Reports are Fry's is officially dead as of the end of the day

[Middcore]

9 hours ago, Vitamanic said:

You don’t know that whatsoever. They’re a private company and don’t report their financials to the public. 
 

Just because you think it doesn’t make it fact...

I have eyes to see the number of customers inside my local store in the past year compared to any previous time I've been there, and ears to hear what the employees tell me.

 

Not sure why you feel the need to be combative about it, or why it's apparently so important to you to believe they haven't done a lot of business recently, but you do you. 

[NumLock21]

I've heard about them, but I've never been to one as there is none of them here. Still it's sad to see them go. Online shopping is convenient, but it doesn't beat the experience and joy of actually going to the store and looking at the all the products in person.

[HerrKaLeu]

12 hours ago, PlayStation 2 said:

That sucks if they're closed. I remember passing by the one that's in the City of Industry in California many times.

I bet that is part of the problem - people just driving by. 

12 hours ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Tiger Direct gone. Fry's Gone. FUCK I MISS RADIO SHACK GONE.

 

All the good ones gone. online shopping, shipping to home and covid the last nail in the coffin.

 

Rest In Piece old store friend.

The way the market works... typically the good ones stay and the bad ones go. I always saw tigerdirect (online) had less choice and higher prices compared to Newegg. When I built a computer with the 6-9 parts it needs, maybe one part was cheaper by 10ct on tigerdirect. 

 

And Radioshack: when i walked into the tiny stores i was reminded of a smaller version of the horrible Circuit City, but smaller and less sophisticated. Basically all crap, mostly phones etc. I once ordered something online, but found their website isn't great. that was over 10 years ago. 

 

 

Edit: COVID just accelerated trends that started way before. 

[PlayStation 2]

Just now, HerrKaLeu said:

I bet that is part of the problem - people just driving by. 

I mean, I was 6 years old when I would pass by it. What would you want me to do, tell my mom to stop at the gears store when we were heading to Chino Hills?

[Fasterthannothing]

Man it seems like physical computer stores will be a thing of the past. I mean you saw it coming a store that sells technology but has a website from the early 2000s wasn't going to end well.

[Guest]

54 minutes ago, StDragon said:

Micro Center is still the geek mecca. May it live long and prosper!

Ah micro center. Best walk in deals for sure. I hope they hang in there too. 

[Flannelist]

1 hour ago, flibberdipper said:

I dunno if I'd say its back. More like it's on an iron lung.

This. As a former employee at "The Shack" that stuck around longer than i should have, it had been on an iron lung for a while and they're now 2 bankruptcies later. I get Facebook ads all the time now, but most of the stuff at their website is aggressively meh. Or the same parts they had been distributing for ages. I don't think any stores that are left are "corporate owned," just franchises. Hence why they show up primarily inside of other stores.

I still miss it though. All the weird niche stuff they sold is only sold online now really. And sometimes I just want a 9v AC to DC adapter with a weird sized tip and I don't have any lying around to salvage. i got so much stuff for cheap though when my store closed.

[Zodiark1593]

1 hour ago, NumLock21 said:

I've heard about them, but I've never been to one as there is none of them here. Still it's sad to see them go. Online shopping is convenient, but it doesn't beat the experience and joy of actually going to the store and looking at the all the products in person.

Getting a system that went down, back up is a lot faster when you’re not waiting on delivery as well. 

[Vanderburg]

About time, is all I can say.

[Guest willies leg]

13 hours ago, ShrimpBrime said:

Tiger Direct gone. Fry's Gone. FUCK I MISS RADIO SHACK GONE.

 

All the good ones gone. online shopping, shipping to home and covid the last nail in the coffin.

 

Rest In Piece old store friend.

Compusa, circuit city, heck, even the old computer fairs, those were a lot of fun!

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, willies leg said:

Compusa, circuit city, heck, even the old computer fairs, those were a lot of fun!

CompUSA. Man that brings me back quite a few years

[flibberdipper]

38 minutes ago, Flannelist said:

This. As a former employee at "The Shack" that stuck around longer than i should have, it had been on an iron lung for a while and they're now 2 bankruptcies later. I get Facebook ads all the time now, but most of the stuff at their website is aggressively meh. Or the same parts they had been distributing for ages. I don't think any stores that are left are "corporate owned," just franchises. Hence why they show up primarily inside of other stores.

I still miss it though. All the weird niche stuff they sold is only sold online now really. And sometimes I just want a 9v AC to DC adapter with a weird sized tip and I don't have any lying around to salvage. i got so much stuff for cheap though when my store closed.

My dad picked up a whack of cables before ours closed up. Mostly just USB A to B 2.0 with a couple 3.0 mixed in, a DVI cable or two, and a VGA extension. We also got 3 or 4 120v 120mm (or 140mm, I don't remember) fans which I'd love to wire up and find a use for just because why not. Chonky metal chassis fans are neat, I guess.

