Fry's Electronics | End of an Era
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- Опубликовано: 28 июн 2024
- What happened to Fry's Electronics? Well, I used to work here several years back and the things they did were questionable...
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:36 What is Fry's Electronics
03:47 What we loved about Fry's
05:17 What went wrong with Fry's
10:42 Final Thoughts .
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What stories do you remember from Fry's?
*Some other stories that ended up on the cutting room floor:*
-Fry's used to turn off the Air Conditioning to the building when closed, even though all employees would remain in the building for another 1-2 hours... May not sound bad, but still sucked when wearing a suit.
-Loss Prevention had a scandal with using the Zoom on the camera systems. Multiple people were fired.
-Sometimes supervisors would purposely go behind you and screw up an isle you just faced. Kinda funny and messed up at the same time because no one could leave before the Facing was done.
I'll bet the cameras were mysteriously zooming in on hot-looking women; had a job where a couple guys were caught doing that.
I heard they would actually buy the lower quality chips and hardware that failed QC testing but still technically worked... Don't know if that's true though.
As a visitor from GB to Blackhat and Defcon, 2nd stop would be Fry's LV to get electronic parts for hacking projects that were not allowed on the plane. I liked the branches in San Francisco. Browse Mobos, scopes, test gear, read books , drink beverages. The only thing missing was a range of Ham radio gear.
Name dropping Mike Mederos made me laugh. He was a fun guy to work with.
I enjoyed going there to walk around and browsing. I did not buy much over there (except the chocolate wafer rolls) because pricing...I could find better quality with better pricing elsewhere.
I had a friend who worked at Fry's. He said at times it was not a fun experience. So I could see why Fry's ended up dying: by not caring enough for employees (one reason).
The thing I really like about Fry's Electronics was the theme each store had. You'll never see a store like it again :(
I knew it was the end when the Fry’s near my job started selling a huge selection of fake colognes.
Yup, Even did a little picture of that midway though. Sad day.
I hear they sold Fake News---papers. Never shadowed their door.
selling furniture and appliances is a sure sign of the end for a technology retailer.
@@PWingert1966 selling appliances is normal for electronic store.. but not normal when they sell furniture and fitness stuff
@@g_pazzini Operational Overhead combined with high marketing costs in a store that is not a primary location for the female Head Of household to attend is a significant block in making appliances a profitable line. Even best buy is only offering premium Wolf and higher-end lines. They also have a larger retail footprint in both Canada and the US as well as some international locations.
I just went to Frys just to be there - the store is so massive that you can spend hours browsing
same! window shopping for that dream computer.
That was the problem. too much browsing and not enough buying
Ong
Same. It was a thing to do on a saturday or a sunday if you had no other entertainment lined up for the afternoon. We used to go and hang around and just chat whilst walking the aisles looking at the latest tech/crap. Always buying something of low value like air cans or some other useless nick-nack. Fun times.
Same here. Fry's Electronics will be missed.
The truth is, fries was dying way before the pandemic, the stuff that they started curing was absolute crap, and they were never known for customer service
Bitwit did a good video with all empty shelves well before the pandemic
Very true, customer service was horrible
@@danr2513 I disagree, Chris & Dan: as a customer I found their service really good. When I bought things that didn't work they were ALWAYS willing to credit what I'd paid toward another purchase. I was an addict: store credit was just fine by me. It's thanks to Frys that I had a Garmin fitness band and have a surge suppressor adequate to let me turn off a desk fan connected to a small inverter, a USB audio sampling device, lots of drive-to-interface adapters, a few hardware RAID boxes and some of the batteries and chargers I still use. One of the first things I bought from Fry's, while living 230 miles south of the nearest store, were EISA sockets for a riser board that got me another few slots on my then- daily driver PC.
The vegas store was dying. They had one cashier lmfao.
Both the Dallas and Arlington TX stores were horrible, way before the pandemic many years before, I have what would be considered many horror stories from both and know people with the same experiences. I lived not far from one store and would drive literally 40 miles and pass another Fry's to get computer parts just to avoid going to Fry's - Good riddance
Worked for a company who's motto was "Our employees are our biggest asset..." Beware of companies like these. They'll treat you like crap.
😑 I work for a consultant company and our employees are our biggest asset it’s our only asset and we don’t treat our people like crap... like anything culture is a big part
Left frys went to home depot and same motto you said and employees are treated with respect
I lived in California in the late 90's early 2000's and loved going to Fry's. But you are 100% correct "don't ever get a opened box from there. You never know what you are getting"
Agreed, but sometimes, you could get some good items cheap -- if you studied it ahead of time.
the open box would always be a few bucks cheaper and had a warning sticker on the box
Oh you knew!! It was always complete shite!!
The best memories were that any new gadget was shown first at Fry's weeks before other stores would have samples to show. It was the place to be to see the latest tech. I was there for the Windows 7 launch when the store was open at midnight on the first legal day they were allowed to sell Windows 7. I was waiting in line at 11 PM with my then girlfriend now wife and there were clowns and jugglers and somebody handing out hot dogs while we waited for the store to open. At the stroke of midnight, the doors opened and we all streamed in and there was a display with all sorts of computers running programs and games on Windows 7. It was like going to Disneyland for computer nerds. It was a massive party. These events weren't unique and they happened several times a year. I worked at a number of Silicon Valley software companies and my friends and co-workers used to call Fry's the "Center of the Universe" in conversation. I will miss it.
at least a year before covid, the stores had nothing in stock and I cant believe they made it this long before closing.. My company used to sell food products to the Cafe and when they didn't pay their bills we pulled their charge account. After we pulled their charge privilege's they pulled our charge privileges' and we quit buying our business supplies and computers parts from there.
