Empty Shelves At Fry's Stores Raise Concerns About Retailer's Future
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- čas přidán 13. 07. 2024
- Bay Area-based Fry's Electronics recently announced its Palo Alto store would be closing. But it may not be the only one; there are signs that are sparking concerns about the tech superstore's future. Devin Fehely reports. (10-6-2019)
"People don't go to grocery stores anymore."
Then who the hell was I waiting behind in line then?
Thats Also In The Bay Area. Theres A Lot Of New Money In That Area. Old Money Has Left The Bay Since The Tech Industry Took Over.
Ghosts of the past.
No one. You're schizophrenic and you imagined those people. They aren't real.
In California and Texas, Frys are known as an electronics chain. They are a grocery chain everywhere else in the US.
I don't know, but it was not me... I hate stores... I do my grocery shopping on line too.
the only time I do go to a store is costco... me love some cheap booze and rotisserie chicken.
Oh and they have a $8000 Massage chair... that I just have to have... my girl friend has to pry me out of that thing.
I’m a online guy I can’t help it. No nasty cashiers, no mall security following you around and no getting caught in traffic.
Terrence Linder Yeah but that sounds boring. I like walking around the stores and look at stuff
Man , I grew up in Milpitas in the early 2000s ... Before traffic before big tech before tons of wealthy Chinese and over paid indian tech workers ... Milpitas , once a small residential town is long gone ...
no pushy sales people bullshitting you to get rid of certain stock, driving to multiple stores and STILL not finding the damn thing, calling ahead and you get someone who half ass answers the question and you drive for nothing, etc
@@georget9640 real talk
Terrence you sound like a sissy and lazy.
I use to go there with my brother like 10 years ago. I went back recently to get some nostalgia shopping only to get a piss poor experience. Horrible customer service with rude cashiers that seem like they don't even want to be there working, security harassing you, the place needs to be organized and is dirty like a pawn shop. I left upset with a reality that stores once good is only a memory and life truly is better with online shopping.
Waikiki HoundDawg pawnshop vibes fr
That's how it's always been.
Fry's was my go-to electronic store in the late 90s/2000s, but the store is a shell of it's former self. Last visit I went there, I felt unwelcomed by the cold staff and the declining inventory. Now, I just do my shopping online.
my local Fry's is like a ghost town: vast empty space and sparsely stocked.
One in San Diego is like this as well. Their spreading our different colored duct tape on the shelves to take up space. It's embarrassing.
Same here
Mine is like an Alibaba "you might like" list come to life.
Fountain Valley location is the same. Went there last Saturday around noon. Maybe twenty cars in the parking lot, probably half the merchandise on the shelves as from a year ago. Fry’s was always a riot on the weekends twenty years ago! I miss it.
Burbank, CA location same story. :(
"People say the store's woes might be part of a larger trend toward online shopping" This is pulitzer prize winning journalism right here
I think this guy missed the memo from 2003
What? a business failing in the bay area? What kind of witch craft is this..
Frys in general is dead. Its dead here in So Cali too.
Automations are coming, Andrew Yang was right
who wants to pay 10% sales tax to cali when you already have to pay skyrocketing prices for everything else here. I only buy stuff online that cost more than $25 for this reason (unless its groceries)
Brick & mortar stores are challenged across the country, pretty much regardless of location...
@@kevinchen1763 Someone: "A retail store is closing" You: "AUTOMATION!"
They have "no intention of closing"....... none do until they do.
Yeah. That statement was meaningless. I had a pool company send its customers letters saying "Don't worry, we're not going anywhere" when many customers (including me) noticed their half-complete pools weren't being worked on for weeks. Sure enough, they went out of business a month or two later. But not after they stashed away a lot of cash to avoid creditors...
@@joemann5378 what is going out of business
Yesterday I couldn't get a soldering iron there at all... I had to go to Ace
No help, no merchandise, the writing is on the wall for fry's
Will Sawtell I went to my local frys for the same thing, a soldering iron and flux. Shelves were empty.
This is happening at Fry's all across the country. The expectation is they'll close after Christmas, so there's no reason to be restocking the shelves.
Who cares?
@@busterthe2 You're here, so you obviously care.
miguel ornelas Maybe, Except I’ve heard from others that go to that particular store say it’s becoming empty. Either you’re lying or just trying to stay positive.
