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

[paulz at ieee.org]

 In a long long ago time, there were installfests in San Jose and the Fry's on Brokaw was nearby if someone needed a cable or blank CD.
Having started as a hardware guy, Fry's and also Radio Shack were very useful if I was building something and discovered I needed, for example, a headphone connector or some wire in different colors.  If I planned ahead, there were alternate suppliers.  But sometimes there is one last piece so I can finish today.
I particularly miss HSC in Sunnyvale.  I didn't mind digging through bins of unpackaged parts. Sometimes that was a plus because I could make sure their connector would fit with the one I had.
The need for a large parking lot was not a problem with the existing stores. I believe they actually owned the land for many of the stores.There was a news item some time ago about selling the Brokaw location to a developer.  
As for "human transportation", unless you were buying a washing machine, most of what Fry's sold could fit in a backpack and then you hop on your bicycle. 
Fry's was once a privately-owned grocery-store chain.  The next generation decided that selling computersmight be better than selling bread.  The original store had roughly equal floor space for mother boards, frozen pizza, and soft drinks.Everything a computer nerd might need.  Also a huge rack of magazines.  They understood that technology expires, just like bananas.  Hence weekly and even daily specials, not unlike Safeway.
Total speculation: Maybe the "computer generation" of Fry's ownership has decided they want to retire.  Selling the stores to developers will let them buy a ranch in Montana or an island in the tropics.


    On Wednesday, February 24, 2021, 08:55:18 AM PST, Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:  
 
 Quoting Nick Moffitt (nick at zork.net):

> 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.

True with a couple of exceptions.  The Palo Alto and Sunnyvale ones were
within walking distance of CalTrain staions, if you stretch the concept
of normal human transport just slightly to include a heavy-rail commuter
train system straight out of the 1950s with a somewhat iffy frequency of
service.

Otherwise, I suspect their boonies locations reflected their need to
find a huge piece of cheap land with not only a hulking warehouse store
but also an enormous parking lot around it.  What one might call
Suburban Costco Syndrome.


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