Is Fry's Electronics going OOB?

[DReg350]

Fry's is interesting to me because I grew up with their stores. First grocery, then electronics. First Fry's Electronics I ever went to was Sunnyvale... the first Sunnyvale store, not the third where it is now. That was kinda during the beginning of the PC heyday...'86ish. You could get anything you needed to build a PC there, and as I recall... not really anywhere else. I do recall they were unable to strike a deal with HP, or IBM, to become an authorized reseller. The HP LaserJet had just come out and it was the shit. Fry's figured out a way to buy them on the black market and sell them at below retail.

Then they exploded all over the place. Around 2003ish, John bought the Flying Lady property, which is on the East side of 101, after a deck collapsed, injured several people and went bankrupt. Many of the aircraft from the Lady Museum ended up at the Hiller Museum in San Mateo. John embarked on a massive project to convert the property, which is completely separate from the Cordevalle property on the West side of 101, into a world class golf course, and Math institute complete with a castle... with NO permits. A battle ensued with the City of Morgan Hill. I don't know any details of the deal, but he was eventually able secure permits... retroactively. Also, during construction he bought another property at the corner of 101 and Cochrane. John set up a "Specimen Garden" on this property and began moving hundreds of trees from the Lady property to the Specimen property. The city saw what was going on and John said this would be a temporary site and that the specimens would be moved back to the Lady property once the Golf course and castle were complete. The city later said that they'd given John a temporary 2 year rezoning permit for the specimen property. That was more than 15 years ago.

John does what he wants... when he wants... how he wants... and gets away with it. So, I don't worry about Fry's. He has plenty of assets.

 

[byke]

Fry's used to be the shit. I think their slow demise has a connection to 2008. Consumer spending has changed quite a bit since then.

 

[budman]

Ah Lenard... the third wheel in the Fry's cog.

I had no idea on their personal backgrounds really.
Thanks for that insight BA.

 

[TheRobSJ]

Fry's is interesting to me because I grew up with their stores. First grocery, then electronics. First Fry's Electronics I ever went to was Sunnyvale... the first Sunnyvale store, not the third where it is now. That was kinda during the beginning of the PC heyday...'86ish. You could get anything you needed to build a PC there, and as I recall... not really anywhere else. I do recall they were unable to strike a deal with HP, or IBM, to become an authorized reseller. The HP LaserJet had just come out and it was the shit. Fry's figured out a way to buy them on the black market and sell them at below retail.

Then they exploded all over the place. Around 2003ish, John bought the Flying Lady property, which is on the East side of 101, after a deck collapsed, injured several people and went bankrupt. Many of the aircraft from the Lady Museum ended up at the Hiller Museum in San Mateo. John embarked on a massive project to convert the property, which is completely separate from the Cordevalle property on the West side of 101, into a world class golf course, and Math institute complete with a castle... with NO permits. A battle ensued with the City of Morgan Hill. I don't know any details of the deal, but he was eventually able secure permits... retroactively. Also, during construction he bought another property at the corner of 101 and Cochrane. John set up a "Specimen Garden" on this property and began moving hundreds of trees from the Lady property to the Specimen property. The city saw what was going on and John said this would be a temporary site and that the specimens would be moved back to the Lady property once the Golf course and castle were complete. The city later said that they'd given John a temporary 2 year rezoning permit for the specimen property. That was more than 15 years ago.

John does what he wants... when he wants... how he wants... and gets away with it. So, I don't worry about Fry's. He has plenty of assets.

That first Sunnyvale store was a trip. Half grocery store, half TVs and computers.

John also owned the San Jose Sabercats arena football team. And Horta Aviation, which was mostly just a 727 that mostly got used to fly the team around, though I think it also chartered the Sharks too.

 

[auntiebling]

frys looks like a bomb went off these days.... only it's a schizophrenia bomb. last time i had to enter one it was easier to find axe body spray than the aux cable i needed.

Fry's is interesting to me because I grew up with their stores. First grocery, then electronics. First Fry's Electronics I ever went to was Sunnyvale... the first Sunnyvale store, not the third where it is now. That was kinda during the beginning of the PC heyday...'86ish. You could get anything you needed to build a PC there, and as I recall... not really anywhere else. I do recall they were unable to strike a deal with HP, or IBM, to become an authorized reseller. The HP LaserJet had just come out and it was the shit. Fry's figured out a way to buy them on the black market and sell them at below retail.

Then they exploded all over the place. Around 2003ish, John bought the Flying Lady property, which is on the East side of 101, after a deck collapsed, injured several people and went bankrupt. Many of the aircraft from the Lady Museum ended up at the Hiller Museum in San Mateo. John embarked on a massive project to convert the property, which is completely separate from the Cordevalle property on the West side of 101, into a world class golf course, and Math institute complete with a castle... with NO permits. A battle ensued with the City of Morgan Hill. I don't know any details of the deal, but he was eventually able secure permits... retroactively. Also, during construction he bought another property at the corner of 101 and Cochrane. John set up a "Specimen Garden" on this property and began moving hundreds of trees from the Lady property to the Specimen property. The city saw what was going on and John said this would be a temporary site and that the specimens would be moved back to the Lady property once the Golf course and castle were complete. The city later said that they'd given John a temporary 2 year rezoning permit for the specimen property. That was more than 15 years ago.

John does what he wants... when he wants... how he wants... and gets away with it. So, I don't worry about Fry's. He has plenty of assets.

the flying lady was so freaking cool. i loved all the model airplanes flying around the dining area

 

[budman]

That first Sunnyvale store was a trip. Half grocery store, half TVs and computers.

