Fry's Electronics permanently closing Feb 24, 2021

Sad news.
I really liked the cpu and mobo deals they had way back in the day. I'm talking about the ECS deals they had back in the Core 2 Duo and Athlon 64 X2 days.
Their big print ad would be in the Sunday paper. I would be rummaging through it quickly to get to the computer parts section to see what deal they had.
Those were some fun days.
Yeah, except for uneven QC on the ECS boards... Still remember two different friends of mine jumping on the same deal to build PCs and then wrestling for months with configuration issues tied to different board revisions. Then both systems caught the capacitor plague. That was back in the Athlon Thunderbird days, but I never did trust ECS after seeing all that happen.
 
Yeah, except for uneven QC on the ECS boards... Still remember two different friends of mine jumping on the same deal to build PCs and then wrestling for months with configuration issues tied to different board revisions. Then both systems caught the capacitor plague. That was back in the Athlon Thunderbird days, but I never did trust ECS after seeing all that happen.
I had some pretty good luck with ECS board + CPU combos where I got an extra $5-$10 off because the board was returned. System was unstable, but BIOS was old; update the BIOS and it ran fine for years.
 
Mail-in-ripoffs, I only ever cared walking out the door price.
One of many ways those cluetards stuck it to themselves.
Who specifically made such decisions? I want names...

I was taught that mail ins were essentially garbage and you'd never get them. I never considered them a discount. Typically, the last few I'd check at places like newegg were pre-paid cards with $10-15 on it. Which is better than nothing, but unless the store/website you're buying from allows split payments they are almost useless.

The walkout the door price is what I consider the price. If it has a mail in rebate I'll do it, and if I get something I'll consider it a freebie. But I assume I won't.

Fry's used to have good black Friday deals. Way back when I got an aftermarket PS2 controller for free, it worked fine. Other things like good anti virus software had free subscriptions for a year and the like. Of course there was a big line.
 
I've had the privilege of wandering Fry's more than a few times around the turn of the century. (Palo Alto) Now that I'm on the other coast. I've gone out of my way to support my local Micro Center. Man they've come and gone. Rad Shack, CompUSSR, Frys, don't take the last one...
I worked at CompScrewUSA, back in the day. Paid their employees practically minimum wage, but we got things at cost. They made all of their money on periperals. $1 adapter cost them $0.04 - everything else was 10-20% margin.

There is STILL a CompUSA building here with the sign up.

Been to many Fry's on the West and East coast. They definitely faded away. Sad to see them go like that. I guess people would rather get ripped off at Worst Buy or buy Bezos another home.

Lucky to still have two MicroCenters within driving distance.
 
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I was taught that mail ins were essentially garbage and you'd never get them. I never considered them a discount. Typically, the last few I'd check at places like newegg were pre-paid cards with $10-15 on it. Which is better than nothing, but unless the store/website you're buying from allows split payments they are almost useless.

The walkout the door price is what I consider the price. If it has a mail in rebate I'll do it, and if I get something I'll consider it a freebie. But I assume I won't.

Fry's used to have good black Friday deals. Way back when I got an aftermarket PS2 controller for free, it worked fine. Other things like good anti virus software had free subscriptions for a year and the like. Of course there was a big line.
I got every single rebate I mailed off for, even the one time where I made a mistake though that did require contacting the rebate house. Hard drive rebates? check. Mother Board rebates? Check. Ram rebate? Check. AV rebates that resulted in free software? Yes...did that at least 6-12 times. I'm not sure when the last time I paid for a license, but it was before 2007.
 
I was taught that mail ins were essentially garbage and you'd never get them. I never considered them a discount. Typically, the last few I'd check at places like newegg were pre-paid cards with $10-15 on it. Which is better than nothing, but unless the store/website you're buying from allows split payments they are almost useless.

The walkout the door price is what I consider the price. If it has a mail in rebate I'll do it, and if I get something I'll consider it a freebie. But I assume I won't.

