Fry’s Electronics, one of the last major chains of physical electronics stores in the United States – and one Silicon Valley institution in particular – is permanently closing across the country, confirmed local broadcaster KRON4, after a report Bill Reynolds and another from Matthew Keys.
The company’s Facebook page is also gone and its Twitter feed was set to private – it was public earlier this evening, although it hadn’t tweeted in a while.
If you have visited a Fry at any time in the past two or three years, none of this will come as a surprise.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the family business had been pushed to the brink of extinction by online retailers like Amazon, Newegg and others. The company initially started a campaign to match the price of any item you could find online. Added a children’s toy runner, huge racks of As Seen on TV gadgets, even perfume. But things got worse. In 2019, what used to be a haven of gadgets, computers, components, video games, audio equipment and home appliances turned into ghost stores full of empty shelves.
It turns out that the company was forced to switch to a consignment model, only able to attract suppliers willing to receive payment for their goods after Fry managed to sell them. Many suppliers were not.
YouTuber’s famous star, Bitwit, conducted a video investigation that showed how deep the once excellent stores had sunk – and how the company sent extra stock to its Las Vegas store, just in case journalists stopped during CES 2020.
Soon, the company started closing its stores – and not just any stores, but the main ones in the heart of Silicon Valley, like its cowboy-themed store in Palo Alto, just a few steps from where my dad used to work at Danger Hiptop ( better known as the T-Mobile Sidekick) and many high-tech startups still do business. This store in Palo Alto closed in December 2019. I used to ride my bike to the company’s Egyptian-themed pyramid shop in Campbell, which closed abruptly last November.
Egyptians? Cowboys? Yes, putting your feet up in a Fry’s Electronics was an experience with an “E” capitol – when I moved to the Bay Area in 1990, one of the first stores was designed as the interior of a computer (now vintage) – you would walk the halls the motherboard, bumping into giant human-sized capacitors and resistors along the way. The Egyptian store had fake columns, mummies and sarcopaghi; laptops were arranged on huge stone plates supported by statues of black panthers. That Palo Alto store that closed? Fake horses and hot air balloons hanging from the ceiling. Here are some of the other locations:
“Going to a Fry store is entertainment in itself; for a geek, it can be recuperative, ”wrote ex-Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassée in a 2019 blog post. I sincerely agree – I even occasionally grabbed some food, an astronaut ice cream pack with discount or one of many, many selections from their huge candy shelves attached to the candy line. They even made hot dogs and soda some summers when I was growing up. The company’s Black Friday porters were also a Silicon Valley event, with lines around the block for $ 200 or a $ 60 router.
However, there was the small issue of Fry’s famous bad customer service. Rare was the day when I would meet an employee who knew something about their products, the lines at the checkout were long, returns were incredibly slow, and the company was known for accepting product returns, putting a discount label on it, and returning it immediately. on the shelf. They would also try to check each item against your receipt when you leave, something (unlike Costco, where you sign a membership contract) you didn’t need to let them do.
(I can’t figure out where to fit it, but there was also the fun incident where a VP who drove a Ferrari was found to have embezzled $ 65 million.)
The writing has been on Fry’s wall since last April, I would say, when reports emerged that his store in San Jose could be replaced by an office campus – reports that often forgot to mention that Fry’s company headquarters it also occupied the same address.
For many readers, I bet this news is more a trigger for nostalgia than a real loss. But to me, it looks like we’re at the end of the era of gadget stores, now that the one I grew up with is gone. Over the years, we’ve lost Radio Shack, Toys R Us, The Sharper Image and Brookstone, Bose stores and Microsoft Stores. In Silicon Valley, many smaller chains like CompUSA and Micro Center, and stores like Halted (known for real circuits, not computers) and WeirdStuff Warehouse (a wild experience in itself!) Have long since closed their physical doors, too. Some of the biggest ones have become zombie brands, but they are effectively gone. (The Micro Center still has stores outside the bay area.)
I’m trying to think of some spare Silicon Valley electronics store, except Central Computer and, of course, Apple and Best Buy. If you think of any, let me know in the comments below? I would like to visit while this is still an option.