I'm all about putting things together myself, but I draw the lines somewhere near light bulbs. Maybe by "some assembly" they mean that you need to screw in the bulbs yourself. Or this is just a Target-style reality slip on the part of Fry's.

When they were stopped near the exit by a checker who asked for their receipts, two of the men allegedly pulled out handguns. All three then walked out of the store, stepped into a vehicle and sped away.

Look, we're not exactly fans of mandatory receipt checks around here, but arming yourself is taking things a little far.

Armed Men Walk Electronics Out Of Serra Mesa Fry's [KGTV]

(Photo: dooleymtv)

AP reports:

Ausaf Umar Siddiqui is accused by the IRS of concocting an incredibly profitable scheme in which he cut side deals with some of Fry's suppliers, buying their goods at higher prices than they would normally get, and buying more of them than he normally would, in exchange for kickbacks of up to 31 percent of the total sales price.

An anonymous insider tip we received on Friday, December 19th but weren't able to confirm gives a peek at what the arrest this looked like on-scene:

At Lunch time today, About 30 agents from the FBI and IRS rushed our Home office today. They arrested the Vice President of Fry's, Omar Siddiqui. I believe it has nothing to do with the company, but you can never tell. They also seized his computer, shredders, and boxes of paperwork.

IRS: Fry's exec stole $65M to pay gambling debts [AP] (Thanks to Keith!) (Photo: bryce_edwards)

1) Cash register, POS outage and Servers are down
2) 3-5 hours to checkout and sometimes the line never moves. See 1
3) No available shopping carts.
4) A line that wraps around the outside twice because of people waiting in line since Thanksgiving Day.
5) Checkout line that wraps around everything inside the store like spaghetti.
6) Parking lot is packed to a point you have to park on Walmart property.
7) Customers hording anything they can get their hands on.
8) Employees hording ad items.
9) Pushing, shoving, running, and running people over with a shopping cart.
10) Most sale items gone within 1 hour. Very low in inventory to begin with.
11) Customers punching each other in the face / and other fighting.
12) Customers and Employees getting away with stealing.
13) Customer walkouts.
14) Customers abandoning sales associates commission quotes.
15) Employees lying to you about items being sold out.
16) Employees lying to you to buy items they claim are on sale but are not.
17) Employees lying to you about the extended warranty and tacking it or other extras onto your quote. Beware of fake bundles.
18) Employees aiding customers to front of line for buying warranties, wireless installations, or fake bundles.
19) Customers cutting others in line.
20) Employees fighting over customers or commissions
21) Employees stealing other customers from each other.
22) Employees ignoring customers who are cheap.
23) Employees working odd hours from 3am to 12am midnight, with inadequate breaks
24) Customers start buying products they saw in the leaked Black Friday ad before Black Friday and try to get an Low Price Guarantee or price match on Black Friday will be turned away and be very frustrated.
25) Customers will steal products from other customers.
26) Your possessions will be stolen from your car while you shop.
27) People will get hurt.
28) People will get arrested.

Is the list complete? Add your predictions that he missed in the comments.

28 things that will happen on Black Friday 2008 at Fry's Electronics [Fry's Forum]

They also add, "Don't be afraid to use the "Tell Randy" forms. He really does read every single one. If its a complaint, mail it yourself so it doesn't get lost. You can find these at the Front Check Out, or by the PIC Podium."

President
Randy Fry - wrf@i.frys.com
[He is very involved with the everyday operations of the company.]

Vice President
Omar Siddiqui - aos@i.frys.com
[Very rarely in the office. Handles the purchasing side of the business. Also in charge of all ads & "ADORS". More on that later.]

Director Of Operations
Ken Lutz - kjl@i.frys.com
[In charge of all Store Managers and their subordinates. Works closely with Randy.]

Director Of Customer Service
Shahriar Saraj - shs@i.frys.com
[Handles front checkout, returns, customer relations, & cafe.]

Head Of Legal
Kathy Kolder - kjk@i.frys.com
[In Charge of Fry's legal affairs, also part owner]

Components Department - (Memory, Processors, Motherboards, Hard-drives, Cases, etc)
Director - Vacant
Purchasing Manager - Steve Monnier - smm@i.frys.com - (408) 487-4665
District Managers
D1 Lerida Gomez - (408) 487-4696
D2 Leo Lopez - (408) 441-0831
D3 Eric Maxwell - (408) 487-4697
[Steve is a good guy. If you can get a hold of him, he will take care of you.]

