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Is Fry's Electronics going OOB?

yodaisgod said:
Can we get a Microcenter up in the Bay Area? JFC
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We did have one. In Santa Clara. Been gone for years. The Sunnyvale Fry’s was probably a mile or two from it. It’s a WalMart grocery now.
 
Thus ends the longest, slowest or perhaps most public death of a retail outfit I have ever seen. Well, maybe Sears or something, but crikey.
 
Sears is still thrashing on the table.

Nobody has the heart to put a bullet in it
 
Caddywumpus said:
Sears is still thrashing on the table.

Nobody has the heart to put a bullet in it
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I'm thinking Fry's may have the last laugh. I'm no tax guy, but somehow it made sense to them to do CPR on the chain for the last 10 years. Coincidentally while their commercial property portfolio's value multiplied many times (my understanding is they own all the real estate and buildings the stores occupy).

No "there" there, but it will be interesting to see how screwed they get by creditors (merchandise) and what ultimately happens. I suspect they have an end game yet to emerge.
 
NorCalBusa said:
I'm thinking Fry's may have the last laugh. I'm no tax guy, but somehow it made sense to them to do CPR on the chain for the last 10 years. Coincidentally while their commercial property portfolio's value multiplied many times (my understanding is they own all the real estate and buildings the stores occupy).

No "there" there, but it will be interesting to see how screwed they get by creditors (merchandise) and what ultimately happens. I suspect they have an end game yet to emerge.
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You have a point. I do not know what their liabilities are, but the complaints have been about them keeping minimal shelf stock for years, so it is possible they do not have a lot of Merch debt. Commercial property is in the toilet since the pandemic, but if they can zone the property for residential, that shit is pure gold.
 
Their vendors stopped supplying product because they weren't getting paid.
 
Yeah, who knows. I've heard the Fry brothers had some shady real estate dealings.
 
Eldritch said:
You have a point. I do not know what their liabilities are, but the complaints have been about them keeping minimal shelf stock for years, so it is possible they do not have a lot of Merch debt. Commercial property is in the toilet since the pandemic, but if they can zone the property for residential, that shit is pure gold.
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They can't for most of it, but I know what they CAN do with the property. Working on things now. Fingers crossed...it's a long road if things align.
 
Eldritch said:
Kind of makes me feel like they are less likely to make a killing off the property then, right?
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With inventory below a bare minimum for years, recouping cents on the dollar as the alternative for those silly enough to have given them anything on credit- I don't think they are that exposed. Tell the suppliers "come get it" and then bring one of the liquidation outfits in-who sell anything and everything inside the four walls, including shelves, office equipment, sleeping employees, etc.- poof, empty building.

I don't see a tech company buying as housing remains too high. I do see another string of data centers grabbing up what's suddenly "cheap"- once built needing a dozen babysitters is plenty.
 
Tech companies might buy in for housing.
For example Santa Clara location is prime for housing development. It's close to freeway, brand spanking new apple building, and various satellite offices.
 
NorCalBusa said:
With inventory below a bare minimum for years, recouping cents on the dollar as the alternative for those silly enough to have given them anything on credit
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I haven’t been in there for a few years, but from what I gathered from hearing about it from people who have been in there, about how crappy their inventory levels have been, and the stuff that actually is in there is more or less a brick and mortar version of the knock off crap you see on wish.com? The inventory realistically is only actually worth cents on the dollar anyways.

I remember when I worked there over 20 years ago, even back then they had a lot of cheap shit on the shelves. Sure they had Sony TVs, Maytag appliances, Apple computers, Dyson vacuums, and all the name brand stuff you’d expect. But plenty of stuff from brands you never heard of. And slowly but surely over the years...one end cap became a whole aisle then a couple aisles of cheap toys, alarm clocks, flashlights, model rockets, and other various stuff.
 
The toys section was pretty good as of late actually.

Also, they were able to save me when I needed 12 150ft Ethernet cables for work.

The prices were either roughly the same or lower than Amazon, which was a welcome surprise.

The funniest thing about Fry's was the multiple aisles of canned duster.

Delivery was way faster than Amazon. Order at noon, and everything was at my door before 5pm.
 
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All I see inside there are cleaning supplies. My friends told me a long time ago their stores were outrageously successful and packed with lines going all the way outside the doors on Black Fridays.
 
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