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Fry's Electronics

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Fry's Electronics, Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryConsumer electronics retail
Founded1985
FounderJohn Fry
William Randy Fry
David Fry
Kathy Kolder
Defunct24 February 2021 Edit this on Wikidata
Headquarters
San Jose, California
,
United States
Number of locations
34
Key people
John Fry, CEO
William Randy Fry, President
David Fry, CFO/CIO
Kathy Kolder, Executive Vice President
Revenue$2.35 billion (2007)[1]
Number of employees
14,000 (2007)[1]
Websitewww.frys.com

Fry's Electronics is a big-box store and retailer of software, consumer electronics, computer hardware, with in-store computer repair and custom computer building services and household appliances with a chain of superstores headquartered in Silicon Valley. Starting with one store located in Sunnyvale, California, by 2008 the chain posted sales of $2.4 billion and operated 34 stores in nine states.[1]

History

Fry's Electronics oldest operating store, in Palo Alto, California
History of Silicon Valley themed store in Sunnyvale, California
Fry's Electronics store in Downers Grove, Illinois
Industrial revolution themed store in the City of Industry, California
Space Station themed store near the Johnson Space Center in Webster, Texas

In 1972, Charles Fry sold the Fry's Supermarkets chain for $14 million to Save Mart Supermarkets. He gave a portion of the proceeds (approximately $1 million per son) to each of his sons John, Randy, and Dave, none of whom had much interest in grocery store retailing.[2] Instead, in 1985, they joined together with a fourth partner, Kathryn Kolder (John's former girlfriend), to open the first Fry's Electronics store at a 20,000 sq ft (1,900 m2) site in Sunnyvale, California.[3] Today, Fry's Food and Drug stores are owned and operated by Kroger and are not affiliated with Fry's Electronics, although they share a similar logo.[4]

The original Sunnyvale store (located near the intersection of Oakmead Parkway and Lakeside Drive) stocked numerous high-tech supplies such as integrated circuits, test and measurement equipment, and computer components, as well as software and various other types of consumer electronics. The store also sold T-shirts, technical books, and magazines, including Playboy. At first, approximately half the store was stocked with groceries including fresh produce, but the groceries section quickly diminished to displays of soft drinks and snack foods. The store billed itself as "The One-Stop Shop for the Silicon Valley Professional," as one could buy both electronics and groceries at the same time.

The second store was in Fremont, California, on Mission Court, and pioneered the "theme" stores. It had a space theme and had many artifacts from the original Battlestar Galactica TV series.[citation needed] This was the first store that had people from Industrial Light and Magic help design the store environments.[citation needed]

As the business expanded, the original Sunnyvale store was closed, and a newer, larger store was opened across Lawrence Expressway on Kern Avenue. The second Sunnyvale store was designed to look like the interior of a giant computer; the walls were adorned with simulated circuit components, and the floor resembled a giant printed circuit board. The exterior was painted to mimic a huge DIP integrated circuit, and the door handles imitated the ENTER and ESC keys on a Computer keyboard; as of 2007, this store is now a Sports Basement store (which still bears some of the door handle keys). Fry's moved again to its current Sunnyvale location on the corner of Arques and Santa Trinita Ave. Each of the Sunnyvale store locations has been located within one mile of the others.

In 1996, for reasons that the Fry brothers have never publicly disclosed, they transferred all their shares of Fry's Electronics to a limited liability company called RDL, LLC, and a limited partnership called The Taw, L.P. (the latter also controls the former), and since then, they have controlled Fry's Electronics indirectly through those entities. Their existence became publicly known in January 2012 because Randy Fry's ex-wife, Laurie Hammer had attempted to challenge a postnuptial settlement agreement under which she agreed to accept "units" of The Taw in settlement of her claims against Randy. On January 23, 2012, the California Court of Appeal for the Sixth District upheld the trial court's dismissal of her lawsuit in an unpublished opinion.

