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It's been more than four years since Fry's closed. I can't believe it took this long to get something better than Best Buy and bigger than Central Computers, in

It's been more than four years since Fry's closed. I can't believe it took this long to get something better than Best Buy and bigger than Central Computers, in the middle of Silicon Valley of all places!

mosdl 1y ago
We had a Microcenter that closed in 2012, took them that long to return.
dylan604 1y ago
Who in Silicon Valley uses actual computers and not something in the cloud? Do any start ups use actual hardware that you'd get at some place like MicroCenter? Don't they just get handed shiny new Apple hardware (something from HP/Dell if they're on a budget) to interface with the cloud?
- tdeck 1y ago
  I think many of the employees have gaming rigs at home and would buy parts there.
  - Nextgrid 1y ago
    You'd be surprised by how many "tech" people have no clue on about how to build a rig, nor have any willingness to learn.
- vladgur 1y ago
  Youre not wrong. I have a pc with 24GB 3090 card capable of running LLMs locally, but our electricity costs make API calls much more reasonable. Even gaming -- streaming geforce now is cheaper than ammortizing cost of power + hardware over time
  - john01dav 1y ago
    For my personal use, I'll take the hit in cost for the additional control that owning the hardware gives me. Even less restrictive things like blocking sideloading are unacceptable to me.
  - jzer0cool 1y ago
    Cost break down please
- dimator 1y ago
  The store has lots of other tech enthusiast stuff, like a huge selection of 3D printers.
  - geerlingguy 1y ago
    And a full aisle of electronics / hobbyist gear, including decent soldering stations, fluke gear, tons of components, and a good smattering of SparkFun and Adafruit's catalog.
- nickthegreek 1y ago
  They have great small business machines and more importantly, everything you need without waiting for amazon. Their in-house prebuilt brand PowerSpec have great prices for the hardware and work nicely whether you go for a gaming version or office build.
- kanbara 1y ago
  silicon valley-ite here: we have normal gaming machines and linux boxen too …
Hizonner 1y ago
I get the feeling the real Fry's died long before that. It seemed like it was going downhill when I left the area about 18 years ago. Less parts, less tools, less test equipment, more packaged gadgets.
- NelsonMinar 1y ago
  Yeah Fry's was pretty awful.
- tgma 1y ago
  Fry's had an interesting vibe and felt you time traveled to the 90s, but my gosh they were so weird. They searched your bag on the way out. Microcenter is a godsend although it'll be hard to beat B&H with Payboo card.
  - tecleandor 1y ago
    I only use B&H site for checking general prices or reviews, as they won't stop discriminating people. A discrimination lawsuit almost every year since 2009. https://www.thephoblographer.com/2024/07/09/bh-photo-lawsuit-discrimination/ https://www.thephoblographer.com/2024/07/09/bh-photo-lawsuit...
    - tgma 1y ago
      Not really familiar with their internal affairs but as a retailer they have been nothing but great in my experience as the customer. In the end, any large company will at some point be accused of certain things, rightly or wrongly, and I am willing to bet larger retailers simply have an easier time paying off the complaints before we hear about them. I mean, the primary alternative for me would be Amazon, which won’t win any prizes from me in employee affairs dimension, I can tell you that.
- toast0 1y ago
  I think a lot of that was following what sold. If nobody is buying these things at Fry's, it doesn't make sense for them to stock them. IMHO, there was a drop in good deals around the time they got rid of the purchaser who was doing the embezzleing (2008), and also new stores started opening with 'boring corporate store' theme ('new' sunnyvale store, vegas). If I'm gonna be at a boring corporate store and not getting good deals, why bother? Then there was the year? or so of circling the drain when there was some sort of credit problem and they tried to switch from owning inventory to a consignment model and most of their vendors weren't interested so they had no inventory.
awful 1y ago
Agreed; went into Fry's, off Lawrence?, just before it closed. Visited area on and off again over the years since. Central Computer did seem to have what I needed for that moment, but the area seemed barren, was simply not the same, and especially after experiencing Fry's, Weird Stuff, Halted?, Anchor, Computer Literacy, et al. in the late 1980s and 90s.
- ts4z 1y ago
  Hear hear. I guess we still have Anchor.
delfinom 1y ago
PC hardware is a competitive and margin tight business, especially due to online sales. At the same time, the inventory can be very expensive on the books. It makes the calculus for viability of a physical store quite challenging. It's why Microcenter has relatively few stores for the US.
Animats 1y ago
I've been happy with Central Computer. Three machines and two repairs in ten years.
xhkkffbf 1y ago
So true. Fry's is still missed every day. This is a good replacement, though.

