Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

klkla
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Re: Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

Post by klkla »

The store in Las Vegas is amazingly clean and organized for a company that is going out of business. Their stores were never that clean or well organized in their heyday.

I wonder if they have considered downsizing the stores and leasing out the extra space to other retailers. There must still be some categories that people want to buy on impulse and see in person.
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Re: Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: December 7th, 2019, 12:28 pm The store in Las Vegas is amazingly clean and organized for a company that is going out of business. Their stores were never that clean or well organized in their heyday.

I wonder if they have considered downsizing the stores and leasing out the extra space to other retailers. There must still be some categories that people want to buy on impulse and see in person.
I am guessing the employees have little to do and are tending to maintaining the store better than in the past when they were too busy dealing with a high volume of customers and a high volume of merchandise.

It is a little curious the stores look clean, bright with all the lights on, even have what look like fresh balloons hanging... it is like the money is there to maintain operations, but not get inventory.
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Re: Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

Post by Alpha8472 »

Fry's is different than Sears. Sears has so much debt, but Fry's seems to have money. Fry's just wants to exit the retail business voluntarily.
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Re: Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

Post by Brian Lutz »

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/ret ... rBHP0SFnwc

Frys says that they are in the process of switching their supply chain to a model where most merchandise in their stores is being sold on consignment (similar to Amazon marketplace sellers), and that the stores (aside from one store in Palo Alto that lost its lease) will be restocked over the next few weeks.
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Re: Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

Post by Super S »

Brian Lutz wrote: December 30th, 2019, 11:30 am https://www.dallasnews.com/business/ret ... rBHP0SFnwc

Frys says that they are in the process of switching their supply chain to a model where most merchandise in their stores is being sold on consignment (similar to Amazon marketplace sellers), and that the stores (aside from one store in Palo Alto that lost its lease) will be restocked over the next few weeks.
That article is from November and those "next few weeks" have passed now. Has there been any improvement in the stores?
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Re: Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

Post by klkla »

It will be interesting to see how many vendors will sign up for this. Vendors are used to getting paid within 30 days for their merchandise from retailers. It's then up to the stores to execute the strategy to move the merchandise.

Also, those former Incredible Universe stores are huge. They should downsize them and sublease the extra space.
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Re: Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

Post by Alpha8472 »

Fry's in Concord is still empty. There is virtually nothing left to sell. An employee said the corporate office still has not worked out agreements to restock. There were only 2 cashiers after Christmas and there were no customers waiting in line. The store looks tragic.

If anything, these stores should be subleased. If necessary, Fry's should consider opening up Starbucks cafes inside. Might as well try anything. I hear dollar stores are eager to open up anywhere.
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Re: Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

Post by veteran+ »

The store in Mission Valley is a real joke.

It is HUGE and empty with awesome polished concrete floors.....LOL.

So many shelves with stretched out merchandise.

Lots of outdated and discontinued merchandise (by the manufacturer).

Why do retailers do this and continue to express sentiments of revival? I believe the damage done in PR, reputation and presentation are irreversible. Even companies that actually close and leave residues (outdoor signs, label scars, et al)of their presence continue to destroy equity in Brand. Or, companies that stay open and continue to deteriorate................

Weird!
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Re: Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

Post by storewanderer »

I find it odd Fry's can afford to keep maintaining and staffing the stores given the lack of product to sell. Sure, sellers who are selling on a consignment basis would want to have their product go into an attractive facility and I suppose you could say these empty Fry's are orderly and clean but when you are selling something and the store has no foot traffic, which is the bottom line that you need to sell something, who in their right mind would sell goods on a consignment basis in these stores at this time?
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Re: Fry’s Electronics on Life Support

Post by J-Man »

I went to the City of Industry store today for the first time in quite a while and I was shocked at how much it had changed. It used to be a challenge to find a parking space--today I parked almost in front of the entrance. There weren't more than 35 cars in the entire lot. There were probably 10-20 customers in the store. There were definitely more employees than shoppers. Three checkstands open. There were large areas with no merchandise at all, and odd items placed randomly. ZERO hard drives on the shelves. Maybe three or four computers and printers on display. Surprisingly, the café/snack bar was still up and running.
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