Thread regarding Fry's Electronics layoffs

Wow, Tallcantommy,

I couldn't have said it better myself, that's perfectly describes my life, wandering down the aisles etc exactly as you mentioned. If i want something that catches my eye, I want it NOW! Not wait 2 days for prime shipping. (Which is even longer lately I noticed on some items)

I just left the location in North Houston off of I-45 and Beltway, and I got aggravated and was going to make a complaint about their store... But I went up to an associate and was kinda giving the benefit of the doubt, but sarcastically asked, "are you guys going out of business or what" and to my surprise he said "maybe I'm not sure" . Lol. I told him about the empty aisle of network switches and access points and he told me there are rumors among the employees that they are going out of business but "no official word"... Then i got online to research it and found this page ...

My life kinda feels empty now.

The Austin store is effected as well. So sad. I have dear friends that have worked here for YEARS. There's been layoffs, cut hours, low amount of product being received. The sad thing is that there has been no word of it closing...even from management. Either they are trying their damndest to stay open or at least stay open through the holiday season or its gonna be one of those last minute, sudden closing things. Honestly its Home Office to blame bc their policies are crazy and just a bunch of poor business decisions made throughout the years. Super sad really. I've told my friends to start sending out their resumes and get out of retail altogether. I mean the writing is on the wall. The store is going under. Period.

yeah, went to all 4 stores in the DFW metroplex this past weekend just to see for myself, yup, pretty much done. guessing they wont make it to "Black Friday" this year! ;) another big box computer/AV DIY store gone to the sh–ter! oh well, just too sad!

Yes a lot of electronics would be affected by the Tariffs, however, Fry's issues started way way before the tariffs were put in place + a lot of their items weren't purchased directly from manufacturers but through distributors who are locked into contracts with them and can't raise prices very easily. Also when a company strings along their supplier and take over a year to pay for goods yet the checks are backdated to look like they paid in 30 days there is something wrong. Over the years payments were received monthly then it turned into quarterly then every six month and finally only when they were threatened to be put on hold. Wonder how many small business they are taking down with them who relied on Fry's as their #1 customer and haven't been paid for months or years. We luckily saw the writing on the wall middle of last year and were able to wash our hands of them but not until after we had to take them to collections to get paid. Personally when they started selling Perfume, Hello Kitty, and as seen of TV c-ap I knew the end not to far away.

I used to shop a Fry's a lot back in the day but basically stopped last decade as online stores like Amazon and Newegg became popular. Their prices are often higher than the online stores, even when the item is on sale.

I do have a problem with the many posts here that assumes that because the brand is not Chinese, ie Sony, Samsung, etc, it's products would be made in the country the company belongs to. By that estimation, All Apple and Google products would be made in the USA. In this day and age, most of the popular electronics are either made/assembled in China or have parts that are made in China. Yeah, I know high tech parts like LCD panels and IC chips are made in other countries, but more often than not the production of cheaper, less high tech parts as well as the assembly of the final product, often take place in China. So Trump's latest tariffs would affect most electronics.

The Oxnard Store is bare as well. No inventory in the stock room. Apart from MicroCenter, Fry's was the last place that you could pick up almost anything DIY electronics like a specific capacitor or a bare circuit board. If desired, you could pick up a sub sandwich, a pair of handcuffs and a telescope. Where else could you find a variety as such?

I normally don't comment on the web but it seemed appropriate to mention my disappointment. This truly marks the END of an ERA. For all of the experiences I had wandering your isles looking for nothing in particular and for a place to retreat to when my fiance had enough of me...Thank You Fry's...perhaps the last and only of its kind!

Frys in concord, ca is pretty barron, with nothing but junk c-ap like hoses and real sh–ty tv's. The buyers are completely clueless at this company and Randy Fry is a mo–n who ran the company in to the ground.

Unfortunately, frys will be gone and it will be missed. Best buy simply does not have the same product as frys. I really will miss going in and getting electronics that I need last minute for a few dollars along with computer hardware.

Very sad. Walked into Roseville, CA Fry's and the shelves are almost empty. Oddly enough, a lot of aisles had cases of soda on them. I actually asked and no one would tell the what I already knew.... Fry's is done! Very sad! I rely heavily on them to so much.

Frys has always had empty shelves because they were slow with paying bills. I think what is really going on is that Amazon is k–ling their business and their arrogance was slow to catch on.

