Fry's was great in its heyday. They had so much stuff!

Well, somewhat great anyway. Sometimes you would get a box that looked brand new - without one of their "discount" stickers that gave you at best 5% off on a returned item. I bought a modem that had the previous buyer's dirty old phone cord in the box.

I would sometimes stop in at a Fry's just to walk around and see if there was anything new and interesting. I'd leave empty-handed as often as not, but it was fun just to experience the place, and you never knew who you might see there.

One time I ran into Linus Torvalds at the Campbell Fry's and we compared notes on whatever it was we were both buying.

The worst part of shopping at Fry's - other than the returned items - was the salespeople who would try to make you follow them to their computer so they could print you a "quote". I am guilty of sometimes throwing these quotes away as I walked to the cash register, just because I was annoyed by this. Why waste my time printing a "quote" for the exact same price listed on the shelf tag when you didn't even help me pick out the item? At least give me a percent or two off the price in return for the hassle.

One time I was shopping for a case for a compact camera. The salesman hovered over me offering to help me find a case from the rack in front of me, until I said, "Look, I brought my camera to see how it fits in different cases and find one I like. I don't need any help." When he saw that I'd picked one out, he snatched the $20 case out of my hand: "I need to print you a quote!" He wrapped the quote around the case and put tape all over it so I wouldn't be tempted to toss it. That one time I didn't have the heart to throw away the quote and deny him his 20 cent commission.

But if I knew the exact item I wanted to pick up, I would wait until there was no salesperson in sight of the aisle, do a quick walk-by pickup, and make a beeline for the cash register.

The other bad thing was the person at the store exit with the pink pen who had to "check your receipt." I played along with this for years like everyone else, until I read that there was absolutely no legal requirement to wait for them to check your receipt. You'd paid for your goods, you now owned them, and you were free to go.

So the next time there was a long line waiting for the exit checker at the Campbell store, I just smiled and nodded with my item and receipt visible and walked on by. A few people in line looked shocked, but the checker ignored me - as he was trained to do - and told the next customer in line "I need to check your receipt."

I don't think it was just online shopping that did Fry's in. They did themselves in with these shoddy business practices.

And their website! I did occasionally buy something online for store pickup. That was pretty convenient if I knew the exact item I wanted. But if I had to search for anything... Forget it! They had the worst search algorithm ever. I think it just "or'ed" all the words, so if you searched for, say, "netgear cable modem", it would list all the products that included any of those words, without giving any priority to an actual Netgear cable modem.

My last visit to a Fry's was the Sunnyvale store in 2019. I had a store credit for about $10, and I was in the neighborhood and figured I ought to stop in to buy something and use up the store credit. I found a USB extension cable that I could use that was marked at $10.99, so I figured that would do.

When I got to the register (the only one out of 20 that was staffed, because there were only a few customers in the store), it turned out that the cable was on sale for $7.99. Even with tax this was less than my store credit. I guess they could have given me another store credit slip, but the cashier asked for a manager to approve a cash refund. This angry looking manager walked up, scowling at the cashier and me all the way, and approved the refund of a buck and change.

Despite all of this, I will miss Fry's. At one time there was no other place like it.