I worked at Frys (2nd job ever) and I can confirm about the commission sales, the QC, the returns and LP. It was wild. But yes, the biggest issue I had with them was the management and the utter oppression you felt with not just one but up to EIGHT(!) supervisors (depending on the department), not to mention the store manager and assistant store manager and other constant barrage of company policies you were forced to follow, no matter what. And their management philosophy was the worst kind: go out of your way to show the employees you care about them with promises of flexibility, promotions, commissions, benefits, etc but in reality do EVERYTHING to NOT give employees those things. It was that way EVERY DAY. I worked at the store in Woodland Hills, CA early 2000s and the only thing I enjoyed while working there were my coworkers but the policies that we kept having to live up to could all go to hell.
Chris, you are exactly correct about Fry's problems. It was a great place that seemed to have everything, even though it did have flaws. However, you left out the problem of vice-president Ausaf Umar Siddiqui embezzling $65 Million from them in 2008.
Oh Wow, did not hear about that. It was quite a bit after my time retail. I worked for Fry's in the 2002-2003 timeframe.
I stopped shopping there because they spread items all over the store making you hunt for what you wanted. That and you had to have a separate sales printout from every department.
Too much hassle to buy components.
Who were the owners of Frys? I use to love that store (Burbank Flying Saucers) but, I noticed the shift from technology-focus to swap-meet-free-for-all. You could tell that they had abandoned their customer base when they started selling kids toys and the cheapest junk from China. It wasn’t Amazon, it was poor management and lack of respect for their employees and customers. RIP. 😢
Spot on. They quit keeping new products. They just had pure junk for sale. And most of the computer parts area was full of old crap that was way out of date. I kept wondering how they were paying the rent.
When the fired the management, they must have fired the accountants, because they weren't paying the vendors and distributors and they lost their credit and ability to lay 90days Net. After that all trucks had to be paid for ON delivery- that's when they stopped stocking the shelves and started selling candy and pop and trinkets. That is when I keep it wouldn't be long. They actually stayed open about 5yrs longer than I thought they would!
@@littlepeon - So sad and unnecessary. What a bunch of fools.
The Frys store in Fremont, CA was selling garden hoses, red solo party cups, mattresses, gym equipment, and a lot of compress air. This was like a year ago! RIP
Same thing as Fishers Indiana store
I remember driving 15 miles each way almost every day going to Fry's... Then one time I went to return a motherboard that had a broken SATA port (aprox. a week after purchase) and they wouldn't honor it... That was the last time I went to Fry's...
I bought a game brought it home, 3 drives would not read the disk (one was less then a week old) drove back to the store (was back less then a hour after purchasing it per the receipt) was told " those never work and you need to contact the manufacturer if you want a refund". I have many horror stories from Fry's and would drive 40 miles one way and pass another Fry's to get computer stuff just to avoid going there.
I purchased four big screen rear projection TVs all paid with extended warranties. It stated one time replacement for the the lamp. One defective out of the box and was replaced. Then that lamp went out within the warranty period but was denied. Doesn't sound right would have the first lamp replaced DOA anyway even without the extended warranty.
Further Fry's initially would not provide a refund for a defective product due to serial number mismatched. Turns out the whole batch of those items did not match serial numbers. To add insult to injury the story manager treated me like a criminal without doing any investigation. Then one of the guys in the return stockroom noted the the problem with the serial numbers to the manager. Still arrogant with no apologies and acted like do me a favor refunding me. There were other incidents before but this one was the last straw. Way to kill a business.
Chris, does not matter what your topic, I can listen to you for hours.
What a great talker you are. Thanks 👍
BTW very knowledgeable!
I can't wait for Bright Sun Films to do an episode of Abandoned about Fry's.
I remember going to Fries with my dad when I was a kid and I loved it there. I came back a few years ago, and most shelves were empty, which was a bummer.
*Fry's
It was owned by a family whose surname was Fry.
Great video on Fry's Chris. I live in Houston near NASA and we lament the death of our nearby Fry's here which has been dying for going on two years here. When it first opened, it was awesome. I am a retired Data Center Architect from the Aerospace industry and we used to buy a boat load of Fry's gear to complete rapid prototype projects. I have some stories for sure. We should talk sometime.
I miss Fry's now. Bought my first GPU there, 20 years ago. I appreciate a one-stop-shop store. You were able to inspect items physically. They were like a new age Circuit City... nice that I could pick up electronic circuit-components for projects.
Frys is a real case study of why you should treat your employees well and not expendable. They can make or brake your company.n
Fry's was one of my favorite places for window shopping. I remember being young and getting excited to see the ads in newspapers on Fridays
I had managed a Radio Shack in the early 90's and what I had loved about that place was what Fry's had become right after that: all the little parts that you no longer could get from RS I could still get there. Things like resistors & capacitors etc.. I too bought my first PC (all in many separate smaller components) and then went home and just built it on my kitchen table. I loved the idea of a "themed store", the one in Burbank CA was sci-fi, in San Jose CA it was Ancient Egypt etc.. In it's heyday it was THE place for TV's and Audio too. Washers & Dryers & Refrigerators too! I could go on and on but it was also the place when I met one of my girlfriends too. Man some of the ladies at those stores sure had some gorgeous gals working there! Anyway... I'm sorry to see it go. Amazon will never hold a candle to Fry's idea of getting name brand items at a great price plus the fact that you could go home and use or put something together right then... not when it arrived days later.
I use to go there all the time, TX use to love that place.
I'm surprised they didn't maintain their online presence, given that they had real estate in TX. It's a central location to ship things from and there is no state inventory tax.
As an infrequent visitor from the UK, I always used to make a bee-line to Fry's. We have nothing like it in the UK. I will miss it.....
I lived in Dallas and then Austin...Frys was my go to store for the computers I built for myself and others. I loved going there when I lived near San Jose. Great memories!
