Abandoned - Fry's Electronics

electronic stores around the world specifically in America have been a Dying Breed one of the largest Circuit City met a dramatic and painful end with even Best Buy struggling on their worst days at a more Regional scale was a beloved retail brand with a very particular level of charm their stores dominated California and made a smaller presence in several other states around America but in early 2021 their long Fall From Grace finally came to a conclusion when all of their stores were liquidated shuttered and now some sitting abandoned a unique and depressing reality of the quirky brand that was both loved and hated by its customers what's up guys my name is Jake and in this 73rd episode of abandoned let's take a look at how this nearly 40 year old electronic store brand came crumbling down and left a vast portfolio of abandoned stores in its wake this is Fry's Electronics foreign episode of abandoned is sponsored by hellofresh go to hellofresh.com and use the code bsf16 for 16 free meals across seven boxes and three gifts at San Francisco 1954 and two brothers named Charles and Donald fry opened up a small grocery store off of family loan it was called Fry's Food and Drug and actually grew into a small somewhat profitable chain so much so in fact that in 1972 they sold the company to Dillons the brothers then passed their newly found wealth down the family tree where Charles's Three Sons had decided to pool their money together and start their own business their idea was to open an electronic store from the ever emerging consumer Market but treat it like the business model of a grocery store since of course that was the industry they were coming from and it was an interesting business case merging the small electronic stores of the time like Radio Shack and the vast selection and space of a supermarket Fry's Electronics opened their first store in Sunnyvale California on May 17 1985. also similar to grocery stores Fry's began selling shelf space and using that extra income aside from sales to advertise the stores also had a small restaurant inside and sold food at a loss as a method to get Shoppers through the door make them happy hope they buy merchandise and leave with a good impression this was a great start for a brand new company and naturally expansion was warranted but on the flip side it wasn't all smooth sailing employees would join their staff often with little to no knowledge of electronics something that would end up biting them later on fries grew into a new location also in Sunnyvale and this time making it something unique the idea much like best products was to build out their storefronts to look completely different and set them apart they hired a former designer from lucasfilm to build out their increasingly audacious themes through the 90s they continue to expand opening stores across the tech capital of California and theming their stores accordingly each store would cost upwards of a million dollars to build and had exterior and interior theming elements that were highly detailed some given the appearance of space with space stations around you others under the sea in Atlantis and others getting really out there with the wild west and exploring the fantasy world of Alice in Wonderland so many more themes were explored through their ever increasing number of locations fries made the move to acquire the six-door Incredible Universe chain which was owned by Tandy or better known as Radio Shack they spent around 116 million dollars on the established electronic big box chain and soon rebranded all of them to Fry's in doing so they had now made the jump out of States into Texas Arizona and Oregon Fry's was now becoming a regional brand with a much wider reach than they had just a few years prior while growth made sense the unproven markets they were now entering was a bit like driving down a dark Road as fast as you can without really understanding what's in front of you there's potential for an accident by the early 2000s fries was the store most tech nerds like to visit it was fun and an enjoyable experience going there and each store had over 50 000 items to choose from through big sales and over holidays there would often be large lines snaking out front there was just something about walking the endless aisles of tech Goods gawking at the ever-evolving products there was always a component or part for you and the brand grew a very loyal base of Shoppers there was now 17 across the west coast of America but now a new Potential Threat was emerging in the form of the internets fry spent eight million dollars acquiring the established Online Marketplace called Siberian Outpost and renamed it to outpost.com though in 2006 they would launch their own dedicated website site with frys.com a pretty late start for e-commerce with their own branding Scandal then plagued the company over the recession as in 2008 Assaf Umar Siddiqui the acting VP of merchandising and operations was charged with fraud for conducting what is known as a kickback scheme he basically overcharged fries for vendors whom he had made secret deals with on prices he also overcharged some vendors all for which he would send to his dummy LLCs to fund his insane gambling habits but that wasn't the only Scandal for executives in 2012 the company paid 2.3 million dollars to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit where they had allegedly fired a female employee for reporting harassments regardless of the bad press fries was now opening new stores by 2014 they had reached their largest number of locations yet 34 across nine states 17 in California eight in Texas two in Arizona another 2 you in Georgia and one each in Illinois Indiana Nevada Oregon and Washington it was certainly a wide reach with a very localized brand presence wherever they operated despite this wide reach the perception fries had only declined from here the brand had suffered from almost crippling supply chain issues leading to shelves inside their stores shockingly empty which was a pretty stark contrast since some of their stores were over a hundred and twenty thousand square feet their longtime