They were well known to re-shrink-wrap defective, returned products and put them back on the shelves for resale. I'm not sure I've ever followed the logic of this, unless it was to justify the necessity for a large returns department. Long-time customers learned the signs of repackaging (sometimes overt stickers, sometimes more subtle and you had to look for loose plastic wrap or bent cardboard flaps).

I once bought a PC from them that wouldn't boot reliably. In the process of trying to get an OS installed on it, I accidentally wiped the recovery partition on the drive. Eventually I gave up and tried to return the PC.

"Sorry, we can't take this back. We can't restore the OS," said the returns tech.

"It won't even boot. That's why I'm returning it."

"But it means that we can't put it back on the shelf."

I don't remember what I said to get my money back, but I did, and it was the last PC I ever bought there.

I've been going to Fry's since they opened on Lawrence Expressway in the 80s. Fry's was a fun, wacky place to take out-of-town guests to, and they were great for the occasional emergency keyboard or HDD, but you were taking a risk on expensive items. Won't miss them much.

There was that time a VP embezzled $65 million from them. https://www.seattletimes.com/business/frys-electronics-execu...