[TriLUG] OT:Fry's Electronics was:[<rant>Intrex just lost a customer</rant>]

[Rick DeNatale]

On Mon, 2004-05-17 at 16:36 -0400, Jeremy Portzer wrote:

> I don't think there's any connection any more (if there ever was).  The
> Fry's food/drug stores are completely owned by Kroger Co. of  
> Cincinnati.  No relation to the electronics chain.
> 	http://www.frysfood.com/aboutourcompany.htm

There used to be:
http://www.hoovers.com/fry's-electronics,-inc./--ID__40949--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml has:


> The technogeek's superstore -- whose notoriously bad service is
> chronicled on unaffiliated Web pages -- began in 1985 as the
> brainchild of CEO John Fry (with brothers Randy and Dave) and EVP
> Kathryn Kolder. The Fry brothers, who got their start at Fry's Food
> Stores, still own the company.

It looks like the Fry family kept the electronics stores when they sold
the food and drug company to Kroger, although neither the Fry's
electronics nor the Kroger websites mention each other. There is a web
site for Fry's Food and Drugs, but they defer to Kroger for history. 

It's just too easy to edit history when it's on web pages.

Some other evidence:
 * The logos of Fry's Food and Drug and Fry's Electronics are very
similar, with the electronics logo using a more angular font. I seem to
remember that the Fry's electronics logo used to more like the Fry's
food logo, but then sometimes I think that I'm getting senile.

 * Again from memory, the original Silicon Valley Fry's Electronics (at
least the one off Lawrence Expressway when it was south of Lawrence (or
is it west?) was more of a half grocery store, half electronics store
than the current stores. I remember thinking how you could go there to
buy chips, or you could go there to buy chips, or perhaps you could buy
chips to eat while you were soldering the chips you bought there onto a
board.