Am I the "big wheel customer" in my local camera store anymore? No.

I've just realized that since my local camer store (the only one within 40 miles) makes most of it's profit from Di*#%al, my purchases of film, processing (color only), and used film gear don't bring me the kind of cache they used to. Even though I helped the store owner put together his store... that is, I installed the display cabinets and re-finished them in exchange for equipment ... I don't get any respect anymore.

This sucks. What to do?

You're now known as that old fuddy duddy who won't accept progress. Tell 'em to get F@#$%^

meh, let them be

Say a prayer for him that he comes to his senses, and move on.

When you run a business, you can only stock what sells.

However they should never treat you like the dog`s breakfast

Online sales dissolved customer loyalty to bricks-and-mortar shops who now struggle to stay afloat. To many shoppers, "customer service" isn't worth the premium most stores charge. Anybody buying anything from an actual store should get a little more love than you are. They should be grateful you're not demanding price matching on everything you buy!

If your business is no longer appreciated, take it somewhere that it is. Perhaps with one of our sponsors...

It's funny that you mention buying used gear. I was in a local store last week and the owner mentioned if they didn't sell so much used gear they would be closed. There's no margin in the digi stuff since you can get everything at rock bottom prices on-line. At least used stuff has a bit of mark up.

-Rob Skeoch

Rob Skeoch said:

It's funny that you mention buying used gear. I was in a local store last week and the owner mentioned if they didn't sell so much used gear they would be closed. There's no margin in the digi stuff since you can get everything at rock bottom prices on-line. At least used stuff has a bit of mark up.

-Rob Skeoch

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I'd say a helluva mark-up unless they're giving the stuff away. eBay delivered me from the extortionate pricing on used gear around the GTA. Never found any deals at Henry's or Vistek or the smaller shops.

CGW said:

I'd say a helluva mark-up unless they're giving the stuff away. eBay delivered me from the extortionate pricing on used gear around the GTA. Never found any deals at Henry's or Vistek or the smaller shops.

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I have at B&H, Samys, and KEH.

Used(especially film cameras + film era lenses) at my local shops make a good amount of money for the stores. Better(and bigger) ROI's, and when a 90 day warranty is included, things don't stay on the shelves so long before being sold.

Having a few universities here in the LA area that have active darkroom programs keep store shelves stocked up almost year round. Too bad more people aren't shooting 8x10 color though, I have to mail-order it from B+H or Adorama, but free shipping helps relieve some of the costs .

-Dan

-Dan

When I used to work in retail, we used to like it when people actually took the time to give us feedback.

Have you expressed your concerns to the store owner.

You may get nothing, or you may see improvement, but you certainly are more likely to get a positive response then if you don't tell them.

Pricing is interesting -- in Ogden a former camera store owner, Ron Inkley (sold his chain to Ritz) has opened a new camera store that handles both digital and film ... he even bought a new (!) film processing machine to do C-41, if you can imagine.

Ron is a good friend and told me that he makes very little selling digital cameras because the margin is so thin -- sometime he even loses a bit because of the way the pricing is set by the manufacturer, the mandated rebates and so on. So what he's trying to make his money on is post-processing, with classes, on-site image stuff and so on.

Here's what's interesting: This is not new. When Kodak was king the way cameras were priced was the same -- maybe $10 profit on a $200 camera (I worked the camera counter at JC Penny in the 70s and know this as well), which hardly covers overhead. So how did they make money then?

Ron said the markup on film was where the money was. It cost Kodak 15 cents --you read that right -- to make a roll of film that sold for a dollar. An 85 percent profit!

That's why Kodak built him a film processing lab, for free. Which is also why the decline of film sales has hurt Kodak so much even though its film division is still one of the few making actual money.

So your digital camera store is probably struggling at the margins it makes on camera sales, but isn't making up for that on film/digital processing. Maybe they need to call my pal here in Ogden and discuss what he's doing. He says he's doing OK. Imaging Depot in Ogden, Utah.

Polaroid made its money on the film and not their cameras. When I was in audio retailing, there was very little profit in the electronics other than some speaker lines. The money was in the accessories and used gear. Sadly, the history of sales of almost anything in the electronics field has had so little margin that it is always been difficult to make money. Possibly if the camera companies slowed down the introduction of new models that seems to happen every 10 minutes could possibly allow stores to make margin.

