Fry’s Electronics, San Marcos. The Jules Verne location.
The theme of this Fry’s is Jules Verne — hence the non-functional Jacob’s ladders and other electronic gear combined with underwater elements. The fish tank used to be nicer. The main tank life still isn’t doing that well.
But that’s beside the point. I’m a long-time Fry’s shopper, from up in Silicon Valley. This one is one of the better locations, mainly because it’s newer. Well-lit, reasonably well-stocked. Don’t count on the staff to know anything — but some of them actually do.
I go mainly for the components section. Sadly, despite having a larger selection, the drawers in your local Radio Shack may be more likely to yield the component you’re looking for. They stock NTE, which has a different numbering scheme, and whoever maintains the section doesn’t do a great job keeping items on the right pegs. Here’s an exercise: try to find a 555 chip.
The LEDs panel is extremely overpriced. I can get 100 LEDs from Hong Kong for the price of two at Fry’s.
That said, I’m still an addict. I generally cruise the tool aisle looking for yet another multi-tool I don’t need; check hard drive prices (their specials are often better than NewEgg); surf the books. Then there’s the checkout game. When you get to the head of the line, your mission is to spot an empty checker before the line-minder does. When you do, proclaim “28! I win!” Every time, you have to refuse to put it on your Fry’s Card.
Does the Fry’s card earn me Fry’s bux or something? No? Then why the hell would I bother?