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Lots of nostalgia about Fry’s here. Well, I have a different take. Fry’s was my first job, and my first introduction to wage slavery. They never at any point ca
by ericbarrett 6y ago
Lots of nostalgia about Fry’s here. Well, I have a different take. Fry’s was my first job, and my first introduction to wage slavery. They never at any point cared about employee health or well-being. Breaks were the state minimum. Pay was the state minimum. The entire staff (and there were hundreds back in the day, when the checkout line would back up into the store even with 20 registers open) shared one 7x7 beige break room. It looked like something from Prison Architect, just an old tube TV with bent bunny ears (you weren’t allowed to turn it on though, it was for training) and the stale smell of cigarette smoke. Knowledge was irrelevant, it was all about sales. SPIFs (bounty-style sales commissions) and revenue ruled the day. Aside from that, the owners didn’t care; cliques and in-groups ruled hiring and firing in the absence of leadership. Stores were always falling apart even when they were new. I don’t think anything over 7’ up was ever dusted; even 20 years ago, it was so thick in some places you couldn’t see the paint. The repair bar employees would regularly rifle through customers’ hard drivers and keep the juciest pictures.
Just another cynical retail empire, pumped hard and drained dry by its owners while the foundation rotted from below. May they build condos on its grave.
- wishysgb 6y agoAt a point in my life I liked that place but that was a very brief moment. I saw they did everything wrong, they staff wasn't knowledgeable and you wouldn't expect them to be at minimum wage. The isles I cared about most, the electronics component and the test equipment isles were always shitty, if I bought something it would never get restocked again.
- BeetleB 6y agoSad to hear these stories. For me, Fry's was the opposite. I wouldn't call them experts, but they were more knowledgeable than the competition (Best Buy, etc). Also, no other place in this city that has some of the components they would sell. Now the only option is to buy online.
- radium3d 6y agoYet now online has no product in stock either, just like Fry's.
- geocrasher 6y agoTo be fair, "more knowledgeable than Best Buy" is a pretty low bar. In desperation I went to a Best Buy looking for a SATA controller (circa 2004) and they said "The controllers are over here..." and took me to the game pads and joy sticks.
- aatharuv 6y agoI can beat that. A couple of years ago, I'd asked where their UPS's were (I'd bought one from a Best Buy more than 10 years back so I knew they had stocked them) and they told me there was a Fedex near by.
- geocrasher 6y agoL O L ! That's hysterical. Thanks for sharing it!
- BeetleB 6y ago> To be fair, "more knowledgeable than Best Buy" is a pretty low bar. Now that Fry's is gone, Best Buy is the only option in town. So yes, it's a low bar, but it is the only bar here.
- mark-r 6y agoThe last time I went to Best Buy I wanted a laptop. Found a good one but there weren't any out on the floor, so I waited forever for a salesperson to help. They went into the back room and came back out, saying it was an older model that was no longer available but I could have the replacement model if I wanted. I asked to see that model and they said sorry, we don't have a display unit. I whipped out my phone and quickly found out that Micro Center had it in stock, on sale for $50 less. Couldn't get out of there fast enough.
- brundolf 6y agoDo you have reason to believe this was endemic to the whole company, or could it have just been your store?
- Fezzik 6y agoI was never employed at Fry’s, but regularly shopped at the Oregon and Washington stores, and to this day I always remember thinking that the employees looked more bedraggled than at any other store I had or have ever shopped at. There was a feeling of defeat, abuse, and under-appreciation in the air.
- geoduck14 6y ago>bedraggled Good word! I'm going to use it today
- ericbarrett 6y agoWell I worked at the Zanker Rd location, which shared a parking lot with their corporate HQ, so imagine the neglect elsewhere.
- shawn-furyan 6y agoAs a possibly former employee (who among us can recall every place they've worked in the past?) who may not have looked at any number of prior employment agreements in an awfully long time, and completely apropos of nothing, I just want to note that endemic is such a good and relevant vocabulary word for current events. I mean, there's the global pandemic, and other things people are talking about, all kinds of uses! Very relevant!
- michaelcampbell 6y ago> who among us can recall every place they've worked in the past? I'm in my mid/late 50's, and I can. Even one gig I had for 3 1/2 hours. Not bragging here, but I suspect MOST people can remember all their jobs. Am I wrong?
- aesyondu 6y ago> The repair bar employees would regularly rifle through customers’ hard drivers and keep the juciest pictures Pretty creepy. And this is from a well known company/establishment.
- TwoBit 6y agoI remember taking my computer into repair at some Chinese shop. When I came to pivk it up, all their floor demos were showing the pictures and animations I had collected.
- andbberger 6y agoReally compelling advertisements for full-disk encryption here..
- koolba 6y agoDid you call them out on it?
- BTCOG 6y agoThis reminds me of a time about two years back where I smashed my iPhone screen dropping it without a case in a parking lot and I immediately needed it for 2FA and things so I took it directly to a phone repair shop. The guy there attempted to ask me for my pincode several times and I had to deadpan stare him in the eyes and say "You will not get my pincode to replace my screen. Just put a new screen on it."