@miguel ornelas I was at the Industry Fry's and the store is 75% empty. the employees aren't told anything but they suspect it will close in the next couple of months.
Yup. Vegas location has empty shelves also
Dude was in there like 2 weeks ago and in the phone area no body was there and they kept telling me someone is on a lunch break for like an hour. I also noticed in other areas there were less and less help you can count how many people were there on both hands working...
I’ve been there at least 4 different times this year and it’s been dead af with the shelves empty af
I still buy my groceries at the store.
I still buy my groceries at Fry's.. oh wait.
Fry's = Mega Radio Shack
And just like radio shack they are carrying more and more junk components and less of what the market actually wants. You would be hard pressed to find a quality RF connector, Breakout boards, Dev Boards, stand alone MCU's. Good steppers, Machining rails, etc in a frys. Most i ever seen there was some overpriced paralax kits and cheap chinese servos.
Actually, it was called "Incredible Universe."
Black Friday used to have all checkstands open and huge lines through December
that was a long time ago. like 2009
I remember the stocked shelves, big crowds and long, long lines at the register (remember the people at check-out with the paddles?). Distant memory now.
I used to go to this Fry's a lot since I used to build PCs for friends and relatives (roughly 2 decades ago). They had snack shelves along the check-out queue because of how long it takes to get through during afternoons and weekends. Now it's just an empty run-down building.
Next, people will just prefer to live online like in the Matrix.
If it was as real as the matrix, I think most people would be in there
TheGomezIndustries we are in the matrix! Simulation all around us
According to lore the Matrix is set in the idyllic year of 1999, long before e-commerce really took off. I suspect the modern human mind would either reject that reality or go insane as its almost impossible to live life without e-commerce. Even though the Matrix is digital having to digitally walk/drive your virtual self to the store 10 minutes away is ridiculously tedious and over-complicated.
Yep, the machines have already won..
Next?
"People just don't go in grocery stores no more"
Sad, Fry's was one of the few amazing things about living in silicon valley back in the early 2000's
@Naylor Broughton MICROCENTER!
Texas too.
@J. Smart It was a cool place before smart phones were out and people were just discovering computer building/internet.
boy your life must've been chock a block full of excitement
maybe they can't find someone to stock the shelves for minimum wage, in a city where rent is crazy-expensive...
But illegals will do the jobs that no one else wants to do.. < end sarcasm >
Frys needs a better online store, I've been on it and it SUCKS.
Frys CEO if you're seeing this go big into Online Sales and use extra store space as warehouse storage for items.
It's the only way, no one wants to drive all the way to a Brick and Motar for thermal paste, get with the times.
Speak for yourself
Im an introvert but I still rather drive to the store. Always something exciting to see on the way there.
Technology just makes us into lazy spoiled shits
Well if you need the glue today then yeah you'll be driving to the store
The irony here is that Fry's used to be Outpost and had a huge fulfillment center next to DHL that would sort and literally put the package bins right next to the plane. This was way before Amazon had anything near what they are now, and drooled at how the logistics were. But, that all went away and indeed, their online store is crap.
Why would I want to order something small like thermal paste online, probably pay more in shipping than the product costs, and wait 3 or 4 days, instead of driving 2 miles to my local Fry's and picking it up in less than an hour? I never understand people who buy every little thing online.
They're starting to look like Sears with the empty shelves.
The Sears here is stuffed full of things I don't want to buy. Fry's? Ya, pretty much empty.
Ricky Spanish i dont see what the israeli thing has to do with it. Maybe you are jealous someone from a small country has become wealthy while you complain on a computer
Ricky Spanish well actually in 2018 israel only got $3billion while iraq got $5.3billion and Afghanistan got $5.1billion. Also the US gave foreign aid to the UK of $3.3billion and France is $2.3billon. So other first world european countries can receive aid but Israel cant. You are just jealous and anti Semitic unless you hate the western world too.
Ricky Spanish why did the UK get more then. We didnt invade them but they got more? Your argument doesn't make sense you are just cherry picking numbers to make it seem like Israel is bad. Everyone is getting billions from the US
Fry's in las vegas has been going down hill in past 5 years. Empty shelves, few employees working , selling junks that is not related to store.
