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Don't forget the fact that they sell the same items for different prices in different areas of the store, and take the default position that you've stolen from them until you produce your receipt as you leave.

Ah, the Final Insult. After standing in the checkout line and paying, I just smile, say "My receipt looks correct, thanks" and walk right by the guy checking purchases at the door. They can't stop you. Been doing this since they instituted the practice (20 years ago?)

Man, try returning a computer, especially a broken one. A true conversation:

"This system doesn't work."

"Right. That's why I'm returning it."

"We can't take it back if it's not working, it means we can't put it back on the shelf."

Facepalm. And reasoned argument, escalating into rather loud voices until they give me my money back just to get rid of me. Do not ever, ever buy a white box computer at Fry's.

This is why you buy things with credit cards. You don't have to yell at employees, you just have to call your credit card company. Part of the contract you have with the credit card companies and the contract the credit card companies have with retailers includes guarantees of robust return policy very often extending the retailer's.

I've never had any luck with that. I called the CC company in front of the Fry's folks and the CC folks just said, basically, "tough, if they won't take it back, that's not our problem"

I don't use that CC any more.

I realize this is splitting hairs, and no comfort to the customer who is inconvenienced, but... I used to work at the periphery of the security industry, and the primary focus of retail security measures are directed at the employees. Notice that the highest concentration of security cameras in big-box stores are directly above the cash registers. There is equipment that simultaneously records the register transaction data stream on top of the security video.

I've encountered the same receipt-checking at Guitar Center on the rare occasion when I've shopped there, and GC's employees also work on some sort of screwy commission system that at least superficially resembles a sweatshop. I suspect that there are some kinds of fiddles that involve ringing you up for one item and walking you out the door with another.

> default position that you've stolen from them until you produce your receipt as you leave.

As a matter of principle, I always walk directly past receipt checkers at store exits. I've never been stopped, although I've gotten some nasty looks.

As long as it's not a membership situation (where one can lose the membership over that), that is your right, but it is also their right to ban you for life if you refuse.

I believe that doesn't happen often, so I don't doubt that it hasn't been an issue for you so far, but it doesn't mean it will never be an issue.

Your choice of course.

Several years ago I used to bike to a Costco to get my meds at the pharmacy (you didn't need to be a member to use it). I used to get pissed off they'd want to search my backpack on the way out-what were they going to do, revoke my non existent membership? Find a giant pallet of toilet paper I hid in it?

At a Sam's Club the door guy literally grabbed my cart on my way out when I did not show him my receipt. I cancelled my membership the next day.

I urge you to change your perspective. You are punishing the receipt checker for trying to enforce a policy they have no say in or control over. If their boss sees you walk past them, they can get fired, in which case you will have directly harmed them. In contrast, showing your receipt takes less than 5 seconds.

That's stupid. If they've been given a job which is impossible to enforce and been told they'll be fired if they don't enforce it then that's obviously silly and it's not my fault that it's silly. If an employee is tasked to make everyone hop from the door to my car should I also do that? What about if an employee is tasked to make everyone fly from the door to their car? What about then?

Not at all. If they tried to physically stop you from leaving, that is what would get them fired.

Is there any documented evidence that Fry's is sinking(/losing money)?

I don't doubt it per se, I just want to pin down that notion. I find it shocking that they outlived Circuit City and Radio Shack, so I'm beginning to wonder if maybe they're actually profitable and we're just annoyed that their target market doesn't necessarily capture us anymore (the way it did in the 90s and to some extent the 00s in my case).

(note: a descendent comment asking about a Best Buy reference pointed out that I inadvertently said Fry's outlived Best Buy; I meant Circuit City and corrected it, but that may just add more confusion with the resulting conversation)

No, and in fact it is quite the opposite, they have been putting their competitors out of business and were cited by Radio Shack at one point as to why they were going out of business[1].

In the Bay area they have replenished some of their "maker" supplies to be more relevant again but it is spotty. They prefer high margin items like laptops or washer/dryer combinations. This is quite a bit lower than when parts distributors Wyle and Arrow were complaining that Fry's was selling individual parts at the 1K quantity price and cutting off their margins.

They also managed to kill off the electronics stores in the Bay area, Sunnyvale Electronics, Jade Systems, JDR Microdevices, Quement, Quest, Etc. JameCo has survived but in part because they have a decent mail order business and hold the line on their prices. I wrote a letter to Bill Fry complaining because after they killed off those businesses their component supply dropped off dramatically leaving folks in Silicon Valley ordering from a company in Minnesota to get parts they use to source locally.

That said, I find it hilarious when they have in their display case test equipment offered for sale from companies that are no longer in business.

