photo by KlausNahr

I needed an HDMI cable and after being previously burned by ridiculously high prices at Best Buy and Radio Shack, decided to take a trip down to Fry’s Electronics in Palo Alto, where I got this no-name HDMI cable for $15. At that price, if it craps out on me I can afford to buy several more.

But Fry’s, the place nerds go to torture their significant others, is unusual enough that it deserves a blog post.

Ever since I moved to California back in the mid-nineties, I’ve wasted time and money at Fry’s. It’s a serious nerd store. They have a crap load of computer stuff, video and audio equipment, software, books, cameras, phones, video games, music and DVDs, networking stuff, books, and a huge build your own computer area. They also have some semi-related items like housewares, home security, GPS units, car audio, and do-it-yourself components and cables.

Fry’s also has a lot of really random, SkyMall-esque stuff. I found a USB drink cooler and a remote control fart machine, both of which I almost bought.

Each store has its own theme. The Palo Alto one that’s closest to me recreates the Wild West. There are some mannequins of cowboys and a guy in a balloon, and log fences scattered around. I’ve also been to the one near San Jose that is a Mayan temple, and the Burbank, Los Angeles one which had a huge UFO and some other sci-fi attractions within. All the decorations are pretty retro-corny, in that roadside attraction kind of way.

Fry’s themes:

• Palo Alto: Western
• San Jose: Mayan
• Burbank: Science Fiction
• Fremont: Science Fiction (Battlestar Galactica?)
• Sunnyvale: Inside of a computer
• Manhattan Beach: Tahiti
• Fountain Valley: Roman
• Woodland Hills: Alice in Wonderland
• Campbell: Egyptian
• Sacramento: Movies
• Anaheim: NASA Space center
• Roseville: Railroads
• San Marcos: Atlantis
• Phoenix: Aztec
• Las Vegas: History of the Strip
• Austin: Music Industry
• Dallas: Lazy-K ranch
• Houston: Oil Industry
• Webster: Space Exploration

Another peculiar thing is their checkout line. You’re basically shunted through an aisle filled with junk food, cola, mints, chips, and batteries, meant to tempt the geek that believes cooking is inefficient when Jolt Cola will do. At the end is a guy who points you to an open register that has a flashing light, which is one of say, fifty.

There are always a strangely huge number of employees working in the store - I’d estimate about fifty cashiers, two for every aisle, and another hundred wandering around looking nerdy. The standard uniform is slacks, long sleeve shirt, and a tie, and every time I go to the bathroom there are one if not more of them in there doing whatever Fry’s employees do when not standing around. I guess this is no surprise since there are so many of them, but I still find it rather creepy.

Still, Fry’s isn’t all fun and games. I’ve heard scary stories about people taking their computers in for repair and running into a wall of incompetence. And as would be expected, there are a ton of complaints about non-existent customer service.

My advice: Figure out exactly what you want beforehand (brand and model number), go in there with that in mind, and only buy if the price is better than elsewhere. They do have decent specials, and once I bought something (I think it was a printer) where the cashier had all the rebate coupons there, ready to go. I wouldn’t ask the sales people for anything however, unless it’s directions to the bathroom.

Also, since the stores are so large, it’s easy to miss the best deals. For example, all the more expensive HDMI cables were naturally, located near the televisions-the-size-of-barn doors section. I found my cheap cable in the same aisle as the FireWire and USB cables, near the stuffed girl tied to the train tracks (okay, I made that one up).

Daniel Fishman also has some good rules for shopping at Fry’s.

So if gear like a KVM switch, Shuttle PC, or an X-Arcade stick gets you hot, check out a Fry’s Electronics. Just don’t ask an employee for help or you may end up in the bathroom with a fart machine.

Additional Reading: Breakfast at Fry’s

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