[diputsmonro]

I loved Fry's in their prime, probably the early 2000s. I think what made them special was largely a product of the time. Personal Computing was booming and new products you'd never seen before were coming out every day, and this one mega store had everything. It was fun just to walk around and survey what was going on in that moment in time.

From my perspective the main things that killed it were online shopping, as the article mentions, and computing just becoming more boring, at least from a hardware perspective. Once the iPhone came out, that became many people's primary computing device or computing peripheral. Everything you needed was just an app or software which you could download online. The great mass of consumers just need a laptop and a few commodity peripherals, and they can get all that at Walmart. Then Newegg came along and really ate the PC hobbyist market.

Eventually Fry's succumbed to the GameStop effect - their primary market is completely eaten out by online competition, so they fill their retail space with cheap garbage to make ends meet. The last few times I visited my local Fry's it was more empty shelves and cheap bargain bins than anything I was interested in buying.

It was a sad end, but not surprising. I just don't think you can justify having large specialty stores anymore when online shopping is so convenient and the options are so much more plentiful.

[roger110]

About the iPhone making computing boring: PC video game market got much stronger in the late 2000s and 2010s. Maybe the share of people using phones as computers went up, but also the number of people heavily using computers in general did. (Not saying that playing video games makes someone a PC enthusiast or that it's even a real hobby, but it means they buy the parts.)

I think it was just online shopping that killed Fry's, like you also said. Especially all those expensive parts that far outweigh the shipping costs.

Also idk how Gamestop was a thing once even all the console games went onto non-physical media.

[OkayPhysicist]

I suspect Fry's was too large-scale to be supported by the PC gaming market. They would have had to downscale, drastically. The small, gaming-with-a-bit-of-workstation focused computer part stores near me seem to be doing great. But they would fit into the checkout area of the former Fry's.

[ProllyInfamous]

>their primary market is completely eaten out by online competition, so they fill their retail space with cheap garbage to make ends meet

Two years ago I entered a Best Buy (bigbox US electronics retailer) shocked to see the main entry display was (presumably unshippable due to size) BBQ pits. My guess is that it was for reasons similar to your statement (although I wouldn't call it the GameStop effect, as they have a profitable secondhand market).

[com2kid]

The thing is computing has become fun again. Weird and wild cases, crazy water cooled setups, insane keyboards with new types of sensors being developed all the time (not only are analog keyboards a thing now, there are multiple types of analog keyboards!)

There was a lull in the market for a bit but IMHO the tech scene is interesting again.

[iamnothere]

Just in time for $800+ RAM kits, too.

Very glad I refreshed my desktop a couple of years ago!

[PearlRiver]

In my country the government gave people special subsidies to buy a PC in the 90s. You can imagine how that created a retail boom for a few years.