Frys Electronics

[joerg]

Im going to dallas and was wondering what frys electronics is. Do they have good deals?
Thanks.

[Steve R Jones]

Frys is a VERY VERY big electronic's store. They've taken over store like k-mart etc and converted them. They have some pretty good deals and some bad deals. Have to know what your looking for.

[joerg]

Do they carry cases I am looking for and enermax case and havent had much luck over the net.

[Steve R Jones]

Yes they carry everything and then some to build from the ground up. I have no idea about the exact kind they carry.

[DanU]

Their prices could be better, but remember that you are also paying for the "Fry's Experience". You get to drive around the parking lot for about 15 minutes trying to find a space. That helps build up the anticipation. You finally find a space at the far end of the parking lot and start walking toward the entrance. As you approach, you notice the immensity of the building. It's a brick-walled, windowless fortress of technology, a testament to the powers of capitalism and science. Some have tacky facades straight out of Disneyland, but unlike Disneyland, the admission is free. When you get in, you notice the long lines at the customer service counter. Most are attempting to return stuff that they couldn't get to work. These must be all the poor fools that are techno-illiterate. You, however, do know how to RTFM and look up the FAQ. You quickly walk past these rejects and see that there are aisles and aisles of tech-stuff for sale. It takes you nearly an hour of searching before you find the section that has that special sale item of the day that you wanted. But that's OK, because you got to see the Alice statue, or the giant UFO, or the Tesla coil from the 1800s during your self-guided tour. As you scan the shelves, you suddenly realize that the item you want is all sold out. So you figure you'll just pick up a few other things that you wanted to buy as well, but at full price. Trouble is... you don't know where they are and you don't want to take a tour of the building again just to find what your looking for, so you ask the salesman where they put their doohickey widgets. The salesmen give you the patented Fry's Blank Stare (TM), wait a few seconds, then call up the Person In Charge. The PIC then points you in the right direction and you walk over to pick up your stuff. By now you've probably walked several miles, therby negating the need to go to the gym for that day. The workout was exhausting, but now you've got your goods and you're ready to check out. You walk over to the cashiers and you notice that it looks a lot like a line to an amusement park ride. A serpentine que forms behind a person whose sole job is to point you to the the next available cashier, out of the nearly 100 that are working there. The line winds through a snack aisle. How convenient! You can munch on some goodies while you wait! Power bars are nice since you're feeling exhausted by now and it will also double as a lunch. When you finally reach a cashier you whip out your cash or plastic and are promptly processed. Now you're HOME FREE! But wait... as you near the exit, a large fellow in a gruff voice asks to see your receipt. The reason given is to "make sure we didn't over-charge you" or "make sure we didn't accidentally charge you for something you didn't buy". You hand over the receipt, expecting a full body cavity search to soon follow. Surprisingly, the guy just swipes your receipt with a highligher and hands it back to you. Relieved, you walk back to your car. You notice that there are dozens of other people walking in, just as you had done several hours earlier. The urge to warn them about what is to come is strong... but you're too tired and you don't feel like getting into an argument right now. In the end you get in your car, drive back home, and slump in your couch, glad to have survived.

[Jim9999]

There's not much middle ground. People seem to love them or hate them.

I've never had to return anything, but the line to do so looks like ticket sales for a Who concert.

They have a pretty good selection of everything from telescopes to washing machines, with computers and parts mixed in there somewhere. Don't look for anyone with technical knowledge, though.

Overall, if you know what you want, they're a pretty safe bet.

[joerg]

Thanks for the help. I am glad i live in a small town if i had a store like that where i lived it sounds like my wallet would be very thin as would i.

[HaroldW]

I am only familiar with the four or five Fry's stores in the San Jose, CA area. Based on that experience:

1. Don't expect the sales people to be knowledgeable about what they sell. Many times I have overheard them telling customers some blatently wrong.

2. At least is the San Jose area a Fry's eight page sales circular comes in the Friday paper. You have to look closely at those adds. Much of the stuff in that circular is sold at it's regular price, not a discounted "Sale" price.

3. Some of the stuff they truly have on sale does come down close to discounted mail-order price.

4. If you do decide to buy something, take a close look at the box for a white sticker approximately 3 inches by 2 inches, with handwritting on it. This means the package was previously returned or opened.

5. They do have a one month price guaranty. One weekend I went in there and got back over eighty dollars from three purchases earlier in the month.

[Yar1182]

I know the layout of all the southern california Fry's by heart. I usually just go to browse the stuff I'm interested in buying, then get it off the net. Read the documentation on the packaging or what not.

