[sf-lug] Fry's now *permanently* shutting down

[Bobbie Sellers]

On 2/26/21 6:29 AM, aaronco36 wrote:
> Quoting Bobbie S from [1]
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> When I was able to get to the stores in Santa Clara and Palo Alto
> years ago it was an electronic wonderland.  Toys I could not afford,
> not and buy Zorro cards for my Amiga A2000b.
>
> I used to go there at every opportunity though.
>
> Sorry to see them go.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Contemporaneous with the 1990's and Post-Y2K heydays of big-box 
> computer superstores such as Fry's and CompUSA was a thick hardware 
> guide called Computer Shopper.
>
> Remember Computer Shopper's printed edition, Bobbie and others?
     Well I remember it very well.  At one point I had stacks of 
Computer Shopper
with it nearly incomprehensible to my eyes pages of Postscript code, tons of
classified advertisements for all sorts of peripherals, copious pages of 
advertisement
for the laterst high powered CPM machines with fast processors and 
4(count them)
5.25 Floppy disk drives.


>
> References to Computer Shopper at [2] and [3] if it helps jog people's 
> memories :-)
>
> Quoting another post from Bobbie S fourteen years ago at [4]
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>     By the way be glad you aren't stuck in the era of producing
> hardcopy newsletters for the membership.  Major bummer and
> expense to produce and mail.
>
>     Oh and I am still doing stuff on my Amiga because despite
> Linux handiness it is hard to import about 15 years of addresses
> to kmail.  Juggling all the stuff I do online between Linux
> and Amiga is complicated but I am gradually getting more done
> on the Linux side there.  Oh and I did get my bookmarks from
> the Amiga over to the Windows side but the same file is
> unreadable by the same progra (Mozilla/Firefox) on the Linux
> side.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Don't recall whether or not some of the vendors listed in Computer 
> Shopper those many "years ago" sold Amiga parts. Or even Apple Macs(?)
> Perhaps others can fill in further details based upon their 
> experiences with Computer Shopper of the 1990's and early Aughts(~Y2K 
> to 2004.)

They sold every thing that they could get there hands on.
Commodore 64 parts and the latest floppy drives to store whole megabytes
of data on, software of every sort and it was expensive too with a good
CPM word processor going for hundreds of dollars.  Apple was important
to as that was where the Postscript files were going.  IBM clones were
just over the horizon.  The Osbourne debacle was about to happen
where the advertised new model killed the sales of the current model.
>
>
> IIRC, most if not all of each monthly edition of Computer Shopper in 
> the 1990's ran _several hundreds_ of pages!!, and was unaffordable and 
> burdensome to subscribe to on a yearly basis (for me at least) :-\

         To buy on the news stand was expensive too and I tried to make 
sure it said
something useful about a computer i actually owned.

> Do happen to remember an enormous amount of non big-box, more local 
> computer hardware stores and their websites listed there, invariably 
> including regularly appearing ads for Dell Computers Inc's systems and 
> parts. Most if not all complete computer systems that Computer Shopper 
> vendors sold were invariably pre-loaded with MS Windows; I'd even 
> hazard a guess that Bobbie S's "Windows side" PC(s) mentioned above 
> were similarly pre-installed with MS Windows? :-|
> At the same time, major accomplishments perhaps others also had were 
> to build-your-own PCs from computer system hardware ordered from 
> various vendors listed on Computer Shopper and then install your own 
> OS (Windows, Linux-only, Windows-Linux dual boot) onto your disparate 
> self-assembled systems :-)

     I hiked down to a business machines shop that sold Commodore with a 
kaleidoscope
program listing and typed it into the idle but running portable SX-64 to 
show them
something besides the regular business programs.   That was the last 
time I did
a program listing well enough that it worked off the page.  Not the last 
time I
tried to enter a program listing but the only time I remember it working.

>
> While big-box computer stores such as Fry's still fared well in the 
> early Aughts even with the rise of many more online-only retailers -- 
> and possibly correlated as well with the steep ascent of eBay 
> following its merger with PayPal [5] -- Computer Shopper became 
> noticeably thinner and thinner with decreasing numbers of 
> Brick-and-Mortar computer supply listings, until its print edition 
> completely vanished at the end of the decade. IIRC, Dell Computers 
> Inc. and other computer retailers still sent out direct hardcopy 
> "snailmail" mailings to customers and newspaper inserts even while 
> Computer Shopper was in decline.
>
> -A
     We had so many shops I could not afford to enter including one on 
Montgomery Street with
Amigas running graphic display programs.  When i did go in I found 
everything was aimed at
PC or Clones.  The brand new Amigas were too expensive for me at the 
time, just as are the
machines that try to replace it.
>
>
> ==================================
> REFERENCES
> ==================================
> [1]http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2021q1/015176.html
> [2]https://www.computerworld.com/article/2480991/good-bye-computer-shopper.html 
>
> [3]https://archive.org/details/computer_shopper
> [4]http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2007q1/001371.html

     Well I got a lot more data imported from the Amiga before it
stopped working due to battery failure and likely other problems.
When it did I used Thunderbird not Kmail, on Mandriva 2006.
And I got all my Amiga Bookmarks from AWeb to Firefox and
later to the other browsers I experiment with and use.
     Fry sold my first laptop under the brand name "Good Quality"
and it had a Pentium single core at 2400 MHz and I hit a shop
up the street from here and got some ram to take it from two to
4 Gigabytes.  A big electronics chain that completely folded years
ago.  Later it died quite early in its life and I had to use a Dell 2400
that the LUG or Jim Stockford owned.  And that was the one
that I used LVM on before I could recover such.  I still have the
drive as I have the drive from my resting Amiga A2000b
> [5]https://www.cnet.com/news/ebay-picks-up-paypal-for-1-5-billion/
> ==================================
>
> aaronco36 at sdf.org
>
     Computer Currents was a TV show and a free newpaper/magazine
but the thicker MicroTimes was my favorite and it even mentioned Amiga
at times.
     Commodore had several dedicated magazines at the height of its
popularity and some were published by other companies.

     Remember Byte on the newsstands?
     Another victim of the WWW, along with the Usenet which used to be
full of useful information and the BBS magazines.

     Well memories have caused me to overcook my cereal this morning,
     Aaron have a good day.
     Stay safe.

     Bobbie Sellers