Because Fry's stores are enormous, often stocking dozens of variations of a single type of product, they are popular with electronics and computer hobbyists. Historically, Circuit City and CompUSA were major competitors, but they collapsed during the late-2000s recession, leaving Best Buy as Fry's main competitor. Unlike Best Buy, Fry's sells not only fully assembled computers, but all the individual components which consumers need to build their own from scratch.

As of May 2007, Fry's Electronics operates 34 brick-and-mortar stores in nine U.S. states: California (17 stores - Most Recent: Roseville, California); Texas (8); Arizona (2); Georgia (2); Illinois (1); Indiana (1); Nevada (1); Oregon (1); and Washington (1). In 2010, all Fry's Stores dressed for the 25th anniversary of the Store with 25's at the registers and 25th Anniversary sign at the entrance.

Store themes

Following the lead of the Fremont store, new Fry's locations continued the use of elaborate themes and various designed props until well into the late 1990s. For example, the Burbank store which opened in 1995 is themed upon 1950s and 1970s science fiction movies, and features huge statues of popular characters such as the robot Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still and Darth Vader from the Star Wars movie series. In addition, giant ants (from the movie Them!) hang from the ceiling, and the bodies of 1957 Chevys and Buicks serve as dining tables in the cafe. A flying saucer protrudes above the entrance. With construction, land purchase and theming, the Burbank store cost $15 million to open. [citation needed]

Some other themes include, California stores:

Arizona stores:

Indiana stores:

Nevada stores:

Texas Stores:

Since Fry's acquired the Incredible Universe chain of stores, the company has reduced the elaborateness of its theming. With the opening of the Fishers, Indiana store, Fry's made a "race track" theme with various hanging displays, including "stop" and "go" signs. Also there are many early life photos of what life looked like in late 1800s and early 1900s in Indianapolis, Indiana

Criticism

In 1997, Forbes reported on a series of issues about Fry's customer service and somewhat unorthodox business practices. Among the allegations was that the company had an internal policy, identified as "the double H" or "hoops and hurdles", to delay or prevent customers from obtaining refunds.[6]

In 1998, USA Today reported that many customers had become frustrated with poor customer service at Fry's stores.[7]

Fry's advertising methods have also gone under heavy fire. In 2003, actors Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger sued Fry's for $10 million each for posting their images on television sets on their print ads and flyers without permission.[8]

On Black Friday 2007, customers at the Renton, Washington location complained that Fry's employees were offering to let people cut in front of a long line for a fee. After complaints in the media, Fry's management offered anyone who paid the fee their money back.[9]

In 2008, Fry's vice president of merchandising and operations, Ausuf Umar Siddiqui, was charged by federal prosecutors in an illegal kickback scheme involving Fry's vendors. The alleged scheme was designed to defraud the company in order to cover Siddiqui's gambling expenses.[10]

In 2012, Fry's was reported to run email campaigns offering notebooks at unbelievably low price, that was actually not available on its online store. This was done to lure potential customer to its site to buy "other product". [11]

House brands

In addition to selling many major PC brands, Fry's also sold two in-house PC designs. Their flagship Fry's PCs competed with similarly featured Microsoft Windows PC offerings from Hewlett-Packard, Sony, and Compaq. In addition, Fry's offered a lower-end model, branded as Great Quality (or "GQ") PCs. The house branded computer lines are no longer made or offered. They also market accessories like cables and CD-R discs under the GQ brand name.

Online sales operation

Fry's Electronics was late in establishing an online sales presence. They began offering low-cost Internet access in 2000 through their original Web address "Frys.com".[12] The company later bought e-commerce website Cyberian Outpost in November 2001 and started online sales with a different URL (Outpost.com),[13] which confused customers who didn't associate the online name with the brick-and-mortar store.[14] In October 2006, a grand re-opening of Frys.com introduced the online store with the same name as the retail outlets.[15][16] The outpost.com URL now redirects to the frys.com online store.

