With the constant 20% off coupons, and bare shelves, Fry's has to be circling the drain. The number of computer and monitors has been decreased so much, that one can only wonder why. Their creditors must not be extending them credit. Maybe all of their sales now are purely a cash grab.
I really wish I was wrong about this, but the writing has to be on the walls.
Visited Fry's in Oxnard, CA. I needed batteries.
Unbelievable. No D cells, No C cells. Only a handful of AAAs and lots of empty shelves. No dip switches. No DPDT toggles. CAT5 connectors running out. No FRS Radios. The list goes on and on....
I was told this was all due to tariffs. I don't believe this, certain Staples (like batteries) you keep in stock if you want to keep your customers.
Fry's at Downers Grove IL is a major shocker. The store looks like an abandoned asylum. 80% shelves are empty, I asked an employee, if the store is closing, he told me I cannot say much as i dont even get my salary now.
Went to the Webster/Clear Lake, Texas area store yesterday to see shockingly bare shelves, maybe 4 employees in the entire store, and they looked absolutely miserable. Pretty sad to see, feel bad for the people working there as I really used to love going to Frys and checking out the cool stuff.
Admittedly I have not been to the Renton, WA store for over a year. I had Frys do my last PC build and the techs did a great job with an older case I was using. The issue at least in the Seattle area is that Amazon has a lot of tech inventory on one day delivery. That really takes the incentive out of driving down I-405 traffic to get something now. A decade ago they would be packed during the holidays. It's obviously much different now.
It's official....the virus has reached the 'only' Fry's in Las Vegas. Stopped by there yesterday (10/2/19) and mostly-bare shelves were the rule. The only cars in the parking lot were employees. I was lonesome. It was sad.
I was in the Phoenix AZ store yesterday. I’ve been a commercial reseller customer for years, but I’ve been layed up for the whole summer with medical c-ap. I finally started working again this week and needed something I knew I could grab at Fry’s, so I made the drive.
I almost didn’t even go in the store, it appeared to be closed; the parking lot looked like a ghost town. I saw an employee come out the exit door for a smoke break, so I parked and ventured inside. The store is in a very sad state. I wasn’t expecting the shelves to be literally empty. Not a single network switch, router, or any Cat 3/5/6 cabling more (or less!) than 3ft. Other sections were just as bad. No motherboards, power supplies, PC cases, the list goes on and on and on. Very much reminiscent of RadioShack in their final days. One can only assume they’re going out of business.
Was in the Indianapolis store today. Ghosttown. Bare shelves throughout the store. Sad.
if they close fry's Before Nov. 12th maybe on that day (Nov. 12th) I go to Walmart to buy the Final Set I have like 4 1/2 seasons Recently
I was still getting the promo deals, so I went to frys burbank and found 1 nightowl security dvr. Couldn't get it going so brought it back the next day. Unlike the past, there was nobody in line and they took it back and the refund occurred the same day to my CC.
I'm glad I returned it so quickly, otherwise I don't think I would have been successful. The store was empty with no more than 10-15 total employees, and that was on a Saturday. Nobody checking your receipt on the way out any longer.
I've given up on them. I no longer get the promo deals. I don't trust them to stay in business for the 30 day returns.
I was shocked. Haven't been to a Fry's for a long time. Drove up, thought the store was closed because the parking lot was empty. Luckily they had the item I needed (last one). I have been around long enough to know they are in the dumper.
Employees are clueless, they told me they are looking for new vendors and they just signed a new 5 year lease. I suspect that is the corporate line. It was like entering a tomb.
They will be gone before Christmas 2019. You can't enter the holiday season with empty shelves.
It is a sign of the times...
Went to Fry's Austin TX. They didn't even have a single mouse pad. So sad.
Also stopped by San Marcos CA store and was stunned at the lack of merchandise. I asked an employee if they were closing and he was not happy about that. NO! Was his comment as he walked away from me. Why wont they just say it? First of all, they don’t have anything to buy, the employees are obviously not happy and if you do find something to purchase, good luck with any returns.... Very sad. It was a great store.
Not surprised they are closing. Two months ago, we left a computer at the Palo Alto store for an estimate on repairs and told them to do nothing without our approval. They charged for the estimate up front and then "fixed" it anyway and charged us $250, saying they wouldn't release it unless we paid. We had to have another independent expert fix the computer. They sold my husband an external hard drive that does not work and was just replaced by Apple. Get a Geek Squad contract with Best Buy for your computer, take your Apple to Apple experts. Fry's was once great. They're not just circling the drain....they've flushed.
