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Anaheim Fry's Electronics closing on March 2nd, 2020, is this the beginning of the end?

Darknight

Darknight

"I'd buy that for a dollar!"
Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,846


Our Anaheim store will close permanently on March 2nd, 2020. It has been a pleasure serving you at this location for many years, and we stand ready to provide all your electronic needs at http://Frys.com or at one of our many other store locations in Southern California.
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It's seems that this is likely the beginning of the end of Fry's. It's sad how bad it has gotten for them as they used to be a legendary retailer that people were envy over when they didn't have one nearby.

Also for reference how bad it has gotten, check this video out:


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Rumors about Fry's Electronics sent us on a wild journey to find the truth

Could Fry's Electronics really be in THIS much trouble? FOLLOW ME Twitter | Instagram | Facebook@bitwitkyleBECOME A BITBOI-Become a Channel Member for Exclus...
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Barzul

Barzul

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,965
We have one here in Austin. I haven't been to it for months, but I'll have to go see what it looks like now.
 
Ryuelli

Ryuelli

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,209
The one in Tempe, AZ felt dead a decade ago. It was always pretty dark inside and the place felt way too big for what they were selling, it just felt a bit creepy.

Transistor said:
The one here in North Houston is a graveyard now. I stocked shelves, empty aisles, and minimal staff. It's only a matter of time
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I need to go check out Microcenter. Haven't been in years, last time I was there was the old location.
 
TortadeJamon

TortadeJamon

Banned
Dec 23, 2018
908
The Palo Alto one closed a while back, too. I wish that the Microcenter in Santa Clara was still around.
 
m_shortpants

m_shortpants

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,254
I have so many memories of going to Frys when I was growing up here in the Bay Area. I remember combing their ads in the newspaper for deals on floppy disks, CD-RWs, 32mb USB drives, MP3 players, and so on. Incredible to think about the innovation in technology we've all witnessed.
 
OP
OP
Darknight

Darknight

"I'd buy that for a dollar!"
Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,846
Bluebot said:
Some of the worst prices and service when I went before. Micro Center for life.
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We had a Micro Center here and they stupidly put it so close to Fry's. Fry's pretty much killed them because they had a better and bigger selection and their deals were better. Micro Center didn't stand a chance here.
 
Rockstar

Rockstar

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,850
US
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Curler

Curler

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,605
I remember stepping into one 10 years ago and it was amazing. Each has their own theme, and they would be stocked FULL of games, including niche stuff that was hard to get from where I was.

Over the years, yeah it went so far downhill that now they can't pay their vendors. You can tell entire companies of like blu rays pulled out. Still, I wonder why they never shut down their cafes. That always confused me, since you would think that would be the first to go. Such sadness with how they look now...
 
Gentlemen

Gentlemen

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,528
Micro Center not too far from the anaheim fry's for people who are still into going to a store, not finding what they were looking for after 30 minutes of looking, then walking out dissatisfied.
 

Deleted member 11626

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,199
The one in Indy is deserted now. I used to love going into Fry's, and it's upsetting to me that Best Buy is really the only option left for sampling expensive tech before buying.
 
TheMadTitan

TheMadTitan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,252
The rumor I heard is that the owners starved it on purpose, reneging on suppliers and simply stayed open until they ran out of stock before they would start shuttering so they could move on to other shit.

Assuming that is true, this is probably the start of the closing phase of the plan.

edit: Hopefully this paves the way for more Microcenters. Not too many. Keep them regional. We need more regional players and less national chains. Regional is likely how retail will survive anyway.
 
OP
OP
Darknight

Darknight

"I'd buy that for a dollar!"
Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,846
El Bombastico said:
Gonna have to agree to disagree. My local CompUSA was always much better stocked and cleaner than my local Fry's.
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In the Bay Area, Fry's just had a much bigger store, better selection of product and was significantly cheaper. CompUSA just could not keep up with Fry's here.
 
refusi0n1

refusi0n1

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,915
Shout out to the early days of Fry's when people would buy high end cards and return trash ones in the box and employees didn't know the difference
 
Curler

Curler

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,605
TheMadTitan said:
The rumor I heard is that the owners starved it on purpose, reneging on suppliers and simply stayed open until they ran out of stock before they would start shuttering so they could move on to other shit.

Assuming that is true, this is probably the start of the closing phase of the plan.
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Sounds pretty plausible. Been looking online to see what dirt I could find, because it sure feels like another Sears-like situation. "We aren't closing!!" *closes 2 locations*
 
OP
OP
Darknight

Darknight

"I'd buy that for a dollar!"
Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,846
rec0ded1 said:
Shout out to the early days of Fry's when people would buy high end cards and return trash ones in the box and employees didn't know the difference
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It was so easy to get cheap stuff at Fry's too since they didn't use barcode scanners for the longest time. All you had to do was peel the label off a product and put it on top of the label, and they would just enter the number off that label and that would look up what the price of the item should be.
 
TAJ

TAJ

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
12,446
Darknight said:
I know it's been dying, but this really seems like it's finally when it starts to be the end.
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My local one has had barren shelves for close to two years.
It was in steady decline before that. Switching from advertised sales to promo emails seemed to be the real beginning of the end.
 