Thanks for sharing this story. I also worked there briefly and am saddened to see it finally go.
The one in Houston at 45 and West road was the hangout, along with the 24 hour Walmart across the street after Fry's closed for the night.
This is why you choose effective management over of "Yes-men" management at every level.
In Houston, we had 3 Fry's. The one on the north side was the closest to me.
Horrible location. Right on I-45, terrible neighborhood. You never went there after dark. You never left anything in your car, even in daylight. They eventually changed the hours to 7pm closing time I think. I usually went on Saturdays or Sundays.
Hugely busy cross street, very poor traffic management and they got into some kind of fight with the landlord over entrances and exits, which made access about 10 times worse. You sometimes had to wait 5-6 traffic light cycles to get through to or from the entrance.
This store was in a long-closed Builder's Square, which was a Home Depot competitor in the 1990s and earlier. (Before Lowe's moved into the area.) So it was the typical MASSIVE store.
Only went to the south side store once. It opened several years later, and was a new structure and they had better control on access.
Third store in Houston was on the SW side. Access was MUCH WORSE. TINY parking lot.
I don't know if the other stores did this, but the southside store here was right down the street from NASA, and so the whole place was NASA-themed.
The northside store was Oil Rig-themed. And the SW store looked like a Macy's or Dillard's store inside. Marble floors, glitzy lighting, etc. This store was the biggest and most spacious inside, but it was a nightmare getting in and out.
Anyway, my two most distinct memories were these:
Good memory (I guess): Opening weekend--that is, the First Saturday they were open. Not sure what year, maybe 2001 or 2002 (basing that on which car I had at the time)? I arrived in the parking lot, and saw there were about 1500 people outside the store, in line, waiting to go in. I left. It was Christmas shopping season, maybe late October. I did not go back until after Jan 1. I went with my Dad that time, we didn't have to wait to get in, but there were probably 500 people in line to check out. We did not buy anything. That was the ONLY time I ever saw the "back row" of checkout registers being used (about 60 registers, I think).
Bad memory: About 2006 or so. I needed to buy a cable modem. Comcast had been ripping us off for years at $7 a month for their junky modems, and I'd had to replace mine three times that year alone. I'd had enough. Found out a particular Motorola would work perfectly, it was I think $79.99. Figured a year and it would be paid off. The north side store didn't have one in stock, but the "manager" said they had some coming in that week (after checking on the computer). He would put one aside for me, they could do that in that era.
Anyway, so I called a week later and they said they had it, and it was sitting in Customer Service with my name on it. On Saturday, Dad and I headed down there. NOT ONLY did they NOT have it, they STILL had none in stock and the "manager" on duty said that he hadn't seen one reserved for me, and that whoever I talked to couldn't have known that 1-any were coming in that week, NOR 2-that one was on hold for me. After speaking with "Senior Manager" on duty, he checked with the SW store and they said they had 6 in stock THAT VERY DAY.
So, I spoke with my Dad, and he thought he knew where the SW store was, and off we went, AFTER asking the "Sr. Manager" to have the other store to hold one for me.
Guess what? Got to the SW store about 45 minutes later, and you guessed it, not on hold for me, nobody would admit they talked to the "Sr. Manager" at the North side store.
But they DID have 6 "in the store". Never did find them.
I handed my keys to my Dad and as we drove back home (we both lived way up on the north side) I called the north store back and got the "Sr. Manager" on the phone. Tore him several new holes.
On Monday, I called in the middle of the day, and got the actual Store Manager on the line. Very apologetic. He confirmed that no, they didn't have any to "hold" for me. BUT, he'd heard about the mess, and confirmed ahead of time that the SW store did indeed have a few. He told me that IF I wanted, he would have one transferred to his store and would hold it with HIS name on it as salesperson with my name as buyer. I got my modem 3 days later. Clerk in Customer Service asked me when I went to get it why/how the Store Manager's name was on it. She was disgusted that it was that big of a mess. Got at $10 store credit for the trouble.
Neutral memory: I knew Fry's was dying in October 2020. I was cleaning a computer and broke the plastic clip that holds the CPU fan in place. Fry's had inventory of a compatible replacement in stock. I drove down on a Thursday afternoon. The store, the last couple of trips there, looked "thin". You know, like a store that is either in trouble or is paring down inventory for some reason.
On this trip, which was the first since the pandemic started six months before was shocking. Not ONE hard drive in the store. I counted eight (8) employees. NOT ONE TV. NO CDs. NO books. NOT ONE FOOT of Ethernet cables. NO monitors. The cafe was gone. And they'd pulled 95% of the rest of the inventory. And all but 6 cashier stations were ripped out, cables dangling, etc. I asked one of the despondent clerks in a aisle "When is the store closing?" He just shrugged. The fan I needed was the last one on the shelf.
Side note: I knew something weird was going on that in 2019(!) the cash registers were still Windows XP. Screensavers were visible on that "back row" of cash registers that they never used, and faced the opposite side row of PCs they did use for cashiers.
I feel it wasn't just Amazon. It wasn't just the pandemic. It wasn't just any one thing. Mismanagement was a big part. I'd stopped using Fry's as my primary go-to store. By the time the pandemic hit, Amazon was the go-to for me, along with Newegg, unless I needed it THAT SAME DAY. And Micro Center (we only have ONE of them for all of Houston) was, now that they'd moved into their newer, bigger store, working the prices much harder, and was beating Fry's on inventory AND price every time. But it was twice as far for me to get to, at least time spent.
So, things were teetering for them for a while.
I think it died of COVID-19 though.
I first went to Frys in April of 1997 on North Freeway and 45, then again to the 59 Southwest Freeway location(It closed in April 2015) purchase a HP Desktop in June of 2007. The last time I visited the Frys outside of Stafford/Fort Bend,Co was August 2018 to get assistance in installing Windows 10 for my Toshiba Tecra, I knew they were in trouble by that point.