[thekingofpain]

Pretty good accessment Dan---im sure you reluctantly still go there as I do after all the abuse (im extra guilty as I go out of my county to get the newspaper that carrys the ads on Friday after they ELIMINATED the guy that gave us frysad.com) :-)


EDIT-------> REMEMBER ABOVE ALL avoid the items with the white return tag!!! Who knows what dumb@ss messed with whats inside...

[This message has been edited by thekingofpain (edited 07-20-2001).]

[prexaspes]

It sounds a lot like the bigger CompUSA's here in the northeast.

One other thing besides all of the above that happens to me - I immediately forget exactly what I needed, so I start looking at video cards and hope I eventually remember what I came in for. It *really* helps to bring a techno-dunce friend along to remind you that you needed to get an optical mouse or hard disk or whatever...

[DanU]

Yeah, Fry's is definitely a love-hate thing. On the bright side, their NTE transistor selection is huge. drool....

kingofpain is right about those returned items with the white tags. Avoid them like the plague! I think it's unconscionable of them to be selling used items that are most likely damaged or missing parts for the same price as the new stuff. I've been burned twice after having been assured by the sales rep that they've been tested and will work just fine.

[joerg]

I am going on vacation to dallas so i wont be able to get a flyer. All i am really looking for is either an Antec or an Enermax case figured i would save on shipping cost does anyone know how much cases are there ive checked bestbuy and the case i have been looking at is $100 there would it be cheaper at frys. Thanks.

[Roy]

I've given Fry's a lot of money, but almost never bought anything that wasn't on sale at a "PriceWatch" kind of deal. They sell many items at "list" price.

If you can find a Computer "Show" in the Dallas area (or anywhere else), that's the place to find cases. You get to see exactly what you're getting, and the prices usually are around $25-$30 for very good generic ATX cases.

[Yar1182]

Regarding the white sticker refurbished and tested products. If you return an item and they ask you "Is there anything wrong with it?" and you say "No, it just not what I need". They just slap the white sticker on right in front of you and it goes back on the shelves.
Take this senerio. Poor college kid's zip drives dies ugly via click of death. Has no time to send it in, big cad project on zip. Has no money to buy a new one. He runs off to Fry's buys a zip drive on credit card, and installs and tests it on his computer. Then he put's his old non working drive back in the packaging and returns it. "Yeah just not what I needed". White sticker and back on shelves.

[This message has been edited by Yar1182 (edited 07-20-2001).]

[beaver]

I like DanU's story of the "Fry's Experience". It's true.
In NW coast, Washington and Oregon, there exists only one Frys'. Often I need an excuse to go there (45 miles drive).
For computer funs, it's a right place but not for housewives, even Fry's selling applicance (washer, dryer, oven...etc). simple reason is, reps there are not professional. No helpful guidance given. You need to know what you want and make your own decision w/o reps's guidance.

[surrealchereal]

They carry cases, but I think you get a better deal at Best Buy, or in this area I have like Steve R Jones sez. it just depends. Sometimes they have tons of them and sometimes just a few.
One of the things that makes Fry's so cool is not that it's great deals, just that it's GREAT. Huge, we are talkin' Nerd Heaven! You will be going up and down the isles drooling. Or at least I do. Especially if I'm in a new one and it's huge. I almost went into spasms at the one near CMonster. Huba Huba
http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[CMonster]

DanU - the trick is not to go to Fry's on a weekend or evening. You have to go first thing on a weekday morning.

I was just at the Burbank Fry's (Flying Saucer) yesterday morning and bought a 'boxed'(heatsink/fan/warranty) 800mhz Celeron/ 100mhz fsb for $99 -I upgraded a Cellery 533 system and sold the system to a friend. For the record, the 533 clocked to 800 but not all that stable.

BTW - I "know someone who knows someone in the know" at the Woodland Hills Frys (Alice in Wonderland) and "he said she said" that during the Christmas holidays they gorss about $3,000,000.00 a day -pure 2nd hand rumor -pretty busy place.

[Imperion1]

Not all white stickered boxes are bad. I bought a Creative PC-DVD Dxr2 w/ mpeg card from Frys, Phoenix- AZ., about 3 1/2 years ago for $99 refurbished unit. Regular price was still $199 for a new one. And it still works great, of course now, its pretty much outdated. It is a 2x DVD, 24x Cdrom.

Yea, Frys is big, I think the only things I have seen at Frys is a bedroom suite or living room suite. They have lots of other stuff. Usually took me 5 hours to go through the hardware and software isles.

And last time I was at Frys, 2 1/2 years ago, they sold Antec cases. The full tower, 6 - 5 1/4 bay, 2 - 3 1/2 bay, 2 - 3 1/2 hidden bay w/ 250w power supply cost me $99.
I'm still using this case, of course I upgraded to a 300w Antec power supply.