Really? In vegas too? Wow!
I need parts today, I just can't wait 2-5 days to arrive. And I Don't have prime. This why I also miss RadioShack.
MicroCenter is the next best thing, but they only have a few stores in select areas. Otherwise Best Buy is really the only big electronics store left.
If you need parts that bad, stock them yourself...; I always keep a PSU, an MX500 SSD in stock....; use them for customer repairs, order to replace same day
Checking people’s receipts at the door gets old
I don’t have a problem with it. California has made theft of anything under $1000k a misdemeanor so its resulted in an increase in shoplifting.
Ya walmart
@MEGA 2020 the checking your receipts thing is security theater. I just started waking out...
touch me and i'll break you.
True, bad customer experience
Well I’ve stolen from frys before but i also gave them plenty of business
I forgot that store still open. I thought Fry's was gone for good. It been 4 years I ever been on that store. Now in days every one goes online or at Walmart or Target
I rather go to Best Buy for my electronics
Walmart and the other stores have been cutting back also. Don't know if people have been paying attention, but they have been warning about this for several years now. It's NOT online shopping that's doing this, especially with all the package theives. (People don't order when their packages keep getting stolen, which isn't being reported) It's because the shadow government (global) wants a global economic "crisis". The banks are in trouble again, (on purpose) and there will be another depression soon. It's coming, it's been reported on, but people aren't listening, just like the last time. 2008. Only THIS time will be catastrophic. It's why so many people are "prepping" for it. (Again, most people are not listening, or making fun of preppers) but the preppers will at least have food.
@Robby No Best buy has better prices than Fry's for example some items like a new fridge, washer and dryer machines are way cheaper on Best buy vs Fry's
@@dede4004 Walmart, Target and some stores are doing fine. But some stores like Kmart, Sears, Fry's are struggling to keep there buissness together. Reason why is the cost of the items. I could compare Kmart vs Walmart prices and Walmart will have the most items cheaper.
Went into one last year in AZ. Empty store and the stuff they had, no one would want it.
Same in Las Vegas. I went for a DVD player, and they had like 2 in stock. Same all over the store.
I live in San José and for years enjoyed shopping at Fry's. One week ago I asked to one of the workers why the shelves are empty and he replied "Is because we are having new suppliers" The workers don't realize Fry's is closing stores
Amazon will close them all within 5 years from now
Frys used to be one of my favorite stores. After the decline of the newspapers and they stopped advertising on the back page I stopped going as much. I tried to walk in an by a surge protector and they maybe had a half dozen, total in stock. Extension cords was down to one. I’m going to miss Frys.
Yup, sad even Frys has succumbed to the Amazon plight. Can't test out the different kinds of products before you actually settle one that one product. Now you get to test and return and test and return before you finally settle on that one product.
They are closing stores no matter what lies they said. The first thing a business does when getting ready to close is to run down inventories.
Bad return policy .Pay full price for open boxes,
My cousin works at concord location and they told him they’re closing
Ok mr miyahi 😛😛
Looks like you've been busted by the CZcams vocabulary police. Stop resisting and prepare to get tazed.
the one near ranch 99?
Snitch
Concord!
Same thing up here at the Renton store near Seattle so many empty shelves.
Bad customer service finally paid off .
“Everybody wants to be online” no, Born n Raised in the Bay Area and the traffic is significantly worse. A drive from San Leandro to Fremont could be an hour plus one way. Overpopulation
Ill take delivery any day over hours of traffic just to go to their store.
@-- The chances of finding a walmart or Target is much higher than finding a Frys store
Juan Dlc facts all the good shit is scattered across the east bay, but other person isn’t wrong, definitely poor city design. SF residents didnt want freeways built there back in the day so it was limited construction. We have bart which is not quick enough compared to east coast public trans
Haven't stepped foot in my local Frys for years. Writing is on the wall.
I love getting my groceries online. $5 is well worth not pushing a cart around a store for 30 minutes.
Fry's was a great store at one time. Each store had a theme. It was a great place to buy things. . . was It takes a lot of money to keep stores that size open and I don't see them taking that much in anymore.
Same in Austin.. when I asked an employee about it he gave unconvincing answer that everything was ok
Same situation at the Las Vegas store.. Also Fry's has had the worst customer service I've ever seen.
