I first visited the original Fry's in 1990 or so, back when it was just a computer parts store that happened to carry snack food. (That space was later occupied by Computer Literacy, a great bookshop, now obsoleted and gone.) What was genius about the original Fry's was the clientele. I distinctly recall staring at the video cards and the fellow next to me offering advice based on which ones he'd worked on.

The modern, huge Fry's is another world. It's awesome that I can go there, confident that I'll go home with whatever obscure part I need. However, there are limits to that awesomeness. The salespeople are just absolutely clueless for any question beyond "do you stock X and where I do I find it?" To ask a question of that form, I once had to wait while a salesman was explaining to a customer why he needed to buy a more expensive HDMI cable. (Total B.S., but I didn't interject.)

Fry's has a weird policy of what they do and don't stock. Take stereo amplifiers. They have a great selection of Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo, Sony, and Harmon-Kardon, but Pioneer is nowhere to be found. Their camera selection is even more hit-or-miss. But for my weekend project, where I needed a PATA laptop drive and a USB/PATA adapter, they had two choices for the hard drive and four choices for the adapter.

In terms of Silicon Valley nerd tourism, on a recent trip I made a point of going to Weird Stuff Warehouse. Didn't actually buy anything, but it's just a grand visit through all sorts of obscure crap, often for very reasonable prices.