Tell HN: My brilliant plan to save Fry's Electronics

[redsymbol]

Context: https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Is-Fry-s-Electronics-in-trouble-Company-denies-14945559.php

Here's my brilliant idea for saving Fry's:

Two of their biggest problems are

1) Not enough people coming into their store to buy, and

2) Past real-estate investments that left them with cavernous, excess indoor space.

Solution:

Take half the space of each store, and turn it into a maker-space/education center.

Hold workshops there. Free, or dirt cheap, on how to do fun things with a Raspberry Pi, or build your own PC/gaming rig, or whatever.

Have spaces where people can assemble their gear. With a few knowledgeable staff around - plus the friendly neighborhood volunteers who will be naturally attracted to just come hang out at this space - to help out. And since it's right there, they can just walk over to the store and BUY ALL THE PARTS.

Make it FUN. Family friendly. A place where people want to come and just hang out, to be around other technical hobbyists...

A place where local tech enthusiasts go to meet their friends, make new friends, even bring their families. And spend money.

(Heck, Fry's could even sell food and drinks. Popcorn. There would be people there who need to eat and drink; why not?)

Would this work?

Maybe. Maybe not.

But I bet it has a better chance of working than the direction they're heading now.

Thoughts?

[mindcrime]

Yeah, if somebody were willing to invest the money / time / energy into it, I think something like that could work. There would be a lot of details that would need to be worked out, but I like the concept in general.

[vengabus]

We have a Microcenter in our local area that has a spot for buying Arduino/RaspPi parts and so on. I don't know if Fry's has one, but if they don't, they need one ASAP.

The makerspace people will need a reason to show up, something like 1 free small product a day drawn at noon from the candidates who are physically present, or a gift card prize to the best things made in the maker space each month, etc.

Oh, and the workers will have to get rid of the dead zombie look going forward.