Jessops loss is Jacobs gain...

Akki14

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Jessops's website is .com
 

Thomas Bertilsson

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Once I was contemplating 8x10 as a format. I still do to some extent, but it feels less and less important. I don't think it will improve my seeing any.
But at the time I was cash strapped, and had a nice deal on an 8x10 rig to grab, pending I could find an affordable way of supporting that camera. I had the tripod, but needed a head for it. Something that could accommodate my other cameras as well. So I inquired about all possible solutions, including ball heads. You never know, I might be able to use one.
The guy who assisted me, I have to give him credit, I came in wearing the same clothes I was while painting my living room, wasn't sure about a ball head that could take approximately 45 lbs. So he had to ask. The senior rep looked at the guy like 'Are you nuts?!" but kept his mouth shut and started looking in catalogs. Another store clerk exclaimed very loudly "Why the hell would you want to put an 8x10 on a ball head?!" and laughed...
Now, whether it was a good idea to put an 8x10 on a ball head or not, I don't know, but I sure won't purchase it there if it was, including the $200 worth of Ilford paper and fixer I was about to purchase. I just left it all on the counter and left the place. Never looked back.

- Thomas
 

Paul.

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Thursday last was in Camarthen when I saw the closeing down notice on the window of Jessops. Went in and found everything wet was 90% off. Box of 100 8x6.5 Ilford MG4 RC, Box of 25 Kentmere RC, 4lts Tmax dev. Multi mask easel and a 10x8 papersafe for £14 odd. Have to say it saddend me that these things were being disposed of so cheaply, I will however give them a good home.
A lot of the old school staff at Jessops have got out as one told me " I just couldnot stand it any more" He now works for an independent and with the service he gave me my busness will follow him.
Regards Paul.
 

BarryWilkinson

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I agree Paul it is sad but as long as they are being used and not thrown out is a good result .

I went into the closing Croydon branch because they had a brand new Carl Zeiss T* lens for sale at half price. Nikon mount it said, only to find it was a Contax mount lens.

Barry
 

Andy K

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I'm not surprised Jessops are slowly going under. Quite apart from the folly of trying to compete with PC World, Curries etc. their prices are too high. For example I have just ordered a Gorillapod to keep in the bottom of my bag for those days I get caught without a tripod (and I figure it will be ideal to use with my Bessa and 90mm).

Here's Jessops price,

and here's what I paid.

Even with postage I saved £20.
 
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tim_walls

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I was in the Croydon branch on Friday as well to despoil the still warm corpse: in-date bulk roll of FP4+, selection of various out-of-date 120 rolls, bulk film loader, slide cutter, set of SpotTone dyes, some chemical stirrers, Cokin P-series filter, 6x6 slide mounts, and possibly some other bits and bobs I've forgotten about, all for less than 14 quid. I was both happy and very sad :-(.

Anyway, had a chat with the guy behind the desk, and it turns out that basically that shop is being used as the clearing house for all the other stores in the area which are being closed - as they shut, what's left in their storerooms (mostly darkroom gear) is being sent to the Croydon store to be sold at 90% off last marked price.

So, it might be worth checking there periodically (until it's closed, of course) to see if any more goodies turn up.
 

Mark Burley

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Jessops - Milton Keynes

Hi all, I recently took advantage of reduced prices at the Milton Keynes branch. Although I have to admit to being furious with them in the past. As I ordered film, lenses and various items over the phone (four times) only to discover they had sold them to other people once I had got there. Each time they did this I never got an apology, one assistant said I should have got there earlier and to stop wasting everyone's time. After that I swore I would never buy from them again or waste petrol on driving for an hour and a half each time.

I was given a voucher as a christmas present (oh joy!) so went in to try to find something of use I could spend it on... Only to discover that they were closing down and that a lot of stock had been reduced to as little as 10% of original price. To cut a windy story short I spent the grand total of £30 but came away with a 50mm enlarging lens and loads of bits for the darkroom. For once they had managed to cheer me up no end, shame that they won't be in a position to do it again...

Mark
 

dferrie

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The demise of good honest and helpful camera shops seems to be a world wide problem and it hasn't past us by in Ireland.

