[conspire] (forw) The "Fry's Experience" is gone

[Nick Moffitt]

On 24Feb2021 08:07am (-0800), Rick Moen wrote:
> 07:07 < redrick> phr:  Totally with you about Central Computer having been an
>                  order of magnitude better than Fry's for decades.
> 07:11 < redrick> The local-to-us Fry's (Palo Alto) that folded recently was
>                  valuable primarily for (1) NiMh battery selection, (2) weekly
>                  specials if you are feeling lucky and/or aren't picky, and (3)
>                  late closing time.  Otherwise, I'd drive/bike 25 km further 
>                  and go to Central Computer in Santa Clara, every time -- 
>                  because they might not have acres of stuff, but they have 
>                  things you actually want.
> 08:00 < redrick> Oh, and (4) Fry's had an excellent magazine rack.

I remember when they opened the branch in Concord; and every time I would say "Concord Fry's", someone would ask "What are concord fries?".

I think the second time I went to that branch, I ran into Bram Cohen from the Berkeley Unix User Group.  He was between jobs, and told me how he'd spent his Funemployment writing a file-sharing protocol.  That of course turned out to be BitTorrent.

I have no particular fondness for the services the stores offered themselves, but I did like that you could get to the Concord branch by BART.  All the others were too far away from normal human transport systems to be even remotely accessible.