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I graduated college in 1985 and moved cross country to Sunnyvale for work. Fry's was a supermarket chain, and at the time there was one and only one location th

I graduated college in 1985 and moved cross country to Sunnyvale for work. Fry's was a supermarket chain, and at the time there was one and only one location that was trying out carrying computer stuff, on the east side of Lawrence Ave I think, before they moved to the west side of Lawrence. They weren't yet fully committed to it. Half the store was produce and such -- milk, eggs, lettuce, etc, and the other half was rows of TTL parts, memory chips, diodes, capacitors, and resistors. It blew my mind. I bought a 68000 CPU, 128KB of DRAM chips (64Kx1 density back then), a perf board, wirewrap wire and a wrapping tool, EPROMs, sockets, and built my first computer all from parts I bought at that Fry's. About 60 seconds away from Fry's was Computer Literacy -- a really great bookstore that, as the name implies, had nothing but computer related books. It wasn't 20 copies of "Computers for Dummies" books. The vast majority of inventory were single copies of the most arcane stuff -- all sorts of college level CS textbooks, and you could ask the desk to order just about anything if you knew the title of it. I sent a lot of money and time in both locations. Silicon Valley felt like a magical place back then.

snapetom 6y ago
I lived near the Palo Alto Fry's around the same time when I was a kid, and I always remembered it as a supermarket with some electronics. It wasn't until college that I got interested in computers and electronics and started to go back to Fry's again. I was always sort of puzzled - did I remember the supermarket correctly? Was it a Fry's? Whenever I said to people, "Fry's was a supermarket," they looked at me like I was indeed crazy.
- BeetleB 6y ago
  You are thinking of this (owned by Kroger's): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_Food_and_Drug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_Food_and_Drug Similar logo, but different store, although they do share an origin.
  - libraryatnight 6y ago
    This was a source of confusion for me as a kid. My dad, somewhat excitedly, saying "They're opening a Fry's here!" "...what's wrong with the one that just took over Smitty's?" "No, for electronics!" "They're putting in an electronics section" "No it's a Fry's Electronics. Computer and electronics parts." "Oh, cool..." And until we went I think I still had in mind a grocery store with some computers just past housewares.
  - snapetom 6y ago
    Yep, but at some point, the Fry's in Palo Alto did become solely a Fry's Electronics.
  - garmaine 6y ago
    Not similar, same. John Fry went to school at Santa Clara University, and brought the family franchise supermarket store to the Bay Area, then localized it. At some point selling electronic parts in Silicon Valley was more profitable than selling produce, so the Bay Area "Fry's Food and Drug" became "Fry's Electronics".
  - lscotte 6y ago
    Actually parent remembers it right. At that time, Fry's in the Bay Area was roughly half supermarket and half electronics.
brundolf 6y ago
I thought the two were unrelated! I only heard about the supermarkets maybe a year ago, but I've been going to the electronics store for a decade and a half. Did they split off at some point?
mtviewdave 6y ago
> on the east side of Lawrence Ave I think, before they moved to the west side of Lawrence. 541 Lakeside Drive, Sunnyvale, to be exact. That was the original location of the original Fry's. That location moved across Lawrence Expy. sometime in the fall of 1990.
xxpor 6y ago
>Half the store was produce and such -- milk, eggs, lettuce, etc, and the other half was rows of TTL parts, memory chips, diodes, capacitors, and resistors. It blew my mind. I bought a 68000 CPU, 128KB of DRAM chips (64Kx1 density back then), a perf board, wirewrap wire and a wrapping tool, EPROMs, This would have been an absolutely amazing store to have locally in 2020.
drudru11 6y ago
That was probably an amazing decade for the Bay Area. I wish I was there then to see it.
Treblemaker 6y ago
Came here to post the same thing (and it was pretty much the same parts!) Our standing Fry's joke was about how one side of the aisle had chips, but the other side had chips. I haven't been there since early 90's, though, so at least it remains as it once was in memory (of questionable density at this point).
watertom 6y ago
Wow, Computer Literacy I completely forgot about them. As an east coast geek they they were like a unicorn. When I joined Sun Microsystems in 1990, and I went to orientation training in Mt. View it was like visiting heaven when I got to walk in the door of Computer Literacy. I also bought a few books from them via email, ah, the beginnings of eCommerce. Jeez I'm old.
- thewileyone 6y ago
  Hey, I worked for ComputerLiteracy.com, which had bought out the bookstore and then went public as fatbrain.com. #3 behind Amazon and BN.com for a time in volume of sales. I remember when we went up to 1 million SKUs of tech books, which was more than Amazon. Late 90's was a great time to be in Silicon Valley.
trav4225 6y ago
> Silicon Valley felt like a magical place back then. I ditto that! I was fortunate to spend a fair bit of time in SV (including Fry's) back then. That time+place was inspirational. SV (and Fry's) are nothing like they were back then. Perhaps ironically, the rise of the consumer Internet coincided pretty closely with the death of that era of SV.