I'd like to see a Fry's Electronics in Oklahoma, preferably around OKC.
I really would be broke then.

[JScottieC]

I've lived in proximity to the Silicon Valley all my life, and now I live in the heart of it (San Jose). I have access to 4 Fry's within a 10 mile radius. I am very in touch with the Fry's experience and buy the friday SJ Mercury for the 8 page advertisement. I've found that thier everyday items tend to be inline with most retail establishments. However thier 'sale' prices are sometimes well below Pricewatch + shipping. Some of there stores carry antec cases, I think a friend bought one for about $80 - a server case with a hinged drive cover (alienware calls them dragons), but that was close to a year ago. Word of advice: don't buy thier ram - its mixed chip and has a 50/50 chance it will fail on you. White sticker items you have to take a chance on - I bought a linksys switch that works great, although I had to dig through the rest of the returned boxes to find one with all the software.... Oh and don't bother with the sales help, out of my many experiences at Fry's, only once did I find a rep that spoke fluent english aaannnd could answer my question. One last thing... Plan your strategy before you enter the mecca of suggestive placement of product traps.

[surrealchereal]

Ck out the Best Buy when you go into town. They sell antec cases too.

Oh and regarding
EDIT-------> REMEMBER ABOVE ALL avoid the items with the white return tag!!! Who knows what dumb@ss messed with whats inside...
Yes but being the queen of scratch and dent I got an Awesome deal on an MSI motherboard there, hey so what if it was more than a few months old it was a good board for the $$$$., Got it home opened the box and presto changeo.. turned out to be a PCChips Mother board, no $ would have made it any kind of a deal. When I returned it, I looked like the thief doing the switcho changeo.

[joerg]

I just got back i looked at Bestbuy, Compusa, and Frys ended up buying a Enermax A1QX case i really like it. Could anyone tell me what the speaker at the bottom is for. Oh and it was on sell for $79.

[Kabuki]

I worked at the solitary NW Fry's in Wilsonville, OR for about 2 years. Beaver probably understands best, but unlike any of the other stores, this one doesn't have a theme. Unless 'converted Incredible Universe' is a theme. They were supposed to get a theme by the end of '99, something along the lines of an old growth forest... Yeah, you can't beat the selection, but they will hire you into sales without having to demonstrate a knowledge base at all. Also be careful of where the sales people push you. If their nametag (in computers or components) says Computer/Macintosh/Component sales, then mostly what they are looking to do is up their commission. That used to **** me off royally. Also read the fine print on the 'Performance Guarantee' sh*t, because they don't cover everything. If you do something that voids the warranty from the manufacturer (like opening the case to install more memory without being a certified technician), and it voids the P.G. too. All of the memory that Components sells, whether it is 90 day, 1 year, or Lifetime warranty, has a lifetime warranty from the manufacturer, but the stated limit is when FRY'S will take it back. The company doesn't care about their employees very much either, so that may be reflected in the attitudes of the employees. In my case, I was suspended for 3 days after I found porn on the internal network, and brought it to the attantion of my supervisor. Somehow, I was at fault because Graphic that I was looking for happened to have a similar name as the other JPEG, so my c*.jpg search brought that up as well. So much for keeping the work environment professional. Let me know if you guys have any questions about corporate policies and such. Oh, and BTW, if you walk right past the Door Nazis, and they ask to see your reciept, you don't have to show it to them. It's kinda fun, as they look around nervously, like they are going to get into trouble for letting you get by. This tactic doesn't work, of course, if you actually ARE stealing something, as they DO have excellent security personel.

Buki...


[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 07-27-2001).]

[hhh8785]

I live in Irving, right by Dallas, but I go to one in Arlington. Its huge. Yeah its pretty good. If you're building a system from scratch, I'd get my stuff from there if you're not buying online. Compared the a place like Best Buy or something, they have alot of serious computer stuff. They have all your parts, all your software, all the addons you could need. Yeah I'd say go there and look around, and you'll probably be quite satisfied with your purchase(s).

[Scorpio69]

Sorry, I did not read all of the posts, I hope this isn't too redundant. Watch what you buy there. Some things are a great deal ((Cheap) Monitors, Blank CD's etc.) Some things are a huge rip-off (CPU's, RAM, etc.)

My advice is to have in your mind what things ought to cost (check )www.pricewatch.com) (http://www.pricewatch.com) and do not be fooled in to paying much more because of the awe-inspiring super-store feel.

Oh, and if you plan to return anything, pack a lunch.

(By the way, I'm in San Diego, I don't know if the stores will vary by region.)

[This message has been edited by Scorpio69 (edited 07-27-2001).]