Where else could you simultaneously purchase through-hole transistors, a gaming motherboard, a 19" rack, a leafblower, a loudspeaker disguised as a plastic rock, pornography, a taser, a sandwich and a decent cup of coffee while surrounded by fiberglass cowboys and aliens... sad to see

Drooling over PC part reviews in magazines that I could never afford, checking the weekly printed Fry's ad in the local paper to find deals, convincing my parents to drop me at the electronics-nerd-utopia for a lazing weekend afternoon - "Won't you get bored?" . . . "No Mom!"

Iconic building, nostalgic time.

While attending the University of Arizona in Tucson in the early 90s, I got very confused by posts on Usenet talking about buying computers at Fry’s. You see, the Fry’s grocery store chain still existed in Tucson at the time, so I could not figure out where a grocery store would stock computers!

Needless to say when I moved to the Bay Area after college graduation, I wasted no time visiting the closest Fry’s Electronics. For me, that was the original Fremont location - the one in an office park off Mission Blvd with the space theme inside. I never see that location mentioned any more. It was closed after Fry’s bought the Incredible Universe stores and they moved the Fremont Fry’s to the IU store on Auto Mall Parkway.

I remember when Fry's opened in the Portland, OR area (actually ~15 miles south). It occupied the former Incredible Universe site. We considered it a notable upgrade.

Fry's was like a museum of common and obscure electronic parts, devices and strangely miscellaneous stuff (mundane office supplies, home appliance accessories, etc.). It was definitely the go to place for computer building blocks and related supplies.

It was amazing what could be found there. One really great thing was relay racks and all kinds of shelves and attachments for them. Too good to pass up I bought one. It was used in my office (for webserver and LAN) and still houses my home server.

Like everywhere else Fry's closed unceremoniously. I guess the chain couldn't withstand the growing online competition and waning interest in desktop machines. Too bad they had to go, now and then it would be so convenient if neighborhood purveyors of "exotic" electronics were still around.

One of the things I loved most about Fry's was that clearly an engineer designed their checkout line. It's the only retail checkout line I've ever seen that fully embraced queueing theory.

They had one long line that everyone got into, and a load balancer up front that would direct you to an open check stand, and at least at the store I went to, in their hayday they had 30 registers open at once!

I'm sad to see it end like this. About 20 years ago, I used to go to this Burbank Fry's after work whenever I could and spend hours just browsing. They had this cool 50's sci-fi alien/ufo movie theme inside. Another favorite is the Fry's in Anaheim where I got pc parts to build my first 486 PC in the early 90's. So many memories. I remember buying my first laptop ever, a monochrome thinkpad with personal check (as my credit card limit was too low) and having to call bank to verify my balance; also the day that I bought a Pentium CPU when it first came out, and the time when I got the boxed Windows 95 OS. Those were the days.

For those in the bay area, Micro Center is opening a branch in Santa Clara.

https://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/santa-clara.aspx

Well, maybe. It's delayed months at this point.

My dear dad drove me back and forth between Burbank and Palm Springs 3 times while I figured out motherboard/memory compatibility. Miss dad and miss Fry’s.

I just recently learned from the last Not Just Bikes video [0] that these big box stores tend to be very hard to reuse (even when they don't include a giant spaceship). 99 Percent Invisible has a good article [1] on some of the challenges and a few success stories, but it takes a major effort.

0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7-e_yhEzIw

1: https://99percentinvisible.org/article/ghost-boxes-reusing-a...

What always bugged me about Fry's at the end was how disrespectful people eventually got to the sample goods on the floor. I swear, every motherboard had their pins smooshed in. Maybe this is `old man remembers` but it wasn't that trashy in its heyday, when admittedly, I was a kid so maybe I didn't notice. Maybe it's because they had to pivot hard to cheap trinkets towards the end and that brought in a different crowd, I'm not sure.

I miss the Fry’s of the late 1980s. I need a 7400 chip and a bag of chips. Then pick up a he-ne laser at weird stuff.

it's sad to see this location go. it was such an amazing store on the inside. the theme had some great homages to Mars Attacks!, as well as a great many other sci-fi films. this album has some good pictures of some of the more notable sculptures in there, but the theme went even farther than just sculptures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/selfishcauses/albums/721577140...

That's a crime the Valley Relics Museum couldn't get the Spaceship. It has done a really great job saving what can be saved of Los Angeles San Fernando Valley history. If you're ever near the Van Nuys airport check it out. Fry's was a happy place for me. Memories of their old Terminal based stockkeeping system (AS400? AIX? I heard rumors the owner wrote it themselves). The Burbank Scifi theme, the Manhattan Beach polynesian theme, the Woodland Hills Alice in Wonderland Theme. Even the old sacramento unthemed version and the newer train themed one. The memories of building my own computers for several iterations and almost always getting my parts there, shopping first with my Dad then later a relaxing walk on my own. The haunted look of female partners dragged there. The ecclectic selection. It was a okay substitute for an old style electronics store like Electronic City, but had so much other interesting things. So many interesting things lost in LA. DAK2000, TRI-ESS Sciences, OPAMP Books. ALL Electronics surplus.

