This is the end (of Fry's) My only friend, the end

[potato580+]

Not sure what that means. They were all new retail box units. As someone else has posted, Microcenter also has the 8/16 Ryzen 2700X for $129.

sry for my broken english hehe, simple say thats great deal

 

[64K]

Microcenter is not just competitive on CPU prices, they're often the best available anywhere. On top that, they give you $30 off a motherboard, and price-match everything else with no fuss. If anything, I've gone full circle and started moving away from online retailers whenever MC has what I need, because they're competitive and make it easy. As an example, I just bought this for a family member within the past few days:

$80 - Ryzen 5 1600 (6/12 @ 3.2Ghz)
$55 (85 with -$30 combo savings) Asus Prime B450M-A Motherboard
$63 - G Skill Ripjaw 16GB (2x8GB) 2666Mhz
----------------
$198 + Tax


That's ridiculous. I'll likely buy another set of the same Mobo/CPU to try with ECC for a NAS.

They don't have stores everywhere though. If they had a store here in my city then I would shop there occasionally. Back when I lived in Atlanta it was my go to store for PC hardware and Media Play for my games but times have changed. It's just easier to shop and buy online now. That's why brick and mortar store chains are disappearing. Mall store chains are gradually shutting down to. The past 2 Christmas seasons the parking lot was barren. If people aren't shopping at a mall store during that season then that tells the whole story. Most mall stores only make a profit during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season.

 

[Redwoodz]

Man no one could beat Fry's InStore specials. You have to search and wait for the right deal, but they have some amazing InStore only deals. I think they relaxed that somewhat after that guy got busted for backdoor deals. Now most are online too.

 

[eidairaman1]

Brick and mortar stores aren't competitive on pricing. You can buy anything just about from Amazon and get free shipping as well. The last store I went to looking for PC hardware or games was a Circuit City over 10 years ago and they shut down brick and mortar stores as well.

Yeah and if you needed it yesterday the online sucks

 

[The Egg]

They don't have stores everywhere though. If they had a store here in my city then I would shop there occasionally. Back when I lived in Atlanta it was my go to store for PC hardware and Media Play for my games but times have changed. It's just easier to shop and buy online now. That's why brick and mortar store chains are disappearing. Mall store chains are gradually shutting down to. The past 2 Christmas seasons the parking lot was barren. If people aren't shopping at a mall store during that season then that tells the whole story. Most mall stores only make a profit during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season.

They don't have stores everywhere because they have a proper sustainable business model. The graphic above was not sustainable. The retailers of the country wildly overbuilt, and it was a huge bubble waiting to pop. That's not to say brick and mortar can't survive, it just can't survive in the manner that it has over recent decades. The market will correct for it.

 

[kapone32]

In Canada we have lost the following brick and mortar stores;

1. Tiger Direct
2. Newegg
3. NCIX (actually gone all together)
4. Not really but PC related but Future Shop

For me one of the reasons that these stores closed are because of the economic conditions present in North America. Up to 10 years ago TigerDirect was the undisputed king of brick and mortar PC parts. The best thing for me about brick and mortar are discounted items and deep discount returns. It used to be fun going into those stores and look for deals. The other thing that was positive about them was competition. I remember getting a Logitech G510 with a G700 mouse for $99 from NCIX. I remember going to Tiger Direct and getting 1090Ts for $129 or 965BE for $80. Unfortunately stores were not able to keep up with new product releases as fast as the online (especially Newegg) so I essentially went from 20% online vs 80% retail to 80% online and 20% retail. There is a Canada Computers near me that I go to maybe once or twice a month they have good prices on most things and their product stack is pretty nuanced in all departments but they cannot compete with Newegg for things. I do believe Frys will go the same way as Tiger Direct did here in Canada. I just wish there was a Micro Center within 2 hrs driving distance of Toronto.

 

[64K]

View attachment 136253

They don't have stores everywhere because they have a proper sustainable business model. The graphic above was not sustainable. The retailers of the country wildly overbuilt, and it was a huge bubble waiting to pop. That's not to say brick and mortar can't survive, it just can't survive in the manner that it has over recent decades. The market will correct for it.

They didn't wildly overbuild. They built their stores for the market at the time. The internet changed all of that. Is there anything that you need to actually drive to a store and buy anymore besides fresh produce?

