Fry's Electronics

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Fry's Electronics, Inc.
Company typePrivate
Founded1985
Defunct24 February 2021 Edit this on Wikidata
Headquarters
San Jose, California
,
United States
Key people
John Fry (CEO), Randy Fry(President), Dave Fry (CIO) Kathryn J. Kolder (Executive Vice President), Omar Siddiqui (Vice President of Merchandising Operations and Adverising).
Number of employees
300 employees per store
Websitehttp://www.frys.com

Fry's Electronics is a specialty retailer of software, consumer electronics, computer hardware and household appliances with a chain of 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 and Indiana.

History

File:Fryselectronicspaloalto.jpg
Fry's Electronics oldest operating store in Palo Alto, California
File:Fryselectronicssunnyvale.jpg
The flagship store in Sunnyvale, California
File:100 1729.JPG
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, and 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 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 with simulated circuit components, 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. 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 consumers need to build their own. Fry's also tends to have a more upscale atmosphere; many stores have hardwood floors, and employees wear professional attire (white shirts, jackets and ties for men.) Many of the newer stores even have in-store cafes.

As of May 2007, Fry's Electronics operates brick-and-mortar stores in nine U.S. states: California (17 stores); Texas (8); Arizona (2); Georgia (2); Illinois (1); Indiana (1); Nevada (1); Oregon (1); and Washington (1).

Criticism

Many websites have been setup like http://www.FrysForum.com where employees and customers can discuss their negative and positive experiences at Fry's. Some of the categories for discussion include long lines in the returns department to dishonest sales people and bad service in the Service Department. Even though the website is not owned or affiliated with Fry's Electronics the website is protected by 230 Protection (47 USC § 230) Which basically states that the site can not be responsible for the content left by customers or employees.

A number of customers have reported frustrating customer service experiences at Fry's stores.[5] Many of these customers have established personal sites to discuss their experiences. In 2006, Outpost.com was renamed "Frys.com," and in December of that year, Fry's/Outpost was the 30th-lowest ranked store on the ResellerRatings.com website [2] (although all its major brick-and-mortar competitors, including Best Buy, Circuit City, and CompUSA, were ranked even lower). As of early 2007, the site is currently undergoing major renovations in order to prepare its online store for a "buy online, pick up in store" feature.[citation needed]

Fry's returns policy limit most returns to a maximum of 30 days. Some notable exceptions include notebook computers, air conditioners (if unopened), CD and DVD burners, cameras, and GPS units, where the return period is only 15 days. Although Fry's return policy is clearly printed on every receipt and posted at every register, customers quite frequently challenge this policy. In some cases Fry's managers will override these restrictions in the interest of customer satisfaction.

Like most retailers, Fry's has a practice of repackaging some of its returned merchandise and reselling. Fry's has a standard practice of discounting its open/not defective merchandise—almost always by 5%. All returned discounted merchandise has a label stating that the package has been returned and giving the discounted price. According to Fry's, this is only done if items are returned and have been opened or used. All items that are returned must pass some type of inspection or diagnostic test before being re-sold. Notably hard drives and flash media must be formatted, RAM is run through a memory diagnostic program, and motherboards and processors must POST before being resold.

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 brand name and simple computer peripherals products under the Emprex brand name. Also, notably, are the ECS brand motherboards that are sold and owned by Fry's. They are frequently bundled with processors to make them virtually free. They are also very failure prone, being the most returned item in the store [citation needed]. Another house brand that doesn't have a much better reputation is Airlink, the brand under which networking devices are sold [citation needed].

Online sales operation

Fry's Electronics was late in establishing an online sales presence. They began offering low-cost Internet access in 2000 through their original Web address (frys.com), but only introduced an e-commerce site in October 2006 with the grand re-opening of frys.com.[6] [7] [8]

Acquisition of domain name

The URL "www.frys.com" was owned in 1997 by David Peter, who manufactured and sold french-fry vending machines under the business name Frenchy Frys. Fry's Electronics brought suit against him that year, alleging trademark infringement[9], and ultimately prevailed in a default judgement.[10] [11]

Since then, Fry's Electronics has aggressively defended its trademark and domain names. In 2001, it successfully prosecuted a man who was posting its own print ads on the Web using the domain frysad.com[12] and it recently sued a New York registrant of the frys.us domain.[13]

Fry's Electronics e-commerce site today

The online store is supported by a call center at Fry's home office in San Jose, California. All merchandise ordered is shipped via DHL from a warehouse in Ohio. This brings Fry's Electronics operations to a total of ten U.S. states. The Web site offers all the functions of a typical e-commerce site, including immediate calculation of sales tax and shipping charges, order tracking, and a currency converter to aid international customers. Its policy, stated on its customer service pages along with the locations of all walk-in stores, is that these stores will not match the prices offered by frys.com. Neither does the inventory of the online store necessarily match those of the retail outlets, though most items are available from both operations. This is because, even though they are owned by the same people, frys.com and the walk-in outlets are separate operations.

References

  1. ^ Hoover's entry for Fry's Electronics
  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 2007-01-02.
  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.
  6. ^ Fry's may launch ISP as part of new Net strategy
  7. ^ Fergie's tech blog 10/21/06
  8. ^ Fry's Electronics (Finally) Launches Online Store
  9. ^ The fight over "frys.com"
  10. ^ Securing and Protecting a Domain Name for your Web Site
  11. ^ Invasion of the Domain Snatchers
  12. ^ Fry's accuses site owner of cybersquatting
  13. ^ Report of Arbitration Between Fry's Electronics and Prophet Partners

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.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fry%27s_Electronics&oldid=145054626"