Hacker News Reader

Comment by geocrasher | Hacker News Reader

The only time I've ever been into a Fry's (due to not living near one) was around 2010 in the Sacramento CA area. It was so huge that I genuinely got dizzy and had to work hard to focus to see individual items (It's a thing that happens to me when there is a lot of "input" for lack of a better term). I suspect that the cavernous real estate (and its cost) only hastened their demise.

View on HN

Going to Fry's without a VERY specific shopping list was always dangerous for me.

I could blow 3 hours in a Fry's just browsing and barely notice the time that had passed.

That’s exactly why I used to love Fry’s. Some kids went to malls, I guess. Fry’s was my mall.

I was in Bangkok and at one of the largest electronics stores in Southeast Asia, that place put Fry's to shame. I think I spent an entire day in there.

Cavernous is such an apt description. Fry’s uses giant warehouse sized buildings and even the distance in between racks and aisles is wide.

I also remember the checkout lines having dozens of empty checkout stations that I never saw used. I always assumed they were there for Black Friday or something.

>Cavernous

Apropos, didn't the one in Sunnyvale become an REI?

Sports Basement - they kept the enter key on the door though. To be fair when Fry's left that building, it's because they built a bigger one down the street, the one with the sinc function as a logo. It was a glorious experience in the 90s.

> they kept the enter key on the door though

That's a nice touch/nod!

Thanks for the correction, yeah SportsBasement. I went mostly to the one off Portage.

I distinctly recall that location is where we bought the legend of Zelda back in the 80’s when it first came out. Gonna miss fry’s.

They were from back in the day when Fry’s would hire extra people for the holidays and staff nearly every register.

Also back then stores would fill space with extra registers. I was nostalgic and sad when I saw they had removed half their local registers. They had (bought) one of the earliest web retail stores. They ought to have become New Egg with a mini Best Buy and RadioShack for locals. But that’s hindsight and I couldn’t have done it.

My one memory of the Sacramento Fry's is buying a 5 lb GummiBear to prank a friend. Not 5 lbs of GummiBears, a single 5 lb GummiBear.

Sorry to see the stores close.

Hey, I have the same issue. I get dizzy inside malls too

Thanks for commenting! I appreciate knowing I'm not alone in this. It's very unnerving when it happens. I pride myself in being spatially oriented, and when I get into huge spaces with lots of distractions, my brain does weird things.

Happens to me at Comic con, but not concerts before the band goes on. Not sure what triggers it. I’ve been to busy cities with lots of neon too.

I think they owned their real estate (although there were probably taxes)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com