Fry's used to have good black Friday deals. Way back when I got an aftermarket PS2 controller for free, it worked fine. Other things like good anti virus software had free subscriptions for a year and the like. Of course there was a big line.
Yeah I cant count the number of rebates I never got.
 
I was taught that mail ins were essentially garbage and you'd never get them. I never considered them a discount. Typically, the last few I'd check at places like newegg were pre-paid cards with $10-15 on it. Which is better than nothing, but unless the store/website you're buying from allows split payments they are almost useless.

The walkout the door price is what I consider the price. If it has a mail in rebate I'll do it, and if I get something I'll consider it a freebie. But I assume I won't.

Fry's used to have good black Friday deals. Way back when I got an aftermarket PS2 controller for free, it worked fine. Other things like good anti virus software had free subscriptions for a year and the like. Of course there was a big line.
I never had a rebate sway my purchasing decision. I always send them in but never expected more fought over a rebate that never came in. It is like a little bonus if one shows up 3 months later.
 
Everytime I went in there I could have literally taped 100 dollar bills to my shirt. Dragged a clear plastic see through sack of cash and gold bricks through the store and I would be lucky if an employee would even ask if I need help. 9 out of 10 times I would have to hunt down an employee to get help, he would say hold on ill get you help, 20 mins later help arrives to tell me they have to get someone else.

Farewell frys you will be missed only because you were one of the last brick and mortars left. But you deserve your demise because you never cared to begin with.

Fry's was like Home Depot or Lowes, not your local small Mom & Pop focused on service. If you didn't know what you're about on computers then Fry's was frustrating. If you did, then Fry's was Geek Heaven.
 
Every time I walk into a HD or other B&M and an employee asks , "Do you need help", I say, "What are you a psychiatrist?".
Edit- Celebrating the death rattles of conventional retail.
 
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what is funny~ about the ECS combo deals.. is they were only possible because someone from ECS was basically stealing them from ECS and selling them to fry's for way lower prices.

Pretty sure that is the story at least.
 
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Every time I walk into a HD or other B&M and an employee asks if "I need help", I say, "What are you a psychiatrist?".
That was my biggest pet peeve with Circuit City, just want to look at TVs, or something and you catch them out of the corner of your eye they see a potential commission and make a bee line for you and you're like "damnit I just want to look, stop trying to sell me!"
 
That was my biggest pet peeve with Circuit City, just want to look at TVs, or something and you catch them out of the corner of your eye they see a potential commission and make a bee line for you and you're like "damnit I just want to look, stop trying to sell me!"
My friend bought a set of JBL car speakers and bought the warranty.
2 yrs later a tweeter failed and he took said tweeter in for replacement. They said we cant a find record or your purchase or warranty.
He showed original receipt and they wouldnt honor it.
That was enough for me to stay away.
 
Maximum PC - 2007-10 (1).jpg
Maximum PC - 2007-10 (2).jpg


I remembered this article from Maximum PC and while looking for it ran across Gordon Mah Ung's post (the guy on the left/first pic) about Fry's closing which let me know it was from the October 2007 issue.
 
The 1st guy made his budget by omitting the PSU lol

Not sure about the details here. First guy's case has the same model number and price as the second guy's PSU. But that was back when a case would usually come with an OK enough power supply for a budget build.
 
Not sure about the details here. First guy's case has the same model number and price as the second guy's PSU. But that was back when a case would usually come with an OK enough power supply for a budget build.
Oh ok I havent bought any cases with PSU like the Ncase I think does
 
I remembered this article from Maximum PC and while looking for it ran across Gordon Mah Ung's post (the guy on the left/first pic) about Fry's closing which let me know it was from the October 2007 issue.
Man that's fucked up have a "spend up to $500" challenge and actually take into account sales tax? I mean seriously WTF are they thinking.
 
Wow!
Fry's was like my home away from home when I lived in the Bay Area.
I would go to my local store in Fremont so often on Sundays that many of the folks knew me by name.
My wife got a kick out of that and would rib me about it.
It was all Fry's after they took away Micro Center in Cupertino.
 
