Jessops in Administration

I see jessops have gone into administration. Hardly surprising - they couldn't have made any margin on the hardware in such a competitive market and you have to sell a hell of a lot of add-ons to pay high street overheads. Doesn't affect us lot too much, but sad all the same.

Well they went bankrupt before and they became inflexible. The shame is they took over so many good stores and ruined them.

Ian

I'm personally glad that less fools will be buying cameras on a Saturday shopping spree whim, letting their kids break them on Sunday, then returning them on Monday.

Jessops - the home of buyer's remorse.

I think the main problem Jessops had is that they did not sell anything which Argos over the road did not. They just stocked the run of the mill stuff that you could pick up from anywhere. Maybe if they'd stocked Leica, Sigma, Ricoh, stuff which you couldn't just pick up anywhere, they'd have had a chance. And, god forbid, maybe they could have stocked film cameras, they'd be probably the only chain in the UK that did, and maybe that would have brought people in.

They'll complain it's the economy, but it's not, it's because they were bad at what they did.

thegman said:

They'll complain it's the economy, but it's not, it's because they were bad at what they did.

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10 years ago Jessops were ready to float on the Stock Exchange, they'd bend over backwards to get anything you wanted, prices were competetive. However their chairman retired and bad management took them on the path to ruin. (I had dealings with the management and met the Chairman a few times outside of a Jessops context).

Ian

Ian Grant said:

10 years ago Jessops were ready to float on the Stock Exchange, they'd bend over backwards to get anything you wanted, prices were competetive. However their chairman retired and bad management took them on the path to ruin. (I had dealings with the management and met the Chairman a few times outside of a Jessops context).

Ian

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Isn't that always the sad case? It takes a great leader ages to build something great but only a few short years for a bunch of MBA suited numbskulls to come and try to "revitalized" (cost cutting, outsourcing, and retrenchment) the business?

Sorry, I've seen it way too many times....great things brought down by a few young MBA certified people fresh from UNI who haven't built anything in their lives but only studied a few "business case studies" and think they know the industry in and out.

Just realised that I have a pile of unused and prepaid(!) Jessops E6 processing mailers. B*m.

railwayman3 said:

Just realised that I have a pile of unused and prepaid(!) Jessops E6 processing mailers. B*m.

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Stick them on ebay, someone will buy them...

As for Jessops, a street interview outside one of their stores pretty much summed up the attitude of the masses. "I've got an iPhone that takes amazing photos, I don't need to buy a camera."

An economics 'expert' on Radio 2 last night referred to "only a few remaining geeks who buy cameras" (or something very similar, but he did use the word 'geeks'). I can't help wondering whether the options of serious digital photographers are or will be soon be squeezed in much the same way as we analogue types found ourselves ten years ago.
Steve

They have now closed for good starting today...

Steve Roberts said:

I can't help wondering whether the options of serious digital photographers are or will be soon be squeezed in much the same way as we analogue types found ourselves ten years ago.

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Maybe six months ago, maybe longer, I saw an advertisement from Sony? I think it was Sony? Anyway, the thrust of the ad was 'if you are serious about your pictures, you need to make them using a serious camera.' As I recall, prominently dislayed were a range of point-and-shoot digital compacts of the fat credit card form factor.

I took it as a direct slap at the wireless smart-gadget-of-the-hour crowd. And an expression of worry.

And exquisite irony.

Ken

On this evenings TV news they say that all Jessops stores are now closed.

Ian Grant said:

Well they went bankrupt before and they became inflexible. The shame is they took over so many good stores and ruined them.

Ian

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Agreed - that is what angers me. They had a policy of buying up all of the competition about 5 to 10 years ago - and then closing them down in many cases. They were a very active force in stamping out analogue photography and pushing digital.

Sure... it was going that way anyway and we should not overstate their role in the inevitable, but I'm sure they did play a big part in eradicating so many of the little side street enthusiasts shops that sold second hand analogue cameras, film, chemicals and paper... some of whom just might have been able to hang on if left alone.

We've all got good Jessops stories, I think, but they all happened a few decades ago.

I walked passed my local every week but couldn't bear to go in. Really boring stock, no bargain bins to rummage through and no interesting second hand stock. Remember the old days when Jessops had great window displays of exotic and unusual 2nd hand gear? I remember downstairs at the main Brum branch, full of enlargers, MF cameras and film in fridges. Always worth a root through the bargain bin.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20992125

steven_e007 said:

Agreed - that is what angers me. They had a policy of buying up all of the competition about 5 to 10 years ago - and then closing them down in many cases. They were a very active force in stamping out analogue photography and pushing digital.

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Time flies, I think they'd largely bought all the good camera stores about 10-15 years ago.

They did force people to go digital and that backfired on them. I gave a talk last Monday to a Camera Club, they told me they were mostly armchair photographers, few even print their images.

Ian

I was surprised the stores closed so soon, what is likely to happen to all their stock?

perkeleellinen said:

We've all got good Jessops stories, I think, but they all happened a few decades ago.

