Walking into a Fry’s Electronics nowadays is nothing like it was during its heyday in the 1980s and ’90s. There are no long lines at the cash registers. The cafes sit mostly empty, like the store shelves and parking lots.

CAMPBELL, CA – SEPTEMBER 26: A view of Fry’s Electronics in Campbell, Calif., on Sept. 26, 2019. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

The Fry’s Electronics store at 6100 Canoga Ave. in Woodland Hills on Monday, August 19, 2019. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

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The Fry’s Electronics store at 6100 Canoga Ave. in Woodland Hills on Monday, August 19, 2019. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

The Fry’s Electronics store at 6100 Canoga Ave. in Woodland Hills on Monday, August 19, 2019. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Fry’s Electronics is the latest in a long list of retailers to add same-day delivery. The service will launch in Los Angeles and Orange County Wednesday, July 19.



There are also fewer employees to serve people who still patronize the iconic electronics chain, which was born in Silicon Valley in 1985. Fry’s quirky themed stores, ranging from Western to Mayan, were stocked with just about anything electronic from routers and motherboards to coffeemakers and computers — plus refrigerators, office furniture, perfume, candy bars, “As Seen on TV” merchandise and so much more. The stores quickly became a techie haven and hangout.

For months, customers have been questioning the future of Fry’s, posting photos of empty shelves on social media as employees and experts chime in, blaming everything from the rise of smartphones and competition from Amazon to changing customer demand. Though the company is closing its Palo Alto store, it insists it has no plans to quit the business or close its remaining 33 stores in nine states.

But in recent postings on job sites like Glassdoor, dozens of Fry’s employees have been complaining about the company, with several saying their hours have been cut and that many are now working part time. Because of that, they say many employees have left or are actively looking for other jobs.

Fry’s spokesman Manuel Valerio, who recently said the company is switching most of its suppliers to consignment but is not liquidating or closing stores, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Switching to a consignment model means suppliers would get paid for their goods only after Fry’s sells them at its stores.

“It’s often a sign of difficulty,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of analytics company GlobalData’s retail division. “If a retailer cannot afford to pay for product, then there’s a real necessity to go on to a consignment model because it frees up capital.”

Saunders said suppliers might not agree to such an arrangement because they assume all the risk. It is more common for retailers to try to help their cash flow by dragging out their payment periods to suppliers, he said.

Ingram Micro, an Irvine-based delivery partner of Fry’s, at least at one time, declined to comment, and efforts to reach other suppliers were unsuccessful.

An employee of one company that has done business with Fry’s, who asked to remain anonymous, said that while some manufacturers might be willing to offer their products on consignment, it would depend on how confident they feel in that retailer’s business. In Fry’s case, he said, he would be worried that stores might shut down one day and he wouldn’t be able to reclaim his merchandise.

Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia University, said the consignment model has traditionally been used for high-margin, slow-turning merchandise like fine jewelry and furs. Consumer electronics is a thin-margin business but is risky, he said.

“Electronics has an obsolescence factor,” Cohen said. Vendors are “probably loath to supply (Fry’s) with goods because they’re worried” about the chain’s future, he added.

The company has said its shelves will soon be restocked and that it is preparing for the holiday season. But it’s hard for current and former employees, customers — and experts — to believe.

Fry’s, whose first store was in Sunnyvale, now has eight stores in Northern California and nine in Southern California, plus eight stores in Texas and two stores each in Arizona and Georgia, and one store each in Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. The company says its Palo Alto location will close in January because its lease is expiring. But it says it plans to keep its other cavernous stores open.

Bryan Boone, who left Fry’s a couple of years ago after nearly 20 years with the company, says he bets “they’re going to go out of business.” But the former facilities manager and construction supervisor thinks the owners of the secretive and privately owned company — the Fry’s family — are trying to keep the stores open as long as possible to avoid paying the costs associated with winding down the business.

John Fry, co-founder and CEO of the company, did not return emails requesting comment.

As customers, employees and fans of Fry’s lament the chain’s current state, many are blaming the rise of online retail giant Amazon — and changing times.

Earlier this month, Jean-Louis Gassée wrote in his popular blog Monday Note that “Fry’s stores have become sad, pale shadows of their glorious past.”

The former Apple executive, who worked briefly at Fry’s as a cashier after being forced out of Apple, said in a phone interview from France that there seem to be fewer people who want to build their own computers in the age of smartphones.

“A large segment of the population has shifted,” Gassée said. “I remember (Netscape co-founder and venture capitalist) Marc Andreessen saying that software is eating the world. A lot of things that were done by hardware modules that people assembled themselves are now integrated into smartphones.”

He added that some people still want to buy electronic modules or appliances from Fry’s. “But the dimensions of the stores and the market need are probably out of sync,” he said.

Longtime Silicon Valley observer and forecaster Paul Saffo agreed.

“Maker Faire is shutting down,” he said. “Fry’s was a watering hole in the middle of the desert. Now (tech) is so mainstream. … Both models are victims of their own success.”

But Saffo cautioned against counting out the Fry’s family. Brothers John, Randy and David Fry, the sons of Fry’s Food Stores founder Charles Fry, founded the electronics chain along with Kathy Kolder.