April 2, 2010

  • Favorite Silicon Valley Place

      When you talk about a place in Silicon Valley there is obviously no other place that comes close to Fry’s.  The electronics superstore has everything I could possibly want as one who loves everything to do with technology.  Each of the stores located around the Bay Area have their own style and often a theme which is carried throughout the store.  For example, the store in San Jose is made out to look like some sort of South American temple – from the (fake) stone pillars at the entrance to the paintings on the walls which resemble Paleolithic cave paintings, the entire store offers its own variety of adventure, without the traveler having to leave the country. However, my personal favorite store would be the one in Sunnyvale.

      The great thing about this location is that it does not bombard its visitors with strange sights.  Yes, I know I just finished saying that a great thing about the other stores is the theme in each location; but sometimes when you just want to pick up a new VGA cable and you find yourself staring a tiki in the face, you may forget what you came for in the first place.  On the other hand, the Sunnyvale location’s most outstanding feature is the huge lighted sign on the front of the building, resembling something you’d expect to see in Vegas.  It is made up of a large, green wave plot strung through a dozen vertical lines and at night, when it’s lit in all its glory, a pulse of light travels down the wave from one end to the other in an inviting fashion that draws me to the store like one of those deep sea fish that uses a light to lure in prey – except there are no sharp teeth involved in this case (though, I’m sure you could argue that case with some of the rabid salesmen/women you find in Fry’s).  Once you enter the front doors you are more likely to be overwhelmed by the sheer size of the place than by any oddity staring at you from a wall or a pedestal.  The store is set up in such a way that, from my experience, the further into the store you venture the more expensive things get – from the bargain bins at the entrance to the multi-thousand-dollar television sets at the back.  At the very center of the store are the café and the grand piano, which are the gathering places of many socializing individuals.

      This brings me to my next reason for enjoying this location more than the others.  Sunnyvale’s location on the edge of sprawling San Jose makes it almost a gateway to the rest of the peninsula; it is a location which provides a good mixture of people.  Half of the experience of any large store is the persons which you run into in the process of shopping around.  While I like to look at myself as a knowledgeable guy in terms of technology, as a wise man once said, there is always somebody above you.  Some of the people I’ve run into inside the store have put me to shame in terms of their intellect and resourcefulness – so any time I have a baffling tech question I just swing by Fry’s Sunnyvale and hang out in the café for a bit.  It’s never the same trip twice.

      While I’m sure that most people wouldn’t consider a place like Fry’s to be a great location, to me it’s like loosing a child in a candy store whenever I arrive.  Surrounded by devices, some of which I am familiar with and others which are alien to me, and by people of like mind, I feel as though I am in a second home where the people understand me and there is never a lack of things to do.  This feeling is only strengthened when you consider my roots in a completely backwoods area that had almost an allergy to technology.  I’m sure you can see why I was supremely impressed by something that, to a person who grew up in Silicon Valley, may not seem that exemplary.  That is why I say with pride that Fry’s is my favorite Silicon Valley place.