re: #199 O say, does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave..

I’ve been to one a few times. It was a nice place. Competitive prices, good quality stuff, I liked going there when I needed to. Shifting to online ordering as I grew older, as well as there not being one nearby (the only electronics store I know of, outside of Best Buy and similar, is Micro Center), is why I haven’t been there in years.

Used to go to their various SF Bay Area locations frequently to browse, and sometimes to buy. Each of their stores had a theme “Wild West”, “Silicon Valley”, “Mexican”.

The last computer I built was mostly built from Fry-purchased parts, and I’ve bought numerous video games, books, and components from them over the years.

They had an excellent selection of electronic components, computers and computer components and all sorts of random things including appliances, furniture, and a small kids toys section. They had a good selection until about 2 years ago, when I started seeing empty store shelves everytime I went by there. I had asked them at that time what was happening, (and whether they were closing) and they claimed that they were expecting more supplies later. I dropped by another of their stores a month later when dropping past it and saw the same problems.

A few months later, I started seeing news reports saying they claimed they’d gone to a consignment model. And then they started closing stores. And now this…