Are Leicas available at Walmart stores?

[wiltw]

Whenever Walmart can negotiate a cost reduced camera manufacturered in China and branded 'Reica', they will offer one.

BTW, my family heritage is from south of China, so I can make that crack!

 

[Alan Gales]

Sure. Leica's are in aisle 84 right next to the organic toilet paper.

Just joking. I refuse to enter a Walmart. If Wally World did sell Leicas's they would require Leica to cheapen their cameras to meet their low price points just like they did to Levi's Jeans and other companies.

 

[chip j]

Really, being an SLR user, I have as much use for Leicas as I do for organic toilet paper.

 

[Dan Fromm]

Really, being an SLR user, I have as much use for Leicas as I do for organic toilet paper.

Funny, I thought that Leica had made SLRs. Silly, silly me.

 

[John Koehrer]

Sure. Leica's are in aisle 84 right next to the organic toilet paper.

Just joking. I refuse to enter a Walmart. If Wally World did sell Leicas's they would require Leica to cheapen their cameras to meet their low price points just like they did to Levi's Jeans and other companies.

Haven't darkened their doorstep for at least twenty years and haven't missed anything besides inexpensively made stuff.
A lot like company stores that sell second tier product.

Main reason is their policy of not providing living wage. Many of their folk need welfare support to make it. Part time & no benefits
helps their bottom line but no one else's survival. Fuck 'em.

 

[chip j]

Funny, I thought that Leica had made SLRs. Silly, silly me.

I could have easily afforded a Leicaflex when they first came out---talk about SILLY! A real brand-new dinosaur.

 

[Alan Gales]

Haven't darkened their doorstep for at least twenty years and haven't missed anything besides inexpensively made stuff.
A lot like company stores that sell second tier product.

Main reason is their policy of not providing living wage. Many of their folk need welfare support to make it. Part time & no benefits
helps their bottom line but no one else's survival. Fuck 'em.

Yeah, I could go on and on ranting about Walmart. Most people don't seem to care though.

 

[John Wiegerink]

Haven't darkened their doorstep for at least twenty years and haven't missed anything besides inexpensively made stuff.
A lot like company stores that sell second tier product.

Main reason is their policy of not providing living wage. Many of their folk need welfare support to make it. Part time & no benefits
helps their bottom line but no one else's survival. Fuck 'em.

John,
WallyMart is just one of many doing the same thing. Corporate America could give a shit less about workers. All they care about is the almighty dollar. Workers have no clout anymore whatsoever. Once they pitch a bitch the company says, "If you don't like it there's the door" or "Well, we'll just close the plant, pack it up and ship it to BFE"! We can thank our politicians for letting that happen. Oh, and then we have to give them tax breaks and compensation on top of that. I guess you really know who runs this country. Sorry for the rant, but I'm getting really tired of the working class stiff having to work two jobs and then being force to bend over and take it in the..................

 

[skorpiius]

It would be nice if Walmart would help with some of the distribution issues that plague the film and darkroom market in Canada.

Honestly if any chain was to do it in Canada, it would be London Drugs, the only chain still actually saying things like this:

http://www.londondrugs.com/film-processing/film-processing.html

While cell phones and digital cameras have largely taken over the photographic industry, FILM PHOTOGRAPHY IS NOT DEAD! It's alive and well in the London Drugs Photo Department and particularly attractive to a generation that never had to wait longer than half a second to see the results of their snap! To accommodate these up and coming film photographers and artists (and those who are just too darn stubborn to make the leap to digital) we continue to maintain and update our tools, the know-how and in some cases the creativity to give our customers the quality they expect from a London Drugs photograph.

 

[MattKing]

The reason I commented about distribution and Walmart, is that they do what is essentially wholesale distribution really, really well. Product when the stores need it.
London Drugs does retail well. But not wholesale.

 

[fstop]

"Are Leicas available at Walmart stores?"

can you get a hooker on 42nd street?

 

[Kodachromeguy]

I could have easily afforded a Leicaflex when they first came out---talk about SILLY! A real brand-new dinosaur.

Are you sure you could have afforded one? I assume you were student age when the Leicaflex SL was introduced, and it was incredibly expensive and it was a dinosaur. The SL was sold from 1968-1974. It was gorgeous in a Teutonic uber-engineered way, but most pros had turned to the Nikon F any any one of the other inexpensive SLRs like the Spotmatic or SRT 101. Interesting article on Leicaphilia: http://leicaphilia.com/the-leicaflex-sl-the-camera-that-almost-bankrupted-leitz-no-it-wasnt-the-m5/

 

[chip j]

YES I could have afforded one! I was an US Army photographer in Germany from 1966 thru 1968, and the Canadian PXs were selling brand-new M4s for $165 (I got 2). The Nikon Photomic TN was far superior @ $95 to that awful Leicaflex.

 

[Dali]

John,
WallyMart is just one of many doing the same thing. Corporate America could give a shit less about workers. All they care about is the almighty dollar. Workers have no clout anymore whatsoever. Once they pitch a bitch the company says, "If you don't like it there's the door" or "Well, we'll just close the plant, pack it up and ship it to BFE"! We can thank our politicians for letting that happen. Oh, and then we have to give them tax breaks and compensation on top of that. I guess you really know who runs this country. Sorry for the rant, but I'm getting really tired of the working class stiff having to work two jobs and then being force to bend over and take it in the..................

Not to mention the Food Stamps system paid by the taxpayers... So Walmart pays $7.50/hour and the taxpayer the difference so the worker can survive... Great system! More or less what Marx described 150 years ago... Obsolete, really?

 

[John Wiegerink]

Not to mention the Food Stamps system paid by the taxpayers... So Walmart pays $7.50/hour and the taxpayer the difference so the worker can survive... Great system! More or less what Marx described 150 years ago... Obsolete, really?

Yes, and when we get done paying taxes to help compensate low wage earners, we then pay more to cover the taxes corporations are not paying. I'm not even going to mention a certain top-dog billionaire politician who didn't pay taxes for 18 straight years and several odd years before that even. Oops, I guess I did mention it. I really don't know how he is going to lower my taxes without paying his far share to make up the difference. All-in-all it's the little guy that always has to bend over. Such is life!

 

[chip j]

Can you buy a Leica with Food Stamps?

 

[John Wiegerink]

Can you buy a Leica with Food Stamps?

I might be finding out pretty soon. I'll let you know.

 

[Someonenameddavid]

In 1949, Montgomery Ward, a catalog retailer like Sears , had a Bell and Howell Foton ($700!!!) on its cover. They sold Speed Graphics and Busch Pressmen (Pressmans) and all sorts of cheap rangefinders from Japan (who would buy those)