Computers Department - (Desktops, Notebooks, Monitors, Printers, Thumb Drives, Office Supplies, Apple Computers, etc)
Director - Rajesh Seth - rks@i.frys.com - (408) 487-4520
Purchasing Manager - Inderjit Khera - ijk@i.frys.com - (408) 487-4522
District Managers
D1 Joseph Kerr - (408) 487-4756
D2 Vacant - (408) 487-4757
D3 John Norris - (408) 441-0249
[Rajesh is a pretty busy guy, so getting a hold of him will be tough. Inderjit can be contacted a bit easier so use him to get to Rajesh.]

Software Department - (Movies, Software, Games, Books, etc)
Director - Rayman Cheng - rwc@i.frys.com - (408) 487-4530
Purchasing Manager - Vacant
District Managers
D1 Lynda Luu - (408) 487-4565
D2 Molly Talooi - (408) 487-4761
D3 Jennifer Haddan - (408) 487-4565
[Don't know him too well, but he seems to treat his people well, so maybe he'll do the same for a customer.]

Service Department - (Service Center, All Warranty Repairs)
Director - Jeff Staat - jes@i.frys.com - (408) 487-4542
District Managers
D1 Vacant
D2 Ricky Cheng - (408) 487-4544
D3 Vacant
[Jeff is actually under Rajesh Seth, so if he can't help you escalate it to Rajesh.]

Audio Video - (TV's, Home Audio, Car Audio, Cameras, Telescopes, MP3 Players, etc)
Director - Gopala Ajjarapu - gba@i.frys.com - (408) 487- 4550
Purchasing Manager - Vacant
District Managers
D1 Randy Eaton - (408) 441-0251
D2 Cesar Perez - (408) 487-4593
D3 Eric Weers - (408) 487-4592
[FTP]

Appliances - (Appliances, Cell Phones, AC Units, etc)
Director - Sanjeev Shera - ss11@i.frys.com - (408) 487-4677
Purchasing Manager - Vacant
District Managers
D1 Andrew Patty - (408) 487-4557
D2 Dimpy Sidhu - (408) 441-0264
D3 Vacant - (408) 487-4738
[Good guy. Customer Oriented. Will go the extra mile to help you.]

District Managers. These are the guys who you would contact if you cant get something done on the store level. Each Department (Computers, Software, AV, Service, Appliances, Components) has 1 District Manager per district, so there are 3 DDMs per department. Some are great, others make you wonder what on earth upper management was thinking when they promoted them. Along with reporting to their own Director, they also report to a DDM of Store Operations (listed below), who then report to Ken Lutz.

District 1
Reza Davariar - (408) 487-4716
[On his way out. If you've shopped here in the bay you'll understand why]
Palo Alto, CA
Campbell, CA
San Jose, CA
Sunnyvale, CA
Sacramento, CA
Wilsonville, OR
Fremont, CA
Concord, CA
Roseville, CA
Las Vegas, NV
Renton, WA

Dsitrict 2
Mike Millar - (408) 487-4773
[Very tough guy to work for, but pretty fair and balanced]
Manhattan Beach, CA
Fountain Valley, CA
Woodland Hills, CA
Anaheim, CA
Burbank, CA
San Diego, CA
Tempe, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
San Marcos, CA
City Of Industry, CA
Frys.com
Oxnard, CA

District 3
Todd Smith - (408) 441-0210
[Don't know much about the guy, seems okay]
Dallas, TX
Arlington, TX
Austin, TX
Houston, TX
South Houston, TX
Downers Grove, IL
Alpharetta, GA
Plano, TX
Webster, TX
Irving, TX
Duluth, GA
Fishers, IN

REBATES
If you don't get a satisfactory answer, contact Ginger Bautista at (408) 487-4743. She is the person in charge of all rebate issues at home office. She will cut you a check and ding the vendor who refused to pay. It's written into every contract that Fry's reserves the right to deduct any unpaid rebates from their account. (Please make sure that you did everything as requested. They can't help you if you missed the deadline, or possibly just failed to read the instructions.)

PREVIOUSLY: Departmental Phone Extensions For Every Fry's
(Photo: bryce_edwards)

When KING 5 asked about this at the customer service desk, one employee said: "Oh they stopped doing that. They weren't supposed to." The employee said the store manager put a stop to it.

Fry's shoppers offered chance to cut in line - for a price [KING 5 News]
(AP Photo/Don Ryan)

When confronted, the company's owner blamed it on a lazy employee who no longer works for Vastech and offered to process and sign checks for all of the envelopes in front of the reporter.

Stories like this make Matt's "as organized as a Swiss train system" rebate tracking methodology seem less and less insane.

