Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank

Posted by walterbell 4/14/2025

Demolishing the Fry's Electronics in Burbank(www.latimes.com)

139 points | 113 commentspage 3

vanishingvistas 4/18/2025|

Always had good memories of hanging out at Fry's in Burbank. Maybe you guys could check out my work-in-progress ROBLOX level that captures that unique experience: https://www.roblox.com/games/18551707487/Frys-Electronics-Bu...

gala8y 4/17/2025||

https://maps.app.goo.gl/3knmmbEHYdgLQett7 Wow.

sema4hacker 4/17/2025||

The first Windows machine I ever bought was a cheap advertised 386 deal at the San Jose Fry's in the 90's. The sales guy took me around to load up a shopping cart with chassis, mother board, memory, hard disk, floppy, etc., with each item stocked in separate store departments. Probably around $200 total. Took it all home, put it together, and it worked reliably for years.

SOLAR_FIELDS 4/17/2025|

As a kid my dad always was building computers and I’ll never forget the first time he took me to a Fry’s and I could just pick all the parts to build my PC right then and there. What an experience that was.

wileydragonfly 4/17/2025||

I miss both Incredible Universe and Fry’s a great deal. Incredible Universe was the only store I ever saw that let me play a NeoGeo and CDi.

johnvanommen 4/17/2025|

I think the best Fry's of all was the former Incredible Universe location, just south of Portland. I believe it was the only Fry's that didn't charge sales tax.

The Fry's by I8 in San Diego was an Incredible Universe too. (Not the Fry's in north county, the one further south.)

mrpippy 4/17/2025|||

That Mission Valley San Diego Fry’s seemingly bought all of Incredible Universe’s old delivery trucks too, and never repainted them. Well into the 2000s, it was hilarious to still see Incredible Universe trucks driving around delivering appliances.

(Also I remember going to the North County/San Marcos one the weekend it opened, think I bought a 128 MB flash drive for $30. Now it’s a Costco Business Center)

jimt1234 4/17/2025|||

The Fry's in San Diego (on I15, near I8) has recently been demo'ed. It's an empty dirt lot now. Not sure what's going in there; probably condos.

supportengineer 4/17/2025||

I don’t know what kind of world we are leaving for the next generation. It’s completely devoid of any character or authenticity.

ajmurmann 4/17/2025|

I'm generally very positive about technological and economic progress and just defended Fry's being replaced by online stores to my wife. That said, we are losing physical third spaces and I think that's a real problem. Towards the end going to Fry's was more entertainment for me then of practical value. PCPartPicker and online stores are much more convenient than walking around Fry's but if I had a kid who wanted to build their first PC I'd do much rather drive to Fry's together, walk around and check out the parts together etc. Even if it meant we had to go back there more than once because we got the wrong part or something didn't work. The shared effort and other like-minded people around just is a value in itself. My Fry's also was in a mall with a fabulous taqueria. The taqueria by itself isn't worth the drive but made for a great stop right after and turned it into a fun little outing.

We need more things like this but I don't know how to make it work economically. Maybe shopping never was the best focal point for this?

hnburnsy 4/17/2025||

Great video on the history of Fry's and how its stores became abandoned at Bright Sun Films...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cjUqV-jvsSA&pp=ygUVYnJpZ2h0IHN...

Great channel in general.

brundolf 4/17/2025||

My dad and I used to make a habit of going to the Plano, TX location together and just walking around. I'd want to look at the software and the games, he'd want to look at the big TVs. It was one of the few activities we could do together. Lots of nice memories doing that

gedy 4/17/2025||

Sad, but had a few great memories, such as bringing my kids there 8 or so years ago. We bought some cool stuff amongst the Hollywood props, then we sat in and watched one of the Star Wars films in its small theatre. They were young and had a blast.

raincom 4/17/2025||

Fry's brothers made a biggest mistake of not taking the company public during the dot com bubble era. Had they taken these stores public, they would have diversified their investments.

zippyman55 4/20/2025|

I miss the Fry’s of the late 1980s. I need a 7400 chip and a bag of chips. Then pick up a he-ne laser at weird stuff.

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