Domain name acquisitions

The domain name frys.com was owned in 1997 by David Peter, aka David Peter Burlini,[17] who manufactured and sold French fry vending machines under the business name Frenchy Frys and who was also involved in another dispute over the domain newricochet.com with Ricochet Networks.[17] David Burlini[18] attended Santa Clara University around the same time that the Fry Brothers were attending.[19] Fry's Electronics brought suit against him that year, alleging trademark infringement, and ultimately prevailed in a default judgment.[20][21]

Since then, Fry's Electronics has aggressively tried to defend its trademark and domain names. In 2001, it successfully prosecuted a man who was posting its own print ads on the Web using the domain frysad.com.[22] In 2007, Fry's Electronics lost a domain dispute against Prophet Partners Inc., an online advertising company with thousands of generic and descriptive domain names. The arbitrator dismissed the complaint, which requested transfer of the Frys.us domain, ruling that Fry's Electronics did not have any more right to use the "Fry's" mark than other entities with a similar surname or commercial use of the word.[23]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Fry's Electronics, Inc. Overview". Hoover's, Inc. 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  2. ^ Pat Lopes Harris, "Fry's mystique: timing, focus, frugality—and lots of advertising", San Jose Business Journal 17, no. 39 (14 January 2000): 52.
  3. ^ "Corporation Search: Fry's Electronics". California Business Portal. California Secretary of State. 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  4. ^ "Kroger's Corporate Home on the Web". The Kroger Co. 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  5. ^ "History of Fry's Electronics". Fry's Electronics. 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  6. ^ Ann Marsh and Scott Woolley (3 November 1997). "The customer is always right? Not at Fry's". Forbes. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  7. ^ Julie Schmit (11 February 1998). "Techies flock to Fry's despite its flaws". USA Today. p. 1B.
  8. ^ News wire (20 June 2003). "Arnold, Bruce, Denzel Sue Fry's". ExtremeTech. Ziff Davis Publishing. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  9. ^ Bernard Choi (23 November 2007). "Fry's Shoppers Offered Chance to Cut in Line - For a Price". KING 5 News. Retrieved 2009-03-17. [dead link]
  10. ^ Jordan Robertson (8 January 2009). "Feds indict former Fry's exec accused of embezzling". The Daily Breeze. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
  11. ^ "Fry's product at unbelievably low prices".
  12. ^ "Fry's Electronics Home Page:". Fry's Electronics. 2000. Archived from the original on 2000-10-18. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  13. ^ "Welcome to Fry's Outpost.com". Cyberian Outpost, Inc. 2002. Archived from the original on 2002-09-14. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  14. ^ Natali T. Del Conte (27 October 2006). "Fry's Electronics (Finally) Launches Online Store". ExtremeTech. Ziff Davis Publishing. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  15. ^ Greg Sandoval and Jeff Pelline (18 February 2000). "Fry's may launch ISP as part of new Net strategy". CNET News. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  16. ^ Michelle Quinn (21 October 2006). "California: Fry's Electronics Steps up Web Presence". The San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  17. ^ a b Arbitration and Mediation Center. "WIPO Domain Name Decision: D2002-0168". Wipo.int. Retrieved 2011-08-18.
  18. ^ "Santa Clara University, Santa clara, California (CA)". Classmates.com. Retrieved 2011-08-18.
  19. ^ "About Santa Clara University - Notable Alumni". Scu.edu. Retrieved 2011-08-18.
  20. ^ Mitchell Zimmerman (1998). "Securing and Protecting a Domain Name for your Web Site" (PDF). Fenwick & West LLP. Retrieved 2009-03-17. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  21. ^ Will Harper (19 August 1999). "Invasion of the Domain Snatchers". Metroactive. Metro Publishing Inc. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  22. ^ Greg Sandoval (23 February 2001). "Fry's accuses site owner of cybersquatting". CNET News. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
  23. ^ Steven M. Bauer, Esq. (15 February 2007). "Reward of Arbitrator: Fry's Electronics and Prophet Partners" (PDF). American Arbitration Association. Retrieved 2009-03-17. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

External links

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