Lots of nostalgia about Fry’s here. Well, I have a different take. Fry’s was my first job, and my first introduction to wage slavery. They never at any point cared about employee health or well-being. Breaks were the state minimum. Pay was the state minimum. The entire staff (and there were hundreds back in the day, when the checkout line would back up into the store even with 20 registers open) shared one 7x7 beige break room. It looked like something from Prison Architect, just an old tube TV with bent bunny ears (you weren’t allowed to turn it on though, it was for training) and the stale smell of cigarette smoke. Knowledge was irrelevant, it was all about sales. SPIFs (bounty-style sales commissions) and revenue ruled the day. Aside from that, the owners didn’t care; cliques and in-groups ruled hiring and firing in the absence of leadership. Stores were always falling apart even when they were new. I don’t think anything over 7’ up was ever dusted; even 20 years ago, it was so thick in some places you couldn’t see the paint. The repair bar employees would regularly rifle through customers’ hard drivers and keep the juciest pictures.
Just another cynical retail empire, pumped hard and drained dry by its owners while the foundation rotted from below. May they build condos on its grave.
We mainly stopped going there because they treated customers like they might be stealing something. We didn't like being treated like potential thieves; I know they probably have a problem with shoplifting, but being constantly treated like that isn't pleasant.
I agree with this. There are so many other stores that do loss prevention in a way that is effective but very muted if you aren't a thief. The way Fry's did it almost felt like disdain towards their customers.
I've done that at Walmart before. Walmart has this policy where if the item you bought is too big to be put in a bag the greeter tries to check your receipt.
You're right - they can't do anything. But it still is a very unpleasant interaction. Also, not very effective anyways. Target on the other hand doesn't check receipts, but they have a well trained loss prevention team that watches the cameras and they know when someone is stealing. The only person who gets a bad experience is the person committing the crime.
Overall though, I just hate the experience of going into stores in general these days. Not just because of COVID, it's because in almost all cases, the staff is incentivized to sell you things that make the company the most profit. Either because they get a commission or because if they don't they get their hours cut etc... They aren't actually trying to help you solve your problem, which is the whole point of having sales associates.
So now I end up doing independent research on whatever I'm going to buy, it's usually cheaper online and I don't get asked if I have a rewards account, what my phone number/email is, what my zip code is, do I want to open a credit card? etc etc...
I often open packages so I can actually see the product before buying it (if the package is not sealed shut), and I've always wondered whether this catches the attention of people on the cameras. I've never done this in electronics stores, but for stores like Princess Auto (similar to Harbor Freight), particularly in the surplus section, it's practically required because so much stuff comes in generic boxes with no or poor pictures amd very little labelling. Other stores, too.
The Target system isn't 100% effective though. I once saw a guy ask to see a laptop, then grab it and make a mad dash for the door. He got away with it. I think it was shortly afterwards when they moved the electronics department to the back of the store.
I got caught shoplifting at Fry's once upon a time when I was on new medication acting crazy impulsively. The loss prevention guy tackled me in the parking lot and the rest is history. He said he was an ex-marine. Luckily the thing I stole was on sale that day and did not exceed $500, so it was a misdemeanor but I would end up spending way more than that in attorney, court and probation fees.
At a point in my life I liked that place but that was a very brief moment. I saw they did everything wrong, they staff wasn't knowledgeable and you wouldn't expect them to be at minimum wage. The isles I cared about most, the electronics component and the test equipment isles were always shitty, if I bought something it would never get restocked again.
Sad to hear these stories. For me, Fry's was the opposite. I wouldn't call them experts, but they were more knowledgeable than the competition (Best Buy, etc). Also, no other place in this city that has some of the components they would sell. Now the only option is to buy online.
To be fair, "more knowledgeable than Best Buy" is a pretty low bar. In desperation I went to a Best Buy looking for a SATA controller (circa 2004) and they said "The controllers are over here..." and took me to the game pads and joy sticks.
A couple of years ago, I'd asked where their UPS's were (I'd bought one from a Best Buy more than 10 years back so I knew they had stocked them) and they told me there was a Fedex near by.
The last time I went to Best Buy I wanted a laptop. Found a good one but there weren't any out on the floor, so I waited forever for a salesperson to help. They went into the back room and came back out, saying it was an older model that was no longer available but I could have the replacement model if I wanted. I asked to see that model and they said sorry, we don't have a display unit. I whipped out my phone and quickly found out that Micro Center had it in stock, on sale for $50 less. Couldn't get out of there fast enough.
