I'm going to Fry's for the first time, anything to look for?

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Website · #1 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Sat May 19, 2007 8:16 am

I just found out two weeks ago that there is a Fry's in Illinois. So, my friend and I are going to go down and check it out, since I am in Illinois visiting this weekend. I have heard many times that they have outstanding deals within the store itself, which are not found on their website.

Any recommendations on things to look for?

I know that I might look for a better soldering iron with a smaller tip than my current one, so that I can perform the soldering jobs on system boards, that are backing up on me. (Note: I'm on vacation this week, and have tons of Thinkpad things to do)

Phazer · #2 Post by **Phazer** » Sat May 19, 2007 8:24 am

We've got one down by Indianapolis. I'm like you, some of thier stuff is incredibly cheap. Reminds me of the "Harbour Freight" stores.

Turbo Audi · #3 Post by **Turbo Audi** » Sat May 19, 2007 8:46 am

If you want desktop RAM they have PC6700 DDR2. 2gb for $59 after rebate. I paid almost $200 for my RAM! It says it is in stock. There are also other RAM deals there. HDDs are always cheap there. Its like having a NewEgg store near your house, but sometimes cheaper.

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4909421

pianowizard · #4 Post by **pianowizard** » Sat May 19, 2007 8:48 am

Excellent question. I'd like to know what to look for too, because in a few weeks I will be in Houston where they have one or perhaps even several Fry's.

Website · #5 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Sat May 19, 2007 8:49 am

Turbo Audi wrote:If you want desktop RAM they have PC6700 DDR2. 2gb for $59 after rebate. I paid almost $200 for my RAM! It says it is in stock. There are also other RAM deals there. HDDs are always cheap there. Its like having a NewEgg store near your house, but sometimes cheaper.

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4909421

I don't have anything new enough for that speed ram, but you did remind me that I can look for older ram for my wife's computer...PC2700 or was it PC3200? Hmmm....

Turbo Audi · #6 Post by **Turbo Audi** » Sat May 19, 2007 8:50 am

Oh ya, im sure you can get that very cheap. Check the website (Im sure you are anyway!)

No Frys near Boston...too bad for me.

pianowizard · #7 Post by **pianowizard** » Sat May 19, 2007 8:59 am

Turbo Audi wrote:No Frys near Boston...too bad for me.

Too bad indeed. I was in a Fry's store in Houston last year. It's absolutely amazing and makes Best Buy look like a joke. After graduating from school, you should move to a city with Fry's.

Website · #8 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Sat May 19, 2007 9:31 am

Well, I guess I will be there in an hour and half....

If anyone is there, and they see me (I'll be the red head wearing a grey Virginia Cavaliers T-shirt), be sure to stop and say HI!

pianowizard · #9 Post by **pianowizard** » Sat May 19, 2007 9:43 am

tfflivemb2 wrote:Well, I guess I will be there in an hour and half....

Please report what you've bought!

Turbo Audi · #10 Post by **Turbo Audi** » Sat May 19, 2007 9:53 am

pianowizard wrote:
Turbo Audi wrote:No Frys near Boston...too bad for me.
Too bad indeed. I was in a Fry's store in Houston last year. It's absolutely amazing and makes Best Buy look like a joke. After graduating from school, you should move to a city with Fry's.

Its funny you say that because I am moving to Dallas when I graduate!! (If I ever do)

#11 Post by **rkawakami** » Sat May 19, 2007 12:17 pm

tfflivemb2 wrote:Any recommendations on things to look for?

This is probably too late (and a little bit off topic), but I couldn't help it...

Don't expect to find any knowledgeable help from the "associcates" if the two Fry's I go to here in San Jose are any indication.

(Google "frys electronics hate")

Upon entry to the store you will probably have to push your way around the teeming masses waiting to return/exchange items that do not work/are incompatible/are missing pieces. Seems like the corporate layout dictates that the return counter is right next to the front doors.

Be very careful when selecting items off of the shelf. Look for a white Fry's label which says something to the effect that the item has been previously sold, returned, inspected to make sure that all original pieces are still included (yeah, right!) and placed back on the shelf.