Wow!
Fry's was like my home away from home when I lived in the Bay Area.
I would go to my local store in Fremont so often on Sundays that many of the folks knew me by name.
My wife got a kick out of that and would rib me about it.
It was all Fry's after they took away Micro Center in Cupertino.

Santa Clara, not Cupertino, FWIW. The site is now a Wal-Mart grocery store.

There's still Central Computers, which seems to be doing OK. At least well enough that they opened a new Sunnyvale store (coincidentally, not too far from the original Sunnyvale Fry's location) after the first burnt down. I think they survive mostly on sales and service to business.
 
Every time I walk into a HD or other B&M and an employee asks , "Do you need help", I say, "What are you a psychiatrist?".
Edit- Celebrating the death rattles of conventional retail.
Home depot and lowes CAN never be replaced by online. Reason why....

Hazmat, massive bulk weight of products, think if a customer ordered 15 20foot rebars. Home depot would have to dedicate a big ass truck or fleet of trucks to deliver that 200 bucks worth of rebar to your jobsite at the cost of 300 in shipping.

Concrete, lumber, screws, nails, etc..

Its absolutely asinine to think HD and Lowes will go online only. Its impossible to do business that way with thier type of products.
 
Sad to see Fry's come to an end. Being an East-Coaster I'd been shopping online with them since they were using the Outpost.com domain, and it's yet another one to bite the dust.
 
Santa Clara, not Cupertino, FWIW. The site is now a Wal-Mart grocery store.

There's still Central Computers, which seems to be doing OK. At least well enough that they opened a new Sunnyvale store (coincidentally, not too far from the original Sunnyvale Fry's location) after the first burnt down. I think they survive mostly on sales and service to business.
If I still lived in SJ I would def go there. In Sac not many options.
 
I lost interest in Fry's several years ago after discovering Central Computers. They have all the good stuff one wants along with outstanding customer support including the best handling of issues like GPU shortages I've seen anywhere.... raffles, waiting lists, etc. They are a bit more expensive than Micro Center, which I was quite familiar with when I lived in Michigan, and certainly not as big. However, they have more or less the same amount of "good stuff" without aisle upon aisle of e-refuse (Microcenter) or empty shelves (Fry's). Great place that I love to patron.

My primary concern about this point is a new post-COVID location for the SV Electronics Flea Market which for quite some time was held at the Sunnyvale Fry's parking lot.
 
Frys used to be the coolest with their many themes, visited stores all across the bay area and Texas. Sad that they could not survive. I think my first build came from there with a pentium 233mhz chip then my amd 380 K62... many many upgrades along the way RIP Frys
 
Yep - and ZipZoomFly (Newegg's main competition at one point) started life as GoogleGear.com but changed to the ZZF moniker after pushback from you know who (before ZZF bit the dust as well).

Dang, ZipZoomFly and Tigerdirect were pretty good, back in the day. Now Newegg is going down the tubes to the extent that I closed out my 13 year old account and will not go back.
 
Does anyone remember the name of the PC parts supplier from the Tampa area? I bought several things from their online store in the early to mid 00s. It seems like the main support guy and last one there was a member here at [H] back then, too.
 
Does anyone remember the name of the PC parts supplier from the Tampa area? I bought several things from their online store in the early to mid 00s. It seems like the main support guy and last one there was a member here at [H] back then, too.
Tuffshop?
 
Hmm, I don't think that is it. I will have to think on it. There was also a place in the Atlanta area that sold a good deal of stuff in their retail store and online. I bought several AMD64 CPUs from them when those first came out and they sent out t-shirts with each one - albeit all large or smaller. We bought tens of thousands of $ worth of stuff from mwave back in that time period. I don't remember ever buying anything from googlegear/zipzoomfly. Lots of good memories from that timeframe.
 
I remember a local shop in Denver when I lived there. Don't know her name. We called her the Dragon Lady but she was asian. Best deal on parts anywhere. She had a small shop with good stock. Pretty sure she got shut down for some illegal stuff as there was no way she could sell at her prices and make money unless things were coming across the water on the cheap.
 
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