So I worked at the same Irving store for about 6 months from Summer 2013 to December 2013. Adrian was the Manager and Mark was the assistant manager. My immediate supervisors were Bridget and Kevin in the computer department. I worked in sales just like you. I'm glad you mentioned how they treated their employees and how the commission model was not the best of choices. Salesmen were also expected to put up products and do all kinds of hourly-type paid work without getting paid for it. If it was a slow night, I often worked 4 - 6 hour shifts and made only about $20. Our products were constantly marked up, which made it prone to something known as price-match, where customers would match prices with online retailers, thus killing the commission for that product. It was very deflating to spend an hour with a customer only to have them price-match with Amazon and make no money. No one wanted to touch products that may be a quality product but had a poor commission. The second we realized that a customer's purchase wouldn't be a good commission, we'd try to pass that customer on to another salesman. I personally hated answering the phone. I didn't want to spend time answering questions when there was not going to be a purchase involved. They'd have me do inventory and closing operations for an hour+ every night after customers left. After 6 months, I'd had enough.
I loved my local frys in Clear Lake TX. They had realistic models of the space station, and shuttle hanging from the ceiling. We're pretty close to the Johnson Space Center and I loved how it fit the area! I know it was run horribly and was almost empty for a few years before it closed but I'm really going to miss that store. I thought the unique location styles were really cool.
*was run
Really cool video Chris. The Fry's near Chicago secretly had a nice cafeteria/restaurant in it. Always gave me an excuse to spend more time blowing my paycheck! Miss those chaotic pc build days, they were exciting times.
Damn, I'm going to miss 'em. They sold virtually anything I would ever need.
Need a TV? Fry's
Need a laser printer? Fry's
Dave Brubeck LP? Fry's
Unix book? Fry's
One transistor? Fry's
Mobo? Fry's
Null modem adapter? Fry's
Portable receipt scanner? Fry's
Roomba? Fry's
Big bag of Kit-Kats? Fry's
Flash drive? Fry's
Fluke 123 O-scope? Fry's
Fridge? Fry's
Ribbon cable? Fry's
I mean, shit, the list goes on forever.
I've hiked through Fry's in four different states, and yeah, I saw the shelves starting to go bare. I'm not sure what went wrong, but RIP anyway.
I've never been to Fry's;, or even Micro Center. None around here locally without a 4-5 hour drive one way.
I highly recommend going to Micro Center if you ever are looking for computer parts. They are very hard to beat on prices.
If you like this channel it's probably worth the drive once so long as the virus lockdowns aren't too bad where you are
I have been to both stores numerous times. Living in the east coast of the country and having family in southern Nevada made both stores my childhood.
Same here both are 3 - 5 hour drives to the Atlanta GA area for me one way not counting the horrible traffic, then the fuel cost, so in total upwards of a 12 hour day just on the road for some parts I can order off eBay, Newegg, Amazon, Monoprice, Aliexpress, Walmart, etc.. and usually for the same, or less money, if I can't pick it up local here in the SC/GA border region.
The money you could save! $10 cables at Best Buy were selling for their true value $1-3 (and still making a profit) at Fry's or Microcenter.
i bought a new car stereo amp and speakers at frys, dropped off my car came back 10 hours later, my car was waiting in the parking lot, as soon as i jumped in and started the car, the car died and could not restart. The installer freaked, tried everything to do to start the car while I waited in the parking lot for more than 3 hours(he called his mechanic cousin we had to wait for him also, they both couldnt figure out what was going on, had to tow car to the nissan dealership. Turns out the car stereo installer at this location was new, and poked holes in the left side of the car thru some electrical wires. Total cost of towing and repair cost $7800!!! Frys manager, paid for the towing and repair after a week. I kept the car stereo components, but they were never installed. What a nightmare.
When did you start? I worked there when it first opened, back in 2002. Was doing Mac Sales. Helped a lot in the PC Sales. I left after a few moths. I did have fun there. I remember there was a discussion and salesperson came up to me and asked "who eats French Fries with mayonnaise? " I told them that the Norwegian's consider that a delicacy. I got a lot of questions like that.
I called it my first home because I spent so much time there! At the first Fry's Electronics to ever open, which was in Manhattan Beach California. I always gave myself an excuse as to why I needed to go(be) there and purchase the next, newest, fastest CPU, Mother Board, Hard drive or Memory Chip, etc.... it was a never-ending cycle which I enjoyed. I was probably there 4 to 5 days a week for about an hour to err.. sometimes all day.😏
Fry's was the place to go for hard drives. I thought the price of the prebuilt computers were too high for the specs of the computers. My son-in-law bought a printer and an employee picked it up and carried it out to the car. We opened the box right away and found the box was empty. He had to argue and threaten a law suit before a supervisor went and got another printer. At busy times the line to checkout got long and sometimes there weren't enough employees checking you out. The large appliances were priced higher than the same appliances at Lowe's or Home Depot. Fyr's seemed to have the top quality TVs and the prices gave people sticker shock. The last thing I bought was a computer case and the store looked practically deserted of customers, employees, and products, almost like they were having a going out of business sale.
I worked at that particular store for 10 years, and I remember a full Spring+Summer than the AC was out while the home office "debated" the repairs. I put temp. sensors in every dept. and it got up to ~90F inside the building all day every day. The store also started sinking into the ground which meant whenever it rained water would flood INTO the building through every emergency exit, and it took 2+ years for any repairs to be authorized. Another store's loss prevention manager hooked up her phone to her workstation and sent a virus to the entire home office, which then led to all sorts of lockdown/anti-virus measures that shut various departments/stores down for days. I could mention all sorts of stories.
