Fry's: A religious experiance

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MrWizard6600

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
5,791
edit: experience, donno why I always type that with an A...

Is huge. Holy crap.

I'm a Canadian, I've seen my fair share of supplier, retailer, and e-tailer warehouses, and I just got back from a trip to fry's. Wow.

I went down to Seattle to visit my aunt for a while and while I was there I stopped at the fry's electronics in the neighborhood. Its massive. It's so big, that to get from the motherboard section to the TV section across the store, you have to stop at a restaurant in the middle of the store to re-fuel. This was the first store I have ever seen to really actively advertise the $600 D5400XS "Skull Trail" motherboard from Intel. This store had 50, no joke, 50 checkout isles.

I was just there to spend $70 4 gigs of Corsair DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 w/ huge aluminum heat sinks.

Yeah, so to anyone who hasn't yet been to Fry's electronics, non-US resident or otherwise, go. I could easily see myself killing hours and hundreds of dollars there. It's easy to say no to that Intel motherboard when you see it on line and even when you see reviews for it, but when you see one in person its really easy to reach down into your back pocket.
 
I think the best thing for both my credit card and myself, is to completely ignore this post and never go to Fry's, ever.
 
Luckily the best thing I have around here is a shitty radioshack that's only about 800 square feet (if even) so they don't have much of a selection.

I have a Circuit City about 10 miles away but the prices online beat them so much...
 
LOL!

Now you know why Fry's gets a lot of business. :)

And yes, that place is a bit of a money-sink. Hence why I usually go with a friend who's willing to criticize anything I might think of buying at Fry's. That easily stops me from overspending or overbuying.:)
 
US computer shops actually sell recent hardware at decent prices? PC World is probably the closest we have in the UK, but they're nearly always much more expensive than buying online, and are only useful if you really want to buy a new GeForce 7600 for $125 or something.
 
I am new to the Fry's stores also, they did not have one anywhere near where I use to live, but now that I have moved to Houston there is one about 30 mins away.

The prices seem a bit high but I guess that is the price you pay for getting stuff now instead of next week. The stock they had seemed to be up to date stuff, they had a ton of 9800GTX and GX2's on the shelf along with 45nm intel chips.

I spent a good 2 hours walking around in Fry's just looking around at what they had, rather cool place all in all. All I needed was some heatsinks for the PWM chips on my 8800GT which they had plenty of.
 
more often than not you can buy a cpu/mobo combo that costs as much as the cpu alone online tax and all.
 
Nanan said:
I am new to the Fry's stores also, they did not have one anywhere near where I use to live, but now that I have moved to Houston there is one about 30 mins away.

The prices seem a bit high but I guess that is the price you pay for getting stuff now instead of next week. The stock they had seemed to be up to date stuff, they had a ton of 9800GTX and GX2's on the shelf along with 45nm intel chips.

I spent a good 2 hours walking around in Fry's just looking around at what they had, rather cool place all in all. All I needed was some heatsinks for the PWM chips on my 8800GT which they had plenty of.
Click to expand...


Was the one in Houston you went to by the NASA Space Center and shaped like a Satellite in the front? Ours in Austin is shaped like a Piano in the front.
 
kaiweiler said:
I think the best thing for both my credit card and myself, is to completely ignore this post and never go to Fry's, ever.
Click to expand...
lol. sometimes i try to estimate the amount of money spent at frys and newegg.

i stop estimating after the tears short out my calculator.
 
There's another reason their prices are high (aside from instant gratification), but I'll let you figure that out.

The one closest to me isn't as huge, and therefore has a super LONG checkout line whenever there's a super good deal. That, alone, keeps me from buying anything, unless I really need something, lol.

I typically get my CPUs there, and sell off the "free" mobo. :D
 
I wish there were Fry's in Canada. The amount of money I would spend there would be unreal.
 
Redleader said:
Can we take a moment of silence for the ones so close to frys and for their wallets?
Click to expand...


We need to start a vigil for all these poor souls. Should we meet... say outside Fry's?

Everyone can hold candles, and sing and dance. Then after a bit we can go inside and buy stuff.


Awww crap :mad:
 
@Redleader & Shambler:
I lol'd.

Mithent said:
US computer shops actually sell recent hardware at decent prices? PC World is probably the closest we have in the UK, but they're nearly always much more expensive than buying online, and are only useful if you really want to buy a new GeForce 7600 for $125 or something.
Click to expand...

Its weird, In canada its the same (aside from the e-tailers store-front of course), you can find FX5500s for $150 up here easy. Fry's had some old tech going for inflated prices, but they also had an XFX 8800GT alpha dog for $150.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
@Redleader & Shambler:
I lol'd.



Its weird, In canada its the same (aside from the e-tailers store-front of course), you can find FX5500s for $150 up here easy. Fry's had some old tech going for inflated prices, but they also had an XFX 8800GT alpha dog for $150.
Click to expand...

still do but that price is after the 50 buck mir.
 