Be prepared to run the gauntlet when exiting the store by presenting your receipt and opening all of your bags for "inspection" by the (usually one) sales associate who wants to make sure that you were not overcharged (!) for the items in your bag/shopping cart. It is a matter of universal karma that if you had purchased only a single 1GB flash drive ($5 after $8 mail-in rebate) or a single 2GB Secure Digital card ($10 after $10 MIR), you will end up behind someone who is obviously trying to outfit a complete home theater system for the first time.

On the other hand, I have to praise a sales associate at the Campbell store a couple of nights ago when I went looking for the new Linkin Park CD. It was on sale for about $9. None were left on the rack where the sales tag was displayed. I asked a guy at the service kiosk if they had any stock left. He said that the computer indicated three but that they might be in the hands of customers still in the store. I thanked him and went back to look around the rock CD section, hoping to find a misplaced one. A female sales associate came up (and who had followed me back from the kiosk) and said that she thought she saw one several minutes before in another part of the store. I followed her as she walked toward the exit line and there on top of a stack of microwaves (?) near the beginning of the exit lane was a lone Minutes to Midnight CD

.

As much as people bash Fry's (I'm one sometimes), they DO have good deals almost every week. In fact, I might be going out there later today to look at some cheap microwave ovens after our built-in unit finally gave out last night. Anyone want some cold Chinese leftovers (fried rice and vegetable beef)?

skitty4gzus · #12 Post by **skitty4gzus** » Sat May 19, 2007 1:13 pm

im actually kind of jealous of you who live near these stores like Ray. There aint one even close to me in MI. There is a Microcenter in Detroit but thats a couple hours away. You guys are lucky and I have no problem weeding through some junk and hords of people to find good deals!

teetee · #13 Post by **teetee** » Sat May 19, 2007 2:42 pm

Maybe some hard drives?
Maxtor 300GB Ultra DMA/100 16MB Buffer L01Y300 - Retail
http://tinyurl.com/2lthtq
Maxtor 300GB Serial ATA/300 16MB Buffer L01F300 - Retail
http://tinyurl.com/364hyt

From fatwallet forum some people actually bought some of those hard drives at Staples by using coupons and discount then pm(price match) to Fry's to get the drive for $23/each. I think that's pretty amazing.

pianowizard · #14 Post by **pianowizard** » Sat May 19, 2007 3:04 pm

teetee wrote:Maybe some hard drives?

Maxtor hard drives are notoriously unreliable.

Website · #15 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Sat May 19, 2007 3:45 pm

OK, so here is what I got:

No goods deal here:
Soldering Pencil: $12.99
Fine Solder: 6.99

Excellent Deals:
Phone clip for my LG AX8600: $1.90 (instead of $10)
Phillips BlueTooth Headset for LG phone: $17.99 (instead of $39.99)

The place was pretty neat! They literally have EVERYTHING electronic that you could imagine. Not too busy, and as Ray said, not too knowledgeable associates....or even polite for that matter...

leoblob · #16 Post by **leoblob** » Sat May 19, 2007 5:51 pm

Where in Illinois is it?

Website · #17 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Sat May 19, 2007 5:57 pm

leoblob wrote:Where in Illinois is it?

Downers Grove...

teetee · #18 Post by **teetee** » Sat May 19, 2007 9:45 pm

pianowizard wrote:
teetee wrote:Maybe some hard drives?
Maxtor hard drives are notoriously unreliable.

It might be true but from the forum discussion I saw in fatwallet these particular model drives were seagate OEM.

#19 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Sun May 20, 2007 3:10 am

Seagate has bought up Maxtor.
They could be re-badged Maxtor old stock, that they wanted to flog!

Turbo Audi · #20 Post by **Turbo Audi** » Sun May 20, 2007 7:43 am

From what I hear alot of Maxors are rebadged 7200.09 and 7200.10s. Thats a very good thing. I have a 7200.10.

leoblob · #21 Post by **leoblob** » Sun May 20, 2007 12:36 pm

Thanks.