Ive read and heard here locally in Houston area that it’s the Trump tariffs. BS! The tariffs only affect China not Japan nor Korea. The tariffs are in place to even out reciprocal trade. Liberals just like to throw stones...at anything. Further, it’s obvious that Fry’s decline predates the tariffs.
If Amazon k–led Fry’s it’s Fry’s fault. Poor customer service, horrible return policies and employees that typically don’t know their products and will give the answers you want to hear in order to make a sale.
Amazon, regardless of pricing, gave Fry customers another option to buy their electronics without returns problems & more consistent stock.
I was a frequent shopper at Fry’s but never liked their policies nor the attitude of a significant number of their employees. After seeing how little stock they have, I won’t be going back. Another nail in their coffin.

I was just at the Fry's in Plano, TX today. I was at the Irving, TX location on Monday. Both locations have a lot of empty shelves. It does not look like they are restocking. They use to be a good place to grab a HDD, Power Supply, or Cable on the go. Now it looks like a ghost town.

I went to the Sunnyvale Frys and one of the employees told me the shelves were bare due to Trumps tariffs on goods from China. I looked him in the face and asked if he really believes that, and he simply nodded. When asked why the Sony stuff was gone, you know, from Japan and the Samsung stuff from S. Korea was gone, he simply shuffled away. Do Not believe the c-ap they spew about tariffs. It's Frys going under.

I went into the Phoenix Fry's and was shocked to see the store had changed there layout but not for the good. Half of the shelf's are now gone and product selection is garbage. It looked like a electronic store that sells liquidated c-ap that some warehouse couldn't get rid of and they got it. There was 4 motherboards available (overpriced outdated mobo) on the shelf and that was it, and good luck if you need a graphic card as there was 3 brands to choose and 7 boxes in total on the shelf as well. As I was checking out a guy was talking to the store manager towards a counter at the end and I heard him say you guys screwed up and I wan't you to admit it was your stores fault a few moments later he yelled out to all customers that he glad Fry's is closing and as you can see they won't even fix a mistake they clearly mad and walked out. After checking out there is a person who checks your receipt and marks it with a highlighter and today was the first time there was nobody there. This was my store and happy place since the mid 1990's and I think this is my last visit as there was noting they carry anymore thats worth a trip there. RIP Fry's Phoenix as your life support has been turned off and death is lineament.

I went to the Woodland Hills Location on Sunday to purchase a couple back to school laptops for my kids and there was absolutely nobody in the computer to department to help us. I asked one associate near the computer department and he said the he was a merchandiser and wouldn't be able to help us. I asked If there was anybody knowledgeable with the computers to help and he said there was only one salesman and you'll just have to wait for him. We waited for more than 20 mins and decided to go to Best Buy across the street where we where helped immediately. Never going back to Frys.

I worked at Frys back in the late 90's early 2000's. I am not surprised that this house of cards is finally tumbling down. The upper management and owner ship have said on many occasions internally that their focus is 100% profit nothing else. During one management telacon I heard Randy Fry even say "Screw the customer their money is all that's important" and this was the mentality at corporate office. Training for associates was laughable, and if you didn't make commission you were making minimum wage. I was a font end supervisor and the pay was based on coverage goals which were never met so I had cashiers making more than I could because they earned a commission for every transaction they rang up. Don't even get me started on the million dollar retirement plan they sold people, total scam.

So the short and sweet of it; I am not surprised, I am not surprised this didn't happen earlier, and I am surprised they have held out so long. After I left Frys I stopped shopping there aside from when I had no other choice. If I need something now I either trod over to Microcenter (Can't say enough good things about this store) or I get it on Amazon.

There is no staff, the buyers are id–ts and management is non existant. The only aisles stocked are perfume and garbage as seen on tv junk. Electronics should be dropped from the name.

Renton, WA and Former loyal customer. This place treats their employees badly (according to various friend who have worked here) and then that experience is passed onto the customer.

I was lied to about the number of RAM slots on the mobo inside a pre-built desktop. Only two slots, not the 4 I was told. Came back the very next business day with all the parts with my receipt in hand, hoping I could get a refund if not exchange it for a different model, and was very rudely told to stop wasting their time by an employee because I was missing one of the plain, cardboard boxes that came inside. $1400 down the drain for a machine I can't even upgrade properly.

Good riddance to this business model, they earned the burnout.