I was in a Frys in Texas last year and it was shocking - they had nothing to sell. Not sure how they intended to stay open with no products to sell?
The one in Plano was still well stocked last December, I had no problem getting parts to build a PC. But it started getting bare soon after.
heavy stuff like washing powder, dog food, electronics only online. Megastores do not provide enough service.
Andrew Yang is right. Technology is slowly taking over and jobs are disappearing.
In 2008 that San Jose store had empty pegs. Hit or miss then.
I went to the one in Del Mar... the shelves were completely empty. The food court had more customers than the store... Sad to see.
I’m not an online shopper yet hate that store
Poor customer service
Hey!! FU !! Go buy your " back massager " on Amazon then.
^^^ Oh... yeah! They are def struggling because of the CZcams comment section.... 🤦🏻♂️way to lay an egg, Anthony.
^^^ 😌 Another satisfied customer...
Sad - a great store.
We need Radio Shack back!
Electronic builders - are gone.
yeah use to remember radio shack, circuit city, good guys, compusa...not it is just frys and best buy
@@princeofdarknessxyz1 Ever shop around locally, like at Best Buy during the Christmas shopping season ? You can certainly buy that $32 memory card for the discounted price of $100.. And then stand in line for 30 minutes to pay for it. (don't forget driving around for 15 minutes looking for a parking place before you even entered.) These retailers think that their customer base are fools that will buy anything at any price, as long as it's marked as being on sale.. Needless to say I prefer to work on Black Friday rather than to go shopping with a bunch of fools running over each other for a discounted chinese tv or iphone..
@@MrPir84free I always hated black friday for the same reasons also I used to work retail for 12 years there are some good deals but not as much as you think basically there just trying to get rid of a lot of slow moving inventory.
I called this like 3 months ago the writing was on the wall its was very very obvious
It’s been the same here In Austin Texas ..
I think KPIX could have done a better job reporting this story in order to give Fry’s the respect it deserves. This wasn’t just your typical big box electronics retailer. This store was the go-to place for a myriad of hard to find computer parts. I went to the Palo Alto store for the first time in 1999, after moving to CA from NYC, and I was blown away by the size of the store and its selection of inventory. There wasn’t anything like it back on the east coast. Undoubtedly, Fry’s is where a lot of tech innovators and enthusiasts went to get their supplies back in early days of the personal computer (i.e. the 80s and 90s). They were an essential supplier to all those tech nerds who built stuff!
Soon, people will be shopping online for gasoline.
They’ve been delivering gas for about 2 years now. You must live under a rock...
HAND BANANNA Typical English definition for buying online for the typical consumer is that they use the internet to browse an item, click buy and finalize the purchase, and that item would be sent by UPS, FedEx, or Postal Service
You’re telling me I can do this? I looked it up - IT DOESN’T EXIST.
You must be some dumbass millennial who failed English class in grade school. Holy crap you’re a fucking moron. Next, you’ll be telling me I can get my plutonium online too. I also need about half a million gallons of tritium. Can I get that online too??
@H Jones
Tritium is pretty common but since you can’t even find a fuel delivery truck, I doubt you can find anything...
This was a thing years ago- companies were offering gas cards and people would bid online for how much there were willing to pay per gallon to try to lock in the lowest winning bid. Then you could go to a gas station and fuel up at that price for as many gallons that you bid for at a price lower than current market price.
@@Mlogan11 can't beat Venezuela right now on that. They just give away free gasoline at the pump. "set your own price" as they say.
Fry's was always more pricey than other stores, went there once and never went back...
Fry’s is definitely going under if they say they are not.
It’s saddening really. I remember going to Frys as a teenager, especially during Xmas, and it was bustling with people and so many cool products, everyone buying the latest and greatest windows PC.
The internet killed retail. Some just dieing slower.
*Dying
I think they just dont wanna import shit after december with the tariffs on electronics going into effect.
Jeff Bezos gave this story a thumbs up.
Portland and Seattle fry's are empty too I hear they are trying to make it until black Friday then file bankruptcy .
FRYES is NOT a mall,
and a VERY VERY small percentage of people order groceries online.
And only SOME malls are going out of business
while SOME malls are cash cows.
Example,
Fashion Place Mall in Murray, Utah.
