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I haven't been to Fry's in a while, but every time I went I always wondered how the hell they managed to stay in business. My random observations over the year

I haven't been to Fry's in a while, but every time I went I always wondered how the hell they managed to stay in business. My random observations over the years of dealing with Fry's: - Almost all the floor people are paid in part on commission. Even the cashiers salary is in some part commission based. Like, how can a cashier have any control over what somebody purchases in order to maximize their commission? - Their Point of Sale software seemed to be the most antiquated homebrew garbage on earth. The thing would print out a mile long receipt, even in their cafe. Like, to order coffee the cashier had to do a bunch of steps in on the terminal just to complete the transaction--super bizarre. I'm pretty sure some owners nephew "who knows computers" must have programmed that thing way back in the day and the owners never bothered to modernize. - The stores always seemed depressing, even ten years ago. Shelves were always dirty with crap strewn about. The isles always had some shelves that were empty with no inventory, or the majority of the inventory out of stock. - Years ago my monitor crapped out on me and I had an extended warranty. The cheap fuckers didn't replace it but actually wanted to spend several weeks somehow repairing it. I still have pictures on my phone of the absolute mountain of paperwork they gave me for this processes. It was completely insane. - All the people working there never seemed happy. Several times I overheard employees yelling at each other in neighboring isles. I always got the feeling store management was running the place like a pressure cooker--"gotta sell XYZ of whatever or you are fired" where "XYZ" was some product nobody on earth wanted. In short, Fry's always had a weird vibe to me. I'm surprised they managed to make it this far.

Stratoscope 7y ago
> Almost all the floor people are paid in part on commission. Yeah, every time I picked my item off the shelf, if anyone was nearby they would grab it from me and say "I need to give you a quote." The first few times, I dutifully followed them to their terminal hoping that the "quote" might be a buck or two off the sticker price. Nope. The quote was for exactly the same price. After a while I got in the habit of saying "just browsing", and as soon as they left the aisle I would grab my item and make a beeline out of that area. One time I bought a $20 case for my compact camera. I told the guy I would be a while trying different cases to see how they fit. As soon as I picked one and started to walk away... Yes, you guessed it, "I need to give you a quote." And he wrapped it around my little case and taped it all over the place to make sure I wouldn't throw the quote away.
- spookthesunset 7y ago
  I've had similar treatment. It is so awkward for both me and the employee. I always got the feeling the stores management, and corporate were stuffed full of sleazy used-car style salespeople. Just tons of mis-aligned incentives that resulted in a very poor customer experience.

Stratoscope 7y ago

> Almost all the floor people are paid in part on commission. Yeah, every time I picked my item off the shelf, if anyone was nearby they would grab it from me and say "I need to give you a quote." The first few times, I dutifully followed them to their terminal hoping that the "quote" might be a buck or two off the sticker price. Nope. The quote was for exactly the same price. After a while I got in the habit of saying "just browsing", and as soon as they left the aisle I would grab my item and make a beeline out of that area. One time I bought a $20 case for my compact camera. I told the guy I would be a while trying different cases to see how they fit. As soon as I picked one and started to walk away... Yes, you guessed it, "I need to give you a quote." And he wrapped it around my little case and taped it all over the place to make sure I wouldn't throw the quote away.

spookthesunset 7y ago
I've had similar treatment. It is so awkward for both me and the employee. I always got the feeling the stores management, and corporate were stuffed full of sleazy used-car style salespeople. Just tons of mis-aligned incentives that resulted in a very poor customer experience.