I spent a lot of time there, most often the Manhattan Beach location. When I worked at Hughes Aircraft, just around the corner, they were our go to when we needed something immediately. Customer service was never a strong point at the first stores because of their location: they were in Silicon Valley and most of the people coming in knew what they needed so Fry's saved money by not spending a whole lot on CS.
I loved shopping there during their heyday, and couldn't wait to see the big ads in the newspapers. Three years ago I was visiting California and stopped into the Burbank location. On the bright side I was able to grab a U-No bar, something I haven't had since moving to the Midwest 9 years ago. The downside was that Fry's was no longer the Fry's I remember from the glory days. The place was a ghost town. Empty parking lot, empty registers, empty shelves with a few pieces of no-name merchandise. I knew then that their days were numbered, and really didn't expect them to make it to the end of 2018; I would have bet money on them not making it to 2021, that's for sure.
I still have the last item that I purchased there during that visit in 2018, in unused condition - a stack of cheap recordable BD discs. I've owned that drive for over three years now but have yet to burn a single one. That technology is somewhat like Fry's itself - unnecessary and outdated now that technology has moved on.
i bought my first soldering iron at this exact Fry's in Irving, TX.
lol my daughter just moved there.
This looks like the Irving location.
Ah, it is the lrving location
I used to live in Orange County in CA. Fountain Valley store was store I went every Friday after I checked with LA times with Fry's weekly ad page. I went practically every weekend with the ad on my hands to check out things I would like to buy. I found myself buying buying items not necessary needed. grasping something hot items off the self and running up at the checkout line was experience I would not forget. I also worked there as a sales associate for a few months. It is not a good place to work especially on Black Friday. You needed to report to work at 4 am before the door was opened. It was a long day in a mad house. Fun memories.
Fry's Electronics was a supermarket chain that got rid of the groceries and began selling electronics.
No. The founder of Fry's supermarket was the father of the Fry's Electronics founders (three sons), but the companies themselves were never related.
I was one of the computer techs for about 2 years. It was my first real job in tech and even as an employee I thought the returns process was insane. If someone wanted to return a laptop they would see the sign for returns, go there, get told the techs had to look at it, walk over to us, wait for us to fill out a "product Test Report" basically a paper that said yes return it. Then they would go back to returns without the product but with the (now empty) box where it would be returned. Another thing was that we sold these awful warranty things where if something broke you could get it fixed. The catch was we were not allowed to repair it in store, it went out on a truck every wed. and would take 4 to 6 WEEKS to be fixed, assuming they could fix it. We could provide a loaner but we were told to never tell the customer this and if they wanted one the process took about 30 min. If anyone has questions I'll be happy to answer as best I can
Yes that's a great example everything there was ConVoluTed to say the least.
12 seconds in and I have to say that that was a cool way to intro the video!
I was a department manager for computer in the final years of Fry's but was there only for 2 years (1 year as supervisor and 1 year as dept manager). The nail in the coffin that made me quit was when the company decided to cut off all department manager and became regular employees on hourly and commission instead of salary. But what made things worse was that commission pay was cut 90%, that is when I knew the company was in trouble and started to tell my employees that worked under me to start abandoning ship.
You definitely hit a lot of points that I agreed on when I worked there. Definitely the return was one of the worst department as there was constant distrust with the customer. We constantly getting customers that will try to scam us by swapping out products and at the same time, we would put a barrier wall to tell customers that they can't return it after being used.
And you probably didn't know this if you weren't there in the final years of Fry's and why it really went down with the ship was because of upper management. There was a lot of mismanagement in funds. I was working from 2017 to 2019; where it was slow but we could have survived. But for whatever reason, upper management broke trust and relationship with big companies such as HP, Samsung, LG, Dell, ASUS, and along with many other.... we literally did not pay them when they ship us their products to sell. You can see how that pan out... no money to our suppliers, no inventory and the store crash and burn. It was extremely sad to see in 2020 where you go Fry's and they do not have a single laptop for sale.
None the less, for some reason the store has definitely left a fond memory in my life. Gave me the life skills I need to improve on myself even with all the negatitvity, but also grateful.
The main reason they did not have items in stock was because they purchased items on consignment: suppliers would only get paid once the item was purchased by the customer.
So a supplier can ship thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars of product and not be paid at all until the items are sold.
Many times suppliers would never get paid and Fry's would return their unsold product! Suppliers got wise to Fry's arrangements and eventually refused to do business with them, hence empty shelves. Back in its heyday, suppliers would often beg or even agree to less than favorable terms so they can sell at Fry's because they had immense leverage and buying power. They were known to strong arm up-and-coming suppliers and if the prices weren't right, flat out not to business with them.
Fry's hubris, lack of customer service, and slow transition to online shopping contributed to their down fall.
I'll always have fond memories of shopping at Fry's as I use shop there all the time during college.
More of these 👍😉 I like entertaining stories it even looked like u had fun and it made me feel fun too .
Sucks because Frye's has been around for such a long time. Love reflecting on the past in general. Thanks Chris. See you soon!
They didn’t restock their shelves for about 4 years straight for starters.
Because they went to a consignment model - they didn't actually own anything in their stores. They didn't buy anything. They only got what vendors loaned to them to sell. So they got the bottom of the barrel - and the shelves emptied. You will not see a "liquidation" sale either. They literally had no inventory. Fry's is sadly completely gone.
@@socasack Yeah when I first heard that they were finally calling it quits I thought for sure there'd be a good liquidation clearance sale, but then I dug deeper and found out about this consignment situation that their sorry financial position forced them into.
They didn't pay the vendors.. samsung cut them off after they stopped paying bills
That Fry's reminds me of the one I frequently visited in Renton, Washington.
