Fry's Electronics

Fry's Electronics is an American big-box store and retailer of software, consumer electronics, household appliances and computer hardware. Fry's has in-store computer repair and custom computer building services. The company has a chain of superstores headquartered in Silicon Valley. Starting with one store located in Sunnyvale, California, the chain posted sales of $2.4 billion and operated 34 stores in nine states by 2008.

History

In 1972, Charles Fry sold the Fry's Supermarkets chain based in California for US$14 million to Save Mart Supermarkets. He gave a portion of the proceeds, approximately $1 million, to each of his sons, John, W. Randolph (who goes by the nickname "Randy") and David, none of whom had much interest in grocery store retailing. Instead, in 1985, they joined together with a fourth partner, John's former girlfriend Kathryn Kolder, to open the first Fry's Electronics store at a 20,000 sq ft (1,900 m²) site in Sunnyvale, California. Today, Fry's Food and Drug stores are owned and operated by Kroger and are not affiliated with Fry's Electronics, although they share an almost identical logo.