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Given the audience, it's likely that you've had encounters with at least one of the Fry's Electronics computer stores that ring Silicon Valley. At the least you've seen or heard their ads that blanket the local papers, television, and news radio stations that intersect Diablo Valley and Silicon Valley. The following is a strategy for using their stores on the basis as a cost conscience computer-building enthusiast.
First off, unless you like to walk around huge stores exploring around corners looking for adventures in equipment and software, talking to hurried, uninformed salespeople, and often paying at least high street prices, you had better prepare yourself for your visit by knowing what you are trying to accomplish. The 8-page ads that come out on Friday morning in the Contra Costa Times are designed to lure you in via liberal use of words like 'Sale' and 'Free'. The only time I've seen this section actually have pages that had, in my opinion, a majority of items at lower than average street prices, was the day Best Buy Electronics opened 8 stores in the Bay Area last fall, and had their ads out all over the media. The normal course of events in Fry's ads is to see a few house brand items that are unique to Fry's at a price lower then their normal shelf prices and a bunch of name brand components that are placed and ad space, paid for by the name brand distributors and companies themselves, for product exposure and to establish a street price at any given time in a product's life cycle.
The strategy that I like is to research the name brand component, book, kit or software and what version has what, on that name brand companies web site. Check out a few trusted discount buying web sites or prices in Computer Currents, etc., and figure out if that name brand component is really cheaper versus the added shipping costs, driving time, or convinces factor. A few of these cycles will help dispel sudden-buying-urge disease.
Now days, with the economy booming, in an area where their target customer is making oodles of money, why should a store with the market exposure of Fry's discount their general prices? If a price is truly discounted, it's likely because of a mail-in rebate that, in retrospect, may be more trouble then it's worth because you have to gather the required items, fill in the info just right, make copies, and get it in the mail by the cutoff date. Is the difference in cost worth the money tied up for months, and your time preparing rebates, worth it? Most companies love rebate programs because a low percentage of people follow through.
As I move around the San Jose area every few weeks, I stop by Fry's to pick up cheap paper, advertised sale books, lowest cost OEM factory rebuilt components that I know and trust, and items that I need to finish off systems like cheap computer speakers when I see them, all of which I know from long term observation are at the bottom of their price cycles.
I try very hard not to buy Fry's items that carry their infamous "opened but examined" returned items sticker (Continued on page 11)
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