Frying Today

Fry's is one of those Bay Area institutions that everyone knows here, but no one has heard of outside of this area.


I first came over Fry's in mid 2004 when I was here and discovered that, although my phone as tri band and fine to use in the USA, my phone charger was firmly 240 volts only, and no good here. I asked some colleagues, the guys who run Sun's technical security systems as it happens, where I should go to get a proper charger. The answer to them was obvious; Frys.


I'm not sure that the Egyptian (if that's what's its supposed to be? Maybe South American?) theme is not a bit tacky - but I do love Frys. It's packed, and I mean packed, with electronic goodies. This was the sort of place that would have been a dream for me to come to, when I was a child. I remember when one of the guys from India brought a laptop charger that was no good for this country, I thought that was great. Another excuse to go to Frys. I seemed to spend half my life at Frys when I first came here.


I was at Supercuts before Frys. I don't know why people look down so much on Supercuts here. I think it's great. Sun's former CEO (Scott McNealy) used to make a big thing out of having his hair cut at Supercuts, despite being a multi-millionaire, as if it made him a man of the people. I never saw him there and this Supercuts is just opposite Sun's corporate headquarters. The last time I was in a "salon" style hairdressers, I felt really ripped off. Around $180 for a hair cut and colour and another $80 for some expensive gunk that they really thought I should buy. The hairdresser there chatted on her cellphone when I thought she should really have been paying attention to me and kept saying that the colour was just right - when it clearly wasn't.

Supercuts is staffed up with these really nice little Asian ladies. The one who does my hair is called Hong, don't think her second name is "Kong". No cellphone chatting, a good colour and only $55. Looks like McNealy was right after all.