Was in the Renton, WA store on Saturday / it was a tomb. A parking lot that, at that time of the day, should have been packed, had only a few cars in it. Was in there just to get a 4 or 5 port network hub / there weren't any. Best Buy ha lots of them. I don't thing Fry's is long for this world.
Was just in the Fry’s southwest Houston store. Bare shelves. One whole display row had nothing but Gatorade bottles on it. Really really sad to see. Spoke with a manager and he said they were looking for new vendors. I’m figuring That they ran out of credit.
I was in Frys Campbell today - I was going to buy a couple things but there was only one cashier working and she was taking FOREVER with some other customer so I just put my items down and left.
This store has the lowest prices ,it even beats eBays price . Everyone who is saying it’s going out of business is just a spectator not even buying anything, just wasting time . Get over it , frys is still in business and making revenue . Move on. Focus on your business and how your going to grow it. Good luck . Yes I still shop at frys .
I wish Fry's would close. I would have continued to shop there. I bought a lot of items from Fry's and was out of the country for more than 30 days and when I tried to retun few items, I was told that it's been more than 30 days. I told I was out of the country and they still wouldn't honor it. SO GOODBYE FRY'S. NO MORE SHOPPING THERE FOR ME.
I just left the Duluth, GA (Atlanta suburbs) store and noticed the huge stock racks at one end of the store were 99% empty. Most stock in the shopping areas was thin. I didn’t see any deals on anything that matters.
Many of the huge air systems in the ceiling were squeaking or making other noises like they’re on last legs.
I wonder, too, how Frys can pay all the expense on keeping these huge stores open. If true they’re planning to be an online store they better get on it or merge with some other company that knows what they’re doing online. Even more competition online.
The web sites terrible design and seemingly lack of maintenance should have tipped me off that they had poor priorities.
I’m sorry to disappoint all pessimistic customers . Frys Electronics is till open for business . Yes I’m still making money .
So sad, and I remember what the very first Fry's Electronics (the first of the three locations in Sunnyvale) was like, tiny, jam packed, with a unique lure of tech excitement (the building is still
there behind the McDonald's) The second Sunnyvale location was Fry's at it's peak, bustling like a Costco on a weekend. But they've just become decrepit museums, whose time has long past...
For the serious tech's the real places to go to are still around, minus all the noise...
The Plano, TX shelves are empty.
I can remember when many of us, in the Dallas area, could not wait for the Friday Fry's sale flyer to come out in the paper. I would venture to guess, that flyer along sold thousands of Friday newspaper. For over a decade, Fry's was the geeks heaven.
However, I did end up buying something at a deeply discounted price; a price way below what you could get online. When I asked an employee what was going on I got the company line. So, if you are at Fry's just make an offer, any offer.
The salesperson asked if I wanted to purchase the Fry's extended warranty plan. I was nice and said no thank you.
Went to the Austin store today. 60 to 75 percent empty. Just about all appliances gone. In Audio, Video, and Computers, nothing but display models. This is back-to -school season. Should be ramping up for Christmas.
The most obvious sign of impending doom, nobody was checking receipts at the door.
The ONLY reason to shop at Fry's was to either get what you needed 'right now' or to get something that you couldn't get anywhere else. Service was usually non-existent and even if you could get someone to help, they often didn't have the knowledge needed. Fry's carrying inventory that was outside of electronics and appliances was a waste–knives, garden hoses, perfume? WTF? I can understand the impulse purchase items as you head to the register but all that other c-ap had to eat into profit when it didn't sell.
It looked like the Houston southwest store was closed when I glimpsed it from the freeway early last night (9/25). I was in the Webster, TX store and the Houston southwest store last Saturday looking for flux remover and was shocked by the collapse from the debilitated state the southwest store was in a few weeks ago. I ended up driving twice as far to Micro Center where I found the product was enough cheaper than it was at Fry's to pay for the extra gallon of gas I burned to get there.
I had to laugh when I read one of the comments above about the full shelf of cheap perfume since I noted a similar shelf when I walked through the store last Saturday.
Fry's deserve to go down because their return policy terrible, their business model s—s, their workers has no clues what they do, I have not purchased anything from them for years now, BestBuy and Microcenter has much better service and quality. bye bye Fry!
Costa Mesa, CA. I’ve always bought at Fry’s for the price, quality of items & service. Employees are always helpful. I am sad that the shelves are empty and it feels like they are closing. Online shopping has its perks - but so does brick & mortar. Another casualty of the ever changing commerce world.
