CAMPBELL — Fry’s Electronics is closing down another South Bay store as customers continue to report mysteriously empty shelves at stores across the country.
The Sunnyvale-based big box chain announced in a Tweet on Tuesday that it would be closing their years-old Campbell location permanently in order to “repurpose this space in the near future.”
“We will continue to serve you at our nearby locations San Jose, Sunnyvale and Fremont,” the company said.
To our valued customers, our Campbell location is permanently closed as of today. Fry's will repurpose this space in the near future.
We will continue to serve you at our nearby locations San Jose, Sunnyvale, and Fremont.
Thank you for your continued support and business!
— Fry's Electronics (@fryselectronics) November 10, 2020
The proposal to close the Campbell location has come to light as Fry’s Electronics faces a future where online shopping continues to grow in popularity, a structural shift that has jolted brick-and-mortar retail operations.
For months, bewildered customers across the country have found Fry’s stores with empty shelves, posting their experiences on social media using the hashtag #Fry’s. The company has said in the past it is going through a restructuring to employ a consignment model for the future.
It’s the second store in over a year to close after the company decided not to renew a lease on its Palo Alto location in the city’s Ventura neighborhood, a desirable location close to the Stanford Research Park.
The Palo Alto store, which had been located at 340 Portage Ave. in the city’s Ventura neighborhood since 1990, had no choice but to shutter, according to Manuel Valerio, spokesman for the chain computer hardware and home appliances retailer.
Another store in San Jose on Brokaw Road could also close to give way for a huge tech campus being contemplated by a Campbell developer. The project would sprout on roughly 20 acres at 550 E. Brokaw Road, at a well-known site that’s adjacent to Interstate 880, according to documents on file with San Jose city officials.
Fry’s Electronics couldn’t be reached for comments.