practices on how they operated also finally started to catch up with them as far back as 1997 they were accused of making customers jump through hoops who were just trying to make simple returns a pretty blatant anti-consumer practice on top of this their employees were just not very well versed with customer service or the very products they were instructed to sell to make matters worse some were on commission meaning you often have young inexperienced employees whose best interest is to sell you something they don't even know anything about that's not a great business model for customer satisfaction especially where people's expectations have only increased in modern times in early 2020 Fry's had closed their oldest store in Palo Alto the dawn of the pandemic was tough for all retailers but specifically put fries into a precarious situation while they were a private company and haven't disclosed Financial details in specifics it can very well be assumed that they were losing money at an alarming Pace employees around this time were beginning to sound the alarm through 2020 the brand announced the closure of several more of their locations permanently shuttering and liquidating all assets within this enormous downsizing sparked much speculation on the tumultuous feature for the chain but then everyone's suspicions had finally been confirmed on February 24 2021 Fry's announced they would be liquidating all remaining stores and closing them for good the company cited the Esco isolating complications in the retail markets and the challenges faced with the covid-19 pandemic soon all of Fry's electronic stores went into closing liquidation giving one final chance for lifelong Shoppers to say goodbye for many it was quite surreal for these highly themed and playful stores to become hollowed disheveled shells of what they once were by May 2021 the Final store had closed its doors marking the end of Fry's Electronics a 36 year old company while the struggles of the pandemic certainly did play a huge part on their ultimate downfall for anyone who had actually been shopping there prior the writing was already on the wall brick and mortar electronic stores in America is a very tough business we saw how difficult it was for two large chains to compete in the same country and ultimately only one came out alive but even Best Buy has struggled here there fighting for their own Survival Best Buy more or less has the brick and mortar electronic Market covered and with the Rye of online retailers competition is extremely Fierce now the very quirky nature of Fry's stores is always something I can appreciate but it came with a lot of caveats shelves were nearly empty their stores were aging and customer service had left a lot to be desired younger Generations really had no reason to visit the stores and through their last decade open they almost certainly saw and felt the decline of customers I'd imagine the vast majority of their core repeat Shoppers tend to skew older and have a personal connection to the Brand's past since their closure many of the locations have either already been developed or are in the process but there are some locations still left standing completely abandoned in fact I visited one of them it was the store in Burbank California the one with a crash spaceship over the entrance despite its closure only being a few months before I filmed this footage it was a ghostly reminder of the once booming retailer others like in Wilsonville Oregon are already visibly abandoned with boards covering the front doors and windows since it's been a rather short time since their bankruptcy much of the documentation of the remaining locations will likely come in so it'll be a pretty interesting visual comparison to see what Fry's stores look like abandoned if of course there are any left so really those are going to be the last remaining Legacy of fries or is it so remember the grocery chain the two brothers sold in the 70s well the company that they sold it to was acquired by Kroger in the early 80s they decided to keep the brand and now Fry's Food and Drug has over 120 locations across the State of Arizona so in some weird way despite having no Formal Connection to any of the members of the Frye family the name still lives on quite successfully in fact all across Arizona it even has a similar logo to the electronics store and if anything that's their most permanent Legacy and a fitting one too since that's where it all started from the only downside of those stores is that you can't shop for bread while a massive ant looks down upon you what a weird way to end this video look fries may be gone forever but you can still fry up your own meal with this video sponsor hellofresh I broke out the frying pan for one of the best meals I've had yet from hellofresh it's the cheesy chicken and pesto penne and yes it was as good as it sounds if you're lazy like me and you want to make great food but don't have the time or the willpower to make it happen then hellofresh just makes sense they send everything you need pre-portioned and what they're easy to follow instructions you can really make meals you've always wanted to quick and easily plus it's cheaper than buying ingredients you don't even end up using at grocery stores but above it all it makes you a better chef and the quality of food once you're done is legit restaurant quality I went with the pesto penne because I thought it would be funny with a frying pan joke but I also had their grilled shrimp and salmon and it was magnificent so if you want to try hello fresh out for yourself and get some money off go to hellofresh.com and use the code bsf16 for 16 free meals across across seven boxes and three gifts you can also click the link in the description below anyway guys my name is Jake and thank you very much for watch [Music]

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 1,415,161

Keywords: frys, fry electronics, abandoned store, electronic store, circuit city, department store, Frys Electronic, best buy, electronics, fry's food and drug, frys food

Id: cjUqV-jvsSA

Length: 13min 0sec (780 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 10 2022