They are building a Fry’s Electronics near me. It’s about half a mile from our Circuit City, Best Buy, and CompUSA. Makes you wonder where “a competitive environment” ends and “that’s just crazy” begins.
By my work here in Woodland Hills, Circuit City, CompUSA, and Staples are all in the same strip mall. Best buy is across the street, Good Guys is caty-corner, and Fry’s is right down the street. You’d think this would create a more competitive sales environment, but they’ve all had the same prices on anything I was looking to buy.
Normally I would agree with you, but I love Fry’s with an unholy passion. They often have killer sales on software or computer components which are slightly behind the cutting edge curve – I’ve been able to keep my computer nice and speedy for next to nothing thanks to Fry’s.
Plus, it’s the only electronics store I know of that actually has electronics. Like resistors and multimeters sort of electronics. Try buying a resistor at Best Buy.
[sub]Hmmm, maybe I’ll stop by Fry’s on the way home. It has been almost a week since I was there last…[/sub]
Max_Castle, I worked in that same area (in the 20th Century Insurance building), and I completely concur. The overabundance of electronics stores is especially confusing, given that Woodland Hills doesn’t seem to have a heavy geek population…
dropzone, what’s the theme of the new Fry’s gonna be?
Fry’s Electronics is truly awesome. When people visit silicon valley from out of town and I want to give them a quick taste of what the culture here really is, I take them to Fry’s.
The best thing about Fry’s used to be the way each store had a theme, although they seem to be backing away from that. The new Sunnyvale store (which is at least the third, and maybe the fourth, location they’ve had within about a 4 block radius) is even bigger. But it appears to have no theme.
You can have too many electronics stores?
Huh? Are you guys for real?
I consider myself a few steps away from Geekdom, but I’m definitely a gadget/electronics/toys/computer enthusiast. Fry’s is the most unholy of places. I prefer bamboo torture and genital mutilation to Fry’s shitty customer service, dubious business practices and general “shit on the consumer” attitude.
I like the prices, but 9 times out of 10, ordering online is preferable and some times even cheaper. If not the same price and cheaper, it certainly does my blood presure some good not to have to wait 4 hours in the return line because some fucking shitbird decided to purchase something and return it missing pieces and parts and it was just resealed and placed back on the shelf, sans return label.
Sam
Although I would never claim Fry’s has great customer service, I have found that places like Best Buy and CompUSA have far far worse. I’ve yet to encounter an employee at either store on the sales floor (a rarity in itself) who wasn’t 16 years old and completely untrained (unless being taught to lie to some old lady about how she absolutely needs a $3000 Pentium 4 with the latest graphics card and DVD burner to surf the web and send email counts as trained). Ugh.
Fry’s is great if you’re a geek who knows what you need. If you don’t know what you need, these days you’re pretty much screwed no matter where go.
Jesus, I’ve never even heard of Fry’s
I realize this. Unfortunately, 9/10’s of all the stuff I buy from them(RAM, Hard drives, Etc), require that I put up with their shit.
Man do I have some good stories about Frys! LoL 
Sam
Hmmmmm, granted, I’d have to upgrade through several generations to get to that point* but they thought is nice.
the sweetest words!
Really? :dubious: REALLY? Perhaps I spoke too soon!
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- Another group I belong to is reinventing the Tandy Model 100 for the 21st century.
Well, my * guess * is that at least a few of the chains you mentioned are not long for this world. At least my local CompUSA has been looking mighty barren of customers everytime I’ve been in there lately. And my local Circuit City has failed to impress me with its prices. And in my experience, electronics chains have a finite lifetime. So you may just be witnessing evolution in action here.
Ah, the one on Finley right by 355? For the longest time, my friends and I thought that was going to be another movie theater. I’ll be interested in taking a look.
Well, since CompUSA bought The Good Guys, I’d say they were doing pretty good as a company. Don’t look for them to close up shop anytime soon.
Sam
You betcha. And you, are you of that general neighborhood? I live in Lombard and work in Lisle so it’s one of my main ways to & fro.
I live in Westmont (really close to Darien, though) and work just off of Highland and 31st in Downers Grove (says “Microsoft” on the side pointing west - look at the side facing north, third floor from top, third window from the right, then WAVE! That’s my desk). I have a good friend who lives in the apartments right by Finley and Roosevelt, so I pass by that Fry’s site somewhat regularly.
I can’t disagree with that… and yet, I can’t stop shopping at Fry’s either. The massive overwhelmingness of it just rubs me the right way. It’s like Las Vegas.
For big stuff I stopped expecting miracles anywhere when I realized the name of the store was Best Buy and not Best Service, though I have received such good service there recently I asked if they had put everybody on commission As for parts stores, we had one run by nice, helpful people for about a year but otherwise Comic Book Guy could easily be Electronics Guy or Computer Guy. Nothing unexpected out of geeks.
interface2x, that would require me driving down Highland during rush hour. Not that it gets crowded, it’s just a lot of stop lights. We really should lobby for better representation for the western burbs when planning ChiDopes, though, with a little less emphasis on the North Side of Chicago. Maybe we could even get Dinsdale (Glen Ellyn) to come out of retirement for one.
See, I live right in that same area, and I used to have the same dilemma, 'til I just decided to say “Screw it” and just go to Fry’s. CompUSA is nice and quaint, but they’re overhyped and rely too much on their proprietary brand. Best Buy is only good if you find a sale. Good Guys appeals to higher-end electronics buyers.
Fry’s rocks.
You can wave at me from the Von Maur at Yorktown, I’ve got a clear view of that baby 