I hope a Micro Center opens up in the San Fernando Valley in California.
When Fry's Burbank and Woodland Hills close their doors, there is no other tech geek stores within 50 miles.
Fry's Burbank is a tomb. When I have PC hardware parts need, I'd like to go to a retail store and give them my money. Since Fry's s—s, I'm forced to buy Amazon. Newegg's return policy is atrocious.
Micro Center in Tustin is the closest to where I live. I'm not willing to drive 55 miles each way on the 5 freeway! That's 1.5 hours each way with traffic.
Went to Wilsonville Oregon store. Bare shelves. Couple cashiers stated it was because they are getting a new distributor. Manager knows they are closing but his boss and owner Randy Fry hasn't announced it. No one can keep up with Amazon. And as I type this. I am sitting in my $1300 massage chair I bought at Fry's last year. Sad turn of events.
I visited the Las Vegas store last January. It was full of merchandise. There were live performers playing in a combo with the grand piano. It was so very impressive.
I am in Dallas where there are two former Incredible Universe (Radio Shack) locations, and two additional Fry's stores. Shelves are empty. Some are being reorganized. In Irving they have moved the computer department & computer components together. School supplies now occupy the area where they used to have the components. An entire wall of that is now plastic bottles of tea.
I hate to see this kind of outcome. Just a few years ago there were long lines of customers checking out on Black Friday. Many had large screen TVs in their carts.
I paid for a refrigerator at Fountain Valley store which was suppose to be delivered. They never delivered it. I went to the store (about 20 miles from me) and was told that their delivery people quit. Waste of time including waiting past their 4-5 hour delivery window. Everything else about bare shelves is true.
Just came back from the City of Industry store. Great place to take your 1 year old if you need a ton of space of run around. Bare shelves and very little on the floor. With the release of the new Ryzen CPU, you would expect the shelves to be full of items for new builds. They only had cheap x470 MSI boards. Went to look at heatshrinks for an automotive battery charger negative lead that was coming apart. Didn't even have that. As noted above, only "As Seen On TV" items populated the shelves along with cheap perfume. Even the TV / Appliance areas were empty. Shame.
Maybe microcenter could take over their stores and split the overhead with amazon as a shipping warehouse / return center like Khols.
Went to Indianapolis (Fishers) store for a couple items. On a mid-day Saturday I used to ru into good mix of customers and employes. I counted 4 employees, including one cashier all all alone at check out. Didn’t mater I counted 6 customers in the place. None in line to check out.
The place was stripped. It’s a shame, even though prices weren’t the best it was great to find what I needed in a hurry. I have found that I-net shipping charges and slow delivery pushed me to local shopping, when we had such. Those days are gone. Will on-line stores fill he gap? I’ve had bad experiences with several. I don’t need hassles when trying to spend my money. Guess will find a couple of semi reliable on-line suppliers a keep my fingers crossed.
I have been to the San Jose, Campbell, and Fremont stores and pretty much the shelves are bare except an abundance of As Seen On Tv products and perfume. I have not asked any employee about the stores closing because what I read they are evasive or simply say they are "waiting for a new shipment". The only store that is confirmed to close at the end of 2019 is the Palo Alto store and the official reason is that Frys lease of that building had expired.
I am surprised that the company upper management believes that people can not see the empty shelves or putting boxes of copier paper to fill those empty shelves
After visiting local Fry's on Thursday, I was looking to buy some puts (stock options expecting value to go down) but see that they are privately held. Oh, well!
9/21/19 sacramento ca. Just left frys to get a ribbin cable that i didnt want to get online. This place is large and more then 60% of the shevles was empty. I counted 8 employees working. Everything was over priced, things you can get from amazon prime for 30-40% cheaper.
Cant blame tariffs, bestbuy and walmart are still pushing low-end cheap chinese good.
Frys like radioshack discontinued the original model for the electroncal/computer enthusiast. The DIY crowed.
The San Marcos, (North County San Diego) California store had plenty of very kind and caring employees, but very little inventory. This store is absolutely huge, clean, etc. — BUT — very little to buy! One employee said they were having trouble getting proper stock in with the tariffs — yet the Best Buy down the street is nicely stocked. Hope things turn around for this store and their great employees.
Just "shopped" Fry's San Marcos (9/21/19) two checkers. Lots of bare shelves..press red button for customer service. If this is not closing I don't know what else it could be.
The Austin, TX store was they same story. Didn't look at the appliance part of the store, but the electronic component sections were beyond bare.