El Bombastico

El Bombastico

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
36,053
rec0ded1 said:
Shout out to the early days of Fry's when people would buy high end cards and return trash ones in the box and employees didn't know the difference
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The best horror story I ever heard was a guy who bought a open-box hard drive. Someone had replaced it with a broken one and then returned it. So he drives back to the Fry's and after arguing with the employees that it wasn't him they process his refund as "defective" and offer him a rain check for when they get a new shipment.

Two days pass and he gets the call that an new hard drive has come in. He drives over and it is THE EXACT SAME HARD DRIVE HE HAD RETURNED. The employees just put new shrink wrap on it and threw it back on the shelves.
 

B'z-chan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,110
Harder to be a front when no one is buying up product or buying crap with your store credit card.
 
Carbon

Carbon

Deploying the stealth Cruise Missile
Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,897
I went into the Fry's in Fountain Valley about a month and a half ago, and nothing about this surprises me in the least. They seem to have been a dead-store walking for a while now.

Hang on Microcenter, we still need someone out there selling computer equipment.
 
djplaeskool

djplaeskool

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,783
Atlanta lost one of its two Fry's stores just before Christmas.

The decay had been slow and evident. Kinda sad to see. I remember when that place used to be fully stocked and busy near constantly.

It's also matching the surrounding area. It's right next to Gwinnett Place Mall (dead mall that was transformed into StarCourt in Stranger Things)
Traditional commerce in that area has been dropping like flies. The only saving grace has been the Asian community swooping up property and opening independent stores.
 
FinKL

FinKL

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
2,962
Did anyone read the tweet thread?

It says "we don't foresee us closing any more stores as we move to a consignment model"
WTF does that mean? Because the one here in Vegas is surely dead
 
RoaminRonin

RoaminRonin

Member
Nov 6, 2017
5,770
FinKL said:
Did anyone read the tweet thread?

It says "we don't foresee us closing any more stores as we move to a consignment model"
WTF does that mean? Because the one here in Vegas is surely dead
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From google:

Consignment inventory is a supply chain model in which a product is sold by a retailer, but ownership is retained by the supplier until the product has been sold. Because the retailer does not actually buy the inventory until it has been sold, unsold products can be returned.
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Deleted member 23850

Oct 28, 2017
8,689
I went to the Fry's Electronics on Thunderbird last week. Place felt like a fucking ghost town.

It's gone sooner or later.
 
ClivePwned

ClivePwned

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,625
Australia
when I used to visit LA for work in the 2000s, Fry's was always the highlight of the visit, even if it was just a quick stop at that hawaiian themed one near LAX, of if we had time, the one with the crashed space ship theme.

When I moved to Seattle for a bit around 2013, I went to the one in Renton and that was rather sad. The place was always a bit chaotic but it seemed to be run down. We were used to that in the US since we'd been to Sears stores and they looked like they were one week away from closing down but years later they were still there.

Thank Goodness JB Hifi in Australia seems to be making money otherwise I'd have little reason to leve the house.
 
FinKL

FinKL

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
2,962
RoaminRonin said:
From google:
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To me, that means Frys will act as a "warehouse" to vendors to sell their items? Because we already know Frys doesn't have money to keep the shelves stocked. That's interesting, and seems positive? To me, that means there will be less junk on the shelves because it's not gonna sell
 
ArgyleReptile

ArgyleReptile

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,923
djplaeskool said:
Atlanta lost one of its two Fry's stores just before Christmas.

The decay had been slow and evident. Kinda sad to see. I remember when that place used to be fully stocked and busy near constantly.

It's also matching the surrounding area. It's right next to Gwinnett Place Mall (dead mall that was transformed into StarCourt in Stranger Things)
Traditional commerce in that area has been dropping like flies. The only saving grace has been the Asian community swooping up property and opening independent stores.
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Yup. That shit disappeared in the night. I didn't even know it was closed until my uncle told me.
 
Corran Horn

Corran Horn

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,615
Fry's was one of the joys me and my dad had while I was growing up. Was so awesome to look at everything. Went to my local one a year ago and it was mostly empty or couldn't find anything useful anymore.
 
squeakywheel

squeakywheel

Member
Oct 29, 2017
6,083
rec0ded1 said:
Shout out to the early days of Fry's when people would buy high end cards and return trash ones in the box and employees didn't know the difference
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That straight up is scamming and stealing.
I celebrated when Frys Renton started. Was a bit disappointed it wasn't themed. Now I haven't visited that place in 3+ years. Used to hate following up for rebates that never came.
 
Carbon

Carbon

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Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,897
FinKL said:
To me, that means Frys will act as a "warehouse" to vendors to sell their items? Because we already know Frys doesn't have money to keep the shelves stocked. That's interesting, and seems positive? To me, that means there will be less junk on the shelves because it's not gonna sell
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You also have to convince manufacturers/suppliers to bear the burden of returns and shrinkage, and I would imagine Fry's is going to take a smaller cut than they would if they were buying and reselling outright. Ain't that many manufacturers gonna be jazzed about signing up for that when they can just sell through other channels in a more traditional model.

This is basically how selling through Amazon's FBA program works, but Amazon can get away with it because they're AMAZON. Ain't no one gonna be breaking down Fry's doors to throw them money when it's clear they're circling the drain.
 
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