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<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Thank you for the details. I was living in MV back then. I recall the existence for Fry's grocery, but it I didn't go there very often. Possibly it was on Grant near El Camino. </div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">During the personal computer boom of the 1980's, I too was told of the Fry's Electronics somewhere off Lawrence Expy. Chips and DIP's would be an accurate description of the merchandise. I have a pretty good mental map. So many years later, I drove around trying to find the original store. I was sure I was in the right neighborhood, but I couldn't find it. I was indeed looking in the general vicinity of Fault Line.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">As for returned merchandise. Maybe 10 years ago, I bought some electronics box. It didn't work. It also had a rattle of loose parts inside. I returned it. A week later, I went back hoping to find a new one on the shelf. There was one on the shelf. I picked it up and shook it. Yup, it rattled.</span></span><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">A couple years ago, there was some angst because the Palo Alto store would be closing. The official explanation was that this was forced by advocates of affordable housing. </div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Another time, I went to the Sunnyvale Fry's and was surprised at the number of empty shelves. The official explanation was that they were changing suppliers because of increased tariffs on imports. They would be re-stocked real soon. The Chinese trade-war / tariff thing started in mid-2018. This visit was a few months later.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">This January, after going to Central Computer, I stopped by Fry's. Most of the shelves were empty and half the floorspace was blocked by temporary partitions. Even the magazine rack was sparce.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">As for Tandy / Radio Shack, in 2015 I was working at a startup in Redwood City. One day I hopped on my bike, went to the local RS and bought all the Arduino's on the shelf. A few months later they were closed. I went by there yesterday. The whole shopping center is a construction zone. </div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">As I said in my original email. Fry's and RS were not exactly the places for electronic components, but they were often a quick solution and even faster than next-day shipping.</div><div><br></div>
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On Wednesday, February 24, 2021, 10:47:26 AM PST, Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> wrote:
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<div>Quoting Paul Zander (<a shape="rect" href="mailto:paulz@ieee.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">paulz@ieee.org</a>):<br clear="none"><br clear="none">> As for "human transportation", unless you were buying a washing<br clear="none">> machine, most of what Fry's sold could fit in a backpack and then<br clear="none">> you hop on your bicycle. Fry's was once a privately-owned<br clear="none">> grocery-store chain. The next generation decided that selling<br clear="none">> computers might be better than selling bread.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Some other nostalgia buffs' discussion of the matter (elsewhere) has<br clear="none">filled in some of the history for me. It turns out that the Fry's Food<br clear="none">and Drugs chain got sold in 1985 to some buyers who soon sold it to<br clear="none">Krogers. This left the Fry's family with a large pile of change, so a<br clear="none">couple of members of the younger generation started Fry's Electronics<br clear="none">with some of that dosh -- the ur-location, opened that same year (1985)<br clear="none">having been an essentially unchanged Fry's Food and Drugs mid-sized<br clear="none">market on Oakmead near the corner of Lakeview, just east of Lawrence<br clear="none">Expressway, Sunnyvale (kind of across Oakmead from Faultline Brewing<br clear="none">Company, if you can picture that).<br clear="none"><br clear="none">That repurposed grocery store is long gone, bulldozed, and redeveloped,<br clear="none">but it's the one I encountered by surprise in 1985 and was _very_<br clear="none">bemused -- because I certainly knew Fry's grocery stores, and this <br clear="none">very visibly was one, e.g., all of the sign fonts and checkout stands<br clear="none">were totally unchanged and it still said 'Fry's', but (to repeat my<br clear="none">now-ancient gag) instead of offering chips and dips, it offered chips<br clear="none">and DIPs. If memory served, I still lived on Concord at the time, and<br clear="none">habitually bought groceries at a Fry's Food and Drugs market out<br clear="none">there, so suddenly stumbling across the just-opened Fry's Electronics <br clear="none">was... trippy.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">The new operation expanded _primarily_ by buying out a flash-in-the-pan<br clear="none">retail effort by Tandy Corporation (the Radio Shack company in Texas)<br clear="none">called Incredible Universe, whose big idea was warehouse-sized<br clear="none">electronics stores, each with a whimsical theme and with many elements<br clear="none">and business practices taken from theme parks. See:<br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incredible_Universe " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incredible_Universe </a> <br clear="none">This buyout got Fry's its Sacramento, San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas,<br clear="none">Arlington (TX) and Portland (OR) megastores and gave them the idea <br clear="none">for the rest of its themed megastores during subsequent buildout.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Meanwhle all of the other Fry's Food & Drugs locations continued in<br clear="none">operation, ignoring their mutant kin, but no longer owned by the Fry's<br clear="none">family. Most are still around, but it's completely Krogers d/b/a/<br clear="none">Fry's, not an indy chain.<br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none">> Total speculation: Maybe the "computer generation" of Fry's ownership<br clear="none">> has decided they want to retire. Selling the stores to developers<br clear="none">> will let them buy a ranch in Montana or an island in the tropics.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Clearly whether they're just out of operating funds or not, this is<br clear="none">a tactical Chapter 7 winding-up and dissolution to extract everything<br clear="none">possible for the owners. As is almost always the case, these days, the<br clear="none">poor-sod employees were given the mushroom treatment, were absolutely<br clear="none">the last to know when the plug got pulled, and are getting basically<br clear="none">nothing. It was 'Thank you for your years of service, now fsck off.'<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Meanwhile, there are lots of disturbing stories about just how horrible<br clear="none">a place it's been for the staff, _and_ how ubiquitous the stores'<br clear="none">practice of re-shrinkwrapping returned defective goods and just putting<br clear="none">it back on the shelves as new merchandise has been. Check out the<br clear="none">comments at ArsTechnica to see some:<br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/02/frys-electronics-is-no-more-and-all-30-stores-will-soon-close/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/02/frys-electronics-is-no-more-and-all-30-stores-will-soon-close/</a><div class="ydpc6f9a6e4yqt3368500458" id="ydpc6f9a6e4yqtfd63937"><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none">_______________________________________________<br clear="none">conspire mailing list<br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="mailto:conspire@linuxmafia.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">conspire@linuxmafia.com</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/conspire" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/conspire</a><br clear="none"></div></div>
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