I think you are thinking the 2nd. The whole building painted like a computer chip on Kern Avenue / Lawrence??

The first one on Lakeside pretty much just had massive computer parts. Bins and bins of stuff that I had no idea what they did other than they were chips, connectors etc. Maybe it is the same... :dunno

I only walked through it before we did the Palo Alto store.

 

[DReg350]

The original Sunnyvale Fry's was near the corner of Oakmead Parkway and Lakeside Drive. The second location was at Lawrence and Kern.

 

[TheRobSJ]

I’ve been in all three Sunnyvale locations. I was just a kid for the original one though. Could swear I saw several aisles of groceries.

Ah ha. Looked it up on Wikipedia. Here’s an excerpt...

The store was and still is one of the few retail outlets in the country that sold off-the-shelf microprocessors such as the Intel 80286. The store also sold T-shirts, technical books, potato chips, and magazines, including Playboy. At first, approximately half the store was stocked with groceries including fresh produce, but the groceries section quickly diminished to displays of soft drinks and snack foods.

 

[Bay Arean]

Ah Lenard... the third wheel in the Fry's cog.

I had no idea on their personal backgrounds really.
Thanks for that insight BA.

Honestly, I don't know if Lenard continued to hang with John, maybe you know something. He was a friend I truly enjoyed. I kept up with him for a while when he was living in SF. I was convinced he joined the CIA because he had a job for a while as a courier, flying across the country to deliver briefcases or some damn thing. I was convinced it was a cover because he had this hilarious business card that showed a briefcase with wings and has a super generic name.. As they say, good times.

 

[Lorry]

I've been to both the Fry's in Campbell, and the one off Brokaw recently. Both looked like they were running down inventory - empty shelves not being refilled etc.

Given it was a Saturday afternoon, the Brokaw location only needed three cashiers and there was no line. Compared to a decade ago, I'd say that they are heading rapidly into the sunset.

 

[Hooli]

Fry's is past Walmart stage and is following in Radio Shack's footsteps.

 

[jdhu]

It's been close to a decade since I've been to one (Sacramento), but can't say I'll miss Frys. Anytime I had a question, the employee would just read the back of the box to me. Not very much help at all.

 

[DReg350]

It's been close to a decade since I've been to one (Sacramento), but can't say I'll miss Frys. Anytime I had a question, the employee would just read the back of the box to me. Not very much help at all.

Yeah, but that kinda fit with their low cost model. In the Computer department they were rarely an authorized reseller for anything. As I recall there was an entrance fee associated with becoming one. The entrance fee included mandatory rep product training. They didn't want to pay the entrance fee for the training or for the cost to pull reps off the floor to have them trained.

What I think they relied on was a tech savvy silicon valley customer base, who knew what they wanted when they walked in. If a person didn't know, they'd grab a savvy workmate, neighbor, or family member to go there with them.

Fry's was NEVER known for their product knowledge. Yeah, I'd run into an outlier every now and again that knew his or her stuff. But, they were usually there for a short time, a port in the storm, between tech jobs during a recession/high layoff period.

 

[Entoptic]

Fry's is done. They are closing most of their stores and will most likely transition to online if that.

They are closing 260 stores. close to 70 this year.

 

[byke]

Maybe drop a zero..?

 

[budman]

Honestly, I don't know if Lenard continued to hang with John, maybe you know something. He was a friend I truly enjoyed. I kept up with him for a while when he was living in SF. I was convinced he joined the CIA because he had a job for a while as a courier, flying across the country to deliver briefcases or some damn thing. I was convinced it was a cover because he had this hilarious business card that showed a briefcase with wings and has a super generic name.. As they say, good times.

He was involved when I did work for them in fact he was my main contact.
That was a while ago though.

 

[jdhu]

Yeah, but that kinda fit with their low cost model. In the Computer department they were rarely an authorized reseller for anything. As I recall there was an entrance fee associated with becoming one. The entrance fee included mandatory rep product training. They didn't want to pay the entrance fee for the training or for the cost to pull reps off the floor to have them trained.

What I think they relied on was a tech savvy silicon valley customer base, who knew what they wanted when they walked in. If a person didn't know, they'd grab a savvy workmate, neighbor, or family member to go there with them.

Fry's was NEVER known for their product knowledge. Yeah, I'd run into an outlier every now and again that knew his or her stuff. But, they were usually there for a short time, a port in the storm, between tech jobs during a recession/high layoff period.

Yeah, good points, and again, I haven't been to a Frys in probably a decade. If it's just basically a DIY warehouse though, then it's not surprising Amazon crushes it, since Amazon is a gigantic DIY warehouse with better prices, free shipping, etc.

Maybe the counter to Amazon is a place with expert assistants. Prices would be higher, but it might cater to older, wealthier consumers who need hand-holding.

 

[Bay Arean]

He was involved when I did work for them in fact he was my main contact.
That was a while ago though.

I'll be darned! Yer basic degrees of sep and all that. It just proves we're old and we know a lot of people I guess.

 

[TheRobSJ]

Fry's is done. They are closing most of their stores and will most likely transition to online if that.

They are closing 260 stores. close to 70 this year.

Whaaaat? There’s only like 30 stores in the whole country.

 

[Bay Arean]

Somehow, I recall that Egghead software and Outpost were somehow merged with Fry's but its ancient history. It seems like it was Fry's/Outpost I think...