From: lalbert1@aol.com   
      
   On Thu, 25 Feb 2021 07:16:40 +0000 (UTC), Chris Schram   
    wrote:   
   >On 2021-02-25, Beaver Fever  wrote:   
   >> out of business   
      
   >> Loved going in there and browsing but with no car and no time to shop,   
   >> their home delivery was a godsend. Except they couldn't deliver to my   
   >> home because the credit card billing address is my mailbox place and   
   >> they wouldn't deliver there because it wasn't my home even tho the   
   >> whole reason the place exists is to accept packages on my behalf. So I   
   >> unapologetically unsubbed from all emails and just started using   
   >> Newegg. So yeah, kinda sucks but they were refusing to take my money   
   >> for no good reason.   
      
   >Back in 1985 when the very first Fry's opened in Sunnyvale, CA, it was   
   >little more than a giant mash-up of Radio Shack and 7-11. We called it   
   >Chips and Chips (as in silicon and salty snacks). It opened in a pretty   
   >anonymous building in an anonymous business park right in the heart of   
   >Silicon Valley, and was an immediate hit with the local techies who   
   >browsed the aisles during lunch hour. There were no "theme" stores yet.   
   >(When the Sunnyvale store relocated to a larger space, its theme became   
   >"History of Silicon Valley.")   
   >I think the first theme store I visited was "Wild West" in Palo Alto,   
   >CA. Before we left California, I regularly shopped at "Mayan Temple" in   
   >San Jose.   
      
      
   I regularly drove to Sunnyvale from San Francisco to visit the Fry's   
   store you describe, and the larger one that came later, to wander the   
   aisles looking for anything of interest to a computer hobbyist.  Until   
   March of last year I would visit the Fry's in Concord, and bought most   
   of my electronics there. You could always find some new gadget to buy,   
   and sometimes it was something that you actually needed.  At around   
   the mid-1980s a small store showed up in Redwood Ciity called Dick   
   Smith Electronics with very interesting stuff.  They were big in   
    Australia and were probably dipping their toes in the Silicon Valley   
   water but lasted less than a year ( https://tinyurl.com/csb7vfwb ).   
   And there was the Weird Stuff Warehouse mentioned by Questor that was   
   always an interesting place.   
      
   Les   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)