Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

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Re: Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

Post by veteran+ »

kr.abs.swy wrote: August 12th, 2020, 3:55 pm I stopped in the Wilsonville, Oregon, Fry's store on Friday. I only had a few minutes, but the main thing that I noticed was that they seemed to be buying a lot of closeout merchandise and trying to sell it at regular price. There was no evidence whatsoever of a sublease program.

I noticed that there were two models of off-brand flat-screen televisions, generally near the entrance. This was a brand I had never heard of. There was no traditional selection of televisions, just these two models that they must have bought through some kind of liquidation channel.

They had made some attempts to make the inventory seem to fill the store. In one case, they had some Energizer solar backpacks that had been spread out to take the majority of one side of an aisle section. There was another aisle with a spectacular spread of some kind of cheap or disposable glassware. Some of the stuff they had really had no place in an electronics store.

What was particularly odd (beyond the fact that these stores are even still open) is that they didn't seem to be offering any discounts on this liquidation merchandise. They seemed to be trying to get full price.

There were no PCs and very few appliances. There was a display of Samsung phones with the Note 10 line, but no floor models of the S20 line.

They had reduced store hours and were closing at 7 p.m.

There can't have been 10% of the inventory that these stores would have had in their heyday. Given that they had so few big-ticket items, it was probably closer to 3-5% by dollar value. There probably weren't a dozen customers in the store (this was at 3:30 p.m. on a Friday).
I noticed the same thing in San Diego.

Lots of discontinued models and outdated merchandise.

Weird............
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Re: Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

Post by kr.abs.swy »

Trying to fill a portion of these massive Fry's stores with some closeout merchandise isn't the worst idea I've ever heard (not necessarily a great idea -- but no worse than operating massive stores with 5% of their normal inventory levels). A "Fry's Outlet" store-within-a-store idea could at least draw some foot traffic in. But why they think they can sell some of these items without discounting them is beyond me ...
veteran+ wrote: August 13th, 2020, 6:07 am
kr.abs.swy wrote: August 12th, 2020, 3:55 pm I stopped in the Wilsonville, Oregon, Fry's store on Friday. I only had a few minutes, but the main thing that I noticed was that they seemed to be buying a lot of closeout merchandise and trying to sell it at regular price. There was no evidence whatsoever of a sublease program.

I noticed that there were two models of off-brand flat-screen televisions, generally near the entrance. This was a brand I had never heard of. There was no traditional selection of televisions, just these two models that they must have bought through some kind of liquidation channel.

They had made some attempts to make the inventory seem to fill the store. In one case, they had some Energizer solar backpacks that had been spread out to take the majority of one side of an aisle section. There was another aisle with a spectacular spread of some kind of cheap or disposable glassware. Some of the stuff they had really had no place in an electronics store.

What was particularly odd (beyond the fact that these stores are even still open) is that they didn't seem to be offering any discounts on this liquidation merchandise. They seemed to be trying to get full price.

There were no PCs and very few appliances. There was a display of Samsung phones with the Note 10 line, but no floor models of the S20 line.

They had reduced store hours and were closing at 7 p.m.

There can't have been 10% of the inventory that these stores would have had in their heyday. Given that they had so few big-ticket items, it was probably closer to 3-5% by dollar value. There probably weren't a dozen customers in the store (this was at 3:30 p.m. on a Friday).
I noticed the same thing in San Diego.

Lots of discontinued models and outdated merchandise.

Weird............
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Re: Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

Post by Alpha8472 »

Fry's is even more sad than I thought. They now no longer sell any candy or food. They used to have a huge selection of candy by the chechouts. Now it is a huge COVID-19 supply center with masks, sanitizers, gowns, thermometers, and other similar goods straight from Asia.

There were no computers and no display televisions. There were a few televisions for sale in boxes. The store was mostly filled with random stuff. The computer building supplies were nearly gone.
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Re: Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: September 30th, 2020, 7:08 pm Fry's is even more sad than I thought. They now no longer sell any candy or food. They used to have a huge selection of candy by the chechouts. Now it is a huge COVID-19 supply center with masks, sanitizers, gowns, thermometers, and other similar goods straight from Asia.

There were no computers and no display televisions. There were a few televisions for sale in boxes. The store was mostly filled with random stuff. The computer building supplies were nearly gone.
Do they still have vendor service soda? They seemed to really like Pepsi.
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Re: Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

Post by Alpha8472 »

I saw one refrigerator with a few sodas left.
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