Tech Talk: Unopened rebate requests found in San Jose dumpster [MercuryNews]

00 - Operator (XXX)-XXX-XX00
10 - Components Manager (XXX)-XXX-XX10
11 - Components Supervisor (XXX)-XXX-XX11
12 - Components Sales (XXX)-XXX-XX12
20 - Computers Manager (XXX)-XXX-XX20
21 - Computers Supervisor/Computer Sales (XXX)-XXX-XX21
22 - Computers Sales (XXX)-XXX-XX22
30 - Software Manager (XXX)-XXX-XX30
31 - Software Supervisor (XXX)-XXX-XX31
32 - Software Sales (XXX)-XXX-XX32
37 - Audit (XXX)-XXX-XX37
38 - PIC (Person in Charge) (XXX)-XXX-XX38
40 - Service Manager (XXX)-XXX-XX40
41 - Service Supervisor (XXX)-XXX-XX41
42 - Service Technicians (XXX)-XXX-XX42
50 - Audio, Video, Telecom, Appliances Manager (XXX)-XXX-XX50
51 - Audio, Video, Telecom, Appliances Supervisor (XXX)-XXX-XX51
52 - Audio, Video, Telecom, Appliances Sales (XXX)-XXX-XX52
55 - Loss Prevention (Security) (XXX)-XXX-XX55
58 - Ast. Store Manager Direct Line (XXX)-XXX-XX58
59 - Store Manager Direct Line (XXX)-XXX-XX59
60 - Customer Service Manager (XXX)-XXX-XX60
61 - Customer Service Supervisor (XXX)-XXX-XX61

We gave it a shot and it worked.

Fry's Internal Phone List! Revealed! Look [FrysForum] (Thanks to Scott!)

The results were varied and shocking:

Best Buy: Said needed a new power supply
Circuit City: $59.99 "The jumper was set wrong"
COMPUsa: Charged $119.99, their minimum charge, but correctly diagnosed and fixed the problem
Fry's: $69.99, fixed all good
Torrence Computer Repair (local): Fixed, at no charge b/c it was so easy
BM (local)I: $275 due to "power short," as the "main board" and "hard drive" were "bad"

Shady computer repairmen are the new shady mechanics, the creative can find plenty of profit in unexpected places.

If your computer starts smoking, you might be better off getting a referral from friends for a local tech known for honest dealings. — BEN POPKEN

HowTo Give Computer Techs a Bad Name [Daily Cup of Tech]

Reader Morgan W. didn't quite go that far, but he offers an interesting comparison between the helpful, enthusiastic and informed service he received at Fry's and what he got when he asked a dazed zit on the Best Buy floors for the exact same service.

Morgan's email is after the jump:

I thought I might interest you in a tale of the bad customer service I received at a Best Buy this weekend. I'd decided to get a new graphics card and an extra gig of ram so that I could actually keep playing new games on my four year old computer. Normally I like to buy electronics online, but I'd been given a gift certificate to Frys and another to Best Buy for Christmas and it seemed about time to use them; I could get the graphics card at one, the ram at the other, use up both my gift certificates, and since the two stores are located about a quarter mile from each other, it'd be one convenient trip. I educated myself on what was compatible with my computer and set out. Should be simple, right?

Frys was easy; I asked one person where the graphics cards were, got told exactly where they were, found them, and went on my way. One to Best Buy!

Heartened by my easy victory at Frys, I went towards the computer section and asked the first employee I ran across where to find ram.

I was pointed in a vague direction before he turned around and started typing into a computer terminal. Ok, he was probably already dealing with another customer, I can deal with that. I walked where he pointed, looked around, discovered no ram. Found another employee, got pointed in another direction- different from where I was first pointed- and then the employee took off in the direction he'd been walking when I flagged him down. Clearly he, too, was too busy for me. I wander in my new direction and still have no luck. I wander back and ask a new employee; he takes me to an aisle I've been down, points along it and says that all computer internals were there. I double check to see if I missed it last time, but find no ram; hard drives and graphics cards, yes, ram, no.

Finally, I stop a four employee, explain that I've been pointed in vague directions several times and had no luck, and ask that he please TAKE ME to the ram and point directly to it so I can make sure it's not somehow me overlooking it every time. He takes me to the ram which, to be fair, was in the vague direction the first employee pointed me in (but not the second or third) and I discover why I haven't noticed it- it's not on an aisle, it's in an orange cage that's kind of hidden by the customer service desk. A locked orange cage. An orange cage that I would have needed the assistance of an employee to open and retrieve my ram-to-be.

I still can't decide what bugs me more about this- that half the employees I asked, all of which seemed to be working in the computer electronics section of the store, didn't actually know where the ram was, or that none, including the ones that did know where it was, thought to inform me that I'd need an employee's assistance to get what I was looking for; the first three employees were apparently hoping not to be the nearest when I finally found the cage so that they would not have to go fetch keys so that I could finally give their company some money.

Thanks for the opportunity to rant; keep up the great work on your site.