I have 2 frys close by me.

You have to learn to shop there. Somethings you should buy there and some things you shouldn't.

Monitors, Harddrives, Ram, Cases are all usually very nicely priced but other things like video cards, cables, and most any other accessory are very expensive and would be best to newegg it.

DON'T go into one on black friday you will be murdered for hours.
 
JonBoy69 said:
Was the one in Houston you went to by the NASA Space Center and shaped like a Satellite in the front? Ours in Austin is shaped like a Piano in the front.
Click to expand...

There are actually three in Houston, the space one, an oil themed one, and a generic looking (concrete). They are all massive and awesome to go to, and I have been to them all.

Nanan said:
I am new to the Fry's stores also, they did not have one anywhere near where I use to live, but now that I have moved to Houston there is one about 30 mins away.

The prices seem a bit high but I guess that is the price you pay for getting stuff now instead of next week. The stock they had seemed to be up to date stuff, they had a ton of 9800GTX and GX2's on the shelf along with 45nm intel chips.

I spent a good 2 hours walking around in Fry's just looking around at what they had, rather cool place all in all. All I needed was some heatsinks for the PWM chips on my 8800GT which they had plenty of.
Click to expand...

They charge a bit more because of the now factor, but if you watch the paper (almost every day in the chronicle on back of sections) you will see the sales and watch for the full eight page ad on Fridays. The store can be very competitive for prices if you wait and watch, but at the same time they do raise prices on many items.
 
Lucky for me and my wallet there are none in Minnesota where I'm living now. They built one in Indy after I left and I went there with my best friend last time I went home. WOW! We have a Microcenter here in MN, which is nice, but Fry's is WAY cooler... :D
 
Fry's is a lot like Disneyland.

It's fun to go and look around, but the lines are too long and everything is too expensive.

On that note, they do good deals on CPUs, HDs and RAM..
 
MrWizard6600 said:
edit: experience, donno why I always type that with an A...

Is huge. Holy crap.

I'm a Canadian, I've seen my fair share of supplier, retailer, and e-tailer warehouses, and I just got back from a trip to fry's. Wow.

I went down to Seattle to visit my aunt for a while and while I was there I stopped at the fry's electronics in the neighborhood. Its massive. It's so big, that to get from the motherboard section to the TV section across the store, you have to stop at a restaurant in the middle of the store to re-fuel. This was the first store I have ever seen to really actively advertise the $600 D5400XS "Skull Trail" motherboard from Intel. This store had 50, no joke, 50 checkout isles.

I was just there to spend $70 4 gigs of Corsair DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 w/ huge aluminum heat sinks.

Yeah, so to anyone who hasn't yet been to Fry's electronics, non-US resident or otherwise, go. I could easily see myself killing hours and hundreds of dollars there. It's easy to say no to that Intel motherboard when you see it on line and even when you see reviews for it, but when you see one in person its really easy to reach down into your back pocket.
Click to expand...


Everything really is bigger in texas because we have 70 checkouts at the one i work at in Houston ...to bad i cant use my employee discount online i would pass it out to all [H]ard members
 
I generally don't go to fry's anymore after they tried to sell me open box items as new on several occasions.

That said, they do have some incredible deals on Black Friday if you're willing to take on the mosh pit line when they finally open.
 
WiLLiSTER said:
I generally don't go to fry's anymore after they tried to sell me open box items as new on several occasions.

That said, they do have some incredible deals on Black Friday if you're willing to take on the mosh pit line when they finally open.
Click to expand...

The three years I did Black Friday at Fry's our group was always first in line (got there at midnight), but it seems lately that people arrive at noon the day before so we stopped attempting.
 
I am often disappointed by the selection available at Fry's, my company is literally 2 minutes driving from one. I prefer newegg more, since they have a much much better selection of products.
 
Please avoid Fry's on BF. That makes it easier for everyone else. :p

You don't need to get there so far in advance. The last few years I have been getting there about 90 minutes before opening and I generally get everything I want. You will need a second person with you if you want to get something from the TV/camera department since they make you stand in line. Otherwise you can get almost everything else pretty easily. I generally make a couple of trips on BF to pick up a second or third of an item that had a limit 1.
---

There is open box and there is "open box." The stuff that people return used because they don't like it gets a white and orange sticker and a discount. The stuff people return unopened is often opened in store at the returns counter to prevent fraud (i.e. bricks or meat in boxes). I see people harp on returned stuff at Fry's, but overall it's a very small part of inventory. If an employee tries to give you an open box item, just ask for a new one or just get it your own lazy self when possible. I've never taken an open box item (which are generally marked off 5%), unless it was on clearance at much better than 5% off. There's really nothing you can do but refuse an item from "the cage" if all they have left is open box. Just get in on the deal earlier next time. ;)
 
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