What has become of this once-great retailer and Si...

What has become of this once-great retailer and Silicon Valley icon is saddening.

I first shopped Fry's Electronics in the late 1980s, when it was a single store in Sunnyvale, and half groceries. It became an amazing place to see and buy the latest technology. As it expanded, its other locations were decorated with fun themes.

Over the decades, it became clear that salespeople were hungry for commissions and customer service got progressively worse, to the point that employees harassed customers to get credit for helping when it wasn't earned or deserved. When I knew what I wanted, I avoided the employees, and increasingly the stores.

The Sunnyvale store is the flagship and now in its third location, a cavernous building that was the former Singer Link flight simulator plant.

Now much of the store is empty and the place looks doomed.

Goodbye Fry's Electronics.