#22 Post by **schen** » Mon May 21, 2007 12:44 pm

Like Ray, I've had quite a bit of experience with Fry's both here in Texas and in California. I actually shopped a few times at the original store outside San Jose that was in the old Fry's grocery store. It's an interesting story, but if the layout and atmosphere is somewhat like a grocery store down to the candy and softdrinks at checkout, it's no accident! Apparentley, the old man left the grocery business to the 2 sons who decided they wanted to be in the computer business instead, so out went the groceries and in came the electronics. In the original store, the motherboards were laid out where the meat counter used to be in the back and the checkout lines had the belts on them and everything. That's also why they have those weekly fliers just like the grocery stores do. Here in the DFW area, the flier go out in the Friday paper, but if I remember right, the San Jose ones went out on Wednesdays.

Anyway, enough about history. The deal is that they use the same marketing strategy as typical grocery chains which means they advertise "loss leaders" or near loss leaders to get people in the door, but most of the other prices are at or near full retail. If you stick to the "specials", you'll get good deals.... sometimes great deals, but; Caveat Emptor! Ray is absolutely right! Items are often in the wrong place and "service" can take forever if it can be found at all. And especially beware the rewrapped items in that they are often missing parts. Also; READ THE FINE print on the ad! On the especially attractive sales, there are typically limits such as the time I set out to buy some Mushkin RAM that had a "one per" limit on it. Very annoying.

Lastly the stores differ greatly within a given area on their service and cleanliness. In our area, the best is probably the Irving store and the worse is the one in Garland/Northwest Highway (the store I live closest to)

Personally, I prefer Micro Center. They have as good or better sales than Fry's and the Service is MUCH better. I learned to love it when I lived in Chicago and would drive way out to the western suburbs to go there. There's one here in Dallas, but it's a bit of a trek for me to get there.

So, if you guys are going to the Chicago area to go to Fry's, get by the Micro Center in Westmont. Oh, they usually have their actual sale's flier available on line in the a .pdf file.

Website · #23 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Mon May 21, 2007 12:54 pm

Thanks for the info schen!

This Fry's was laid out like a cross between a grocery store and a Best Buy. The building was a newer a building, so I don't think that they converted this one.

It is interesting that you mention the cleanliness... With this location, each department had a different level of cleanliness. Some departments were immaculate! Others, like the circuitry section was atrocious! I could barely figure out which solder I wanted. I was looking for a fine solder, but the entire shelf was a mess, and it was a nightmare to figure out which item belonged where.

dsigma6 · #24 Post by **dsigma6** » Tue May 22, 2007 8:01 am

rkawakami wrote:Anyone want some cold Chinese leftovers (fried rice and vegetable beef)?

Is this still available? PM SENT!

#25 Post by **rkawakami** » Tue May 22, 2007 11:18 am

dsigma6 wrote:
rkawakami wrote:Anyone want some cold Chinese leftovers (fried rice and vegetable beef)?
Is this still available? PM SENT!

Yeah, actually I think the container of vegetable beef is still in the 'frig. Hmm... let's see... it's about 5 days old now. Probably okay to eat. I still have your address so I'll send it to you via USPS Priority Mail, which should only take a couple of days. Don't worry about paying me for the postage; consider it my gift to you

.

Fry's runs a full-page ad every day in the San Jose Murky News, on the back side of the first section. Friday's paper has the 8-page insert. I think that this past weekend was some sort of an anniversary sale so most of the sale items were "limit one" and/or the often dreaded, "mail-in rebate".

Most stores have a "theme" to them, either in the interior decorations or the exterior design of the building:

http://www.frys.com/isp/history.html

The Campbell store has a "people-mover", inclined ramp (which is usually not working) leading up to the front doors, as the entire store is built over a parking garage. This accents the Egyptian theme of the building. The North San Jose store looks like any other warehouse-type building in the commercial district it's in, but once inside, you are subjected to Mayan decorations, with stone columns and murals on the walls.

