Fry's Electronics

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Fry's Electronics, Inc.
Fry's Electronics logo
Type Private
Founded 1985
Headquarters San Jose, California, United States
Key people John Fry, Randy Fry, Dave Fry, Kathryn J. Kolder
Employees 300 employees per store
Slogan Home of Fast, Friendly, Courteous Service ® Your Best Buys are always at Fry's!
Website http://www.frys.com

Fry's Electronics is a specialty retailer of software, consumer electronics, and computer superstores headquartered in Silicon Valley. Starting with one store located in Sunnyvale, California, USA, the chain now boasts sales of $2.4B[1] with over 30 stores located in several Western states, two near Atlanta, Georgia, two in Arizona, multiple locations in Texas, and one each in Illinois, Indiana, and Washington.

Contents

[edit] History

Fry's Electronics oldest operating store in Palo Alto, California
Fry's Electronics oldest operating store in Palo Alto, California
The flagship store in Sunnyvale, California
The flagship store in Sunnyvale, California
Fry's Electronics store in Downers Grove, Illinois
Fry's Electronics store in Downers Grove, Illinois

In 1972, Charles Fry sold the Fry's Supermarkets chain for USD $40 million and gave a cut of the money to each of his sons, John, Randy, and Dave.[2] The Fry brothers had little interest in grocery store retailing. Instead, in 1985, they joined together with a fourth partner, Kathryn Kolder, to open the first Fry's Electronics store at a 20,000 square foot (2,000 m²) site in Sunnyvale, California.[3] Today, Fry's Food & Drug stores are not affiliated with Fry's Electronics, but are owned and operated by Kroger.[4]

The original Sunnyvale store stocked numerous high-tech supplies such as integrated circuits, test and measurement equipment, computer components, as well as software and various other types of consumer electronics and home appliances. The store also sold technical books, T-shirts, and even featured massive displays of soda and snack foods.

As the business expanded, the original Sunnyvale store (located near Oakmead Parkway and Lakeside Drive) was closed, and a newer, larger store was opened across Lawrence Expressway on Kern Avenue. The now-closed Kern Avenue store pioneered a concept that endures to this day: store themes. Designed to look like the innards of a giant computer, the walls were adorned, and the floor resembled a giant printed circuit board. The outside of the building was painted to look like a huge DIL integrated circuit, and the external door handles were designed like ENTER and ESC keyboard keys.

Following the lead of the Kern Avenue store, new Fry's locations continued the use of elaborate themes and various painstakingly designed props until well into the late 1990s. For example, the Burbank store which opened in 1995 is themed primarily after 1950s and 1970s science fiction movies and features huge statues of popular characters such as the robot Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still and Darth Vader from the Star Wars movie series. In addition, 100-foot-long giant ants (from the movie Them) hang from the ceiling, and 1957 Chevys and Buicks were gutted for use as dining tables in the cafe. Even a flying saucer protudes from the front of the store. After all construction and expenses, including land purchase and theming, the Burbank store cost $15 million to open.[citation needed] In recent years, since Fry's acquired the Incredible Universe chain of stores, the company has drastically reduced the elaborateness of its theming.

Because Fry's stores are enormous, often stocking hundreds of copies of a single product, they are quite popular with electronics and computer hobbyists. As of 2005, Best Buy, the nationwide consumer electronics retailer, is the main competitor to Fry's. However, Fry's stores have more retail floor space and have a wider and much more advanced selection than those of Best Buy. In addition, Best Buy only sells fully built computers with some basic accessories, while Fry's sells all the parts for consumers to build their own. Fry's also tends to have a more upscale atmosphere with hardwood floors, and employees with collared shirts and ties; many of the newer stores even have in-store cafes.

[edit] Criticism

A number of customers have reported frustrating customer service experiences at Fry's stores.[5] Some of these customers have established websites to discuss their experiences. In addition to this, the Fry's online site Outpost.com is not integrated with the physical stores, and thus one cannot receive service from Fry's stores for a product purchased on Outpost.com. In 2006, Outpost.com was renamed "Frys.com," and in December of that year, Fry's/Outpost was the 30th-lowest ranked company out of 11,000 stores on the ResellerRatings.com website [2] (694 reviews). As of early 2007, the site is currently undergoing major renovations, presumably to resolve these issues.

Fry's returns policy limits most returns to a maximum of 30 days. Some notable exceptions include notebook computers, air conditioners, CD and DVD burners, cameras, and other items which are limited to only 15 days.

