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MineralMan

(150,954 posts)

9. Kind of sad, really.

Wed Feb 24, 2021, 12:59 PM

Feb 2021

I remember making road trips up to a Fry's in Silicon Valley in the mid to late 80s to buy components to build PC clones. It was a side hustle for me and a couple of others. We'd load up with motherboards, cases, power supplies, keyboards, hard drives, floppy drives, and monitors, and then assemble PC clones for sale. We didn't make much on each one, of course, but it all added up. If we watched for sales, we could boost the profitability a little, but we could always beat retail prices for our customers.

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Fry's Electronics is shutting its doors for good [View all] Garion_55 Feb 2021 OP

nooooooooooooooooo :( samnsara Feb 2021 #1

More jobs lost. Ugh! jimfields33 Feb 2021 #4

Finally. dalton99a Feb 2021 #2

Very sad. I remember their first store in Sunnyvale still_one Feb 2021 #3

Yeah, me , too. worked at Shugart bobalew Feb 2021 #32

They've been on life support for years AZSkiffyGeek Feb 2021 #5

Bullshit. Not Covid related at all sobenji Feb 2021 #6

From what I gather it sounds more like the virus was the final nail in the coffin so it cstanleytech Feb 2021 #11

Yep. Their stores were practically dead in 2019 dalton99a Feb 2021 #20

Covid-19 has been the coup de grace for zombie retailers. paleotn Feb 2021 #23

I worked at the very first store Garion_55 Feb 2021 #7

Let me guess. They began to gradually cut the number of full timers and shifted more and more cstanleytech Feb 2021 #12

The Fry's in Prescott was our go to store for groceries for at least 20 years. snort Feb 2021 #21

microcenter harumph Feb 2021 #8

Kind of sad, really. MineralMan Feb 2021 #9

Me too, but for my own use utopian Feb 2021 #16

Never shopped their but I heard about 25+ years ago that they were among the best at the time. cstanleytech Feb 2021 #10

Trump's China tariffs really hurt Fry's andym Feb 2021 #13

Agree. Tariffs was one of the factors onetexan Feb 2021 #41

Fry's bought Outpost.com to enhance their web presence in 2001 after the dot.com bust andym Feb 2021 #44

I'll blame Amazon. CloudWatcher Feb 2021 #14

The only reason I shop Amazon... jmowreader Feb 2021 #18

Amazon certainly played a part but Fry's slow response to shifting from physical stores cstanleytech Feb 2021 #22

No more door nazis gay texan Feb 2021 #15

Ha yes. MissB Feb 2021 #27

Can't count the number of hours I spent in Fry's in the 90's and early 2000s when I lived in the iluvtennis Feb 2021 #17

I'm surprised it took this long. SeattleVet Feb 2021 #19

Loved Fry's at its peak 20 years or so ago. Politicub Feb 2021 #24

Loved the themed stores! BuddhaGirl Feb 2021 #39

Always felt I got treated fairly there. What a shame. marble falls Feb 2021 #25

THAT'S BECAUSE THE CUSTOMERS ALWAYS HELPED EACH OTHER, NOT THE STORE STAFF.. bobalew Feb 2021 #34

If MicroCenter closes... my husband (and my sons) will grieve deeply. NurseJackie Feb 2021 #26

I was just at mine today, business was booming there. Initech Feb 2021 #29

they're giving away thumb drives and SD cards if you sign up on the list pstokely Feb 2021 #38

last I dealt with MicroCenter was in the early 90's when I was working for a singaporean company bobalew Feb 2021 #33

This is like when the Tandy stores closed up years ago onetexan Feb 2021 #42

The Mister now orders his little gizmos, switches and boxes from Amazon... NurseJackie Feb 2021 #43

A bit like Sears zipplewrath Feb 2021 #28

i remember trying to buy something at one of their stores orleans Feb 2021 #30

Fry's used to be awe-inspiring. paulkienitz Feb 2021 #31

I built my children's high school computers using parts from Frys. hunter Feb 2021 #35

Oh no! I would shop there more if there was one by me. FlyingPiggy Feb 2021 #36

My only surprise is that it took this long. Mawspam2 Feb 2021 #37

As a kid I remember going to the Fry's in the bay area with the Egyptian theme Sapient Donkey Feb 2021 #40