Yep, I live like 5 min from there and used to visit every Saturday and Sunday. Bought a bunch of computer parts that usually go on sales and to this day still have a few cases, CPU fans and other miscellaneous parts that have never been put to use in my stock pile. That's will be my memory of Fry's.
The thing that I most remember is the granite tile floors, so classy.
Hey Chris, you are among the top tech personalities I watch on RUclips. I have gained a great many insights from your videos, and hope, and am sure, you'll do many more.
But the reason I'm writing this comment is to thank you for using my post at the bottom of this video. It is truly an honor. Best of luck to you, and much success.
Regarding Fry’s return policy, a guy i knew who worked there said their deal with many manufacturers was they would receive the merchandise for a deep discount, but they didn’t want anything returned to them. So if something was returned, even if defective, Fry’s would slap a sticker on it and keep reselling it until it didn’t come back.
As for memories as a customer, they aren’t all bad. My brother in law and I had a tradition of going to the Black Friday sales and picking up some good deals. One time, we were looking for a particular mother board in the Fremont store, and asked an employee where it was. The employee was John Fry. He had a name badge on like anyone else (said CEO on it, if I recall), and he found us the location of the motherboard.
You are correct about the treatment of the employees. Not many long term employees at Fry’s. Most employees and even Managers and store Managers eventually get fired for one reason or another. The Fry’s brothers were really interested in spending all the money on stuff like a fleet (yes a fleet) of jets, islands hunting ranges, fringe sports teams, a mathematics institute to try to solve the Riemann hypothesis (to be the richest in the world if solved) and golf tournaments. All supporting this on 30 or under locations. Well they should of put that money back in to the business. As big business says, “ if you see your competition drowning; stick a garden hose down their mouth.” The Fry’s got the hose.
Many of the Fry's building were formerly Incredible Universe stores. Who remembers those???
I came to Fry's in Burbank to buy something and they closed their doors that day. :(
Same thing happened to me and I finally realized that I had forgotten to take my yearly shower the day before ! Shoulda remembered to take the shower " On Time " ! Oh well , maybe next year ..............
This store is almost identical to my regular one, Duluth, Georgia.
I used to drive over 2 hours from Perry, Georgia to go to Fry's in Duluth. It was so amazing.
Chris, I have shopped at the 4 DFW area Fry's over the years: Arlington, your store (Irving), Plano, and the original store (former Incredible Universe) in Dallas - but mostly at Irving and Plano. I got my Gordon West W5YI Ham Radio Technician Training course there in the mid 2000s, used it to successfully pass my first Ham license exam. It used to be fun to get the Friday Dallas Morning News, get the Fry's circular - and rush to one of the stores to scoop up the Door Busters before they ran out. But several years ago it just wasn't fun anymore... Microcenter has actually gotten better in the past few years. Losing Fry's is still sad, though. So many names are now in the history books (Circuit City, Radio Shack, Tiger Direct, and now Fry's Electronics.) The local store that closed recently - and I miss most - is Tanner Electronics in Carrollton, it was one of the last places to get discrete components locally.
I built my first PC in 2004 mostly from parts I bought from Fry's in Arlington/Grand Prarie Tx.
I hated that fry's on Matlock, in Arlington - I used to live close to it and would drive to a company in east Dallas(not a retail space, you had to look up in catalogs what you wanted and fill out a order form, pay for it and wait by a dock door for your stuff) to get parts. The worst customer service ever.
This was the store I worked at from 2008 to 2015. Those pictures were taken while I worked there. I worked in the Software/Entertainment department as one of the few people that actually knew about the software. I was the one that put together the laser and show light preview by the grand piano. I was also the only one that new how to make customer music for the self playing grand piano.
While I was there, I never heard of anyone getting fired for playing the piano; however, we didn't like people randomly sitting down to play the piano. There was a sign to ask for permission to play as too many people would walk up and start beating on the keys.
Your points abut commission sales was off point. Offering commission is supposed to push employees to sell higher margin goods. One of the many reason Incredible Universe failed was because employees had no incentive to sell products that actually made the store money.
I still feel the day they converted me, a Software/Entertainment salesman, to commission was awful. I went from $11 an hour to $9.25 an hour. Few people were willing to give you time to write a quote to get commission of a peace of software. And don't get me started about how games and movies had no commission.
The failure of Fry's lies with Home Office and their bazar ideas that were supposed to make money.
-Store wide merchandising meant the employees stocking shelves no longer knew how sections were supposed to look.
-Eventually, 100% commission sales were also expected to stock shelves.
-Discontinuation of the returns department, replaced by cashiers that didn't know or care about returns, often not even opening a box to confirm the product was inside.
-Employees were no longer allowed to say "no" to returns, which lead to a lot of fraud. The idea was we'd be able to sell the returned product at a 10-20% reduced price and the customer would buy something else. Most of the time, the return product was something else, badly damaged, and not re-sellable.
-All of this lead to the company no longer having the money to pay their vendors and swapping to consignment.
Honestly, I felt Fry's was just trying to hold on long enough for a buyout. They had already sold off their Headquarters store to a company looking to turn the land into a prime office/apartments location.
You just jogged my memory about those Fujitsu laptops! I remember seeing those and wondering why no other stores sold that brand.
Fry's was awesome when I first discovered them 10 years ago as far as the amount of items it had in store and just being able to walk down so many isles to look at tech! I liked how most of their stores were themed. My Favorite Fry's was in the Houston area as it was Nasa Themed. Fry's could have done things better as you and most people have mentioned. I wished in general that there was more physical computer stores to wander in and look around and to buy from. We just had our Best Buy close its doors last October. Great Video!!!