It has been a cash cow since it opened about 1971.
I placed 3 orders with Fry's in the last 3 months and each time I received a call saying that the item that showed "IN STOCK", is just a demo item that's been on display anywhere from 6-12 months and they offered me anywhere from 5 to 10% discount for the display unit. No thanks. I rather pay the extra 5-10% discount being offered and not get something that's been abused for the past 6-12 months. There is more to this than people just shopping online. I also went in to buy a high end receiver and they refused to honor their own coupon even though the coupon had no exclusions on the receiver I was buying. Fry's did this to themselves!!
This economy is finally catching up with reality
xlioilx
And yet ... Wells Fargo, gm, and MANY MANY MANY more businesses disprove your theory. But you just keep telling yourself otherwise
Phoenix AZ shelves empty, same thing
The last time I needed to buy a cable modem, Amazon and Fry's had the same price and Amazon delivered that day, without me having to drive anywhere, search for the item, figure out if it was previously returned by an unhappy buyer or not find it at all. Avoided a lot of hassle.
I had a similar experience with a bathroom at Home Depot. I did go to the store and could not find the fan. But Amazon had it.
Even the stuff that’s fulfilled by amazon is fake...
Destiny Tran, again, thank you! Yep, same experience here. Fake items, saying they're the same. Or broken, low quality.
@Robby All retail chains do it to cut costs. Walmart,Target,Best Buy they all follow that model for cost cutting.
Sadly, the shelves in their Burbank, CA location also look bare like the ones in this segment. I've always loved going to Fry's over the years, so it's sad to see this happening. :(
Makes sense. My local best buy wanted 90 dollars for a roll of monster cable speaker wire. Amazon 38 dollars.
Wait till Black Friday.. Best Buy will want even more for any such accessories.. At Best Buy, during the Christmas shopping season, all accessories are on sale, at two to three times the "normal" price.. But it's "on sale"..
The bellwether indicator is that every Amazon Locker in the Bay Area is FULL. Lockers are the best deterrent against porch piracy
Nobody:
Amazon holding smoking gun:
Fry's: Help us!
The two Phoenix area stores are empty and dusty, just like this one. There's rumors that Fry's owes money to their vendors and that's why the trucks stopped delivering.
Like she said "people don't go in grocery stores no more"
How delightfully thought through and eloquent!
@@LenjaStar Lots of chain stores have done this in the past; big and small. Sell things on credit; spend the money, then go bankrupt.. Happens a lot with big ticket items like TV's, refrigerators, cameras, .. If anyone has a frye's gift card, might be time to go buy ANYTHING with it..
@@fritzschnitzel1992 Oddly enough, people don't go into stores for one of several reasons:
1. Not enough time in their schedule
2. Nothing in the store that interests them. Unless I was shopping for bare shelves...
3. Prices are too high, i.e. they see the same items online for a far cheaper price.
I have no doubt that Fryes owes money to vendors; vendors are finicky when they give up merchandise, but don't recoup the money.. That ends up with empty shelves of items that people want to look at, or purchase.. It's also a loss that everyone else that buys the products in the future will end up paying for.. I'd be surprised if fryes makes it to Black Friday without declaring bankruptcy, or right afterwards..
I remember when that opened in Palo Alto. My mom worked at cable coop right next door.
This is hog wash I went there the other day for a TV couldn’t find it but got a great deal on shampoo and cookies.
Empty store shelves in Dallas also. Common items are no longer available.
Not just that one but my locals Fry's has empty shelves.
Fry's electronics, long overdo for complete closing of all stores. Circuit City, Radio Shack, Lafayette, etc. comes to mind instantly. Liked the old school ads anyways!
Stores did this by me in NY. I asked if they were going out of business, they said they were waiting for a shipment. Less than a month later it was vacant. BTW it was not electronics.
I used to work at Frys. They're terrible. Good riddance.
I was in the Frys here in So Cal and shelves are empty too !
The Frys in Plano TX is just as empty. It's sad. OTOH, the Dallas MicroCenter is bustling and hustling, so we can't say it's all on Amazon. I'll still drive to MicroCenter to get it RIGHT NOW rather than wait until 8 pm to get it from Amazon.
looks like the USSR in 1960's cept it was grocery stores.
no great loss. everytime i went there it seemed i purchases something that someone else had already returned for not working, Fry's repacked it, and put it back on the shelf
Fry's is going the way of Incredible Universe.
