> Fry's Electronics closed here in the west part of Phoenix, several years ago. Their shelves were starting to get bare and were selling things from consignment. It took a while for them to die, and I finally found out why: they were having trouble getting credit to buy inventory.
In 2019, I was in San Jose for a business trip, and I was excited that there was a Fry's Electronics within walking distance of my hotel, so after work one day I walked over to it.
It was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. I went in there, and it was almost completely empty. Very few workers, most of the shelves had absolutely nothing on them, there were barely any workers. The walls that usually had a bunch of TVs were completely bare, they managed to still have a full shelf of PlayStation Classics, and like one little basket of USB cables.
I genuinely thought they might have forgotten to lock the front door after closing, and that I was accidentally trespassing, but nope: there was a person behind the register and I was able to buy a flash drive.
For what I can only assume are obscure financial reasons, Fry's kept their stores open for like a year after they'd effectively gone out of business.
Yeah that's what I figured, but it was really really weird when I was there. It is so odd to go to a giant decorated store in a nearly empty state. I don't think Backrooms was really a meme at that point, but that's the sort of vibe it gave me.