*aisles
isle = small island
I first entered Fry's Electronics in Tempe, AZ in 2002. When offered help, I asked an employee where the GPS section was. He turned around and walked away from me. I followed him for a few steps thinking he was leading me to the section, but even though I didn't know where the GPS stuff was, I realized he wasn't going in the right direction. He just kept walking and never came back.
Sounds like Fry's customer service in Dallas. Dont you dare ask to employees that are standing around chatting for help or direction.
It's so sad to see the local Phoenix and Tempe locations coming to an end but the writing was on the wall. Two years ago was when I started seeing all these cheap OEM knock off products show up and name brands leaving with empty shelves. =(
Great video, Chris!
I worked at Frys around 2000 for 4 years. Loved the store, despised how they treated the employees like subhuman slaves. I remember that freaking $250,000 piano. We were threatened severely for even touching it. In fact everything was a threat.
That's a sign of poor people skills. Management. Ha! My arse.
@@GS-zc4sk Correct And their owners were total deecks too ultraparanoid of theft. They had like 200 cameras all over the store and a team to man them. The cleaning crew were locked inside the store over night without keys. If there was a fire, they could not get out and would be dead. They were not allowed to wear long pants only shorts. They were so paranoid of their trash, they packet it and shipped it to a facility where it was picked through for items they thought stolen. The store was also monitored from a remote location and their manager was threatened on a daily basis. I've worked for a Defense Contractor and they did not have the paranoia that I saw. I am glad their stores did not survive. Do not knock down the experience until you lived it. That was the worst I've ever been treated as a human during a time of poor jobs available. I moved to Miami from Texas and got a job making 3X their meager wages.
Bring on the tech retail trail of tears, Chris.
Epic opening! Great video. Man...so many great Fry's memories here in southern CA. Been to most of them but my favorites: City of Industry and Manhattan Beach. The COI store was massive. I used to go and just hang out for hours. Built many a PC. Fave memory: a bin of $9 ASUS AMD motherboards(939) that were just a couple years old. I bought 4 of them and found cpus for them for pretty cheap and built 4 systems for family and friends as gifts. Just the thrill of random deals and hands-on tech that made Fry's better than online. It was sad seeing them slowly decline. The Manhattan beach store seemed on a rebound recently ... a few sections were restocked. Went there with my kids.... but the old magic was long gone. They enjoyed the halfway rejuivinated toy section tho. Such a shame, I thought Fry's would last forever from its heyday. There's still microcenter! I make the trek to Tustin, CA regularly!
Awesome video Chris! Thanks for your insight! Please do more vids about your experience at other places.
I have only found memories of buying electronic supplies there, tools, components, that sort of thing. After buying a laptop at Fry's I avoided large electronics there. It was an HP, the video card fail out of the box, returning it, got the replacement and it had a dead DVD drive, returned that and then finally got a fujitsu laptop instead. The fujitsu kept overheating after a few hours of use, I didn't return it due to not noticing the problem until well pasted the return period. I used it for a couple of years until the unit died. I always avoided anything with a return sticker on it.
Your Fry's location, was also mine. My favorite memory of it, was actually before it WAS Fry's. In the 90's, it was "Incredible Universe". The most amazing store I'd ever seen!
I recognize that store. In fact, today I'm just 2 blocks away.
The first time I went to Fry's, I think I drooled a bit. Yes, I'm a total nerd and glad to be.
I worked a couple of miles from that store from 2011 until 2014. I was just talking to my son about that store a couple of weeks ago when he asked me where/when I had got one of my monitors.
We had one in Indiana and loved walking around looking at all the tech.
That's awesome your Frys is the one I used to frequent. I couldn't agree more that it went downhill over the years. Thanks for providing some illumination as to why.
There were two stores in AZ too. Loved going there to buy all sorts of stuff.
that intro was AMAZING!!!
Haha thanks, it was my Son's idea.
@@ChrisTitusTech Nice!
In 2003 I took a trip from my home country to San Jose for training in a now defunct company - and the best moment in the trip was when the people in the office took us to Frye’s. I was amazed: A SUPERMARKET OF COMPUTER GEAR. I remember I brought home a bunch of computer crap from brands I’ve never heard of, and a USB thumb drive of unbelievable high capacity of 64 MB. Later in life, from a friend from Kansas, I found out that Frye’s was present only in California and Texas. I was convinced it was a country wide chain! “How come this American dude does not know it!”, was always in my mind. I knew for a while now they were in a bad shape, and from your video I understand they’re now closed for good. I have this only and one memory, but really a good one.
Wow, this is a shocker to me! I heard about this, for the first time, TODAY and because RUclips recommended this video to me. *sigh* The funny thing is, I was planning on going to Fry's TODAY to pick up a USB cable. The end of an era, indeed. Thanks for posting the video!
I´m a Musician and I used to go to a Guitar Center every other saturdayt, and there was a FRY´s store nearby that Guitar center and after my G.C, trip I´ve always found myself so relax going to that store looking for software for my PowerPc Macintosh, I really enjoyed being alone, relaxed, browsing through all the aisles. then going back home in my Mustang I had back then...
I miss those times- from Orange County CA.
We never had Fry’s here in Australia, but we had, and still have, similar stores. The ones that survived the coming of Amazon had one thing in common: a reason to go to the store. Places that don’t offer a value proposition and shopping experience that beats buying cheaper stuff online while you’re in your pajamas at home didn’t do well against online stores. The places that didn’t survive the pandemic were already on the ropes, but they’ve taken the pandemic as a good time to bow out.
Man I remember Fry's back in the late 90's... kinda miss Texas too, one of the very few states that felt like "home." Love your content Chris, much love from PR.
You can walk? Wow what is a surprise. Good to see a new video from you man.