Yeah, I too had an annoying case where the Best Buy salesperson pretty much said he wouldn't help me find the product that their web site claimed was in stock. He just pointed me to the aisle and said "If we have it, it's there" - ignoring my remarks about it not being in that aisle.
So I went online, ordered it for pickup, and simply came back a few hours later and picked it up.
I needed it the following day so I couldn't rely on an online purchase with shipping.
Honestly, except for the commissions bit (I never had a commission job), that describes every retail job I had as a kid. I think margins are too thin to focus on cleaning, maintenance, and break rooms. I usually took my breaks anti-socially in my car.
It certainly describes the retail job I had as a high school kid at Advance Auto Parts. Minimum wage, minimum breaks, awkward hours, pushy sales requirements from corporate, auto repair education was a joke and it basically self-selected for the few weekend wrenchers willing to work for $7.25/hr.
I remember taking my computer into repair at some Chinese shop. When I came to pivk it up, all their floor demos were showing the pictures and animations I had collected.
This reminds me of a time about two years back where I smashed my iPhone screen dropping it without a case in a parking lot and I immediately needed it for 2FA and things so I took it directly to a phone repair shop. The guy there attempted to ask me for my pincode several times and I had to deadpan stare him in the eyes and say "You will not get my pincode to replace my screen. Just put a new screen on it."
I took a machine to Fry’s to be repaired once. The look of surprise and disappointment when the tech saw there were no drives in it was hilarious. They did a good job though once we got past that.
This describes Walmart, Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples, etc or pretty much any low level retail job. I don't think any employer at all really gives a flying fuck about their employees though. You start making $70k+ and they seem to care, just a tiny little bit but I think it's all mostly to put on a show and really only about making money. Reality hurts.
I was never employed at Fry’s, but regularly shopped at the Oregon and Washington stores, and to this day I always remember thinking that the employees looked more bedraggled than at any other store I had or have ever shopped at. There was a feeling of defeat, abuse, and under-appreciation in the air.
As a possibly former employee (who among us can recall every place they've worked in the past?) who may not have looked at any number of prior employment agreements in an awfully long time, and completely apropos of nothing, I just want to note that endemic is such a good and relevant vocabulary word for current events. I mean, there's the global pandemic, and other things people are talking about, all kinds of uses! Very relevant!
I'm roughly the same age, and while I can remember all the brick-and-mortar places I've gone to work, there was a period where I did temp work and I'm sure I couldn't name all the agencies I worked for and certainly not all the clients.
If you're younger and grew up in the gig economy, that might be much more common.
In my 30s here but I think I more or less remember. For a year or so I worked as a temporary admin assistant in a few locations, the details on some of those are getting a little fuzzy these days. But if anything I remember the feeling of working there a lot better than what the workplace looked like.
Nice bait - you pull me out of lurker mode to respond. I remember most jobs I have had that were paid - including that one kelly temp services job I had that I drove 1.5 hours out into the middle of no where to stand on the start of a one way bridge with a stop sign on a pole and wear a hard hat in the hot sun to 'help' direct truck traffic to a quarry. I was only there 4 hours, but still remember why I was so determined to complete an education.
This isn't surprising to me. What does boggle my mind, is that anyone would take their personal PC to any repair shop and allow strangers full access to their filesystem in the first place. What an odd and ignorant thing to do.
It's simple, really: "Do I have to type in my password to log into windows? Yes? Okay then there's no possible way around that. here you go my good sir"
I worked there for half a day. Did the training and had just started my job when the manager told me they needed me tomorrow at a store 4 hours away at 6am. I left and never came back.
It wasn't the worst job I ever had, but the place was really poorly run, and they took advantage of me.
I was just a high school kid stocking shelves, but knew as much or more about the computers as the fulltime commissioned sales people. I was constantly getting paged to assist a salesperson.
I would do all the work, explaining the product and helping the customer make a decision, and then the salesperson, would say "Thanks, I'll take it from here."
Also, their theft control was atrocious. The cameras were not on, the guy checking receipts at the door barely looked, and people just walked about with expensive stuff all the time.
Just another cynical retail empire, pumped hard and drained dry by its owners while the foundation rotted from below. May they build condos on its grave.