Atlanta

Fry’s Electronics is going out of business.  ToNeTo Atlanta has confirmed that the iconic San Jose, California-based retailer has permanently closed all of its stores nationwide.  The company website displayed a “Service Unavailable” error message late Tuesday night which was replaced by a splash page displaying the closure announcement early Wednesday morning.  The message, which addressed the closure and thanked customers, seemed to confirm the rumors that had been percolating on Reddit and other platforms for well over a year regarding the imminent demise of the once wildly popular store.  

The message read in part:  

“After nearly 36 years in business as the one-stop-shop and online resource for high-tech professionals across nine states and 31 stores, Fry’s Electronics, Inc. (“Fry’s” or “Company”), has made the difficult decision to shut down its operations and close its business permanently as a result of changes in the retail industry and the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Company will implement the shut down through an orderly wind down process that it believes will be in the best interests of the Company, its creditors, and other stakeholders.  

The Company ceased regular operations and began the wind-down process on February 24, 2021. It is hoped that undertaking the wind-down through this orderly process will reduce costs, avoid additional liabilities, minimize the impact on our customers, vendors, landlords and associates, and maximize the value of the Company’s assets for its creditors and other stakeholders.”  

Fry’s was founded in Sunnyvale in 1985 by brothers John, Randy, and Dave Fry, and Kathy Kolder.  The brothers Fry pooled funds that they had received from their father Charles Fry after he sold his supermarket business – Fry’s – to Dillons, another supermarket, for $14 million in 1972.  (Fry’s Food & Drug and Dillons are today part of The Kroger Co.)  The company aimed to “provide a one-stop-shopping environment for the Hi-Tech Professional,” selling over 50,000 electronic items in each store.  In recent years, however, the stores had become a shadow of their former selves with sparse  merchandise for weeks and later months at a time.  

Over the past few years, Fry’s has closed several stores, including one in Duluth near the Mall of Georgia.  Today, the company operates 31 stores, mainly across California and Texas.  There are fourteen stores in California, eight in Texas, two in Arizona, and one store each in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. 

Nearly all of the retailer’s stores had elaborate themes or featured regional history.  In the Bay Area, for instance, the company’s Fremont store store featured the 1893 World’s Fair,  San Jose: First astronomers, the Mayans, with settings from Chichen Itza, and Sunnyvale: History of Silicon Valley. 

Both the Duluth store, located near Gwinnett Place Mall, which closed in late 2019, and the Milton store, which just closed, were on the more boring side.  Each featured “regional history” and were not nearly as cool as many of the other, older stores.  The Duluth store debuted in 2004.  Following its 2019 closure, it reopened earlier this year as a regional headquarters and dealership for Charlotte-based EchoPark Automotive.  

The 152,000 square foot Milton store, located at 3065 Webb Road, opened in 2006 and sits on more than 17 acres, according to Fulton county tax records.  The property, which Fulton county suggests is owned by Fry’s, was appraised in 2020 to be worth a combined (land + building) $12.56 million. 

In their “wind down” message, Fry’s attributed both “changes in the retail industry” and “challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic” as reasons for their closure.  In reality, the store failed to maintain its stores, failed to keep up with competition, and was late to move to ecommerce. 

Many techies, customers, tinkerers, and current and former Fry’s employees took to twitter and other social media platforms to express their disappointment but also their lack of surprise at the closure.  Many shared stories of recent visits where store shelves were nearly bare or where in some cases HDMI cables and Pepsi 12 packs were merchandised throughout entire aisles.  

Fry’s, like other retailers before it, will now join the lists of once beloved businesses now closed for good.  In terms of electronics retailers, Fry’s follows in the footsteps of Incredible Universe (from which they purchased some stores), Media Play, HiFi Buys (a single store reopened in Buckhead in 2015), CompUSA, and Circuit City, among others.   

Are you surprised to see Fry’s Electronics close all of their stores?  Where do you shop for your electronics needs?  What would you like to see happen to the now former Fry’s in Milton?

Please share your thoughts below. 

