[giantrobot]

After Fry's went out of business for a while I thought I missed them. What I really missed was the 2000-2009 era Fry's.

In that era the stores (the ones I visited at least) had surprisingly robust stock. Well into the 00s I found SCSI cables, ADB devices, and even old software from the 90s. If I needed pretty much any random component for a PC, Mac, or electronics I could probably find it at Fry's. No other stores had that sort of selection.

By the 2010s Fry's was far inferior to NewEgg and the like. Trying to shop there became a frustrating experience. Even just browsing the aisles got worse. When they went consignment only there was no reason to step foot in one. It was aisle after aisle of nothing.

[dboreham]

Around 2005 the Lawrence (Arques) location had every length of every color of Cat5 patch cables, on hand.

[giantrobot]

The Arques location was awesome. IIRC they had some old CPUs on display in the book section. Their selection was also pretty impressive. You could find USB2 cables on the same wall as an old HDI-30 to DB-25 SCSI adapter.