In the town where I live there was a wonderful shop (WJ Owens) which must have been in business for 30+ years. It was a small shop with two counters, one for photographic equipment and one for radio controlled planes. The staff (all 3 of them) were wonderful, they were quiet happy to spend as much time as you needed, even if you didn't buy anything. I don't think I ever paid the full price for anything, no matter what the total came to they would round it down, it might have only been a few pence (cents) but it was a nice gesture. I always harboured dreams of buying the shop, but it was not to be... a few years ago I went away on holidays, came back two weeks later and the shop was closed. After a few enquiries I heard that the owner had been made a financial offer that he couldn't refuse and sold up. A few months later the shop had been gutted and replaced with a coffee shop

Now I love coffee, but won't darken that shops door as they stole my dream.

We do still have some great shops here, with the same values that were displayed by WJ Owens (customer comes first) and I think it is important that we (photographers) try and support these outlets, even if it cost a few cents more, the alternative is that the shops will continue to disappear and with them the vast experience and knowledge that the staff have.

On a positive note, I had a couple here in Ireland for one of our tours, they stayed on in Dublin for a few extra days and asked where they could get their exposed film processed and I recommended Gunns of Wexford street. When the couple returned to the USA they emailed me to tell me what a joy it was to visit Gunns. They dropped in the film and returned 3 days later to be greeted by name!

My two cents worth,

David
 

Andy K

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For 'passengers' I read 'rats'.

'It also said that £17m of stock would be cleared from the business'. I better get down there and snap up some of that analogue gear they'll be flogging off to bolster their computer sales.
 
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OP
OP

FrankB

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I hope his golden parachute lands on him!



Seriously though, what will it take for them to get the message?! They're abandoning (have abandoned!) their existing "traditional photography" customer base and have failed to win a new customer base from the ultra-competitive computer peripheral competition.

How myopic do you have to be not to get that and reverse course?! ('course by now it's almost certainly too late!)
 
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jd callow

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The small camera shop in every shopping district is probably a thing of the past. There isn't the business in traditional product to support a shop in every town and village, it appears that they cannot sell enough, be price competitive on the full range of digital equipment or people would rather buy online or at an electronics store. Service in many Camera shops has often been confoundingly bad and people seem to not put a high value on service anymore.

It seems that B&H, Robert White and Calumet have the formula for success. One big store or in Calumet's instance multiple big stores and a good catalogue/online business.

It would seem that there would be a niche for the small *good* shop to move toward kiosks, one hour process, scanning, and quality machine prints. S/he could then service the consumer who wants prints from his/her disposable or digital thing as well as offer service to the pro's doing weddings, and portraiture and using DSLs, 35mm and MF. I could be wrong...
 
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Dave Miller

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Slightly off topic, but it illustrates the conundrum faced by the high street retailer.
Earlier today I was sitting in an opticians waiting for my wife to finish an eye test when a young couple entered, he, clutching his eye test prescription, was apparently searching for frames for his first pair of glasses, and was rather taken aback at the prices. The assistant was doing her best to interest him in their budget range, but he still found these expensive. “Never mind” said his partner “you show me the pair you like best, and I will get them made up on the internet at a discount for you”. I was left wondering for how much longer I will have a local opticians; the assistant wasn’t too impressed either.
 

Mick Fagan

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One quite interesting thing about this saga, is that it has made a few appearances in the financial section of my local newspaper.

The basic content of the articles is to point out what a difference a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) can make to a business.

The story was a warning for shareholders in general, to carefully check out any business they have shares in whenever a new CEO takes charge.

Jessops has featured at least three times, regarding the role of a CEO in todays business environment. One story, which I think was the first a few months ago, also mentioned the CEO of the company involved in the Agfa Photo saga. The theme was more or less along the lines of, the rapacious cash hunting CEO.

Mick.
 

copake_ham

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Collectively, I think what you're all noting is the irreversible changes to the consumer model.

Most of us here are "of an age" that we can remember independent local shops specializing in such areas as photographic gear etc., musical instruments and sheet music, bookstores, TV/Audio shops (and, Ham Radio stores ) etc. etc.

