Thread regarding Fry's Electronics layoffs

Fry's management took a very shortsighted view of business and ruined their own future. Lousy ending to a great beginning.

frys closed due to bad management .. its ceo was a coke taking addict .. no bills were being paid for quite some time.. this covid c-ap is a convenient excuse .. good riddance i say

as a former supplier - the tariffs had nothing to do with it they were having issues paying bills for years before the tariffs.

It appears their business model relied heavily on cheap imported products from China. Even before the pandemic started, inventory on the shelves were rather lax. Do you think the tariffs had something to do with it?
It is still sad to see them go despite the massive square footage of retail space they occupied.
Now they join the belated businesses such as Blockbuster and Sears which will make for another great case study.

It's not that all stores will close like some here are saying it is that all stores ARE closed they all closed the end of day on the 23rd. There are no open Fry's Electronics anywhere even the signage has been removed.

The burbank store is closed

Ernesto

Jesus, everybody who has posted a reply here is f—ing r—ded.....you people need to be in school

All of them.

All store Just fired there Loss Pervention.

The stores will eventually close. Consignment model was made so they can close any store at any time without owning millions in product-the vendors own the product. Its why they went consignment in the first place the master plan was to run stores with bare bone crews (expense) while trying to sell off the property or repurpose it. Covid19 halted the world and elongated the timetable is all. Frys isnt “surviving” the owners never intended for it to continue.

The Renton store is profitable yet they are spray painting its parking lot, drilling through its pavement, and marking off areas for survey crews in preparation of turning it into a apartment complex. A journalist found this intention digging up public records its been in the works since early 2020. The writing is on the wall, or rather the pavement as it were. The company requesting the city to change the zoning for apartments is actually also owned by Frys. Its how the Frys brothers work.

Most likely things will come crashing down soon the consignment model was a complete failure, only kept around for saving $$ during shutdown. Covid19 was a big wrench in their plans. Sad end, but rich people and their money...the owners lived a life on a platter life and never had to earn anything.

The Austin, TX store hasn't closed yet, but I can't for the life of me see how they're keeping the doors open and the lights on, when they have no customers and no product. The last time I was there, a couple of months ago, there couldn't have been more than a dozen cars in the entire parking lot – on a Saturday afternoon, during the holiday shopping season, yet! – and there simply wasn't anything inside worth buying. Whole sections of the store have been abandoned and blocked off, and even in the areas that aren't, whole rows of shelves are near-empty. As near as I can tell, they don't even have cameras, appliances, televisons, home-entertainment systems, or car stereos any more; no computer desks or home-office furniture, practically nothing in the way of computers or accessories like monitors, printers, scanners, or graphics tablets; and virtually nothing in the way of game consoles, controllers, or games.

Heck, the guys at the registers (all two of them) aren't even bothering with the little red/green andon lights anymore to let you know when they're ready for the next customer – and they don't even bother having a guy at the podium to check your receipt on your way out the door anymore, either.

I really don't know why they haven't already closed the doors. I can't see how they can possibly be making enough money to even cover their day-to-day operating expenses this way, much less turning any kind of profit.

Renton, WA store is like all the others commented on below (that I read, anyway....didn’t go through them all). Very little product, maybe half the store shelves/floor space not used at all, almost no staff. The parts of the store that are being used are barely stocked. I was rather surprised BJ it all as I hadn’t realized this was going on.

Houston, TX store is a gutted wasteland, been that way for almost two years now. Got the same party line: "No we aren't closing, we are just moving things around." Sad, I was there when they built it back in '08. Place was bustling with people year round, parking spots were hard to get and during holidays, they maxed out their 50 registers. Built my first and second computers there. Now it's just employed tumbleweeds rolling between barren shelves.

Spooky really...

Just exited the location at Downers Grove, IL and was extremely shocked by the emptiness in the facility. Literally empty shelfs everywhere. Even asked an employee if they were closing and he said no. Told him it was weird because of how much of the store was empty which he got bothered and told me “yes we have some empty shelfs”....lol no you have 70% of your store with empty shelfs sir.

We loved the Austin store for computer and electronic parts. We built at least three computers and several electronic projects. We purchased supplies and tools. Often we wondered how Fry's could offer so much and be so well stocked. We visited Austin a few weeks ago, and while some of the lights are on and a handful of employees wander around looking busy or stunned, the store will be sorely missed.

Went to the Arlington, Texas store for the first time in a year yesterday. There were like two name-brand TVs on display, then all the no-name ones in boxes all around the department. No video cards, no hard drives or SSDs, barely any no-name networking gear. All the display laptops and PCs were gone. The wall of motherboards and RAM kits on display were gone. The home theater demo area was locked up and all the tuners and speakers were gone. The entire end of the store that used to have home appliances was completely empty and roped off...won't be buying a Kitchen Aid mixer for the girlfriend for Valentine's Day there, I guess. At least the handful of employees left have had their souls crushed so completely by now that they don't sprint up to you trying to make a commission anymore. If only Micro Center wasn't an hour away...