 

[rtwjunkie]

Mall store chains are gradually shutting down to. The past 2 Christmas seasons the parking lot was barren. If people aren't shopping at a mall store during that season then that tells the whole story. Most mall stores only make a profit during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season.

Interesting side note: although malls are closing, high end open air shopping centers have become the thing, at least in my area and Jackson. Although their origins are the humble and ugly strip malls of old, people flock to them in large numbers.

 

[Vario]

Microcenter is not just competitive on CPU prices, they're often the best available anywhere. On top that, they give you $30 off a motherboard, and price-match everything else with no fuss. If anything, I've gone full circle and started moving away from online retailers whenever MC has what I need, because they're competitive and make it easy. As an example, I just bought this for a family member within the past few days:

$80 - Ryzen 5 1600 (6/12 @ 3.2Ghz)
$55 (85 with -$30 combo savings) Asus Prime B450M-A Motherboard
$63 - G Skill Ripjaw 16GB (2x8GB) 2666Mhz
----------------
$198 + Tax


That's ridiculous. I'll likely buy another set of the same Mobo/CPU to try with ECC for a NAS.

The best is you get an open box CPU from MC.

 

[The Egg]

The best is you get an open box CPU from MC.

Bought one 2 days ago and it was a retail boxed CPU with a cooler and an unbroken AMD factory seal.

If it's an OEM processor (which I have bought from them in the past), it will state as such.

 

[Vario]

That's BS. Bought one 2 days ago and it was a retail boxed CPU with a cooler and an unbroken AMD factory seal.

If it's an OEM processor (which I have bought from them in the past), it will state as such.

I think you are mistaken for my intent. I am not implying that the deals are because they are open box. I am saying that an even more generous deal awaits: If you buy an open box CPU stated as such from them you get a further discount on top of the generous MC discount. Doing so I was able to get an i5 8400 for $130 back in 2018. I have seen i7 9700K for $210. Theres some good deals if you wait for an open box CPU to pop up.

 

[The Egg]

I think you are mistaken for my intent. I am not implying that the deals are because they are open box. I am saying that an even more generous deal awaits: If you buy an open box CPU stated as such from them you get a further discount on top of the generous MC discount. Doing so I was able to get an i5 8400 for $130 back in 2018. I have seen i7 9700K for $210. Theres some good deals if you wait for an open box CPU to pop up.

Aye. Yeah, I misinterpreted what you were saying. They do have Open Box deals as well.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Future Shop

We had them here in the states BITD. Really liked that place. It was infinitely better than CircuitCity and CompUsa of the time...

 

[dirtyferret]

They have responded to every comment on facebook lately. I don't think they are closing, I was thinking the same thing. I think they are getting leaner like Microcenter is. ofcourse microcenter is going to look more filled then frys because the sheer size of frys. They didn't used to respond and Below is finally their response to every customer talking about low stock.

"i! We apologize for the low stock levels in our stores. We are moving to a consignment model with our vendors.

During the transition, we have to temporarily stop ordering product as we put new consignment agreements in place.

As of now, we have over 170 vendors on consignment and adding more every week! We appreciate your patience and support during this transition. ^Billy"

Big time vendors like Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, etc., don't sell on consignment. When Circuit City filed for bankruptcy the companies they owed the most debt to were Samsung & HP.

When Amazon buys products from me to be sold under "Amazon" (different then fulfilled by Amazon) they send me a PO for the products and quantity and those items are sold.

I think you are mistaken for my intent. I am not implying that the deals are because they are open box. I am saying that an even more generous deal awaits: If you buy an open box CPU stated as such from them you get a further discount on top of the generous MC discount. Doing so I was able to get an i5 8400 for $130 back in 2018. I have seen i7 9700K for $210. Theres some good deals if you wait for an open box CPU to pop up.

I've purchased two or three CPUs from MC as open box.

 

[trparky]

Frankly, that'd never have made a difference anyways. Retail just has too much overhead.

Then tell me why Microcenter is still around and not only that but thriving.

 

[kapone32]

We had them here in the states BITD. Really liked that place. It was infinitely better than CircuitCity and CompUsa of the time...

I used to go there to get my boxed PC games. I actually bought my first PC from them too I can't remember the model but it came with a Pentium 4 and a AGP video card with 512MB of memory.