My favorite thing about Fry's was the weekly sale ads in the newspaper with all the rebate offers. At one time I had at least a dozen cheap-ass "web cams". LOL

I probably still have some LEDs and transistors in my parts bin that (my dad) bought for me from that Fry's.

Fry's really made me feel like a kid in a candy store -- all the PC software and hardware along with electronics parts too. I was less interested in the household appliances, but I think the small Sony Trinitron TV that was in my bedroom was from Fry's.

Oh yes, they also had candy as well, strategically placed in the isle where we'd wait before reaching the cashier. Must have picked up dozens of Reese's peanut butter cups and Skittles over the years.

My dad and I spent so many days in that place. The Burbank one wasn’t my favorite. My favorite was the Alice in Wonderland theme in Woodland Hills. Also liked the tropical theme in Manhattan Beach. Our local Fry’s, one of the last ones to open, was sad. Some kind of California nostalgia theme. Palo Alto, cowboy/Wild West… that one was so cramped. I remember the Santa Clara one had a lot of hardware that others didn’t have like large plotters etc.

Definitely miss it. Even the low quality of the items and the rude or useless sales staff lol.

A classic bit of satire and HTML form humor that reflected Fry's focus on products and ambiance but not necessarily employee helpfulness: https://web.archive.org/web/20200130175501/http://homepage.s...

Damn. I grew up in Glendale and used to visit this store all the time. I’d take the bus if my parents couldn’t take me. Which was actually 3 buses and probably 4 hours of travel to get there and back. My dad worked at Lockheed Martin and the credit union was right across the street so that was always an excuse to drop-in after a bank visit.

Got my first WRT54G there, my first managed switch, power supplies, misc parts for RC building (heat shrink, soldering accessories). Was always fun to visit “the pit” with all the motherboards and processors unboxed and on full display. Felt like the NYSE with people lined up to look at the board and grab a processor. It was always so active like a bee hive. Visiting more recently it was just a shell of its former self.

It’s still my favorite store with the alien attack vibes and all the army jeeps.

Here's a decent 21 min mini-doc on the birth and death of Fry's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu2uAKc37jI

Personally, visiting friends in California and them taking me to Fry's fir the first time was an experience I'll not forget. We had CompUSA back home. But, Fry's was a whole other level.

Going from being a computer geek in 90s rural midwest to being a computer geek in a Fry's in Silicon Valley in the Tech Bubble was like stepping into a magically wonderful mirror world.

Always had good memories of hanging out at Fry's in Burbank. Maybe you guys could check out my work-in-progress ROBLOX level that captures that unique experience: https://www.roblox.com/games/18551707487/Frys-Electronics-Bu...

Gone are the times when I could spend some time perusing around Fry’s…looking at all the discrete components and computers. It was sad seeing it die too; all the empty shelves filled with the same item spread out…

In the early days, Fry's would take returns on opened software. I remember returning Borland C compiler after copying many floppies when I was a teen.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/3knmmbEHYdgLQett7 Wow.

Great video on the history of Fry's and how its stores became abandoned at Bright Sun Films...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cjUqV-jvsSA&pp=ygUVYnJpZ2h0IHN...

Great channel in general.

The first Windows machine I ever bought was a cheap advertised 386 deal at the San Jose Fry's in the 90's. The sales guy took me around to load up a shopping cart with chassis, mother board, memory, hard disk, floppy, etc., with each item stocked in separate store departments. Probably around $200 total. Took it all home, put it together, and it worked reliably for years.

I don’t know what kind of world we are leaving for the next generation. It’s completely devoid of any character or authenticity.

I miss both Incredible Universe and Fry’s a great deal. Incredible Universe was the only store I ever saw that let me play a NeoGeo and CDi.

My dad and I used to make a habit of going to the Plano, TX location together and just walking around. I'd want to look at the software and the games, he'd want to look at the big TVs. It was one of the few activities we could do together. Lots of nice memories doing that

Sad, but had a few great memories, such as bringing my kids there 8 or so years ago. We bought some cool stuff amongst the Hollywood props, then we sat in and watched one of the Star Wars films in its small theatre. They were young and had a blast.

Fry's brothers made a biggest mistake of not taking the company public during the dot com bubble era. Had they taken these stores public, they would have diversified their investments.

I used to shop at this Fry's for supplies when I was an ECE major at Cal Poly Pomona. Sad to see it go.

(I'm sad to see local electronics supply stores in general disappear.)

If you're near Cincinnati be sure to visit Jungle Jim's, which is like Fry's for food, only way bigger.

What a nostalgia trip. And I am not even American and never been in a Fry's :)

Anyone remember the one in Sunnyvale in the early 90s. It had a circuit board floor?

I wonder what they did with the Fry’s 747.

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