Fry's Electronics West Rd. After Closing in February 2021 and last chance for the contest

As you may have read previously, we have a contest going on here at the blog. Click here for the contest rules The Louisiana and Texas Retail Blogspot: Retail giveaway update and September 2021 blog update, ending the blog (southernretail.blogspot.com) The contest so far has only received a small amount of entries and ends December 1st. Lots of retail goodies are up for grabs from my personal collection as a thank you for supporting the blog. 

Unfortunately I was unable to revisit this store after the surprise announcement of the entire Fry's chain going out of business on February 23, 2021. Fry's was a chain that I had overlooked on the blog for a while even though I visited their stores frequently up until around 2019. With the rapid decline of their stores becoming more and more obvious, it was time to finally document these stores in late 2019. Fry's lasted a little more than a year after I documented the Houston area stores. 

I made it in time to document the store just before the signage was taken down. If you want to see the store back in late 2019 click here for my store tour.

Here are the views of the closed up store. As you can see the employees were moving items into a rental truck. If you were an employee of Fry's when the store closed, please share your experience. I am not sure if this store had a fixture sale like the other two locations, but the store was completely vacated while the other 2 locations were having their fixture sales.

This was the first Fry's location I visited back in 2000. It was very sad to see the decline of this store. 

I wonder if anyone was left to install car stereos prior to Fry's shutting down. They had next to nothing left towards the end.

The faded sign is still up, even months later. If it hasn't blown down yet.

A month later the signage had been taken down. Some of the ceiling panels have fallen or were removed when the sign was taken down. Those same panels except for one fallen panel were still sitting there a couple of months ago.

The other 2 Fry's locations had tarps placed over the signage and still hasn't been taken down as of November 2021. The NASA Fry's roads are completely blocked off by fencing. You will see more of the NASA Fry's location here in the future, video and photos. 

 

Fry's Southwest Freeway Houston Texas April 2021 Final visit!

Well here we are at the Fry's Southwest Freeway location in Houston Texas. As you may know by now Fry's Electronics abruptly closed all of their remaining locations at the close of business on February 23, 2021. A few online posts came out earlier in the evening, but it was not made official until the next day on February 24, 2021. This location and the NASA Rd. Fry's locations opened up at the end of March for about 30 days to sell off the remaining fixtures. All of the inventory had been packed off to ship out, the stores never had a true going out of business sale. Within the last couple of years of business, Fry's had moved over to a consignment model for their inventory. The move to consignment did not help Fry's at all, inventory had dwindled down to the point of no return. About 3 months before Fry's permanently closed, stores had been downsized by nearly 50% and they still had lots of empty shelves. 

 Here is my Youtube video to accompany my final visit to this location, it was super quiet so I did not add any music to give everyone a sense of how things were. 

  We have been here before in 2019. If you would like to see that tour click here.

Now onto the April 2021 final visit.

Signs were tarped up, but just a few months later they were already gone.

Hard to see the signs, but the fixture sale was in full swing.

Now take a look at the pictures below. There were maybe 5 people inside of the store including the employees. Music was off and any sound was pretty loud. 

Some parts of the store were blocked off, but we will see past the curtains in a little bit. As I walked around and realized nobody was paying attention, I walked into some of these areas. 

Looking towards the main entrance of the store.

Looking from cafe area to the computer part section of the store.

Cafe to the right and fixtures all down the middle. I did not leave empty handed, a nice Fry's hand basket is now part of my collection.

Inside of the Café 29. Fry's location Cafe's were named after each store number.

Once of the blockades separating the store in half.

A little opening, and we will see into this "closed off" area of the store.

Take a look around, this area had been cleared out about 3 months ago of what little product they had remaining.

Now we are going to pop into the entertainment display rooms.

The theater room was open here. I wonder how many people actually sat down and watched a movie in here. For years I thought this room was just another prop, I didn't realize until a few years after Fry's opened that they played movies in here.

Now we are jumping to the computer repair counter.

Looking into the store from the computer repair counter.

You might be waiting for a while!

We will now venture into the computer parts area of the store.

And here is what was left of the store inventory. The NASA location had a lot more leftover.

A fairly recent console display.

A sign of the times, the TV stands were setup for LCD TV's.

The newest video game display.

Now we head towards the back of the store, computers and accessories.

The design of this store was fairly generic in comparison to the themed stores that Fry's was known for. It is not a bad design at all, just not exciting. The other 2 Houston area locations had an Oil field and NASA theme. 

The back inventory storage areas. These storage areas had not held merchandise for a couple of years at least. 

The former computer display area.

These light fixtures are weird. 

All around the store, there were these historical photos from around the Houston area.

With how bad the inventory situation got towards the end, this counter probably looked exactly the same when Fry's was still open for business.

One of the few barricaded off sections of the store. The NASA Rd. location also started off mostly open, but later was barricaded off leaving only the front area open to the public.

More of the theater room.

The view of the store from the theater room.

This piano would play automatically. I am not sure if they had a live musician, but this piano had been set up here for several years. If it would have started playing when I walked up, I may have been really spooked.

A view of the center of the store near the theater room.

Cafe 29 

More views from around the store.

Early 2000's computer monitors and parts.

The vast checkout area. When these stores were newer, the lines of people snaked through this area.

Flooring designs from different angles.

These energy drinks were one of the few products that had not been packed away yet.

The magazine rack on the left used to be filled with all kinds of magazines. It was just another example of the products at Fry's becoming obsolete.

 

Some peeks into the employee rooms near the checkout counters.

Another look at how vast the checkout area was. Both sides of this racetrack style area had checkouts. I think there was around 40 checkouts at one point. 

Another look towards the employee rooms near the checkouts.

A rack of snacks near the checkout. With the exception of these and the energy drinks, the store inventory had all been packed up.

A few more views of the front of the store as we wrap up the tour.

Front entrance view to the Cafe 29.

The entry service counters.

A view of the exit door.

A couple more images as we walk out.

I did my best to photograph this sign, but glare made it blurry.

More images of the store.

The front window of this vehicle had an advertisement for the fixture sale.

More views of the building as we head out.

So long Fry's #29. More blog posts on the way.