This does not surprise me. Fry’s has been screwing with their customers for decades! Selling the same products with different skew numbers so they didn’t have to price match their competition. This was one of the biggest “F you” tactics they perpetuated and it p-ss-d off many. Over charging for sh–ty off brand electronics with huge profits knowing the quality was c-ap. Fry’s didn’t care they just wanted our money! People got wise so when there was an option of not getting screwed by Fry’s they took it! Fry’s imploded on it self. They are the ones that caused the divide with their customers not Amazon or anyone else! Because if that was true Best Buy and better yet all the small mom and pop electronic stores would also be going out of business or would have shutdown years ago!

BTW, the irony of the Wilsonville and DFW-area locations is that Fry’s took over the former Incredible Universe locations. It now appear Fry’s is going the way of IU and its sibling, Radio Shack.

It has been truly disheartening to see what’s become of Fry’s in Wilsonville, OR. I noticed the first signs over a year ago when they reduced the number of bargain bins in the center aisle and earlier this year was eliminated entirely, leaving only the bins by the cash registers. The candy section near the registers also started having more empty bins. Those are trivial compared to the electronics, but they were bellweather items. Since then, they stopped showing display models of cameras, replacing them with photos (if I wanted photos, I’d order from Amazon). They also don’t have display models of printers; they’re all in boxes, no HP and few Canon printers, mostly only Lexmark. As others have noted, I too found a much smaller selection in TV department last week. It appears the big Bose display next to the TV department is also gone. With the demise of Radio Shack, Fry’s was the only game in town for electronic parts. Now where do we go?

Sad but true, Fry's Electronics is ending. Since moving to the US from Australia 10 years ago it has been my favorite store. It is heart breaking what online shopping has done to the in-store experience. Amazon sales here in Phoenix has been the nail in the coffin for Frys Electronics. The Phoenix Thunderbird location that I visited today is at 40% stock, hand full of staff. Computer components have been removed. The laptop section is at 10%. Even with all the layoffs, current staff don't know what is going on, or have been given gag orders to say that the store is being reorganized. It is a true shame that law makers haven't addressed Amazon and its supremacy.

FRYS IN WOODLAND HILLS IS OFFICIALLY CLOSING IN LESS THAN 3 MONTHS , CONFIRMATION FROM MANAGEMENT!

Tariffs on Chinese imports which is all of the stock at Fry's. If they are working on replacement stock or just selling off their inventory, no idea as to which one of the two.

The same is true in Palo Alto, CA, where nothing seems to be restocked and most shelves are getting close to 50% bare. I had a feeling something wasn't right with the business last year, when sparseness in the inventory, parking lot and customers in the store was palpable.

Back in the 80-90's and most of 2000s, Fry's was packed of inventory and customers. The checkout line was typically 10 to 20 people deep. It's only in the past couple of years the Fry's business model has shown to have lost the war with eCommerce. Although Fry's has tried to compete with eCommerce it's too late to catch up with the train.

Fry's was truly a tinker's heaven, whether you were into computers, electronics or just plain do it yourself type. It will be truly missed, because there's nowhere else you can visit locally especially if you need that something right now. I use to enjoy wandering around the store to see what's new and gaining a mental picture of what they had, so if on the occasion I needed that something I could recall "seen it at Frys" moment.

Plano, TX store sales rep says they haven't received any new merchandise for over three months and everything in the store is what's left. He says they haven't been told they are closing just to sell what's left in stock and he says there is no inventory in the back. He says online orders are placed and sometimes they have it, sometimes they don't.

At the Renton WA store I’ve asked and been told they are looking at new suppliers, to nothing is wrong they are just reorganizing. Claiming they are getting all the new Ryzen 3000, blah blah. I was in there today and they have the Ryzen 3700x with whatever 2000series is left. For motherboards, hope you like msi.

Alpharetta, GA, store confirmed to be closing in the next couple months by a friend who is an employee.
Sad... Empty shelves, no stock in the back except what is on the shelves. Home theater a desert.

Unfortunately, Amazon wins. I'm feeling a little depressed after just visiting the Fry's in Arlington, TX. It is clear that big business like Amazon is k–ling everyone else, even with mismanagement along the way, when you're funneling wealth to the top and away from local or regional businesses, there's no room to wiggle. Sad.

Fremont CA store today...Wow...sparse or empty shelves throughout. And no, it's not about minimum wage. This kind of retail death is long term mismanagement.

