Fry's Electronics

Fry's Electronics, Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Consumer electronics retail
Founded	1985; 32 years ago (1985)
Founder	John Fry William Randolph "Randy" Fry David Fry Kathryn Kolder
Headquarters	San Jose, California, U.S.
Number of locations	34
Key people	John Fry, CEO William Randolph "Randy" Fry, President David Fry, CFO / CIO Kathryn Kolder, Executive Vice President
Revenue	$2.00 billion (2011)
Number of employees	13,999 (2011)
Website	frys.com

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.

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.

The original Sunnyvale store (located near the intersection of Oakmead Parkway and Lakeside Drive) stocked numerous high-tech supplies such as integrated circuits, test and measurement equipment, and computer components, as well as software and various other types of consumer electronics. The store was and still is one of the few retail outlets in the country that sold off-the-shelf microprocessors such as the Intel 80286. The store also sold T-shirts, technical books, potato chips, and magazines, including Playboy. At first, approximately half the store was stocked with groceries including fresh produce, but the groceries section quickly diminished to displays of soft drinks and snack foods. The store billed itself as "The One-Stop Shop for the Silicon Valley Professional", as one could buy both electronics and groceries (computer chips and potato chips) at the same time.