He just wanted to score a commission on something he had nothing to do with.
The Walmart of tech (stuff) for years… I’d go there to buy parts for PC’s, etc. But internet sources got more REAL on pricing and when Fry’s lost that “lost leader” edge (on a few key new items they’d sell cheap), there was no need to waste time looking at overpriced tech from last year (when one could indeed buy it for 1/2 on the net). If they just sold toilet paper, diet coke and pampers… they’d still be around
Radio Shack was a victim of poor management, failing to capitalize on market trends and changes in consumer habits (e.g. 5he Internet, ecommerce), and drifting into vertical markets that required more investment and diversification than they were prepared for. Plus they didn’t mange their core inventory well either. 2 bankruptcies abs 4 CEOs later its curtains.
I spent some happy hours in the Fountain Valley Frey’s 20 years ago. The selection and prices were great. They had all kinds of great gadgets I didn’t know I needed until I saw them, I would actually leave my credit cards at home and take cash for what I needed. I didn’t see the decline as I was out of the country. It is sad for Freys but it also makes me sad for all we’ve lost with our changing way of life due to technology and now the pandemic. I feel we are poorer for it.
Wellp, when was the last time anyone went to a brick’n’mortar store? Ever actually need a salesdrone? You’d think it was strictly self-service.
Oh, you might get assailed by 3 separate drones asking about your cellphone plan and wanting you to switch, but want help with tweezer-polish and you’re SOL.