As for ordering vs support the local bricks and mortar I prefer support the local economy but sadly most of the camera shops here have discontinued film sales.

I see you are in Tacoma. Would that local store be Robi's in Lakewood? I live in Olympia and seldom get north but the last time I stopped in the people were nice enough but there was nothing of interest to an 'old fart' like myself and the price of used gear was in the stratosphere. We have a Kit's here (part of the Ritz Photo Chain) but their selection is poor, even in digital. There are just no old time camera shops left where you could go to just to swap lies and talk photography on a slow day. Or scratch through the 'junk box' for some minor treasure. So sad, so bad.

pen s said:

I see you are in Tacoma. Would that local store be Robi's in Lakewood? I live in Olympia and seldom get north but the last time I stopped in the people were nice enough but there was nothing of interest to an 'old fart' like myself and the price of used gear was in the stratosphere. We have a Kit's here (part of the Ritz Photo Chain) but their selection is poor, even in digital. There are just no old time camera shops left where you could go to just to swap lies and talk photography on a slow day. Or scratch through the 'junk box' for some minor treasure. So sad, so bad.

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Yes, I am talking about Robi's. Ron Austin, the owner... is a good guy. I hate to speak poorly of him, but he is bumming me out. When I last spoke to him, he was giving me the doom-and-gloom routine about film sales. Despite that, I won't buy anywhere else because, as you point out, the Robi's crew are good people. Mebby I should chat with Ron about the issue.

The only other decent camera store is in Seattle and they are good, real good.

CirusGlass: funny you should mention KEH. Their buyer was in Robi's a couple of weeks ago. He was on a shopping expedition for used equipment. Everything he bought from Robi's will end up on the KEH website in a few weeks.

SchwinnParamount said:

Yes, I am talking about Robi's. Ron Austin, the owner... is a good guy. I hate to speak poorly of him, but he is bumming me out. When I last spoke to him, he was giving me the doom-and-gloom routine about film sales. Despite that, I won't buy anywhere else because, as you point out, the Robi's crew are good people. Mebby I should chat with Ron about the issue.

The only other decent camera store is in Seattle and they are good, real good.

CirusGlass: funny you should mention KEH. Their buyer was in Robi's a couple of weeks ago. He was on a shopping expedition for used equipment. Everything he bought from Robi's will end up on the KEH website in a few weeks.

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Sounds like a fun job to have.

pen s said:

I see you are in Tacoma. Would that local store be Robi's in Lakewood? I live in Olympia and seldom get north but the last time I stopped in the people were nice enough but there was nothing of interest to an 'old fart' like myself and the price of used gear was in the stratosphere. We have a Kit's here (part of the Ritz Photo Chain) but their selection is poor, even in digital. There are just no old time camera shops left where you could go to just to swap lies and talk photography on a slow day. Or scratch through the 'junk box' for some minor treasure. So sad, so bad.

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Old time camera shops... tell me about it! I had a favorite in Long Beach, CA. It was Terry's Camera on Long Beach blvd. The owner, Maurice, was a heck of a good guy. Former pro. He only hired retired photo journalists and every time you went into the store, you had a great experience talking to these guys about photography. And then you got to buy stuff.

In Tacoma, there was The Camera Shop. Not quite as good an experience, but not bad. Robi's used to have that feel when Frank worked there. Now, not so much.

CirusGlass: funny you should mention KEH. Their buyer was in Robi's a couple of weeks ago. He was on a shopping expedition for used equipment. Everything he bought from Robi's will end up on the KEH website in a few weeks.

KEH buyers are regulars at the big biannual photo swap meets in Toronto.

CGW said:

CirusGlass: funny you should mention KEH. Their buyer was in Robi's a couple of weeks ago. He was on a shopping expedition for used equipment. Everything he bought from Robi's will end up on the KEH website in a few weeks.

KEH buyers are regulars at the big biannual photo swap meets in Toronto.

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But they skipped the Washington DC Photorama this month and I had stuff to sell.

Sirius Glass said:

But they skipped the Washington DC Photorama this month and I had stuff to sell.

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They're pros. They can sniff junk and fungus from miles away ;^)

CGW said:

They're pros. They can sniff junk and fungus from miles away ;^)

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I figger'd as much. But on the other hand, what I sold off paid for a great soft focus lens, so it worked out for me.