As promised, it's time to check out Fry's Electronics! This store opened in 2002, and lasted (seemingly unchanged) all the way until earlier this year, when the whole chain went under. Being a later-built store, this one isn't nearly as cool as most of their stores, lacking the theming and props that they were known for, but compared to practically any other chain store out there, it was still super cool, so I had to go check it out a few years back (knowing that Fry's had been showing signs of going out of business for quite a while already at that point).
Wow, there are a lot more cars in the parking lot here than there was during my handful of visits to the NASA and Greenspoint area Fry's Electronics here in Houston in 2020 and 2021. I made my last visit to Fry's, the NASA one, in late January 2021. By that time, half the store was already closed and everything was consolidated into the PC side of the store. I did get what I wanted, but boy was the store quiet on that day.
ReplyDeleteBut, yeah, I'm glad I stocked up on CD-Rs and CD envelopes that day in January when I did because nobody else in town that I know of has that kind of selection and prices on blank optical media, lol. It was always odd that Fry's always prominently featured blank media in their ads even in their last few years. Blank optical media probably wasn't much of a draw for most people, but I guess some people like myself still buy it. Even Sam's Club still sold it in their stores in at least early 2020 (I have not been to Sam's since the start of the pandemic) so I guess it must still sell because I can't imagine Wal-Mart would keep stuff around that doesn't sell.
Just for reference, here are Je's threads about the Houston Fry's locations on the Louisiana & Texas Retail blog just for comparison purposes:
Greenspoint Fry's (this opened in 2000 and was the first Fry's in town...it has an early 20th century petroleum industry theme to it): https://southernretail.blogspot.com/2020/06/frys-electronics-west-rd-2019.html
NASA Fry's (the second Fry's in town and probably the neatest with the International Space Station theme): https://southernretail.blogspot.com/2020/06/frys-electronics-nasa-webster-texas-2019.html
NASA Fry's re-visited: https://southernretail.blogspot.com/2021/02/frys-electronics-34-webster-texas.html
SW Houston Fry's (the newest and most boring of the Houston Fry's...I suspect this is a carbon copy of the Renton Fry's, but I suppose we'll see in the photos): https://southernretail.blogspot.com/2020/06/frys-electronics-west-houston-2019.html
Yeah, there was a surprisingly large amount of cars here... but that didn't actually translate to a lot of shoppers. I don't know where all the people were -- perhaps people were using this as an unofficial park and ride. I doubt there were more than 10 shoppers in the whole store!
DeleteThis store is certainly a lot like that SW Houston store, but with even less stock! Yeah, it was that bad...
The Greenspoint Fry's usually had more cars in the parking lot and more shoppers in the store than the NASA Fry's. This is true when I visited both of them in late 2020 and it was true during all my visits to the two stores. The Greenspoint store is in a large shopping center which was originally a Kmart power center with Kmart, a Pace Membership Club, and a Builders Square II which is the building that was turned into the Fry's. By the time the Fry's opened, Kmart had already closed the Pace and the Builders Square II obviously. I'm not sure if Kmart ever opened Paces and Builders Squares in the NW.
DeleteThe NASA store, OTOH, was by itself. It managed to somehow be right on I-45 with a huge sign, but yet oddly secluded in a busy area and difficult to get to. Even during better times for Fry's, the parking lot at the NASA store, which was huge, would be quite deserted.
Even with the Greenspoint store seemingly being more busy, I would say their inventory was a bit better than what the NASA store had towards the end. I think the Greenspoint store might have been a tad bit bigger as well, but it's not like that mattered towards the end.
I never went to the SW Houston location so I can't really speak for it.
Yeah, this store's in a bit of an odd spot too. It is next to a shopping center (Renton Landing) with a Target and some other assorted stores, but the whole shopping center is kind of hidden away, crammed in between the Boeing and Kenworth plants. I doubt the location mattered all that much, since it was the only Fry's in the state, but it couldn't have helped this store.
DeleteI remember Je and I discussing this and it seemed to us that maybe Fry's was purposely making it difficult to make it into their stores. With the NASA location, it was located at the corner of I-45 and NASA Parkway (the storefront faced NASA Parkway), but it wasn't possible to enter the store from either NASA or the I-45 feeder road (most Houston freeways have continuous feeder roads which causes retail to cluster right along the freeways). The only way to get into the store was to take the much less traveled back road that leads to the store's loading docks and stuff like that. It was very strange and it confused me when I first visited that location in around 2009.
DeleteBy comparison, the Greenspoint area Fry's was not as hard to get to. That said, I think that's only the case because it's in a busy shopping center and access to that Fry's was still more difficult than it should have been. The easiest way to get to it would have been right off the I-45 access road (these two Fry's were both on I-45, but one on the north side of town and the other on the south), but Fry's did not have an entry to their store from there. The only way to get to it directly from I-45 was to enter through one of the outparcel store entrances and then snake your way to the Fry's from there.
I can only assume Fry's made it difficult to get to/out of their stores in an attempt to reduce shoplifting. Since much of Houston retail is right on freeways, it's possible for a burglar to steal stuff and then get right onto the freeway and then not be caught. Fry's tried to make that a little bit more difficult. Of course, it sounds like the Renton location had something similar.
I don't know of Boeing stuff has offices near the NASA Johnson Space Center here in Houston, but I know that they used to. They probably still do. I suppose it's interesting that Boeing workers here and in Renton were both near a Fry's, lol.