- mhh__ 6y agoSnowden has said similar activities go on in the NSA too
- elihu 6y agoI knew some people that worked at one of their stores about 15 years ago or so, and that sounds about on the same level as their experiences.
- brobdingnagians 6y agoWe mainly stopped going there because they treated customers like they might be stealing something. We didn't like being treated like potential thieves; I know they probably have a problem with shoplifting, but being constantly treated like that isn't pleasant.
- dimmke 6y agoI agree with this. There are so many other stores that do loss prevention in a way that is effective but very muted if you aren't a thief. The way Fry's did it almost felt like disdain towards their customers.
- duckfang 6y agoAdmittedly the very few times I went to Frys, I just walked around them. They yelled to stop. I yelled back to call the cops if they have proof. And... nothing happened. Nothing ever happens. Because I don't steal; I go through the register; and I leave with product that I now own.
- dimmke 6y agoI've done that at Walmart before. Walmart has this policy where if the item you bought is too big to be put in a bag the greeter tries to check your receipt. You're right - they can't do anything. But it still is a very unpleasant interaction. Also, not very effective anyways. Target on the other hand doesn't check receipts, but they have a well trained loss prevention team that watches the cameras and they know when someone is stealing. The only person who gets a bad experience is the person committing the crime. Overall though, I just hate the experience of going into stores in general these days. Not just because of COVID, it's because in almost all cases, the staff is incentivized to sell you things that make the company the most profit. Either because they get a commission or because if they don't they get their hours cut etc... They aren't actually trying to help you solve your problem, which is the whole point of having sales associates. So now I end up doing independent research on whatever I'm going to buy, it's usually cheaper online and I don't get asked if I have a rewards account, what my phone number/email is, what my zip code is, do I want to open a credit card? etc etc...
- this15testing 6y agoSame, first day was black friday. Changed any views I had of buying things in general
- cainxinth 6y agoMy first real job was at CompUSA. And my experience was identical to what you just described.
- linuxlizard 6y agoI liked CompUSA. The employees I interacted with were great. Boise, ID. Was sad when they closed.
- cainxinth 6y agoIt wasn't the worst job I ever had, but the place was really poorly run, and they took advantage of me. I was just a high school kid stocking shelves, but knew as much or more about the computers as the fulltime commissioned sales people. I was constantly getting paged to assist a salesperson. I would do all the work, explaining the product and helping the customer make a decision, and then the salesperson, would say "Thanks, I'll take it from here." Also, their theft control was atrocious. The cameras were not on, the guy checking receipts at the door barely looked, and people just walked about with expensive stuff all the time. Wasn't surprised when they folded.
- malkuth23 6y agoI worked there for half a day. Did the training and had just started my job when the manager told me they needed me tomorrow at a store 4 hours away at 6am. I left and never came back.
- User23 6y agoI took a machine to Fry’s to be repaired once. The look of surprise and disappointment when the tech saw there were no drives in it was hilarious. They did a good job though once we got past that.
- cbozeman 6y agoI was happy this shit company went out of business before you posted this. Now I'm ecstatic.
- halfmatthalfcat 6y agoWorked at Best Buy, same exact experience.
- bitwize 6y agoGeek Squad personnel are paid FBI informants.
- sodality2 6y agoSurprisingly, true: https://www.cnet.com/news/fbi-paid-geek-squad-staff-to-be-informants-documents-show/ https://www.cnet.com/news/fbi-paid-geek-squad-staff-to-be-in... However, they aren't all FBI agents (duh).
- BTCOG 6y agoThis isn't surprising to me. What does boggle my mind, is that anyone would take their personal PC to any repair shop and allow strangers full access to their filesystem in the first place. What an odd and ignorant thing to do.
- sodality2 6y agoIt's simple, really: "Do I have to type in my password to log into windows? Yes? Okay then there's no possible way around that. here you go my good sir"
- Cd00d 6y agoHonestly, except for the commissions bit (I never had a commission job), that describes every retail job I had as a kid. I think margins are too thin to focus on cleaning, maintenance, and break rooms. I usually took my breaks anti-socially in my car.
- LeifCarrotson 6y agoIt certainly describes the retail job I had as a high school kid at Advance Auto Parts. Minimum wage, minimum breaks, awkward hours, pushy sales requirements from corporate, auto repair education was a joke and it basically self-selected for the few weekend wrenchers willing to work for $7.25/hr.
- devoutsalsa 6y agoReminds me of the Fry's Electronics Employment Application: https://web.archive.org/web/20200130175501/http://homepage.smc.edu/engfer_mark/frys.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20200130175501/http://homepage.s...
- prpl 6y agoYou may not be aware, but this mostly describes every supermarket grocery store (save for the commissions).
- BTCOG 6y agoThis describes Walmart, Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples, etc or pretty much any low level retail job. I don't think any employer at all really gives a flying fuck about their employees though. You start making $70k+ and they seem to care, just a tiny little bit but I think it's all mostly to put on a show and really only about making money. Reality hurts.
- thewileyone 6y agoI remember when most of the afternoon/night crew at Fry's were H1B's from companies in the Valley, earning an extra buck part-time.