[Blademaster91]

I've never been to a Fry's, but i've seen some videos of what a Fry's was, each store having a theme was cool.

[Middcore]

1 minute ago, Blademaster91 said:

I've never been to a Fry's, but i've seen some videos of what a Fry's was, each store having a theme was cool.

For sure. And having a fun and unique in-store experience is something that in theory "should" have helped them weather the shift to online shopping better than many brick-and-mortars. And yet... 

[StDragon]

1 hour ago, Flannelist said:

This. As a former employee at "The Shack" that stuck around longer than i should have, it had been on an iron lung for a while and they're now 2 bankruptcies later. I get Facebook ads all the time now, but most of the stuff at their website is aggressively meh. Or the same parts they had been distributing for ages. I don't think any stores that are left are "corporate owned," just franchises. Hence why they show up primarily inside of other stores.

I still miss it though. All the weird niche stuff they sold is only sold online now really. And sometimes I just want a 9v AC to DC adapter with a weird sized tip and I don't have any lying around to salvage. i got so much stuff for cheap though when my store closed.

Radio Shack and its intellectual property is now owned by Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV). It exists in name only.

[Jumballi]

Former Fry's employee here, I can tell you where it went wrong. The major culprit was nepotism, management always had a friend or family member who we'd find working along side us and they'd get immeasurably preferential treatment. A lot of good employees suffered for it, especially these past 5 years.

I'm not sad to see this company go under, They hurt me and my friends, one of them needing therapy after the way they treated him. To all my former coworkers, I hope you are doing better now that you've left.

[Roswell]

4 hours ago, Middcore said:

I have eyes to see the number of customers inside my local store in the past year compared to any previous time I've been there, and ears to hear what the employees tell me.

 

Not sure why you feel the need to be combative about it, or why it's apparently so important to you to believe they haven't done a lot of business recently, but you do you. 

You tried to make a statement of fact based on a visit you made to the store (anecdotal evidence).

 

Again, you have no idea if they’re doing “bonkers business” in the last year because they’re a private company and you have no clue what their financial situation is just like everyone else.

[weez]

I'm honestly surprised this didn't happen years ago. They haven't been competitive for many years with pricing and stock and customer service was bad, at least the one by me. I stopped shopping there over 10 years ago because of the poor customer service I experienced multiple times

[Jumballi]

4 minutes ago, Vitamanic said:

You tried to make a statement of fact based on a visit you made to the store (anecdotal evidence).

 

Again, you have no idea if they’re doing “bonkers business” in the last year because they’re a private company and you have no clue what their financial situation is just like everyone else.

Not anecdotal for me, I worked at fry's, my friend at microcenter. For every single sale I had on a good day, he'd outpace me by 5-10 times. Fry's financials were garbage, there were days where the entire store pulled in less than $10K in gross proffit, and this was 2 years ago. IDK how bad it was during 2020, but my coworker who stayed said they got no stock for weeks at a time, meaning they were probably hemorrhaging money.

[Roswell]

2 minutes ago, Jumballi said:

Not anecdotal for me, I worked at fry's, my friend at microcenter. For every single sale I had on a good day, he'd outpace me by 5-10 times. Fry's financials were garbage, there were days where the entire store pulled in less than $10K in gross proffit, and this was 2 years ago. IDK how bad it was during 2020, but my coworker who stayed said they got no stock for weeks at a time, meaning they were probably hemorrhaging money.

Again, you have no idea what their financials are. You don’t know how much their revenue or profit changed in the last year because you don’t have access to that information.

[Jumballi]

Just now, Vitamanic said:

Again, you have no idea what their financials are. You don’t know how much their revenue or profit changed in the last year because you don’t have access to that information.

I DID HAVE ACCESS TO THE INFORMATION, I worked there and I could access the stores financial records, then at closing the manager would say we were number two in the chain at $20K for the day

[Middcore]

15 minutes ago, Vitamanic said:

You tried to make a statement of fact based on a visit you made to the store (anecdotal evidence).

 

Again, you have no idea if they’re doing “bonkers business” in the last year because they’re a private company and you have no clue what their financial situation is just like everyone else.

 

I still don't know why it's so important to you to argue this point. Some sort of vendetta against MC maybe? Much as I'd love the chance to someday hear the story there, I guess I'll just have to miss out because I'm putting you on my ignore list instead. 

[SingleTMat]

No Frys or Microcenters within quite a range of me. Sad I'll never have gotten to check a Frys out.

[Retro_R]

It kinda sucks that that it closed, but it was pretty evident and there were obviously problems. But now there isn't any big micro center type shops in austin. The closest micro center is dallas.

[Middcore]

First "mainstream" (not tech industry or local) news coverage I've seen:

 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/24/business/frys-electronics-closure/index.html

 

The description of them going out of business "suddenly" makes me laugh because it reminds me of the Hemingway quote about how you go bankrupt: two ways, first gradually, then all at once.