They could probably have hung on a little longer, by stocking those empty shelves with toilet paper, and maybe even some groceries. It has been many years since I was in a Fry's, because there weren't any very close. Last time that I went in, I just wanted an ordinary PC printer cable (DB25 to blue ribbon 36 (often inaccurately called a "Centronics" connector)) The clerk was sure that there had ever been any printer cables other than USB. A friend bought some discounted returned items. Then he found out that returned defective items were simply reshelved until one of the future buyers didn't bother to bring them back again. Often without even confirming that all parts were present. But, I remember the old days, when they had lots of "computer people" food items, and even Jolt cola. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

On 2/24/21 7:38 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: They also had a no questions asked returns policy, which people abused. When something was returned, they'd rebag it and put it back on the shelf.

On 2/24/2021 8:07 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: I always track down the Microcenter guys to get one of them to put one of their tags on my stuff, even the small stuff.? They are usually helpful or will find someone if they don't know.? I never ran into any @ Frys, as when I was going there, I always knew where things were, or just wondered till I found it if they moved it. The real collapse is the swap meets where the vendors could dump their quota merchandise that they had to take to maintain pricing structures.? That channel was BS, but at least in southern CA there were a few swap meets with vendors who would bring a lot of stuff to sell.? Then you could get the odds and ends @ a Frys run later in the afternoon after lunch. I quit going because I couldn't walk well, and there were no scooters or places I could take a spell to rest and continue. I'll miss the one in Anaheim that had the Space Shuttle theme (closed quite some time ago).? The one in Fountain Valley was smaller, but I had transitioned to buying via online and Microcenter runs plus direct from China quite a while ago. Still miss them as that capability in the community means there will be less tinkering and work (and probably is) than there was. Though a lot of the business damage was self inflicted on themselves. One thing that the reporting so far on the subject misses, though people talk about it is that there won't be much of any liquidation sales as there is probably little left of any merchandise to liquidate.? That's how you go out of business, not in the case COVID. thanks Jim

On Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 10:07 PM Al Kossow via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: And of course that process required them to get you over to the computer, ask for your phone number, enter the item#, and wait for the LaserJet to spit out the proto-invoice. The dumb/lazy ones would then hand you the paper along with the item and tell you to show it to the cashier. Of course you had the item so you could just throw the paper away and they would get nothing. The crafty ones though would give you the invoice and then walk the item up to behind the register area where the cashier would have to go retrieve it so you were stuck. Basically you wanted to avoid interacting with them if possible. The fact that most stores had the ability to have 80 active cashiers has to be some sort of record, though I don't think I ever saw the registers on the far side get much use even at Christmas. And then there was the "Fry's seal of quality" as we called the return/restock slip plastered to items on the shelf that had already been returned (at least) once. No sane person ever touched those unless completely desperate. My first Fry's story though comes from the early 1980s when I was visiting HP in Cupertino and went to the original Sunnyvale Fry's and only had a check for payment and they weren't going to take an out of town check until they asked what I was in the bay area for and I said "visiting HP" and then it was "oh, that will be fine then". It says something about HP's reputation at the time that even their customers were considered more trustworthy by a Fry's manager. I also remember on that visit that the aisle-long magazine rack at Fry's had many different nerdy publications but only two which rated an entire double column of rack slots. They were Byte and Penthouse IIRC. We all had a love/hate relationship with Fry's, but they were an institution and will be missed.