All of this "window dressing" still does not hide the fact that you will probably not get much knowledgeable help. At least that's been my experience in the past. I've given up on asking for any recommendations on products. It doesn't happen every time I'm in the store, but I have overheard some bad advice being given to other shoppers. Latest example was the sales guy was suggesting that the lady buy a stack of CD-RW blanks just because they were "re-usable". Never mind the fact that the lady couldn't say if she had an RW drive or not or that some older CD drives can't read RW disks.

Yet last Christmas, there I was before the crack of dawn at the San Jose store thinking that though I was arriving 45 minutes after the doors had opened, that I still might find a good deal. Well, maybe there was, but I didn't want to wait around. Already the checkout line was snaking through most of the left side of the store. I'd guess that even if they had all of the checkout registers open (about 70 I think), I'd be there for at least an hour or two. This says a lot about the power of their marketing.

ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_Electronics

(edit: Corrected last link!)

Turbo Audi · #26 Post by **Turbo Audi** » Tue May 22, 2007 11:22 am

rkawakami wrote:
dsigma6 wrote: Is this still available? PM SENT!
This says a lot about the power of their marketing.

ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry's_Electronics

Quite a few disambiguations.

#27 Post by **schen** » Tue May 22, 2007 12:34 pm

rkawakami wrote:Fry's runs a full-page ad every day in the San Jose Murky News, on the back side of the first section. Friday's paper has the 8-page insert. I think that this past weekend was some sort of an anniversary sale so most of the sale items were "limit one" and/or the often dreaded, "mail-in rebate".

Most stores have a "theme" to them, either in the interior decorations or the exterior design of the building:

http://www.frys.com/isp/history.html

The Campbell store has a "people-mover", inclined ramp (which is usually not working) leading up to the front doors, as the entire store is built over a parking garage. This accents the Egyptian theme of the building. The North San Jose store looks like any other warehouse-type building in the commercial district it's in, but once inside, you are subjected to Mayan decorations, with stone columns and murals on the walls.

Apparently they've changed how they do the ad there in SJ. I remember 15 or 20 years ago when I went to see my brother he wanted to wait until Wednesday to see what the ads had in them. Actually I think there was another big retailer there that had an ad on the same day. Here in the DFW area, they seem to do the same thing with their ads.

Some of the stores here also have themes. Most notably, the one in Northeast Dallas/Garland has this ranch theme!

There's a big balcony overlooking the entrances with all these plastic Longhorn cattle up there. Inside, there are all manner of fake fences and barn door etc. They inherited it from Incredible Universe (Tandy's ill-fated attempt at the electronics superstore), when Fry's bought out the whole chain.... which is how they jumped into the Texas market so many years ago.

I've about decided though that they're sales staff for all their ignorance is far less irritating than the checkout folks. At the Northeast Dallas store, the checkout folks seem to be composed of about 75% recent immigrants from one of the semi-arab Northeastern African countries. I haven't asked anyone yet, but they seem to have a Somoli look to them. At any rate, regardless of what ethicity they tend to always have a "you're bothering me" bored look on their face.... especially if the sale involves a rebate of some kind!

crashnburn · #28 Post by **crashnburn** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 6:05 pm

Turbo Audi wrote:
pianowizard wrote:
Its funny you say that because I am moving to Dallas when I graduate!! (If I ever do)

PW - Frys dont have any thinkpads do they?

TA - Hows dallas treating you now?

pianowizard · #29 Post by **pianowizard** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 6:40 pm

crashnburn wrote:PW - Frys dont have any thinkpads do they?

I don't recall seeing any. But they do have many laptops on display, not just the bulky 15.4" WXGA crap that you can find at Best Buy, but also quite a few sub-3lb laptops, e.g. the Fujitsu Q2010 (which is amazing, BTW).

Website · #30 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:37 pm

crashnburn wrote:PW - Frys dont have any thinkpads do they?

I can't answer for PW, but the Chicago store doesn't carry Thinkpads...I asked. They had Macs, Toshibas, HPs, and a few off brands, I think.

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