Fry’s tries to quell rumors of its demise as customers worry about empty shelves

As customers of Fry’s Electronics wonder why the stores’ shelves are so bare and speculate that the company is in trouble, the electronics chain says it’s making some changes but that it is not closing.

From Concord to Sunnyvale and locations in other states, visitors to Fry’s are lamenting the lack of items at their stores. They’re posting photos of rows of empty shelves on social media, accompanied by questions and guesses about what’s going on.

Some Fry’s customers on Twitter are wondering whether the company is going out of business because it’s so easy to order stuff from Amazon. Others are speculating the dearth of goods may have something to do with President Donald Trump’s tariff war with China.

That’s what an employee at the Campbell store told Jim McClure last week.

“I found an employee sitting at a desk in the middle of the store, and he said ‘because of the tariffs, we’re having trouble getting our inventory,’ ” McClure, a retired firefighter from San Jose, said Tuesday.

In response to inquiries by this news organization, a spokesman for the San Jose-based retailer said Tuesday that the company is “converting most of its suppliers to consignment,” and that its shelves will be restocked over the next few weeks.

“We are not liquidating or planning to close any stores,” Manuel Valerio said in an email. That is except the Palo Alto store, which will close in January because of an expiring lease, he said. He would not comment about any link to the U.S.-China tariff war.

Converting to consignment could mean that Fry’s would pay suppliers only when the stores sell their goods. Valerio did not return a phone call or answer additional questions Tuesday.

Related Articles Fry’s to close its Palo Alto doors for good in January Fry’s was started by three Fry’s brothers and Kathy Kolder with one store in Sunnyvale in 1985, and now has more than 30 stores in California and a handful of other states. Most of its stores are themed — for example, the San Jose store was designed with the Mayans in mind — and used to stock rows and rows of electronics and computing items for the high-tech crowd.

Now, customers are predicting the end, although Valerio said the company is in fact “gearing up for the holiday season.”

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