 

[dirtyferret]

Then tell me why Microcenter is still around and not only that but thriving.

Microcenter is private so they may not be thriving, they don't release numbers to the public

that said from the several stores I have been to

they have been off the beaten path so that helps with rent
they sell a number of products as refurbished so that helps with profit margins
they haven't expanded like crazy to make their stock look better (see private company above)

 

[trparky]

they haven't expanded like crazy to make their stock look better (see private company above)

Good point, they haven't spread like weeds. There's something to be said for not spreading yourself too thin, you eventually reach the point of diminishing returns.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I used to go there to get my boxed PC games. I actually bought my first PC from them too I can't remember the model but it came with a Pentium 4 and a AGP video card with 512MB of memory.

Ah the memories, right? Good times!

Microcenter is private so they may not be thriving, they don't release numbers to the public

They're doing well if not thriving. They have opened several new stores in the past couple of years. People are beginning to realize that online shopping has severe disadvantages to physical storefronts.

 

[dirtyferret]

They're doing well if not thriving. They have opened several new stores in the past couple of years. People are beginning to realize that online shopping has severe disadvantages to physical storefronts.

I would assume they are doing well, my point is more that as a private company they don't need to release their financial figures like a publicly traded company.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

View attachment 136253

They don't have stores everywhere because they have a proper sustainable business model. The graphic above was not sustainable. The retailers of the country wildly overbuilt, and it was a huge bubble waiting to pop. That's not to say brick and mortar can't survive, it just can't survive in the manner that it has over recent decades. The market will correct for it.

Your graph coincides greatly with the population density of the country. The US can’t follow Europe in many situations due to its vast geography. Still, the biggest drain on big box stores is increasing labor prices. These stores were built with 20+ checkout lanes, but they never open more than 3 due to staffing limitations. Heck, places like Home Depot and Lowe’s don’t even have manned registers—my local stores are all self checkout with a single employee stationed nearby to help when you can’t do it yourself.

Microcenter is different in that regard. My local store is very dense—shelves are 8 feet high at least, and there is very little wasted space. It is also in the best part of town for such a retail store. Very accessible and surrounded by people with expendable income. It’s always busy when I go.

 

[Nkd]

Microcenter is private so they may not be thriving, they don't release numbers to the public

that said from the several stores I have been to

they have been off the beaten path so that helps with rent
they sell a number of products as refurbished so that helps with profit margins
they haven't expanded like crazy to make their stock look better (see private company above)

You made it sound like almost everything is open box there lol. They have a clearance and open box section at my microcenter other than that Almost the entire store is new merchandise.

 

[yotano211]

Frys stores are very vast, so it requires an increase in power cost to keep it cool or warm. They have lots of space that isnt used. Micocenter are smaller and more efficient

 

[dirtyferret]

You made it sound like almost everything is open box there lol. They have a clearance and open box section at my microcenter other than that Almost the entire store is new merchandise.

I never even wrote the words "open box" in that post so how could I make it sound like all they sell is open box? Refurbished and open box are two completely different things...

 

[Vayra86]

Frankly, that'd never have made a difference anyways. Retail just has too much overhead.

Yeah... I really cannot feel sorry for retail businesses running out of juice. I mean... this unstoppable force called internet has been coming at them for over a decade now, there's been time to adjust to it, and it just doesn't seem to work out.

I don't like the net effect of these stores dissappearing but I think its only a matter of time before webshops start opening up service points and stores instead, the trend's already starting it seems. Pricing for real estate is going to have to come down, which isn't a bad thing either, and some shopping areas will have to be converted to domestic ones... again, I don't see the problem here. Especially over in NL... where space is the rarest commodity really.

The big chains that die out... get replaced for a good part by smaller-midsize businesses and that is what we really want. Those are also the stores that are interesting to visit and aren't caught in a corporate policy or massive franchising operation that kills everything that's good and fun about shopping. And if we want cheap... there's always something anyway.

View attachment 136253

They don't have stores everywhere because they have a proper sustainable business model. The graphic above was not sustainable. The retailers of the country wildly overbuilt, and it was a huge bubble waiting to pop. That's not to say brick and mortar can't survive, it just can't survive in the manner that it has over recent decades. The market will correct for it.

Yeah, and look at us with 4.1 per person and even here the same shit happens all the time.