The store in Duluth, GA (Atlanta) is still stocked, but thinning out. Less employees was noticeable. The computer tech was working the sales floor. I think they are spending more than they are making. Both Atlanta stores are palatial. The electric bill must be staggering.

driving by the San jose home office yesterday the Flags out front had the "chip" the mascot's flag at half mast - appropriately I guess

Austin TX store definitely emptying quickly... I live just down the road, and went in. It feels like self-liquidation and inventory reduction. There is still an inventory area, and there is SOME inventory there but much less than in the previous years.

Android tablet area is bare, just remnants and knock-offs left.

Laptop area is bare, mostly refurb laptops ( Lenovo off-lease Thinkpads, lots of Dell, maybe from the staff? ) and the same for desktops. Some new stock, but weirdly also some "refurbished/renewed" stock which I've never seen at Fry's before – all about 2 years old.

NTE component aisle has not been restocked in 2-3 months.

Hard disks area has only a few boxes of each kind of hard drive, mostly empty. The entire component and DIY computer aisles have been compacted together.

No more appliances! The whole appliance area is now empty, and only older floor models are left.

Cellphone aisle has lots of ACCESORIES, but actually few phones. Refurb/resell case is full of 1 to 3 year old phones and smartwatches, but at too-high a price. Pre-liquidation prices to make 50% look better?

Sadly, I have to agree – I think the Writing is on the Wall for Fry's.

Manhattan Beach , Ca store is the same. Shelves look like liquidation is well underway. It's too bad, as others had said, There is no other place to purchase the odd parts you need to repair a PC or other electronics.

You will now have to purchase all of those type of parts from Amazon and only hope that you selected wisely and can wait a couple days or longer. For someone that needs parts right away, there will be no options, anywhere. Too bad, Fry's in its heyday was the place to go for geeks. I used to drive over an hour just to pick up a motherboard back in the day - like 20 yrs ago. The prices were always low and service non-existent. But that was part of the weird charm, you were on your own and had to figure it out or return everything and start over. I learned a lot about computer building because of the distance I had to drive and the extreme hassle to return the item if i got it wrong. RIP Fry's. Amazon items can be shipped back at Kohls now :)

Was in Renton's store tonight. Felt like i was in a Bruce Willis movie. Like a Gunman was under the counter. When i asked why shelves were so bare, they said they must have sold a this week. Then i asked if the was kidding, and he looked at me and almost cried. Then started fidgeting and he said he had a weird, tingly and numb feeling.

Do i need to call 911?

WIlsonville, OR on 7/29/19

About a 1/3 of the floor space sits empty. TV section about 1/4 of what it used to be.

The writing is on the wall.

Run a small computer shop, and I've been shopping at Fry's for many years (8 or 9). It has been my go to spot when I need something quickly. For about the past 4 to 5 years, the customer service has been in the toilet. Most employees treat you like you're bothering them while they're working ... or they'll stand right next to you, watch you pickup and then put down 8 different versions of an item, then without even acknowledging your presence, walk away.

I used to tell my customers. If you're looking for a new computer, go to Fry's and play with all the new models. Then come back and let me know what you want. I never worried about them buying a computer from Fry's because the sales people were awful (I meant untrained).

The store in Concord CA is in bad shape. The hours are shorter and I couldn't even find a 2.5" hard drive! One of the employees told me they are having issues with their supplier and there is no ETA on the drives. His recommendation was to go online and order it from another store and get it shipped.

Anyway, If Fry's is going away, I will miss the store here! It's been nice to have a place pick-up items at the last minute. And, when things were better, they had a good selection of tools, security cams, odd little connectors and other Stuff!

Went to store in San Marcos CA on Sat. Shelves and floor space empty. Asked a guy working there if they are going out and he said "I don't know I just sell computers." Went a cross the street to Best Buy and they said that the LG salesmen told them that they will no longer do business with Fry's as they did not pay their bills.

Was at the store in Webster, TX. The shelves are half empty and the stock area is completely empty.

I went to the Frys on West Thunderbird yesterday and the shelves in the computer parts area were bare. I asked where the hard drives, cables, etc went and the guy said they are at the back of the store. I went back there to find very little on the shelves. The store shelves overall seem bare. Then I decided to order online today and pick up my order at Fry's only to get "the site cannot be reached." I guess the writing is on the wall. They were the best resource after Radio Shack closed to get electronics parts when you needed them now.

Frys website 07/31/2019

503 Service Unavailable

is this the end..........