Yeah, the Fry's in Austin has been in depressing shape for the past several years, and it's gradually getting worse. Empty shelves, few customers, low-energy sales reps and overall poor upkeep. I think that Fry's demise is drawing near.
Why would I leave my house to buy something? I do go to the grocery store because I like going but anything else, nah. But drive around Houston or any town... it's strip centers for 100's of square miles and every store in them has 5 or 6 employees making minimum wage being bored out of their minds. When AI designs the AI and robots make the robots there's going to be billions of people with nothing to do.
I went to the Fry's on 59S and West Belfort and that thing was depressing. They also had more workers than customers. Shelves looked like they were filled with random crap. How it's still open is beyond me.
Not disagreeing with the overall gist of your post, but the grid is going to have to be beefed up immensely if a significant portion of ICE-powered vehicles go to all electric. Which can be done, but it won't be cheap. As to the OP, the most worrisome point in the whole thread about Fry's was that their sales staff was low energy. As a journeyman Fry's shopper when I lived in the Bay Area many years ago, Fry's had about the most profoundly rude staff and security of any retail outlet, constantly bombarding you with up sales, and grabbing bags to inspect them, but I'd never call them low energy. The SW Freeway and the Webster locations are fairly deserted though, in both staff and product. I use NewEgg for most of my IT purchases.
Yes, I went to the Fry's on 59 last December about a week before Christmas and I was shocked at how few customers were in the store. That place used to be packed during the holiday season. I knew then that their days were numbered. I will be sad to see them go. Sometimes I like to go see the product before I purchase it. And, I have purchased things from them numerous times in the past.
Looks like it's a company-wide death spiral, then-- like Sears, Radio Shack, etc. I bet they have stopped paying suppliers on time for a while now, too, and the suppliers are reluctant to provide goods on credit. "Dead Malls" are now a whole genre of Youtube channels: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dead+mall Death of retail started years ago but is only getting worse. So, what to do with all that empty space? Build houses and apartments, maybe, since there seems to be a shortage of housing in many markets. Plant trees and turn them back over to nature? I read that Amazon bought a dead mall and turned it into a fulfillment center-- which is just... haha? Using a dead mall to expand its mall-killing business.
Fry's is dying and it's sad. I'll admit that I don't shop there much for my needs although I live nearby. But their shelves of electronic parts is more vast than any other store. They are my go-to for bulk cables, connectors, fuses, etc. but those are not big ticket items that will keep the lights on.
Fry's website sucks as well. It's stuck back in the 90's and they are not even trying to make it better. So nobody goes to the store. Their website doesn't make it easy online. Fry's is done...like Incredible Universe.
B&M stores will survive. If you notice, many stores have setup Online fulfillment sections. It allows for Internet prices without the shipping cost. This will continue to expand and it will still allow for in-store browsing and purchasing. Hell, this is the reason Amazon wants a few B&M stores.
I can see clothing and grocery stores surviving, but things like standardized electronics, the writing is on the wall. I haven't been to Fry's since I bought a tv 10 years ago and honestly could never have imagined empty shelving. That place use to always have crowds just browsing things. I think furniture stores will take a hit in the future too if Wayfair catches on.
There's still a need for B&M, but it's condensing. People like to sample big ticket items that aren't spec sheets like TVs and furniture. The only way to remove that barrier is if return shipping is free, but that's very cost prohibitive and a hassle to ship back freight items.
Every generation, there seems to be nostalgia about the retail formats of the past. All these dead mall memorial videos show up on YouTube as online retail take over. During the heydays of the malls and big box stores, all I hear about was how the chains are killing off mom-and-pop stores. Guess it's human nature. If we really think about it though, the past was never as good as the romanticized version. The malls being lamented now were accused of being soulless and homogenized in comparison with the downtown. The mom and pop stores? Well, the Sears catalog rose in popularity partly because racist moms and pops wouldn't sell to black people.
Not to be a complete ass. But the Fry's I have been to have had when taken collectively on average the least attractive group of workers I have ever seen. I mean it was bad from memory lol
I worked hospitality for a bunch of years. It's going to be difficult to find a more hideous workforce than a hotel's Housekeeping department. Maybe Goodwill. The sexy hotel maid was definitely a creation of Hollywood. Fry's did have a bunch of neckbeards working there, then and now, intermixed with the over-cologned, bad dress shirt wearing escapees from a 'buy here, pay here' car lot, that I guess were their supervisors. Goes with the territory, I guess.
