Monday, July 15, 2013

Las Vegas Techie Problems: We’d Like Two Fry’s, Please

The lone Fry’s in town is a techie Mecca, and nearly as hard to get to as the actual Holy City.

If you are a techie (or live or work with one), you know that the only acceptable big electronics store in Las Vegas is Fry’s.

You might know that while a second Fry’s is allegedly in the works for a vacant space in Boca Park (the old Great Indoors space), there’s been no sign of an imminent opening at the proposed new store.

This means that when my 15-year-old Techie needs something, we have to drive across town. And because it takes a long time (“long time” being more than 10 minutes) to get there, we have to go on the weekend.

A trek to Fry’s from my house requires checking the gas tank and planning for lunch. For me, just being showered and presentable on the weekend is a major achievement.

Last weekend, my Fry’s adventure started out like it always does, with me finding out that I still don’t know the best way to exit the 215 to get to the store. I only had to make one U-turn, though, which is pretty good.

On previous expeditions, I’ve almost been in Henderson before realizing the store was several miles in back of me. It’s completely unclear which exit to take. I’m just trying a different exit each time we go to see which one lands me closest to the store. Eventually, I’ll figure it out.

At least I now no longer miss the fly-over turn from Las Vegas Boulevard into the store’s parking lot when I’m driving in from south of the store (where I usually wind up after one of my usual detours). The first time I was presented with a freeway on-ramp style fly-over rising from the middle of the street, I thought, “No way, there can’t be a fly-over exit into a shopping center,” but I was wrong. 

Once you get into Fry’s, it’s easy to forget about the long drive and convoluted entrance. They employ friendly, knowledge people who can answer my kid’s most arcane questions.

There is one thing I like about Fry’s current location: the i burgers restaurant in Town Square. (Like I said, you have to plan for lunch.)


Update:
12/6/13: The Las Vegas RJ says that the Boca Park Fry's is still a year away:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/frys-electronics-still-least-year-away-boca-park-site

Are you a Fry’s fan?
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Photos by Terrisa Meeks

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

@Terrisa: Thanks for writing this interesting article. You said "there’s been no sign of an imminent opening at the proposed new store". Is there any sign that Fry’s is doing any preparatory work at the proposed new store?

TH Meeks said...

Haven't seen any signs that Fry's is doing anything at the Boca Park Store & I drive by there every day. I suppose they could be doing something inside the building, but there's nothing externally to show any progress.

(And you're welcome, btw!)

Anonymous said...

The Fry’s project is stalled because Boca Park management is not cooperating with the desire of Fry’s management to get a T1 line installed at the proposed new store. That's what I was told by the manager of the REI store, which is next door in Boca Park.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-t1-line.htm

TH Meeks said...

Thanks for this info! That makes sense -- although I must say that you would think Boca Park would expect some requests of that nature from a tech store, right? Crazy! LOL.

Anonymous said...

@Terrisa: I think there a lot of Fry's fans who are curious about this matter (I'm certainly one of them). Please do some investigative reporting (perhaps you could talk with the REI manager, Boca Park management, Fry’s management, etc.), and post an update.

Anonymous said...

@Terrisa: Thanks for posting your update, in which you gave a link to the December 6, 2013 Review Journal article. But unfortunately that RJ article was very poorly written. The RJ article didn't even mention the fact that the Fry's project began about a year ago. And -- most importantly -- the RJ article told absolutely nothing regarding why the project has been delayed. Once again, I encourage you to do some investigative reporting on this matter. I'm sure you could do a far better job than the Review Journal.