With the constant 20% off coupons, and bare shelves, Fry's has to be circling the drain. The number of computer and monitors has been decreased so much, that one can only wonder why. Their creditors must not be extending them credit. Maybe all of their sales now are purely a cash grab.
I really wish I was wrong about this, but the writing has to be on the walls.
Fountain Valley, CA. I was there 05/04/19, a Saturday and it was like a ghost town. Shelves empty and parsely stock, one item here, one item there. Employees standing around with nothing to do. This location won't last long, I give it until the end of the year.
North Houston store has reshuffled their stock and is not carrying a lot of items they used to carry. It has looked to me that they are winding down for the last year. Fewer and fewer employees, mostly very young, and totally unaware of what's staring you, in the face. Unfortunate because there is not anything like FRY's in Houston. And no Best Buy doesn't count. If it wasn't for TVs and phones, Best Buy would have been BYE BYE 2 years ago.
I was just in Roseville today. Got $100 off a laptop with a 20% off coupon. Lookee well-stocked to me. I went through all the computer components, prebuilt systems, audio. Didn't notice anything crazy.
I visited Fry's in city of industry evening today (04/27/2019), all the shelfs of motherboard are almost empty, desktop computer displays only few, the mattress showroom no more temperpedia brands, only a small brand of fewer displayed, whole store have so little customers, my feeling is that they are going to close the business shortly. so bad.
Just at woodland hills store. Empty shelves. I asked 2 employees if they were going out of business. The first one didn't answer. The second said "oh no, it's all good" I asked about Burbank "everyone's good" then a teenage employee behind me added , about the empty shelves, "that means people are buying stuff. I retorted "no it doesn't" and walked out. I needed a dozen 25 pin connectors, they had only 1 and it took 10 minutes to find it since it was on the wrong hook in the decimated d-sub section.
Currently at the store in Renton, WA. There's barely anything here it looks like those stores that have "everything must go sales" so dark and depressing too.. To think just 3 months ago the shelves were full. Can't even find an Xbox console here.
Stores in Roseville and Sacramento also closed, as of today (April 21, 2019)
The market has changed, Silicon Valley has seen stores shuttered that used to be quite busy with technicians and engineers from hardware startups. HSC being the latest to sell their huge but dated inventories. They used to deal in used test equipment but I just don't see much tinkering anymore. Maybe it should be renamed Software Vally. HSC used to be a large presence at the De Anza Ham Swapmeet.
Fremont & Palo Alto stores appear to have experienced a big drop in shoppers in their stores & cars in their parking lots. Store inventory appears to have thinned somewhat but both stores do appear to be well stocked at this point. Obviously some other retailers may have figured out a strategy to cope with the Amazon online shopping phenomena and perhaps Fry's Electronics can take a page from their playbooks. Fry's Electronics is too good of a retailer to slowly die on the vine. Our local retailers shouldn't be convenient brick & mortar stores for those looking to 'try before you buy online' - that's just very wrong - especially for the Mom & Pop stores that are a fabric of local communities. Will Amazon support all the hometown organizations that the small retailers have supported for decades - I suspect not.
Just went to Phoenix store. bare shelves. looks like OOB to me.
I just went into the Dallas Metro plex locations and all are bare shelves and no laptops or printers. It looks like all the stores are preparing for going out of business sale. No of them had what I was looking for. The stores look full at Christmas time, but they have taken a major decline on product.
Just went to the Fry's Electronics in Tempe AZ, same thing, bare shelves, did not even have the cables I was looking for. It was rather eerie. My first thought was they are setting up for a close. Sad, if that is the case, I much preferred to go in and talk with someone when I needed something instead of buying online and guessing.
Just visited the Fry's in Burbank CA, and was SHOCKED at how bare the shelves have become in just the couple months since I was last there. THIS IS NOT GOOD! I really hope this is not the end since I really enjoy spending Sundays there shopping for my nerd stuff.
I just visited the store in Wilsonville Oregon. The store feels like going out of business liquidation is already going on. I've never seen a store this empty and shelves so bare that wasn't undergoing liquidation. I bet it's over before simmer.