Here is a blast from the past from Dallas Texas in those days. A lot of people were studying for their certs !!! Remember the book store just north of LBJ on Preston near the mall on the west side of Preston going north !!?? ALL text books for certs were only $5 !!! Lots of MCSE and Red Hat C+ and C++ etc. I remember included Red Hat text books they would include the program on the CD glued to the back of the book !
I worked at the Fountain Valley store for 3 years in components 2000-2003. Everything your saying is 100 percent accurate about what went wrong. I left and got into Medical, Ended up working with MemorialCare in fountain valley. I bought a TV from Frys 4 years ago. Got it out of the box and there was a huge dent on the side. I noticed the box had the Fry's logo masking tape used to reseal open box returns but no open box price tag . They gave me grief trying to exchange it.
I did really enjoy shopping at Fry's. It was great just wandering around the store and checking out all the cool stuff. Great memories with friends and family from the store. Loved how each store had a personality and a theme. Too bad that they didn't manage things well and didn't treat their employees better. I will miss the place for sure... shopping online just isn't the same. Something is lost when you are just browsing a website. RIP Fry's.
It looks just like the Fry's I knew in San Diego.
Many great childhood memories at that fry's! I remember back in the late 90's people would drive from as far as Yuma. It was crazy.
The RUclips channel Company Man just uploaded a new video about Frys. It pairs well with this one.
Just watched it... Really damn good video! ruclips.net/video/to-osQMHxpE/видео.html - This is the one I watched.
I am from the UK, I was in California in 1998. Went to Fry's and was gobsmacked at what was on offer. Bought a Palm pilot and every accessory i could afford, then had a sweaty trip through the nothing to declare line at heathrow airport on my return. Loved that shop, we didn't have anything like it as a single store. Though we did have Tottenham Court Road, but boy was that expensive
Fry's always felt like an upscale Best Buy. The one I went to in San Marcos, California had an insanely intricate building design. It was built in a pyramid shape. As soon as you walked in, there were columns reaching up to the ceiling that were aquariums. Fish swimming around and everything. In the middle of the store was a coffee shop that was surrounded by a large aquarium. This place had like 30 aisles of Blu-Rays and Music. I lost count on how many computers/computer accessories were sold. Hundreds of TV's. The place was just too big to sustain itself during the pandemic. It's a damn shame, too. The building itself was unlike any electronic shop I've ever been to. It's now a Costco. LOL.
Fry's had two things that made them unique in a business sense. One GIANT check out line with 30+ check out registers. This really streamlined the check out process. With the exception of Black Friday, I don't think I ever really stood still in the check out line for more than ten minutes. Of course, I can only reference my local store Fountain Valley, CA but each register had a green light and a red light that flashed. The next green light that flashed called the next customer. The red light was just a supervisor call. The second unique attribute was each department had a "home base" in which the department manager stood at or walked around no further than a couple dozen feet where customers could take the product up and ask questions rather than hunt down a employee... often not working in that department or had no idea the correct answer That also cut down on time. I loved Fry's for their innovative thinking but that innovation only went so far. Consignment model! What the hell were they thinking?
Being a flight simulator enthusiast I loved shopping there since they often had all of the rare add-ons that were hard to find in the retail. This probably didn't make them much money but it had the desired result - it got me into the store, and since I was already there...
You do FS2020 and or DCS?
The one in Wilsonville, OR has been open for a couple years with absolutely empty shelves. Good they finally pulled the plug but I'm going to miss them.
Fry's switched to a consignment model long ago. The inventory they carried was consigned - Fry's didn't buy it to sell it - they borrowed it for free and paid the vendor when the item sold. That is why the selection tanked and the shelves cleared. And that is why there will be no "liquidation" sales for Fry's. They don't have any inventory. They just called the vendors to come pick up their stuff. Nothing left to sell.
I last bought something there about 2 weeks before it closed - I think it was a 75' Cat5 network cable. I will miss the heyday. It was always so exciting to go there and browse the latest offerings. Truly a sad day. BestBuy is just not the same.
That's the Irving store. I used to live right there and bought so much tech stuff there. I remember those early morning black Friday lines...
Fry's was great for probably its first 10 years here in my vicinity, about 15 minutes from home. As a computer & electronics geek, I bought lots of stuff there, especially electronics stuff (oh yeah, it's called Fry's "Electronics"). By around 2010, it was just cheaper to get stuff off the Internet. We did buy a couple of multi-function printers there in around that time for the office. By 2013, I only went there to get the free promotion CPU magazine (Computer Power User), which itself the mag died by end of 2017. In around late 2020 last year, after not visiting Fry's for about 3 years, I was about to go there to buy a capacitor part, but eventually kept putting it off. Never made it back, because by early 2021, it was over. Oh well. There are a couple clips on RUclips of people having recorded videos of the Fry's I go to. It's nice to see the inside again, yet back in the heyday you didn't think much of it as I visited that store dozens of times within about a decade or so. Bittersweet memory now.
I loved shopping there when their shelves were stocked from top to bottom, everything you could ever want and then they started pushing the "as seen on TV" garbage, perfume, cologne, etc. The Fry's in Phoenix was telling customers that they were restructuring and were expecting pallets upon pallets of products to start showing up soon. Well, never happened. It's kind of depressing to go by and the the abandoned building. On a positive note RadioShack is making a comeback and recently opened a store in Arizona. Hope they do it right the second time.
Back in the day I actually loved the cafe and thought the piano was a nice touch. Would hang out there after school, grab a bite to eat, then pickup parts/books on the way out. Got my first soldering iron there and still use it.
Open a box returns:
Year ago at the Vegas store found an open box 8-bitdo controller that had a picture of twin-sticks on the outside, but the actual controller inside had no twin sticks. At this point they didn't care.
One of those is literally in the strip mall across the street from where I buy groceries. That's kind of a weird feeling knowing how few there were before they went under.
Chris, what screen saver are you running on the monitor in the background?