[Ipg-smz] The Fry’s Era - Monday Note

[Gabe Goldberg]

The two Micro Center stores in Washington, DC area suburbs are doing 
great. I'm more familiar with Virginia store, having met its wonderful 
store manager when he responded brilliantly to a complaint (!) I'd sent 
to company CEO. He's enthusiastic about partnering with local user 
groups -- www.wap.org and www.patacs.org -- hosting group meetings in 
the store, donating raffle prizes, giving group brochures to customers.

I'm researching whether any of the other 14 stores are near user groups 
to see about similar partnerships elsewhere.

On 9/5/2019 5:10 PM, Andy Patrizio via Ipg-smz wrote:
> Belated response...
>
> I wrote to JLG about this and he kindly responded. We both agree Fry's brought this on itself. It had an abysmal reputation among my system builder friends for terrible quality control, putting broken gear back on the shelves for sale. I heard horror stories of buying the same parts two and three times to find one that worked. And their staff was notoriously incompetent and lackadaisical.
>
> I'm not surprised the Palo Alto store is closing, it was the smallest with poor parking. Sunnyvale was my favorite when I lived up there, followed by Fremont (which is just massive). I'm curious how the others are doing, and how its major competitor Micro Center is doing. I know the one in Sunnyale near Yahoo closed but the others appear to be doing fine, especially the one down here in the OC. MC has embraced the online market far better than Fry's and I'd love to do a contrast of the two companies' fortunes, if someone wants to hire me. <hint> <hint>
>
> One area where I disagreed with JLG is the online effect. He said Amazon was is undoing but I say NewEgg did more damage. It really catered to hobbyists and they reciprocated.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ipg-smz <ipg-smz-bounces at netpress.org> On Behalf Of Gabe Goldberg via Ipg-smz
> Sent: Tuesday, September 3, 2019 8:21 AM
> To: undisclosed-recipients:
> Cc: Gabe Goldberg <gabe at gabegold.com>
> Subject: [Ipg-smz] The Fry’s Era - Monday Note
>
> by Jean-Louis Gassée
> Throughout the 90’s and aughts, Fry’s Electronics was a Silicon Valley institution, a truly aboriginal techie bazaar where geeks could find everything they needed to live in autarky, from logic boards to voltmeters, dried noodles to “nice” clothes for a job interview, magazines, energy bars, mini-fridges… A quarter-century later, Fry’s stores have become sad, pale shadows of their glorious past.
>
> https://mondaynote.com/the-frys-era-8709a7e602eb
>
-- 
Gabriel Goldberg, Computers and Publishing, Inc.       gabe at gabegold.com
3401 Silver Maple Place, Falls Church, VA 22042           (703) 204-0433
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/gabegold            Twitter: GabeG0