[1] Of course Radio Shack probably cited everything at one time or another as to why they were going out of business.

They also managed to kill off the electronics stores in the Bay area

I'm sure Fry's had a lot to do with it, but a good deal of the problem is that "times are changing".

More stuff gets built exclusively in Asia nowadays, leaving fewer part overruns in the USA that can be sold to surplus companies that used to be in the Bay Area.

As SoCs become more prevalent there is just less need for glue chips. This is all across the board. E.g. 20 years ago every desktop PC needed a graphics card, or at least a graphics chip. But now the vast majority of video needs are satisfied by Intel's on-die graphics. Same with USB, it's in the Intel chipset. No need for SATA cards or chips, it's all in the Intel chipset. So is ethernet. Etc.

Plus in the old days hobbyists had a chance of being able to work with DIP components, or even SOICs. Nowadays the resistors and capacitors are almost too small to see without a stereo microscope. And BGA components can't easily be soldered or reworked without sophisticated equipment.

With more stuff being designed, debugged, and manufactured in Asia, I'm not surprised that Fry's has a lot of older test equipment collecting dust. No demand for it anymore.

We live in interesting times. Sucks for people who used to make a good living in electronics.

Compared to 30 years ago, I think the hobby electronics market has changed a lot.

Partly it's because a lot of the kids who would have been assembling Heathkits in 1980 are now making minecraft mods.

But even without that, there's been a shift in the electronics market. There are high demand, medium demand, and long tail components. Everyone has the high demand components at home. The long tail components aren't in high enough demand to stock in expensive-to-run high street stores, so they can only be mail ordered. The medium demand components are in between - the range is wide enough that people don't have them all already, but limited enough and in high enough demand that a high street store can satisfy demand and make enough money to stay in business.

30 years ago, medium demand components were things like 7400-series logic chips. Today, microprocessors like the arduino have most of that stuff built in, or can be programmed to do it. Nobody needs to go to the shops because they need a positive edge triggered dual D-type flip-flop and all they have at home is a dual master slave JK flip-flop.

I tend to largely agree with this, although if there was a store that stocked what Sparkfun or Adafruit have in their online store that I could go into and browse, I'd probably spend $100 a week in there.

Well, HSC is most certainly still around. Often cheaper than Digikey, with a great selection of jellybean components, as well as a really long tail of more obscure parts.

They're privately owned, so I'm unaware of any data. While an anecdote is not data in and of itself, the Fry's here in WA has been emptier and emptier (both in terms of merchandise on the floor and people) each time I've stopped by from 2008 to the present. I can't say for sure if it's a national trend, but out here Amazon Prime has eliminated the need of basically everyone I know to visit Fry's.

Same trend in Wilsonville, Oregon. It's "emptier and emptier".

What's this "outlived Best Buy" stuff? Best Buy still seems to be operating.

Oh wow jeez that's embarrassing. I was thinking of Circuit City and my brain just replaced it. My bad. Thanks for pointing it out.

I don't know that this indicates a business downturn but Fry's used to have its own 4-6 page insert in the S.J. Mercury in the Friday edition. For the last several years, this advert has been reduced to a single page on the back of one of the regular sections. Also, although very subjective, it appears to me that the huge parking lots at the Sunnyvale, San Jose, and Fremont stores are less crowded than I remember. Indicators? Maybe.

If you've ever tried to buy anything at any of their stores, you'll notice you get sales people asking to scan your items and print you a quote.

Is this a relatively recent change? And if not, are you sure it isn't for very specific departments, or certain price points or such? I don't go to Fry's all that often -- Amazon Prime blah blah etc. -- but I never saw them print out a quote sheet unless I did the internet price matching. The most recent purchase I've made there I can confirm is December 2013, though.

It's been something that the salespeople have done off and on through the years, but definitely something that's happening more frequently now. Usually they would just ask if you were also buying memory or something, now they'll ask if you just pass by and ask where something is.

> it's in a position to be cutting edge for the maker scene

I remember in the early 2000's there were a lot more discrete electronic components. Last time I went you could still find the soldering irons and oscilloscopes and resistors and such, but it wasn't nearly as impressive. Kind of sad! I guess not as many people do low-level circuits hacking in the age of surface-mount parts and Arduino boards on Amazon...

Arduino boards on amazon? Only if you don't mind paying five times the price.

http://www.amazon.com/Arduino-ARD-NANO30-Nano-v3-0/dp/B003YV...

vs

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Freeshipping-Nano-3-0-control...

You just get them from aliexpress in china, which is where most of these things are made these days anyway.