mosdl 1y ago

We had a Microcenter that closed in 2012, took them that long to return.

dylan604 1y ago

Who in Silicon Valley uses actual computers and not something in the cloud? Do any start ups use actual hardware that you'd get at some place like MicroCenter? Don't they just get handed shiny new Apple hardware (something from HP/Dell if they're on a budget) to interface with the cloud?

tdeck 1y ago
I think many of the employees have gaming rigs at home and would buy parts there.
- Nextgrid 1y ago
  You'd be surprised by how many "tech" people have no clue on about how to build a rig, nor have any willingness to learn.
vladgur 1y ago
Youre not wrong. I have a pc with 24GB 3090 card capable of running LLMs locally, but our electricity costs make API calls much more reasonable. Even gaming -- streaming geforce now is cheaper than ammortizing cost of power + hardware over time
- john01dav 1y ago
  For my personal use, I'll take the hit in cost for the additional control that owning the hardware gives me. Even less restrictive things like blocking sideloading are unacceptable to me.
- jzer0cool 1y ago
  Cost break down please
dimator 1y ago
The store has lots of other tech enthusiast stuff, like a huge selection of 3D printers.
- geerlingguy 1y ago
  And a full aisle of electronics / hobbyist gear, including decent soldering stations, fluke gear, tons of components, and a good smattering of SparkFun and Adafruit's catalog.
nickthegreek 1y ago
They have great small business machines and more importantly, everything you need without waiting for amazon. Their in-house prebuilt brand PowerSpec have great prices for the hardware and work nicely whether you go for a gaming version or office build.
kanbara 1y ago
silicon valley-ite here: we have normal gaming machines and linux boxen too …

Hizonner 1y ago

I get the feeling the real Fry's died long before that. It seemed like it was going downhill when I left the area about 18 years ago. Less parts, less tools, less test equipment, more packaged gadgets.

NelsonMinar 1y ago
Yeah Fry's was pretty awful.
tgma 1y ago
Fry's had an interesting vibe and felt you time traveled to the 90s, but my gosh they were so weird. They searched your bag on the way out. Microcenter is a godsend although it'll be hard to beat B&H with Payboo card.
- tecleandor 1y ago
  I only use B&H site for checking general prices or reviews, as they won't stop discriminating people. A discrimination lawsuit almost every year since 2009. https://www.thephoblographer.com/2024/07/09/bh-photo-lawsuit-discrimination/ https://www.thephoblographer.com/2024/07/09/bh-photo-lawsuit...
  - tgma 1y ago
    Not really familiar with their internal affairs but as a retailer they have been nothing but great in my experience as the customer. In the end, any large company will at some point be accused of certain things, rightly or wrongly, and I am willing to bet larger retailers simply have an easier time paying off the complaints before we hear about them. I mean, the primary alternative for me would be Amazon, which won’t win any prizes from me in employee affairs dimension, I can tell you that.
toast0 1y ago
I think a lot of that was following what sold. If nobody is buying these things at Fry's, it doesn't make sense for them to stock them. IMHO, there was a drop in good deals around the time they got rid of the purchaser who was doing the embezzleing (2008), and also new stores started opening with 'boring corporate store' theme ('new' sunnyvale store, vegas). If I'm gonna be at a boring corporate store and not getting good deals, why bother? Then there was the year? or so of circling the drain when there was some sort of credit problem and they tried to switch from owning inventory to a consignment model and most of their vendors weren't interested so they had no inventory.

awful 1y ago

Agreed; went into Fry's, off Lawrence?, just before it closed. Visited area on and off again over the years since. Central Computer did seem to have what I needed for that moment, but the area seemed barren, was simply not the same, and especially after experiencing Fry's, Weird Stuff, Halted?, Anchor, Computer Literacy, et al. in the late 1980s and 90s.

ts4z 1y ago
Hear hear. I guess we still have Anchor.

delfinom 1y ago

PC hardware is a competitive and margin tight business, especially due to online sales. At the same time, the inventory can be very expensive on the books. It makes the calculus for viability of a physical store quite challenging. It's why Microcenter has relatively few stores for the US.

Animats 1y ago

I've been happy with Central Computer. Three machines and two repairs in ten years.

xhkkffbf 1y ago

So true. Fry's is still missed every day. This is a good replacement, though.