If the Fry's in Concord isn't shutting down soon, they're certainly doing a reasonable facsimile of a store in a death spiral. Half the store is no longer being used...while I was there yesterday, they were tearing down rows of shelves in one whole half of the store. The part of the store that was in use was dark (only half the lights were on) and the shelves were stocked one product deep and spread way out to make them look more occupied. Barely any employees (other then the ones pulling down shelves.

Sad way for a once-vibrant business to go out. I expect the "Store Closing! Liquidation Sale!" ads to appear any day now.

stopped in the Fishers Indiana store counting mine 4 cars in the parking lot, store had hardly any thing on the shelves.

Went to the Austin location out of morbid curiosity. There is absolutely no way they're getting enough profit to pay for electricity and the five employees still working there. Even if they turned around and had a 90% off store closing sale tomorrow, there's still nothing worth the time.

Frys Woodland Hills recently sold to developers, there are plans to build housing/retail there.

Went to the one In Garland Texas today, use to work there around 2004. The store is a far cry from what it once was, huge areas unused, product heavily spaced out only a single item deep, large areas blocked off and abandoned. They could consolidate all the product they have into a 1/3 of the store if they wanted.

The staff was mostly no where to be found one employee on whole HUGE sales floor. 2 people checking out, 1 manger in returns and 1 with check out counter, and one random tech in repairs.

Sad to see they have fallen so far, they have switched to consignment for vendors leaving them with almost nothing worth buying. Gone are PCs, most TVs, Video Game systems and not a lot of big name brands any longer.

wow just went into the Tempe, AZ store and they are slowly circling all of the inventory to the center of the store. Lots of bare walls towards the outside, I would say they are using about 30% - 40% of the entire buildings footprint now. Parking lot maybe at 10-15 cars and maybe 6 employees in the whole store.

Fry's inevitable closure didn't have that much to do with amazon but by their own doing. Even during the peak of the Recession the store was crowded on the weekends and all of the popular items were out of stock. Fry's problem is they've been having noticeable stock issues since 2011. Stock has slowly got worse and worse and worse since then. There's no reason to go to Fry's when a smaller store like Best Buy is stocked with items that are in higher demand.

The douchey attitude that some of the employees had drove many consumers away as well. There is no other store in my area, except Walmart, where I've had multiple arguments with rude employees that think they're right about everything. I've had arguments with Fry's employees about everything from Monster cables, RAM, stock issues, price matching, SSD's. Except for Walmart, at least the arguments I had with Fry's Employees were at least somewhat intelligent. When a store doesn't have what you want and the employees are hostile, you're probably going to buy your goods from Best Buy or Amazon.

Frequent Milton shopper and management that I knew for over 5 years is gone. New staff team only one employee who used to stock shelves seems to have received a promotion and is still around. The store is large, The back left was TVs, audio cameras and sound systems, empty. Back right was all PC monitors, tablets, printers and they even had an apple "island" of sorts that was dedicated to the latest apple products. Windows, Apple and Chrome books gone. Center left was Video games, Karoke DJ type of equipment DVDs CDs and some remote control toys had some high end stem but no more. most are gone, Video game sections consolidated towards the center of the store. Center right DIY area and office desks. Mostly knock off brands for computer cases. Mother boards and key components are gone. Just network and switches are around. The printer paper and toner is scarce.

I can summarize at least that the store is restructuring to move inventory to the front 1/3 and keeping the middle 1/3 for selling left overs from the back 1/3. I thought they would shut down early 2020 especially during Covid. At this point they are selling cheap lights, survival gear and items they didn't carry before. Marked up masks and gloves, PPE and gift cards I was buying with Frys card are no longer activating. At this stage from what I saw a year a go to now maybe 6 months left. If they stock up every now and then with cheap overpriced items maybe they can float another year. But why even go there? As seen on TV products and 50s movies? No real electronics. Interesting list here.

Judging to how empty the Fry's at Roseville is, it is extremely obvious that it is getting ready to close down permanently. I tried to call their customer service, left a message, and nobody called back. I sent an email instead, again my email came back. The weird part is I asked a number of their employees and all of them insisted that Fry's Roseville is NOT CLOSING anytime soon. Come on folks, look around your workplace and tell me if you honestly believe what you're saying.

The one in Roseville sure looks like they're preparing to close. Most of their shelves are empty, but you can ask any employee and they will tell you that they are not closing any time soon. Seems to me that either their employer are not telling them the truth, or they are all in denial.

Last Xmas Frys in Oxnard Ca shelves were empty in 2019. When I asked the computer dept why they are so empty they said they are no longer buying products from China. Kind of hard to do in electronics but I support it. I just went in today 13 Dec 2020 and not o ly are so many shelves empty but all their was displays and sound rooms are empty. Holes in the walls where speakers use to be. Asked several are they going out if business and all they say is we are going to resto j. When she said this I busted out laughing. I love Frys. If they are going out of business then just put it out of its misery. It is panful watching its slow death. I also noticed many aisles are Removed with all its shelves gone.