Five times $2 isn't much -- and sometimes I'm willing to pay to have something today: Not in 3-4 weeks. It's not like arduinos (or whatever) are something I'm burning through often enough to worry about a few extra dollars.

So yeah, I don't mind paying 5x.

"Kind of sad! I guess not as many people do low-level circuits hacking in the age of surface-mount parts and Arduino boards on Amazon."

More people are building electronics than ever. But they're not buying from Fry's. Everybody serious gets their parts from Digi-Key and Mouser.

Oh definitely, I've done my fair share of Digi-Key orders too. The lack of a good actual-local-physical-store option for that one missing resistor on a Saturday is a little unfortunate though.

I do wonder what the overall trend is. I mean, it's certainly harder to build anything close to "state of the art" in miniaturization without having a custom PCB fabbed and soldering SMT. And it seems with all the premade building blocks (Arduino shields and such) fewer people would actually need to design from scratch. Also our idea of what's "interesting" has shifted a bit... the radio receiver and burglar alarm and amplifier kits I built as a kid (in the 90's) might not be be as exciting today. But then maybe the maker movement brings an influx of new experimenters regardless. Awesome if so.

And I also don't do hardware hobbyist stuff much anymore so I'm inclined to take your word for it if low-level circuit hacking really is getting popular again :-)

Same with Maplin's in the UK, used to sell components, now it's just a general electrical consumer goods store.

Not to say that their focus hasn't changed (and I particularly lament the loss of IC pinouts and mini datasheets in the catalogue) but they still have a substantial range of components for sale.

Not on Tottenham Court Road nor in Canary Wharf!

I've always managed to get what I need when I goto Fry's, but I did find the whole salesman thing odd. For a $20 cable or electronic product its nuts. There is nothing wrong with having a guy on the floor who can help customers make the right purchase, but trying to make a living off commission on $10 products is just a crazy idea.

I tried to buy cat6 patches at Fry's Santa Clara in a pinch. I couldn't check out with an extra $20 of cables in my cart until I found a checked out employee in the aisles to write up their commission.

Did they not let you check out at the register? I would have walked out on the sale if someone did that to me.

You bet. I used to work at Fry's in 2001. Frys used to have so many cashiers those days; salesmen used to make $6.75 (then CA min wage) + commission. Commission was also good then: like $100 for a $2500 toshiba laptop; 15% commission on perf warranties. Weekends used to so busy with shoppers.

Now you have merchandisers doing the cashier task. And you hardly see a row of cashiers. Even vendors are not happy with Fry's due to late payments.

I ran into that the other day when I went to Fry's to purchase an item, they had a big sign up that they beat Internet prices, so I checked the item on my phone and asked the sales person if they would match the price and they said that it was sold out. I just got a feeling that the whole place is circling the drain based on the over all shabbiness of all the displays and so on. It just has that look to it.

Their stores remind me of K-Mart stores.

(Dirty, poor displays, a lot of shelf space empty/out of stock, and always almost entirely empty.)

Exactly like the K-mart here. I can't figure out how they are still in business.

So, roughly the same as it ever was?

(It's still a great place for selection, if you don't count on salesperson knowledge or fast price-matching.)

There is a Fry's here and I like the store because it has a lot of computer electronics, and I've seen what you describe in action, I can't think that it is sinking either.

There are like 50 registers and not but a few are ever in use, and it is such a huge store with so many employees I can't understand how they can keep making money.

Walk into one on Black Friday. All the registers will be in use.

One day a year doesn't seem like a great business strat when the other 364 are 10% in use.

This is strange. Service at my local Fry's is absolutely terrible and they no longer try to write me up for a quote. I even bought a desk for $150 (which has to have high commission) and no one tried to get a piece of the sale. I don't think it works like that at my local one, or the incentives are completely rewired.

Ive never seen that, but i used to work for this company and repair computers for them. and FUCK man after seeing some of the shit that comes from Frys, i ended up giving this dude a new computer, the work was so bad that I would have essentially have had to replace almost 80% of the parts, and i would not know the reliability of the repair. Ended up just telling the manager to give him a new one.... that dude was hella funny, he came back two years later and i saw him and he instantly remembered me.

That being said, in the sales department we instead just paid everyone remotely the same, no commission on anything. Never was a toxic environment, never was any banter amongst people, and i feel that it def. helps sales due to not overselling shit to people.

Frys is a mess, but so is big box retail.

DEEPSEA / SPACE EXPLORATION get the workers in on that shit lets get off this stupid rock. its fucking about to be 2020 where the hell are the flying cars.

Fry's have good selection candies though.