Fry's has a practice of repackaging some of its returned merchandise and reselling it at a slight discount--almost always 5%--alongside new merchandise. Usually there is a tag stating that the package has been returned, and a list of missing items. According to Fry's, this is only done if items are not believed to be defective, and some types of items must pass a diagnostic test before being re-sold. However, according to reports on the aforementioned customer-created websites, incomplete items (such as missing cables, documents or accompanying software) may indicate this policy is regularly violated.

[edit] Advertising

The company is a major purchaser of newspaper advertising. It is normal for multiple full-page ads of Fry's sales to be in the San Jose Mercury News and the Austin American-Statesman on multiple days of the week. On Fridays, an eight-page Fry's "section" appears within both newspapers along with The Arizona Republic. Similar four-page sections appear weekly in the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News, Contra Costa Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dallas Morning News, Orange County Register, Chicago Tribune, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Houston Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, The Oregonian and Indianapolis Star as well.

Fry's also produces television and radio advertisements featuring their company slogan, "Your Best Buys Are Always At Fry's, Guaranteed." Rebate pricing is a mainstay in Fry's advertisements, although Fry's usually will not match prices from their website, Frys.com.

[edit] House brands

In addition to selling many major brands of PCs, Fry's also sells two models of in-house PC designs. Their flagship Fry's PCs compete with similarly featured Microsoft Windows PC offerings from Hewlett-Packard, Sony, and Compaq. In addition, they offer a lower end model branded as Great Quality (or "GQ") PCs. GQ PCs tend to be Fry's most inexpensive PC offerings, often priced in the sub-$200 range during daily and weekly sales. GQ PCs are often bundled with the Linspire Linux based OS as well as Windows, one of the few Linux offerings available in a retail PC configuration. Some of their Linux PCs feature AMD Geode processors, unusual in the United States, since they are mainly sold in computers for developing countries. They also market accessories like cables and CD-R discs under the GQ brandname.

[edit] Locations

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Store Number Location Theme Date Opened
1 Sunnyvale, California no theme (closed, relocated to store 4) 1985
2 Fremont, California Inside a Spacehip (closed, relocated to store 21) ca. 1990
3 Palo Alto, California Wild west
4 Sunnyvale, California Inside the Computer (closed, relocated to store 12) ca. 1991
5 Manhattan Beach, California Tahiti 1989
6 Campbell, California Ancient Egypt 1991
7 Fountain Valley, California Ancient Rome
8 Woodland Hills, California Alice in Wonderland 1996
9 San Jose, California Mayan 1999
10 Anaheim, California NASA flight deck 1992
11 Burbank, California 50s-70s Science fiction 1995
12 Sunnyvale, California History of Silicon Valley 1998
14 Sacramento, California none yet (former Incredible Universe)
15 San Diego, California Aircraft Carrier (former Incredible Universe) 1994
16 Wilsonville, Oregon none yet (former Incredible Universe)
17 Tempe, Arizona none yet (former Incredible Universe)
18 Dallas, Texas Lazy-K Ranch (former Incredible Universe)
19 Arlington, Texas none yet (former Incredible Universe)
20 Phoenix, Arizona Aztec
21 Fremont, California 1893 World's Fair 2000
22 Austin, Texas music industry
23 Houston, Texas oil industry
24 Concord, California History of Concord
25 San Marcos, California Atlantis
26 Roseville, California Roseville's Railroad History April 2007
27 Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas Strip
28 City Of Industry, California Industrial revolution 1998
29 South Houston, Texas South Houston's pioneer heritage
30 Renton, Washington Renton's industrial evolution 2003
31 Downers Grove, Illinois History of Downers Grove 2004
32 Alpharetta, Georgia History of Alpharetta 2006
33 Plano, Texas History of the railroad's influence in the region 2005
34 Webster, Texas,
a suburb of Houston, Texas		 History of space exploration, with emphasis on the International Space Station
37 Irving, Texas History of Irving
38 Duluth, Georgia History of Duluth, GA 2004
43 Fishers, Indiana Auto racing/Indianapolis 500
44 Oxnard, California History of Oxnard 2005

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ Pat Lopes Harris, "Fry's mystique: timing, focus, frugality—and lots of advertising," San Jose Business Journal 17, no. 39 (14 January 2000): 52.
  3. ^ California Secretary of State - Corporation Search Results. C1270788. California Secretary of State. Retrieved on January 2, 2007.
  4. ^ Kroger's website showing its ownership of the Fry's "brand"
  5. ^ Julie Schmit, "Techies flock to Fry's despite its flaws," USA Today, 11 February 1998, 1B.

[edit] Further reading

  • "The Future of Retail," Wired 6.07, July 1999, page 146. Photo essay showing customers and their purchases; reference to customer service.
  • "The Hacker & The Ants," Rudy Rucker contains a passage describing vintage pre-expansion era Fry's and is the first mention of it in published fiction.

[edit] External links

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