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.
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.
It is very interesting to see what became of this Fry's after it closed. When we got the news about Fry's closing, it seemed like maybe no regular shopper would ever step foot into a Fry's again, but that obviously was not the case with this location and the NASA one. It seems this store had about as few shoppers in it during the liquidation as was the case during my last couple of visits to Fry's (the NASA location specifically) before the liquidation! And, of course, some of the empty shelves and displays were empty even before the liquidation as well.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Fry's sold that piano. It's a Steinway piano, which is considered one of the best and is used in many classical concert halls, so I suspect someone would have paid good money for that piano. Then again, they would have had a very difficult time packing it up for a customer! I guess we'll never know what became of this piano and also of the antique truck that was at the West Rd. location. Steinway has a piano store in the River Oaks Shopping Center and it is quite an upscale store as one would surely expect.
I suspect that maybe ~12 years ago or so, Fry's might have sold some people on a home projector and home theater audio system with those home theater rooms. These days, it's probably harder to sell people on those as compared to large screen flat-panel TVs and soundbars. Still, that room looks neat.
I had to laugh at the inspirational posters in the employee's room. Fry's employees really need inspiration in the last few years! They really seem like something from the 1990s, but Fry's wasn't even in Houston at that time.
It wouldn't be Fry's without snack food at the register queue and so it's fitting that this store still had the snack food!
I'm glad you were able to buy a basket. That'll be a great piece of Fry's memorabilia. Fry's is certainly a retailer worth remembering and having stuff from in your collection.
There were a few corners of the store I didn't get to, but not much had changed since that part of the store was already mostly empty in 2019. I had more access here than at the NASA store. It was a surreal feeling to be inside of a dead store. The shutdown of Fry's was so strange.
ReplyDeleteFry's had so many products, you could find almost anything you needed. Big piano's, big screens, and so much more.
The Dallas Fry's I visited was originally an Incredible Universe store. I was not able to get very far in the store due to barricades. I will feature that store before I tackle the NASA location.
I purchased a hand basket from each store I visited and from the NASA location I purchased a plastic basket holder with a big Fry's logo.