If you look at the buldings Frys bought out Incredible Universe!!!!!
People don’t go in to stores to buy groceries give me a break
Great! Now I no longer have any reason to move to California.
Competition from online retailers, you can't compete with that.
I noticed this a few years back in 2017 & 2018, I was seeing empty shelves back when the economy was boomin. That store is probably on its way out.
I was waiting for them to tell me how significant this specific store/location was. He said this was their flagship store. That's scary.
News casters said Palo Alto Frys but reporter standing outside of the San Jose location. I haven’t been to the Palo Alto and San Jose Frys for years, are they all like that? I mostly go to the Fremont one by the 680, but haven’t the need to get anything lately until the holidays sales.
The same thing happens at my local Fry's store. Even they stopped stocking the shrink tubing. Wow, this is the end.
The one in Roseville is like this too
They've been on the decline for more than ten years.
Up until a few months ago, I worked a mile or so from the one in Fountain Valley. I used to pop in on my lunch hour from time to time. What puzzled me was that they had, like, 25 checkout lanes - of which, only 2 or 3 were in use.
I noticed this trend about 2-3 years ago in the City of Industry, it was like a ghost town , but what do you expect with horrible customer service
Online shopping is such a inconvenience you have to wait days to get the stuff. In a store I have it in my hand the same day.
@T Kg funny never gets there on the same day
I saw this several months ago and directly asked the manager on duty what the heck was going on. She got a funny look on her face, then flatly denied that anything was happening. I walked away thinking that I hope she has her resume up to date.
My buddy works for Frys, the lack of products is because warehouses that supply chain store like Frys, are low on certain products because of the trade war going on, some products are held in limbo for weeks before they can be offloaded from ships and brought to stores, sometimes months because a company doesn’t want to risk the expense or brining back entire shipments, so they hesitate.
Does anyone remember cassette world? Oh... Probably not 😞
Yes , same at the store outside of Chicago. Noticed it 2 months ago
I used to work there years ago and recently built a new pc. I hoped to use fry's to purchase the components, but they didn't have what I needed. I'll always remember it's heyday. It would be difficult to find parking. There always used to be a line. It was a fun outing too. Now it's super depressing.
I love Fry's! Amazon and other online shopping are killing Fry's but I think the way they run business lately also is killing them slowly: they used to carry only electronic stuff ("Fry's Electronics") but they've been making room to sell all of things the past 2 years or so from As Seen On TV stuff to fake perfume/cologne, mattresses, exercise equipment,.... They used to have tons of movies, video games with all the latest releases: not any more! I used to see their ads on newspaper, Facebook: not any more! And lately, the new look of their online ads look so plain and boring. I used to check out their ads EVERYDAY to see what the daily deals are, as much as I love to support them, I have no interest anymore because the new look of the ads and more importantly, they don't have much stuff any more. My guess is that this will be their last year in business. I will miss Fry's! 😥
The last time I went to the one in Houston they didn't even check my receipt. That was the first time in ever that no one was there to do that. It felt weird walking out without it.
I went to the Fry's store in Concord, CA when I still lived in the Bay Area, back in 2004 they had a massive selection! Moving to the PNW in 2005 I shopped at Fry's in Wilsonville, OR a few times but it's a long commute from Portland. At the time 2007 still had a vast selection, better than Radio Shack. Looks like Fry's is downsizing as R.S did with fewer parts and common items. One of the items I did get from Fry's was tips for my Weller WPTCN low voltage/temp. controlled soldering station. Hardware stores don't stock them... just the DIY soldering guns and irons. Have to get them on E-Bay or make the trip. I can remember trying to order them from Fry's once on-line...they were out of stock..
You have to call ahead to make sure stores are actually still open I hit up at least 5 spots that were open just last month and are all closed now.
Best Buy will be next. Their 'You can return anything - no questions asked' has resulted in tons of folks using the store like a library where too many items are Open Box. There is less selection and inventory is very low. Best Buy no longer has the online weekly sales flyer so they are hoping you buy without deals. Price matching (Frys did it and so does Best Buy) is not going to work.