The end of an era

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My wireless router has been saying good-bye for a while. First DesertRoomie’s tablet has been losing connection for about a week, then my smart phone on Sunday. Yesterday both of those, her smart phone, and the desktop all were losing connection every two or three minutes.

So I get in the car and drive down to Fry’s Electronics, about fifteen miles away. I timed it so I arrived about ten minutes after they opened at 10am and there were hardly any cars parked. “Wow,” I said to myself, “I got to come in early; when I’ve been here at 11am or the early afternoon it’s been much more crowded than this.”

I walked in and was literally shocked. There not only were a just a couple customers wandering around looking lost, the number of shelves had been reduced by at least a quarter and two-thirds of those were empty. Empty floor space occupied where all sorts of stuff to warm a nerd’s heart had been.

With a sinking heart I headed over to the part of the store where the network gear was kept. The shelves were there, the signs were there, but the shelves were totally empty – not one box was on them.

I spot a worker by one of the terminal stands, talking on a phone and pecking things into the computer there, and walk towards him. On the way I’m joined by another person with a shocked expression on is face. "Wow, " I say and he just nodded.

When the worker got off the phone I said I needed a wireless router. He confirmed they were completely out of stock. “Are you going out of business?” He just had an unhappy shrug. I left as the other fellow was inquiring about whatever it was he wanted. On the way out I passed by the bank of 40 registers. Just two of them were open, the green lights on and the cashiers looking bored. As I left, there was no receipt-checker on duty. Probably no need.

On the way home I stopped at WalMart and picked up on from their rather paltry selection there, probably paying more than I could have found online, but I wanted to get back up quicker than even Amazon’s two-day shipping.

It’s hard to shop at brick-and-mortar stores when they have nothing to sell you.

2

According to Fry’s, they’re migrating toward a “consignment” model where they will no longer own the inventory, but will act as a middlebeing between the manufacturer and consumer. But apparently it’s taking longer than anticipated to bring the manufacturers on board with the idea.

Every now and then they’ll post photographs of fully stocked shelves on their Facebook page, with loud huzzahs that another store has successfully made the transition (while glossing over the stores that are either barren or closed). All in all, it strikes me as a last-gasp effort to stay viable; time will tell, but I wouldn’t place a substantial bet on the outcome.

ETA: I still get their “deal of the day” emails, and they’re increasingly full of crap that falls just short of “As Seen on TV.” Not a good sign.

3

Looks like this has been going on for a while.

4

There’s no Fry’s in my area so I really don’t pay much attention to it, but it sounded like even a few months ago it was already looking like Circuit City did for their final few months.

5

And I should use Fry’s as the middleman because…?

If I’d not wanted to get back online right away I’d have gone back home and gotten something through Amazon or the manufacturer direct. If I’d been paying attention to the early symptoms I’d’ve probably been disappointed at Fry’s, then gone home and ordered online. I just can’t see myself ordering something through Fry’s then driving a half-hour to pick it up when they send notice they got it in.

I was living in Sunnyvale when one of, if not the first stores opened there. A few months later brother came to visit. He asked if there were any places in town where he could buy a disk drive or something. I said, “Are you kiddin’ me? This is Silicon Valley,” and took him to the Sunnyvale store. “Over there are the computer components, over there are other electronic components and materials like shrink tubing, over there is the software, over there are the skin magazines, over there are the snacks and caffeinated beverages… This is electro-nerd heaven but for one thing – they close at 8pm instead of midnight.”

He mulled it over a moment and said, “Likely the staff wanted to be home before then so they could play with their own stuff.”

6

Perhaps using middle-whatever was a tad misleading. If everything goes as planned by the Powers That Be at Fry’s, the shelves will be stocked and one will be able to shop as before. The difference will be that Fry’s won’t own the products, but will pay the manufacturer once an item is purchased.

In the meantime, though, most of the stores that haven’t closed resemble mining towns after the ore has run out. The only thing missing is tumbleweeds blowing down the aisles.

7

Frys has been mentioned in the current “retail” thread.

A thread about it from last fall.

Welcome to the pity party.

8

Well, they’d better have a big announcement then because I’m not going back until they do.

And I’m not seeing any upside for the manufacturers; why would they agree to such a cockamamie idea to transfer expenses and risk to them?

9

I thought they’d already done that, long ago. In fact, I thought that had been a major part of their demise for a while now.