sadly it was bound to happen
What are your thoughts on brick and mortar camera stores…….
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Ritz Camera Files For Bankruptcy Protection
Ritz Camera & Image has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection again, less than three years after they emerged from their first bankruptcy. Ritz, like other physical consumer-electronics store…
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I would love to support my local bricks-and-mortar camera store. Most of the time, I use them just as a place to test purchases before I buy online, though. If I need to hold a camera body in my hands, or if I need to see how a lens performs, that's what they can help with. And I don't feel guilty about getting a lower price elsewhere, either.
But if you do not buy then they will not stay open….
I really like my local store. While they were a little more than online stores, they were willing to meet me half way in price. And considering that that meant I'd get my camera that day instead of having to wait a week, it was well worth the $20! While I've never gone to any of them, they do offer classes in Photoshop as well.
It's a small store, not a chain like Ritz, so I'm sure they have more flexibility, but also less buying power.
I have bought from them in the past, +Brent Burzycki. I may buy from them in the future, depending on what I want and on how easy it is to get it elsewhere. In fact, I tend to buy lighting gear from them and other gear elsewhere. But I've found (and this isn't their fault) that I can get gear shipped to my door from the U.S. and it will cost me hundreds less less (even after I pay taxes, duties, and delivery fees) than it would if I walk into the store and pick my stuff up. And it takes less time in a lot of cases for B&H to get their hands on gear and ship it to me than it does for my local guys to do it. For the record, my local guys aren't a mom-and-pop. They're a national chain.
I used to go in to the local Ritz/Wolf camera stores but stopped going in when they stopped carrying Canon bodies & lenses. Not sure why they did that but it had to have hurt their overall business not carrying them.
Back in the seventies, I worked at several camera stores in Reading, PA, before getting out of retail altogether to be a manufacturers' rep. The level of technical knowledge that was required was significant, but it was also not rare. Today, as far as I can tell, most of the cameras sold locally go through the big box retailers like Best Buy or Walmart, where the odds of finding an employee who knows the differences between the twenty plus point and shoot cameras on display is approximately zero (I have tried more than once). For years, if I wanted to purchase anything locally where I really did need expert guidance, there has been nowhere to go for even semi-educated advice except Ritz in the King of Prussia Plaza.
Hey +Andrew Williams not sure how close you are to Philly, but there is a place near there called Allen's Cameras & Video that has very knowledgeable staff. You might want to check them out. http://allenscamera.com/
+Eustace James +Bill Hardman It is hard to know why on the Canon item, but I have to say and Eustace you are facing another bigger issue of the need to shop based on pricing based on location and taxes and duties…that is another entire discussion…
I have tried to buy local – my first body the D100 and two lenses I purchased local from a friend that worked in a local store.. I bought there because he helped me and I wanted to support the store.. that said I could have easily saved a few hundred bucks online and not had to wait a month to get my lens at the time a 70-200 Nikon … thou when i bought that lens it had just came out, that was the new style one back in 2001 I think….
I have only purchased background paper from other stores and that was to save shipping costs that are massive on paper….
But that will not keep them open…
They face a really hard rock and a harder place… how do you stay open, how do you get creative to get customers to come in and look and buy vs. look, scan and order on amazon…
My theory would be community… If I owned a store I would be massive on here in offering classes and tutorials, sponsor photowalks etc… I would be involved with the people that might just save my business….
I do not see that here – well i see it from internet based companies like B&H etc – they all get it obviously - but the locals just do not seem to get that with proper interaction, you might just get me to take the time to stop into your store….if not I will continue to not know you are there and not know you are willing to help me…
Maybe my business is not wroth that effort? I do not own a camera store and I do not know where our local stores here make their main amount of money – is it cameras and lenses or training or accessories? Or just ripping off a few customers vs. giving great pricing and service to all their customers?
I just do not know those answers…
I love brick and mortar, especially when they make an effort to be part of the community. That said, I do try to purchase from local for many items, but when I can get something online for 10-20% cheaper, it is hard to not take advantage of the discount.
+Bill Hardman , Good to know Allen is still around. He was one of my customers when I was selling darkroom equipment and photochemistry for Beseler. Levittown is about an hour's drive from here. I do not get to Bucks County very often, but when I do I will make it a point to stop by.
I stopped going to Ritz or Wolf Cameras about 5 years ago when I wanted an 18% Grey Card and their helpful staff(s) explained that those were no longer necessary.
I feel pretty lucky to have two independent camera shops in town and throw them my business when it makes sense. If it is something I want to put my hands on before buying, I pay a premium to buy from them. I also have good luck finding items there when the online retailers are backordered. I picked up a Canon 5D Mark III from one when both Adorama and B&H had them backordered. They had to break up a kit package to do it, but did so happily. If you ever need anything in KC, check out either Crick Camera or Overland Park Photo Supply.
Hmm out of curiosity I checked the website of the one nearish me. First, it's not a great website.
