Applied grocery store tactics to electronics retail — competing on price, selection, and volume with 50,000+ SKUs in themed superstores. Hit $85M per location annually, triple what Best Buy stores did. Made suppliers pay slotting fees for premium shelf space.
A decade-long fraud scheme cost them nine figures as a VP inflated supplier invoices and pocketed kickbacks. Meanwhile, they completely missed e-commerce — buying outpost.com but never executing while Amazon launched Prime. Best Buy pivoted to service with Geek Squad; Fry's kept cutting staff and competing only on price as stores looked tired.
Suppliers stopped shipping by 2019. Shelves went bare. PR claimed everything was fine while stores closed one by one. February 2021: all 31 remaining locations shut down overnight after 36 years.
