Jeez, some people seem to have serious issues with not being completely pandered every second of their lives.
Speaking of open boxes, I did get a great deal with one at Best Buy once. It was a hard drive. Bought it open box, marked “complete”. I’ll say. The HD itself comes in a static-proof bag, which hadn’t even been opened! It was tamper-evident like a bag of chips or something–you’d know. My guess is someone bought it, opened the box, decided they didn’t want to even try to install it (if they tried the bag would be open), gave up and returned. So I got what was for all intents and purposes a brand new hard drive at the “open box” price.
I shop there a lot, but only for software. I’m not cool enough to warez.
One of the original appeals of the very first Fry’s (as in “you want fries with that?”), was that they were open 24 hours and sold chips and soda along side the resistors and solder. Nerd heaven it was!
And yes, they (try to) check your bags on the way out of the store. I have long ago learned to brush past the droids who are tasked with this miserable job.
A few weeks back, I bought a scanner there with the dreaded white sticker on the box (hey, it was a deal, and I’m running Win’95 and the other cheap scanners were USB.) I brought it home to find that the DC adapter was an Australian market model with a 220V input and a funny output plug. After a run to Wal-Mart for a universal adapter, I came home to find that the optics were off and each page I scanned had heavy shadows running across the page.
I returned it on the 29th day of the 30 day refund period. In hindsight, I wish I had marked the box so I could see if they put it back on the shelves.
The fry’s in California have themes:
mountainveiw is the wild west.
San Jose has king tut.
here in Texas, the one in Arlington is “dirty warehouse”.
and returning is easy. if you like going through line after line.
Fuck Fry’s. They’re assholes. Never buy the stickered boxes…you fucking Yutzes! Buy all the cheap RAM there you want. I’ve never had a problem. Buy the cheap everything…I just don’t recommend going there more than once or twice a year.
Fuck that hellhole.
Sam
The Fry’s theme here in Woodland Hills is “Alice in Wonderland”. I think it’s nifty.
And I just wanna reiterate the fact that I’ve never had any troubles at Fry’s. I bought a defective motherboard there once… returning it was easy as pie. I went up to the return counter (six other people in line… took a little more than five minutes), showed the guy the box, told him that the PCI slots weren’t reading any cards… he checked the contents of the box, and then got me another one, no questions asked. The new motherboard worked just fine.
Maybe I’m just lucky with things like this.
That’s the Fry’s I go to also. I don’t think I’ve had any truly difficult times returning anything, but the lines are a bitch. The only thing I like is the one-to-many relationship of the checkout line. I always think that method works better than many-to-many.
In case I used those phrases wrong, let me explain. Fry’s has one long line that waits until a register is available, then an employee sends you to that register instead of the normal way of just choosing a line and waiting in it. It feels faster than the other way.
…and in Fremont CAlifornia the Fry’s would be called “Bartertown” like in the Mad Max movies.
It’s crazy. Without fail whenever I’m there music is blasting from the car stereo section because some smart-ass basshead has tuned all the demo stereos a hip-hop station and cranked up the volume. Of corse nobody is working in that section, so nobody turns it down.
Adding to the insane “Bartertown” atmosphere is the alarms – those little ones that go off when somebody pulls a camera or a walkman off the display to examine it. I couldn’t tell you whether anybody hears them over the stereo noise, because nobody ever seems to tend to them.
And, yes. I sincerely believe Fry’s exports employees exclusivly from India. Probably in shipping containers.
I go to the Fry’s in Garland, Texas. The theme: Wild West!
I’ve never had much issue with them, but the return line is long as hell. Last time I went there to return something, I queued up with about 15 people in front of me, waiting for 3 or 4 clerks.
This setup isn’t lightning fast, but it’s working reasonably well, with one exception: there’s another member of the return team. It’s a very large woman who sits behind a podium just inside the entrance, watching people come in the door(presumedly to tell them to get in like if they have a return).
With what seemed like every single customer, the returner would holler out “SERVICE!” This would prompt the woman at the podium to slowly raise herself up and mosey on over to the return desk. She’d type in a password or something, and mosey on back. Then of course another clerk yells “SERVICE!” and it starts all over again.
A few observations on Fry’s. Everytime I’ve looked for specific hardware at the Fry’s near me, almost every single box has been opened and has a return sticker on it. Many aren’t even re-shrinkwrapped. This is for items like video cards and SCSI adapters. I’ve also been able to find just about every item elsewhere for less.
A couple of years ago, the San Jose Mercury News did a large article on Fry’s business practices. Summarized, the article stated that Fry’s doesn’t worry too much about customer service, because they get enough business that it doesn’t matter. They also pay incredibly low wages. I applied for a job there back in my hardware tech days. I was very qualified, and so was told the job was mine if I wanted it. I was then quoted a salary which was a joke, being less than half of what other similar positions were offering. I asked if the salary was negotiable, and was told that was it, take it or leave it. Needless to say, I chose not to take it, and had a job paying three times as much within three days. Keep in mind that this was in the Silicon Valley during the boom days. As a result of this practice, Fry’s can generally only get entry-level techs.
On the door bag checks, I’ve been told that this practice is as much to keep the cashiers honest as it is to check on the customers.
The Fry’s near Tempe, AZ used to be an Incredible Universe store. When IU went out of business, Fry’s bought this one. This was four years ago - they’re still making deliveries in trucks marked with the Incredible Universe splash. We have no theme, though I believe the new one they built in North Central Phoenix has.
At Incredible Universe, they had the greatest scratch & dent section, where they put everything that had been returned open-boxed. They gave super discounts on them depending on how long they’d been there. I did very well there (and other places that discount their open-box stuff). If Fry’s would discount the restocked items, they could probably get rid of them, instead of collecting more and more.
I love Fry’s. Unfortunately, since I work for American Express, I can’t shop there and try to expense any of my purchases as work-related. They don’t take Amex, and we aren’t allowed to use any other card for work expenses. 
I don’t know how you hear all that stuff over the noise of the giant fucking Tesla coil that goes off every other minute. I mean, this thing is right out of Command and Conquer.
Other than that, though, I like this Fry’s much better than the ones in San Jose. It’s less crowded and the employees speak decent English.
I like shopping at Fry’s.
Mind you, that’s because I recognize it for what it is – a store for geeks to buy geek stuff, run by geeks. It’s certainly not an upscale electronics store, and it’s certainly not a place you go to get questions answered.
That said, if you know what you want to buy, don’t need to bother talking to a salesperson, and you triple-check your boxed item to make sure it hasn’t been repackaged and resold (or you’re willing to accept that it was repackaged and don’t mind), it’s a great place for geek-window-shopping and general-purpose electronics gear. I haven’t had any problems with anything I’ve bought from Fry’s, and that includes a wireless phone, a hard drive, assorted software, and a refrigerator/washer/dryer set.
As for themes, the Fry’s in Manhattan Beach (south of the Los Angeles airport) has a tiki motif, though it’s not very well done. The Anaheim Fry’s is done up as NASA, which is way cool, and the Burbank Fry’s is “invaders from space,” complete with gigantic ant attacking the diner and a half-melted military Jeep. I used to frequent the Woodland Hills Fry’s after work until I wised up and stopped working in Woodland Hills. 
Fry’s ain’t a place to go for a fun shopping experience (if you want that, go to an Apple Store), but for quick-n-dirty gear-grabbin’, it’ll do.
I shop at this store too. No one has yet been able to explain to me what the perpetually mooing artificial cattle above the entrance have to do with electronics.
Unless they’re supposed to represent the customers.
That’s the one I go to as well.