Blacks Photography

[tdunn81]

For those of you familiar with Blacks photography stores in Canada, it was announced today that they are closing all 59 stores, after 85 years in business, as of August 8, 2015. A loss for the photography industry in Canada.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/blacks-camera-stores-across-canada-closing-aug-8-1.3106137

 

[Bob Carnie]

Telus decided that they were not selling enough phones.. a classic case of poor management.

 

[mooseontheloose]

The last time I shopped at Black's was in the late 90s where the salesman convinced me to buy an APS camera. Even though I've lived in Canada off and on since then, over the years I found they had nothing to offer a photographer like me, compared to other stores like Henry's or Beau Photo. It's never good when a photo store closes forever, but will it even make a difference to most people?

 

[tdunn81]

The last time I shopped at Black's was in the late 90s where the salesman convinced me to buy an APS camera. Even though I've lived in Canada off and on since then, over the years I found they had nothing to offer a photographer like me, compared to other stores like Henry's or Beau Photo. It's never good when a photo store closes forever, but will it even make a difference to most people?

True, I wouldn't really consider them on par with Henry's, Vistek, or Downtown Camera for higher-end gear, but they did try it out with the superstores a number of years ago. I really liked their Blacks-branded 35mm film, in particular the deals on processing included. Since Fuji owned them at that time, it was rumored to be Superia and was a great value. I know they still sometimes have it behind the counter...have to ask for it. They even had PI slide film, 100 ISO.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Blacks-branded films? In eighties? In 2014 I went to them in Burlington to get one roll of TRI-X in 135 format. They charged me 12CAD for it.
And I never seen good deals from them on anything...

 

[BainDarret]

I bought a roll of FP3 from them in late 1967.
Then (the late, great) Hamilton Camera Exchange opened up on Upper James Street and I never went back to Blacks.

Sadly more retail sales jobs gone.

 

[cmacd123]

once ubiquitous in shopping centres. As indicated Telus (Major Phone company) bought them a few years ago figuring that it was a great way to sell cell Phones. And the Mini-labs could print your phone pictures.

The Blacks film "back in the day" was as far as I could tell Fuji, and was competitively priced. When I used their miniilabs the operators did not know how to push the correction buttons so the prints were often a bit away from the right colours (common with a lot of Mini-labs)

Last time I visited a store they had more frames and albums than Photo stuff. with a few consumer level Digital cameras. (and I guess a lot of cell Phones)

Still there was a time when they meant the slogan -- "Blacks is Photography."

 

[Colin Corneau]

One of my first photo jobs in/just out of high school was there, actually. Yes, they used to be in every mall, seemingly. Lots of tales dealing with the public and running the one-hour lab, too...now consigned to history but that's another story.

 

[mrred]

I used to drop off my C-41 there quite a bit, up until 2005. That's when I went to digital. When I finally came back to film, they really didn't have much to offer so I processed everything myself. It wasn't a store you could get a deal with. My guess no one will miss them.

 

[BradleyK]

Blacks-branded films? In eighties? In 2014 I went to them in Burlington to get one roll of TRI-X in 135 format. They charged me 12CAD for it.
And I never seen good deals from them on anything...

+1. Grossly overpriced, limited selection and clueless sales staff; Black's hasn't been relevant for several decades. Beau Photo, Kerrisdale Cameras, Broadway Camera and Leo's are the places to shop here in Vancouver. Hell, even London Drugs has long had a better selection of film stock than Black's "Photography."

 

[Kevin Harding]

There hasn't even been a Vancouver store for a while. They had a kiosk in the Telus building on Robson for a while, but then even that disappeared recently. Online prints only, now it's gone. When I lived in Toronto, I had them print things, but their camera gear was always overpriced.

For film paraphernalia, we are rather blessed with Beau.

 

[MattKing]

I like the quotes from Beau Photo and Kerrisdale Camera in the Vancouver Sun article on this story: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/me...Photography+stores+Canada/11121683/story.html

At Beau Photo Supplies, general manager Carol Polloni said there has been a decline in business over the last six years, though sales have been similar to last year. As other stores close down, they have stayed open by tapping more into a niche market, like offering classes in darkroom film development.
"We're dealing more with professional photographers and camera clubs," she said. "We also do a lot of events, like trade shows and camera clubs. There still are a bunch of hardcore film enthusiasts."
As sales started to dip, they began offering more specialized services, for example developing old film and Polaroid cameras.
Linda Houston, owner of Kerrisdale Cameras, said the last few years have been tough on employees in the photo industry, but while some shops are closing they have expanded to eight stores.
She said while smartphones have resulted in a decline in the lower end of the point-and-shoot camera market, people with a passion for photography or those discovering the art are still buying higher end cameras.
"That's generating more interest in advanced compact cameras, super-zoom cameras, Mirrorless Compact System Cameras, and DSLRs. There's a wonderful world of photography beyond smartphones," she said.
As a specialty store, they also sell accept trade-ins and sell used equipment. They also make up for the decline in point and shoot cameras by offering specialized programs like photo walks, which she said are really popular.

I think I'll start calling myself a "Hard Core Film Enthusiast"

 

[mrred]

But that would make you a hipster.....

 

[Kevin Harding]

Well, Matt was probably a hipster before it was cool.

 

[RobC]

all sounds like the disaster that beset Jessops in the UK. They lost their way but after several failures were finally rescued by Peter Jones (one of the Dragons from the UK TV series).
However, they do very little in the way of analogue sales now.

 

[MattKing]

Well, Matt was probably a hipster before it was cool.

Nope.

But I was a geek before it was cool.

 

[mrred]

I am a geek and still not cool.....

 

[BradleyK]

There hasn't even been a Vancouver store for a while. They had a kiosk in the Telus building on Robson for a while, but then even that disappeared recently. Online prints only, now it's gone. When I lived in Toronto, I had them print things, but their camera gear was always overpriced.

For film paraphernalia, we are rather blessed with Beau.

Perhaps a measure of my dissatisfaction with Blacks is that I hadn't even taken notice of their disappearance from the local landscape! lol