San Marcos Fry’s Electronics closed in company shutdown

By October 2019, the San Marcos Fry’s store was already being emptied of inventory. (North Coast Current file photo)

North Coast Current
February 24, 2021

Fry’s Electronics in San Marcos abruptly closed its doors Feb. 24 as the chain shuttered all stores across nine states, the company announced.

“After nearly 36 years in business as the one-stop-shop and online resource for high-tech professionals across nine states and 31 stores, Fry’s Electronics, Inc. has made the difficult decision to shut down its operations and close its business permanently as a result of changes in the retail industry and the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic,” the company stated in a notice on its website, which also was shut down except for the announcement. “The Company will implement the shut down through an orderly wind down process that it believes will be in the best interests of the Company, its creditors, and other stakeholders.”

The 144,000-square-foot nautical-themed store was a fixture in San Marcos for more than 15 years. The company had another location in San Diego, which it took over from Incredible Universe in 1997.

Customers and industry observers noted in fall 2019 that the company appeared to be in trouble as stores were emptied of merchandise and customer credit accounts were closed. Fry’s denied the company was in trouble at the time, according to news reports.

In an email to VentureBeat in September 2019, a Fry’s spokesman said the emptying stores were not closing with the exception of a Palo Alto location.

By December 2019, the San Marcos store, which opened in 2003, was largely empty, local shoppers reported on social media.

The San Jose-based company was founded in 1985 and had 30 stores in California, Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Washington.

The computer section of Fry’s San Marcos store was largely empty by October 2019. (North Coast Current file photo)

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2 Comments

2 Responses to “San Marcos Fry’s Electronics closed in company shutdown”

Raymond on February 25th, 2021 10:37 pm

Fry’s electronics was a good store so was incredible universe at the time the issue isn’t the pandemic with COVID-19 the issue is that management just sought after too much money to make up for the missing profits at the size of the store if it was a smaller store and it had less not a coolness and the people were better and the prices were cheaper like incredible universe used to the store would’ve made it even through the predicament now but as with any company everybody wants money everybody is greedy they want to be the number one company.
But as everybody knows and you’re always taught when your a kid, someone will always be a bad ass bigger and better than you. It was RadioShack and then it was incredible universe that it was fries give it a couple years somebody else will come out and beat fries on their aspects but the problem is not the merchandise it’s pricing management wanting more money that is the reason why Fry’s electronics did not survive they charged way too much money for things that did not need to be as expensive and you can get online half the price with any place
Ray Carney on February 26th, 2021 9:17 pm

RIP Fry’s. Get ready for Chinese stores.

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