[NTLUG:Discuss] Fry's and Linux

[Burton M. Strauss III]

<snip />

> And I certainly wouldn't have flamed him had he said "I don't know."  Give
> me a little more credit than that!

I was...

> As far as talking to the manager, I wouldn't waste my time...  I've tried
> that once at Fry's and the manager made me more angry than the
> dipstick kid
> about whom I was complaining.

Yup - I said you could, should have said "should - if fry's were a normal,
service-oriented establishment"

> As I said, I was in there on a totally unrelated errand and just asked a
> quick video card question.  I was amused by the response, that's all.

Retail is supposed to be about service, otherwise you can always mail-order
for a few bucks less.  I find that their prices - except for a few
loss-leader items - aren't really that good.  From the size, you would
expect Fry's to have depth, but even there they don't.  Try finding, say, a
10/100 NIC.  They have a whole aisle of WiFi stuff and buried in there are
two or three marginal and one very expensive (Intel Pro/1000) choices.

For me, Fry's serves three purposes -
   one is that you can put your hands on the physical box and read it.  I
know, that's precisely the behavior that kills local retail.  But it's the
money...

   two is for a few heavy or large items where s/h is usually a killer
(cases, cheap UPSes for the TiVO, etc.) (and not always - I just got an APC
350 from Staples for $20 w/ $0 s/h)

   three is (perverse) amusement (especially if you like watching
salesdroids commit suicide as you tell some poor user he really doesn't need
a $500 Radeon 9800 card just to surf the web at 800x600).

But we're perilously close to topic drift ... so I'll resume LURK mode.

-----Burton