But the landing page was an add that they are a pickup/dropoff site for borrowlenses. They also frame, and do a lot of restoration of photos. I seem to remember the sales lady talking about that, I would think that could be quite profitable. I think they also do slide -> digital conversion.
+Brent Burzycki and +Demian Seiler , this is an old problem. There has been serious mail-order competition since the sixties, and probably farther back than that. B&H and Amazon are simply the latest incarnation. Local trumped mail-order because of expert assistance and immediate availability of all but the most esoteric items. Mail order trumped on price. Here in Pennsylvania, we also had the problem of competing against competent stores in Wilmington, Delaware, where there was no sales tax.For people in Delaware and Chester County, Wilmington was no less convenient and less expensive than the Pennsylvania stores. There is no real simple solution for the retailer, There is only luck, hard work, and perseverance.
I just see little to no interaction with local stores and the community.. I consider myself a pretty active consumer, but I need a reason to go local.. they cannot assume I am going to find them….
I heard rumors that Canon had given priority to brick and mortar stores for the 5D Mark III over the online retailers. Never saw that confirmed though. I like the idea, and I expect it makes sense from Canon's perspective too. Send it to where the most people can see it and touch it.
+Paul Hurley or send it to a location where if trained properly the staff could really instill some truly good customer relations….training, help and customer service…
I am sadly a believer that customer service is pretty much dead and I try everyday in my companies to make sure it is not… but sometimes I am happily suprized by the way a company handles a situation….
Back in the early 2000s, every time I complained about how bad service at restaurants had gotten, my friend claimed "it was the price of a good economy". Now that the economy sucks I keep expecting the service to improve again. I think I am waiting in vain…
I hate to pile on, but…starting in the early 2000s when I bought my first dSLR, I started shopping at Ritz. (And also Wolf Camera, which was later bought by Ritz.)
Frequently I was told things about the equipment I was considering, whether the camera body, a lens, a flash, an SD card–it didn't matter–that was just blatantly wrong. Even knowing very little about photo equipment at the time, going in there and talking to a salesperson for a few minutes never failed to get my antennae up. When I read up on the topic, whatever it was, I always always always discovered the salesperson I spoke to didn't know what they were talking about.
So I decided that I would buy everything online, but quickly ran into the issue of not being able to handle something that I wanted to feel and weigh in my own two hands. (When I went shopping for a bag or a tripod, it's very important to have hands-on.)
So here's what I decided: I would go to Ritz whenever having something in my hands mattered. If the salesperson could give me correct info on the item I was considering, I would buy it. If I wasn't sure about what they were saying, I'd get their name and when they were next on shift, do the research, come back and buy it. No matter the price, they would get my business. That was my way of supporting the brick'n'mortar store.
I ended up never making a single purchase there. Every time they always managed to get something spectacularly wrong, and I wouldn't even go out of my way to try and trip them up…just asking basic questions anyone considering that kind of purchase would reasonably ask.
On the other hand, when I called B&H customer support with my questions, not only were they cheaper, often made me wait less time to get in touch with the right person…but that person could answer my questions and was nearly always more knowledgable than I was, whatever the subject.
I have to say, I'm normally not one to dance on another's grave, but in this case, I couldn't be happier with this news. This was way past due.
+Steven Rose So is it mainly because B&H is so good at what they do because they have their roots in brick and Mortar – but have adapted to a massively good online experience… I have had great service and luck with B&H….that said their store experience is supposed to be even better… I have not yet been but want to go when i get back to NY…someday…
+Brent Burzycki I honestly don't think brick'n'mortar has anything to do with B&H's success. Obviously having b&m stores didn't help Ritz at all.
It's because they operate at enough scale to keep prices low, they provide the best info about their products, and they are willing to stand behind what they sell you. On a few occasions I've called B&H up with a problem and, while taking care of it I mentioned another problem that was no longer their responsibility…return period ran out in one case, and warranty in another, both relatively near misses. In both cases, the rep I talked to said, "Hold on!" got a manager, and got approval to get me taken care of.
In the case of the warranty issue, I wouldn't even have thought to ask, once a warranty is up, it's up. Mine was a couple of weeks past and they just dealt with it for me. I was like, Wow, thanks, have all my business from now on.
Meanwhile later that same week I heard someone try to return something they'd got at a discount to be told the return policy didn't apply to discounts. The customer was asking them to just return for the discounted price, they had the receipt and everything. The salesperson inexplicably told them., "Sorry, there's too many scams for us to take back discounted merchandise."
I was thinking, "Um, no. The scam is when you don't realize it was discounted. When the customer is saying they paid less up front, that's not a scam dum-dum."
Interesting I would think having volume online sales and a very good in store experience would allow you to sell at volume to allow for a great in store experience and pricing…
The real thing that has killed most photography specialty stores is that they were not really in the business of selling cameras. There has not been any significant profit there for a very long time, because of the various mail order houses. The cameras were generally loss leaders for their real profit center: photofinishing, and that has almost entirely gone away. People only print a tiny minority of their digital photographs, and those are generally printed on their own printer rather than at a lab.