They need a new CEO if they want to survive. Whatever their plan is it is not working. BestBuy was seriously hurt by Frys and managed to change to be a big success. Yet Frys is doing nothing.. Maybe they just want to collect Coved money while they can before going under. Not sure. They will be missed.

need another Frys desperately. Best place in the world to buy Chinese junk.

My son's looking for a gaming monitor. After visiting Best Buy, I hyped up going to Frys (in Woodland Hills, CA), with row after row of monitors – probably 50 different ones, I told him. Granted, it has been probably about 1½ years since I was last there, but it is difficult to describe the shock after walking in. This store was always busier, better stocked, and less expensive then Best Buy. But what they had this week were four monitors sitting on an 8-foot table. Computers? No. TVs? No. Refrigerators? I saw two small ones and a standalone freezer. Shelves and pegs throughout the store are stocked one item deep. Aside from the person at the exit and one cashier, I saw only one other employee, riding around on a hoverboard so he could cover the entire store. Truly embarrassing and shocking.

The "We're changing vendors" statement seems to just be a gimmick management passes down to employees to say if asked about their closing down. They say the same thing at every Frys. If you happen to find something at one of the stores, just know that any warranties they attach to items such as T.V.s is going to be absolutley worthless. Its really to bad. I spoke to an honest employee who told me Amazon just has all their vendors now and they're not going to be able to catch up. Be nice to see them retain themselves online but I doubt it. They prolly just getting ready for a huge Bankruptcy.

I've heard from employees at the Roseville location that, that store will be closing in March.

@7Cakx+10C60tn5 we ended up taking them to collections to finally get paid but that was in June of 2019 after we had cut them off earlier in the year. Not sure if it was the collection agency that got them to pay or just lucky. We did have them call us after that and ask us to go consignment and they basically were telling us if we wanted to get paid we had to go that way we told them to pound sand. Don't think the person calling us realized that they no longer owed us anything. If you have already done the collection route getting a lawyer might be the next best thing.

Being a past vendor for Frys and still have large receivables not paid, is there anyone who can tell me how to go about getting any money paid. I have tried everything short of lawyer. Nothing works, cant even get response .

I wish Micro Center would buy out the almost closed Fry's here in Oregon. No Micro Center's in Oregon (yet) and it would be a slam dunk with the amount of people who live here and the business they would get.

Visited wilsonville oregon frys 2 days after Thanksgiving completely empty shelves no t.vs,no computers,no car stereos..don't know why they are even open

11/28/20. I was just in the Webster Tx Frys location and most of the store is already cleaned out. Looks like they can close any day now.

Fountain Valley, CA will close its doors on Dec 1, 2020. Just bought something online that the City of Industry Store ran out of. The email said they will hold my item until store closing on 12/1/2020.

Fry’s is a rip off . They burn everyone even there employees.
Good riddens

If no one realizes it, consignment model was made so they can shut down on the fly as they sell off their land with no actual loss from having outright purchased the products in store. Its a proven failed system by now, yet persists for this very reason.

Its John and Randy Frys play business, and they have already abandoned any notion of reviving the company. They are running them like this to maximize saving $$$ until they find buyers to sell off the valuable land. Potential buyers have been checking out the properties, in partnership, with Frys, even once top profitable stores that lead the company in profit gain. Thats how you know there is no intention whatsoever of even trying to fix what they now view as a discarded failure only now worth land value. This system was purposeful to a drawn out shutdown. Its also why you dont see multiple key products like motherboards carried in store. If a vendor jumps on board to take all risks by lending their product to Frys you see new product. If they dont, ah well Frys isnt trying to pick itself back up, just biding its time until sellout. As you can imagine, most name brand vendors laughed at this proposition and Frys now mostly carries no name brands unlike prior.

If you really dont believe this, Store Managers have to request literally everything from a single corporate worker who manages some kind of scrooge budget, to the point if you ask for six reams of paper (and yes Im being literal), he will most likely approve three. Even staples and tape have to be requested before your allowed to use these basic products for store business running reasons. So if you think they have some kind of comeback plan Im not sure where you got this idea from because as time goes on there are only continuous cuts to everyone, every paycheck, and to store staffing. Nothing has gone the other way (positive direction) for well over a year and half now.

I was just at Frys in Downers Grove, Illinois on 11-15-20. Only 5 cars in the parking lot, I thought they were closed or out of business. Maybe a year or two ago when I was last there, there was little business, but the shelves were well stocked ... but a dramatic decrease in customers. Yesterday, most shelves were empty or products were scarce. Many sections simply no longer existed. Debt to look at computer parts ... there were none. Only computer cases were a few that were incomplete. All complete computers were gone. No TV's. No computer software. I asked the man at the door if they were going out of business. He only said Covid dramatically affected their supply. I only saw two employees in the entire store, the one cashier and the door man. He said most staff have been furloughed. Having seen a year or so ago their business was poor, would guess they won't be around for long. Sad to see Frys go. Ten years ago I built my computer which everything cne from Frys.