snapetom 6y ago

I lived near the Palo Alto Fry's around the same time when I was a kid, and I always remembered it as a supermarket with some electronics. It wasn't until college that I got interested in computers and electronics and started to go back to Fry's again. I was always sort of puzzled - did I remember the supermarket correctly? Was it a Fry's? Whenever I said to people, "Fry's was a supermarket," they looked at me like I was indeed crazy.

BeetleB 6y ago
You are thinking of this (owned by Kroger's): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_Food_and_Drug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_Food_and_Drug Similar logo, but different store, although they do share an origin.
- libraryatnight 6y ago
  This was a source of confusion for me as a kid. My dad, somewhat excitedly, saying "They're opening a Fry's here!" "...what's wrong with the one that just took over Smitty's?" "No, for electronics!" "They're putting in an electronics section" "No it's a Fry's Electronics. Computer and electronics parts." "Oh, cool..." And until we went I think I still had in mind a grocery store with some computers just past housewares.
- snapetom 6y ago
  Yep, but at some point, the Fry's in Palo Alto did become solely a Fry's Electronics.
- garmaine 6y ago
  Not similar, same. John Fry went to school at Santa Clara University, and brought the family franchise supermarket store to the Bay Area, then localized it. At some point selling electronic parts in Silicon Valley was more profitable than selling produce, so the Bay Area "Fry's Food and Drug" became "Fry's Electronics".
- lscotte 6y ago
  Actually parent remembers it right. At that time, Fry's in the Bay Area was roughly half supermarket and half electronics.

brundolf 6y ago

I thought the two were unrelated! I only heard about the supermarkets maybe a year ago, but I've been going to the electronics store for a decade and a half. Did they split off at some point?

mtviewdave 6y ago

> on the east side of Lawrence Ave I think, before they moved to the west side of Lawrence. 541 Lakeside Drive, Sunnyvale, to be exact. That was the original location of the original Fry's. That location moved across Lawrence Expy. sometime in the fall of 1990.

xxpor 6y ago

>Half the store was produce and such -- milk, eggs, lettuce, etc, and the other half was rows of TTL parts, memory chips, diodes, capacitors, and resistors. It blew my mind. I bought a 68000 CPU, 128KB of DRAM chips (64Kx1 density back then), a perf board, wirewrap wire and a wrapping tool, EPROMs, This would have been an absolutely amazing store to have locally in 2020.

drudru11 6y ago

That was probably an amazing decade for the Bay Area. I wish I was there then to see it.

Treblemaker 6y ago

Came here to post the same thing (and it was pretty much the same parts!) Our standing Fry's joke was about how one side of the aisle had chips, but the other side had chips. I haven't been there since early 90's, though, so at least it remains as it once was in memory (of questionable density at this point).

watertom 6y ago

Wow, Computer Literacy I completely forgot about them. As an east coast geek they they were like a unicorn. When I joined Sun Microsystems in 1990, and I went to orientation training in Mt. View it was like visiting heaven when I got to walk in the door of Computer Literacy. I also bought a few books from them via email, ah, the beginnings of eCommerce. Jeez I'm old.

thewileyone 6y ago
Hey, I worked for ComputerLiteracy.com, which had bought out the bookstore and then went public as fatbrain.com. #3 behind Amazon and BN.com for a time in volume of sales. I remember when we went up to 1 million SKUs of tech books, which was more than Amazon. Late 90's was a great time to be in Silicon Valley.

trav4225 6y ago

> Silicon Valley felt like a magical place back then. I ditto that! I was fortunate to spend a fair bit of time in SV (including Fry's) back then. That time+place was inspirational. SV (and Fry's) are nothing like they were back then. Perhaps ironically, the rise of the consumer Internet coincided pretty closely with the death of that era of SV.