But we're now well into two or more generations of folks who consider retailing to be either big box stores or the alternative of web-shopping.

Seeing the closure of once-favorite shops is a bit like watching dinosaurs die off - sad but unstoppable. And I have to admit that I'm part of it, as I bet you are too.

As a film camera user - in the past several years the only gear I've bought has been lightly-used offerings on eBay and a couple of new Cosina Bessa R2S's with lenses etc. on Steve Gandy's site. And ditto for almost all of my film purchases other than a few "emergency" buys of consumer stuff at a Walgreen's or Target!

It's not just the price (although that's a big part of it) it's also the convenience of 24/7 shopping.
 

Black Dog

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I tend to buy online simply because of being out in the sticks a very long way away from supplies of, saysheet film etc. However, I do buy quite large amounts of stuff at the likes of Silverprint, Mr Cad etc when I am down the toon.Of course thanks to the net, the little guys like Silverprint can now have a global presence.
 

mikeg

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Another Jessop's story!

I went down to Hereford at the weekend, partly to view the photographic exhibition on there (called Photofest). Hereford is lucky to have an independent photography shop as well as Jessops. I popped into Jessop's first, hardly any analogue stuff at all now just a few chemicals and a couple of packs of Ilford 10x8 25 sheets hidden under the counter. Hereford has a good art college which still runs traditional b&w courses, so that surprised me.

A customer asked the young lad in there if he had any negative filing sheets -- he then had to go and ask someone what they were and if they had any. Then he brought the person some sheets for slides :rolleyes:

I moved on to Melgray's, the independent. Loads of second hand stuff as well as a reasonable selection of chemicals, Ilford paper, Paterson tanks, reels, trays, etc. They are obviously the recommended supplier for the art college. A customer asked the young lad in there if he had an Olympus OM-2n? Yes was the answer, also they had an OM-2sp and the young salesman, early 20s or so, then went on to outline the differences between the two. The contrast between the two similarly aged salesmen couldn't have been more defined.

Melgray's got my business that day.

Mike
 

wiggy

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In a way you can't blame them for having thought that 'traditional' photography was a dying market and that digital was the way to go. Most of the art colleges don't teach traditional methods any more (or if they do it's a tiny part of the course), go to pretty well any club and you'll be told that all they do now is digital photography (or computerised image manipulation as I think of it!), and most of the pros are digital. Let's be honest - Are there genuinely enough of us still buying stuff on a regular basis to keep them afloat when the likes of Calmuet, Firstcall etc, who don't have the overheads of a multiple high street outlet chain, can undercut them and still maintain higher profit margins.
 

thomsonrc

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And another one!

My dad's Pentax Spotmatic F stopped working the other day, I suggested it might be worth getting a new battery as he hadnt changed it for decades. My dad said he hadnt changed the battery for so long he had forgotten it had one.

Off he went to Jessops (which used to be a nice independent shop in my youth) and asked if they had a battery. The lad looked it up on the computer and told him it was obsolete, their was no replacement and that was that.

Dad rang me up a few days later, really quite upset ( he had had the camera since new); was his spotmatic redundant? I did a quick search on the internet and found modern replacements 3 for a pound, ordered them and told him never to go to Jessops again.


Cheers

Ritchie
 

jkiely

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wiggy said:
Most of the art colleges don't teach traditional methods any more (or if they do it's a tiny part of the course),
Click to expand...

I lecture in Manchester and many of us are trying to reverse the digital in education trend, often seen as the cheaper route by managers. In response to many requests from the industry we ensure that the students we turn out are fully conversant in both film and digital. I have recently joined APUG after I realised I've spent the last 3 years producing substandard work on digital, so my non commercial shoots are back to film.

In terms of shops I removed Jessops from my recommended suppliers list some time ago because of their attitude and general lack of knowledgeable staff. Jacobs is way up there as well as PFD, a great small and very friendly wholesalers in Manchester who make very good tea!

I must admit I'm rather sad about Jessop's. I trained in Derby in the early 80s and used to travel to the original store in Nottingham which was like a step into photography heaven for me in those days.
 
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