An Atlanta-based developer is seeking to rezone more than seven acres on one north Buckhead street into what community leaders fear would “forever alter the character of the street and set a disturbing precedent for other area neighborhoods.”  Monte Hewett Homes would like to construct a total of ten (potentially eleven) homes at 1 Emma Lane, just off Lakemoore Drive, adjacent to the popular Blue Heron Nature Preserve, not far from Chastain Park.  

ToNeTo Atlanta’s founder and publisher has been a homeowner in the Chastain Park area for more than eight years and Blue Heron Nature Preserve has become a respite from not only our work to deliver news to our readers but also from the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic.  We share the sentiment of our neighbors, friends and others in the community that if this development is allowed to proceed, it would dramatically alter the idyllic nature of the preserve and the community at large, and also set a dangerous precedent moving forward.   

City of Atlanta property records indicate that the Nicholson family home – 1 Emma Lane – is nearly 4,000 square feet, was built in 1939 and features five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and two half baths, and is currently owned by “The Nicholson Joint Revocable Trust.” 

Real estate sites indicate the property was “pending sale” in November 2019 for $6.2 million.  It’s unclear why the sale never went through, but the price for the property has been lowered several times since 2019, with the most recent published offering price $3.995 million as of September 29, 2020.  It is believed that Monte Hewett has the property under contract [pending the results of the rezoning request] for between $3.5 and $4 million.  

The developer’s rezoning request was originally scheduled to be heard in January, but was at the last minute tabled until February.  The developer reportedly delayed the request in an effort to hear from residents and address their concerns.  (Many believe the delay was due only to the fact that neighbors sounded the alarm on the proposed rezoning and that it was not allowed to be quietly approved as the developer had likely hoped it would be.)  After hearing from the community, the request was pushed again to its current March hearing date.  

Likely the most significant element of the developer’s efforts to appease residents is the “conservation concession” that is mentioned but not explained.  The “concession”  suggests that the developer wants to allocate about 60% of the parcel, roughly 4.4 acres, for Blue Heron Nature Preserve (BHNP).  

“Additionally, should the City Council of Atlanta approve this Rezoning, the Applicant plans to sell one of the lots, totaling approximately 4.43 acres of the Property, to a non-profit nature conservancy fund with the aim that it remain undeveloped and, ultimately, that it be incorporated into the adjacent Blue Heron Nature Preserve”

The developer does not explicitly indicate how this “concession” would work but later indicated in meetings with neighbors that it intends to SELL the parcel to BHNP, not donate it, as many had originally understood he would do.  For its part, BHNP has not and will not take a stance on the redevelopment proposal and is also a 501(c)(3) without the resources to pay the likely multi-million dollar asking price for the “conserved land.”  

Representatives of the developer indicated that the deal hinged on a payment from the Conservation Fund but refused to elaborate on what the purchase price for the total land was or what amount the company is seeking from the nonprofit. Make no mistake, despite the fact the the BHNP is used in the marketing of the site and the developer claims he cares about saving the trees, there seems to be no intention to donate or even sell the property at a discount to add to the preserve.  

In an almost comical comment, the developer’s attorney and representative said on a recent call with community members that they want the community to be “as excited about the development as we are!” Trust us when we say that ain’t gonna happen.  

A similarly humorous tidbit from the developer: “the proposal will have a beneficial effect on the character of the surrounding neighborhood.”

Questions from the community regarding runoff, ecosystem disruption and where animals like the deer that frequent the property in question will go were not addressed.  Additionally, the “minutes” from the initial community meeting took almost 4 weeks to be provided to representatives and none of the dozen questions raised by the Emma Lane Community Action Group were answered.

Plans call for the homes to be constructed as 4 bedroom, 4.5 baths with an average selling price of $1.2 million.   (Monte Hewett is also the developer of the new and slow to sell, high density, cluster home development  “Enclave at Chastain” on Lakemoore Drive, around the corner from Emma Lane.) 

Concerned neighbors mobilized shortly after the development became known and started the Emma Lane Community Action Group to mobilize community opposition.  We encourage everyone to get involved in opposing in incompatible infill redevelopment. 

Have you ever been to Blue Heron Nature Preserve?  Do you think this redevelopment makes sense for the community?  What is your favorite park or greenspace in metro Atlanta? 

Please share your thoughts below and join the action group!