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Purchased some FP4+ when they had a three for two offer on film last year - Three boxes of 5x4 delivered to their store worked out way cheaper than buying online. Was going to go in again tomorrow to see if the offer was still running...

ajuk said:

I was surprised the stores closed so soon, what is likely to happen to all their stock?

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As typically when a retail business is physically closed by an administrator: brought together and sold in larger lots.
Or taken back by a crediting supplier.

A sell-out would mean to open stores again for some days. Would that be likely after closing them? I guess not.

AgX said:

As typically when a retail business is physically closed by an administrator: brought together and sold in larger lots.
Or taken back by a crediting supplier.

A sell-out would mean to open stores again for some days. Would that be likely after closing them? I guess not.

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The problem was the company did getsold for £1 not that long afo and was supposedly restructured.

The BBC TV neews here in the UK said the closure was after discussions with their suppliers, they had lost total confidence in the company. The real shame is that there were some good people working in the stores and in most towns jessops was the only photographic shop.

Ian

Steve Roberts said:

An economics 'expert' on Radio 2 last night referred to "only a few remaining geeks who buy cameras"

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And they're all here!!

Unfortunately, Jessops didn't sell our sort of cameras.


Steve.

Ian Grant said:

I gave a talk last Monday to a Camera Club, they told me they were mostly armchair photographers, few even print their images.

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I took part in a debate on another forum a few years ago (a forum of mainly digital users). Someone asked "Who prints their pictures?". The conclusion was that only about a quarter of the respondents printed and the rest just looked at them on their computers, digital frames, or uploaded them to websites.

The non-printers were the same people who always had to have the newest and best cameras with the latest high megapixel sensors when in reality, they would not see any difference in output if they used cameras of less than 1M.


Steve.

Trouble is in many smaller towns, I bet Jessops is the last place you can buy B&W and Slide film, If I go back to Leamington Spa now, I bet there is nowhere, Boots maybe, but I'd need a mortgage.

ajuk said:

Trouble is in many smaller towns, I bet Jessops is the last place you can buy B&W and Slide film, If I go back to Leamington Spa now, I bet there is nowhere, Boots maybe, but I'd need a mortgage.

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You mean you didn't "need a mortgage" at Jessops ? .

Steve Smith said:

I took part in a debate on another forum a few years ago (a forum of mainly digital users). Someone asked "Who prints their pictures?". The conclusion was that only about a quarter of the respondents printed and the rest just looked at them on their computers, digital frames, or uploaded them to websites.

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I've got several digital cameras - and picture taking widgets in phones and tablets and things.... They'll be sticking them in toothbrushes and hair dryers next. I never, ever print any image from any of them.... They are great for creating illustrations to accompany scribblings on the Internet, great for recording the dismantling of proper cameras so I can remember how to put them back together again... .

For printing I personally want a negative.

I think much of the reason for the demise of traditional photography was aggressive marketing convincing people that using your iPhone to capture of your drunken work mates at the office party which you then emailed and uploaded to YouTube is actually 'photography'. Of course it is, of a sort, but it was never the reason why people were buying fibre based baryta paper and slow black and white films.

In reality the number of people creating pictures to hang on the wall is probably very much a minority interest and always has been - 20 years ago office party goers used instamatic cameras and sent their films to the local mini lab - now they use their phone and avoid the prints altogether...

As for those of us who wish to make prints for aesthetic or artistic intent - it is unfortunate that so many seemed get caught up in the idea that cameras are a fashion accessory and film photography is outdated technology for nerds. I would say it was the other way around - rushing out to buy the latest widget suggests an interest in widgets that exceeds the desire to be creative and take pictures. That seems the more 'nerdy' behaviour, to me. Of course digital does offer great advantages in many areas and I'm not criticising photographers who want to use these advantages that digital can offer, creatively or professionally, but I am critical of the aggressive marketing by widget sellers who were so determined that analogue must die and everyone has to get 'with it' and buy some trendy new equipment. Alas Jessops have blood on their hands in this regard. They tried to kill film and become widget sellers.... But then found themselves unable to compete with supermarkets and online sores.

Consider the shops that serve artists. Most towns seem to manage to support one - and they are like Aladdin's caves, packed with wonderful things. When acrylic paints appeared on the market (cleaner, safer, easier to use, better colours and cheaper than traditional oil) they appeared on the shelves alongside oil paints, not instead. There seems to have been no equivalent of the anti film hysteria that was spread by those marketing digital. 'oil is dead, all hail the new technology! Only nerds use oil paints!' Art shops stock whatever artists want to create pictures - and accept charcoal, pen and inks, acrylic paints and laser jet printer paper along side each other as equally valid techniques for creating pictures.

I wonder if some of the old traditional photographic shops may have managed to hang on in this way? A small number, possibly, but alas Jessops and the like seemed determined to swallow them all up before jumping off the cliff themselves, so we may never know.....

[/rant]

This isn't just about the demise of one multiple photographic retailer, but about the death of the high street which most consumers won't realize until it's gone, and as long as people use the shops for them to handle and demonstrate the products and buy them on-line the decline will continue.