Soggy Fry’s
In order to take advantage of the tax free weekend, my wiser half and I decided to go to the Super Store of all things Geekdom: Fry’s. I needed parts for a new computer (need my Battlefield 2 fix) so off we went. It wasn’t quite the experience I was looking for. Besides being very crowded (which I expected due to the holiday) the prices were less than stellar. They were averaging $30-$40 more per part than Newegg and on average more expensive than locally-based Monarch Computer. They also did not carry some of the parts I was looking for. I’m not talking about something obscure either. There were tons of associates working there but they seemed to mostly stand in packs and talk amongst themselves. The interior was nice, wood and marble floors throughout the store. This was a vast contrast to the Costco-like interior of the Fry’s I went to in Southern California. Maybe that’s why the prices were so high. All in all it was a pretty miserable experience, granted I’m not a shopper but a place like Fry’s is a candy store to me and I was vastly disappointed.
I tend to agree.. I normally only go to Fry’s when I want to “See” something or there is a special sale there (www.outpost.com)…
Not only was I disappointed because Fry’s is soooo OTP, when I finally made it out there they wouldn’t even match the price of a product on their own website (www.outpost.com — as previously noted by Briam)
Ditto on the fry’s pricing. You’re much better off buying computer parts online.
A few years ago, I would’ve recommended Monarch to anybody. They had ‘Net-comparable prices, particularly on components you need in a relative hurry (video cards, etc.). If you didn’t want to go all the way out to Tucker, Ginstar was an easy trip right off of I-85 North.
But now, if I’m buying a PC component, I’m going to get it from NewEgg. No question. Nobody offline comes close for parts and nobody else online has so good of a reputation.
To give Fry’s credit though you gotta remember a lot of the “great” online deals are OEM hardware, where as Fry’s is mostly retail.