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  • Author Author: ralphjy
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Goodbye Fry's - You'll be missed

ralphjy

I just saw the sad news that electronics retailer Fry's Electronics is going out of business after 36 years: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/02/24/frys-electronics-has-gone-out-business-after-36-years/4572429001/

 

Fry's is is probably only well known on the West Coast although they had an online presence.  They started in Sunnyvale, CA and I used to go to the stores in Southern California when I lived down there and then continued to shop in the Wilsonville store when I moved to Oregon.  I mostly frequented the store at Burbank Airport in SoCal shown below and also spent a lot of time in the San Jose store in the Bay area because I was always traveling between those locations for work.

 

Fry's was well known for their amazing electronics inventory - everything that a hobbyist could want.  And every store had a theme - like the spaceship at Burbank.  I haven't been to the Wilsonville store for over a year because of the pandemic, but I've ordered stuff from them online.  I guess I won't have the chance to visit them again.  I will definitely miss them.....  Another victim of the pandemic image.

 

 

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  • in reply to ralphjy

    Hi Ralph,

     

    That's the one! Great store.

    I've unfortunately missed out on seeing Berkley, although I've visited lots of the surrounding areas like Fremont and Livermore and of course San Francisco (and a curious addiction to Alcatraz, been at least six times.. I have no explanation!).

  • in reply to ralphjy

    Yes, I know that there were some interactions between the two groups, but I was not involved with any of that, nor could I be of any help in remembering anyone there that might have worked with your group.  I left Teradyne before they shrunk back and closed down the Walnut Creek (Zehntel) office (along with other groups).

  • in reply to genebren

    I never got over to Walnut Creek or used any of the Zehntel testers.  We used to use the Teradyne L200/L300 testers back when we still did our own manufacturing.

     

    I was more involved with semiconductor test and worked with the guys from the Megatest acquisition in San Jose.  And then later when they were reacquired as Nextest. 

     

    I'm sure I knew some of the people at/from Walnut Creek.  Old age has muddled my recollection....

  • in reply to ralphjy

    Very interesting! One of the companies that I worked with was Zehntel, where we built In-circuit testers.  At some point (mid to late 80's) we were acquired by Teradyne and we continued to operate in Walnut Creek.  I managed the software development of the Z18xx line of In-circuit testers that were driven by a PC.  I was there for 10 years (my longest tenure of my career).  We had a good working relationship with group in Boston, where I met a bunch of very sharp and friendly folks.

  • in reply to genebren

    I spent most of my career with Teradyne on the West Coast, so it was our testers.  In the 80s and 90s, I used to provide factory engineering support for new testers at semiconductor manufacturers like Intel and National and AMD.  As we transitioned into this century, we were designing and testing the more complex ASICs that we used in our testers so I was repairing the ATE that I was using at a contract test house to develop and validate the ASIC test programs.  Most recently using our Ultraflex testers at EAG.