Jessops (UK) Window Displays

[Steve Smith]

I have noticed recently that my local Jessops doesn't actually have any products in its window displays any more. All they have are A4 sized posters of the products.

Is it similar in other Jessops stores in the UK?


Steve.

 

[perkeleellinen]

My local Jessops (Banbury) is in a shopping centre so has glass panels looking into the shop. They tend to have posters hanging down and floating behind the panels. The Banbury store is interesting because of its general lack of product - there's a centre isle with bags and batteries and then one wall is full of glass cabinets full of cameras and the other side has those self-service photo print machines. Film is behind the counter almost out of sight, there's a few dusty Ilford chemical bottles on the floor and loads of staff who always pounce on you if you go in to look at the glass cabinets. But it's certainly better than the stores in Leamington Spa and Stratford where I've found the staff almost as ignorant as they are arrogant.

 

[paul_c5x4]

Norwich store - Posters in the window extolling the virtues of "Buy it now. Ideal for christmas". Inside, electronic gadgets, accessories, and (for the want of a better word) tat. Much of it overpriced.

Not seen photographic paper/chemicals or film in there since they had a "make over".

 

[Ian Grant]

This type of display isn't unique to Jessops, it seems to be a way of trying to entice you into the shop.

Ian

 

[Steve Smith]

This type of display isn't unique to Jessops, it seems to be a way of trying to entice you into the shop.

Well, it's not working. Quite the reverse actually. It makes me think that they don't have anything to offer.


Steve.

 

[perkeleellinen]

They often don't!
Slightly OT, but I think camera chain stores in general are no longer welcoming places. I used to find the staff quite interested in photography itself and willing to suggest a variety of options whenever you went in. Last few times I've been into Jessops all the staff seem completely uninterested in photography, are really young (probably on account of the poverty wages) and seem drilled with the mantra new technology is the solution, now what's the question? I used to enjoy digging through the bits-and-bobs boxes they used to have, chatting with staff who seemed genuinely interested in what you're trying to do (this includes Jessops, Jacobs and LCE) and experimenting with a new technique meant paying a few quid for a different film or a filter. The idea of a system upgrade every time you hit a problem was never suggested.

 

[benjiboy]

All I want to say about Jessops is that if Moses had heard of them there would have been eleven commandments.;

 

[Martin Aislabie]

But it's certainly better than the stores in Leamington Spa and Stratford where I've found the staff almost as ignorant as they are arrogant.

Not true

The staff in the Stratford branch are at least equally ignorant as they are arrogant

I went in there about 12 months ago to ask if they still kept 10x8 developing dishes.

Blank look, check the Computer Screen, collect into a huddle to discuss with the Manager, return with the message that I should look on the internet, as they "don't do old fashioned stuff like that" and flounce off.


I won't darkening their doorstep anytime soon

Martin

 

[pentaxuser]

Jessops in Northampton certainly used to have a lot of gear in its window and it was always that which enticed me in. In the last 2-3 years at least I haven't even bothered to look as I have largely fallen out of love with Jessops. Camera shops like most other shops used to use the shop window to show their wares. Skears in Northampton, a secondhand camera shop a bit further out of town still does and I still wear out shoe leather walking there if I have the time.

I can't really believe that the shoppers' psyche has changed that much. Without a window display, the shop doesn't appear to be saying "we love you to come in and examine stuff more" but this seems to be being ignored by those running the show which in Jessops case is head office. In my opinion their branch managers are neither encouraged nor rewarded for showing any initiative.

The Banbury branch that Steve mentions is actually chronic display-wise and as he has said has a few dusty analogue materials in a corner. We are often in the shopping mall in Banbury but these days I can't even be bothered to go and have a look.

pentaxuser

 

[Ian Grant]

Surprisingly in the Kidderminster branch there's film, paper chemistry etc displayed quite clearly being the counter on some shelves, and the staff are quite knowledgeable.

Not sure if she's still there but in the Worcester store one of the female staff was a every competent B&W worker, did her own processing & enlarging etc and really knew her stuff. So not all stores are equally as bad, however their prices are

Ian

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Surprisingly in the Kidderminster branch there's film, paper chemistry etc displayed quite clearly being the counter on some shelves, and the staff are quite knowledgeable.

Not sure if she's still there but in the Worcester store one of the female staff was a every competent B&W worker, did her own processing & enlarging etc and really knew her stuff. So not all stores are equally as bad, however their prices are

Ian

I don't understand Jessops ILFORD film prices, which seem to be significantly higher than the competition.

Tom

 

[Ian Grant]

Jessops were once very profitable and at that time would price match, they also get you anything within 24 hours, now they've lost the plot and are expensive and slow, so lose business to competitors

Ian

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Ian,

I started off using Jessops, both through the old Norwich store (invariably packed even during the day at that point) and mail-order circa 2003. They had 120, 4x5", paper, chemicals, darkroom kit. Nothing like that in their newer shopping centre based store.

Tom

 

[Paul Green]

The Jessops here in Southampton are the same. I’ve been out of uni a year now, but whilst I was there I must have applied to work there 4 or 5 times when they had vacancies. I gave up trying after I went in for some Hp5 and was told that they were unsure if they stocked it, yet there were 20 or 30 rolls of it on a shelf no more than 2 feet from her head.

 

[benjiboy]

I asked one of their employees recently for a couple of rolls of Reala and he replied "Is that film ?, I'll check on the computer"

 

[Francis in VT]

From the other side of the pond, my experience has been that if the window was easily accessible from the inside of the store it might be to stop shoplifting. On the other hand you could be in my shoes and have no shops available. Here in the center of New England in the last 8 years we have lost 6 camera stores and 3 full range processing labs. That is in a 25 mile radius.

Francis in VT

 

[benjiboy]

There must be tens of thousands of photographic retail firms worldwide that gone bankrupt since digital imaging made photography an adjunct of the computer industry, unfortunately all the wrong ones have survived, and the fact that Jessops are still there is a miracle in itself.

 

[pentaxuser]

Bad experience in the Stratford branch as well. Referred me to Boots for camera batteries as they were out of stock. OK it can happen but they weren't really interested in helping and trying to turn a lost sale opportunity into ensuring I went back there next time. Maybe it was the film camera around my neck that condemned me as a no-hoper :

pentaxuser

 

[perkeleellinen]

One time in the Banbury branch an elderly woman came in with a 35mm P&S gave the camera to the assistant and said 'can I have a film for this'. The assistant looked blankly at the camera and gave it to a colleague who examined it and announced it took film even though the woman had just said so. He then asked her what speed she wanted, she replied she didn't know and he said you've got a choice of Kodak or Fuji. She chose Kodak.

 

[bill spears]

My local Jessops here in Truro is right next to the Ann Summers Shop... needless to say the window displays in Ann Summers are ALOT more interesting

 

[nik]

Surprisingly in the Kidderminster branch there's film, paper chemistry etc displayed quite clearly being the counter on some shelves, and the staff are quite knowledgeable.

Not sure if she's still there but in the Worcester store one of the female staff was a every competent B&W worker, did her own processing & enlarging etc and really knew her stuff. So not all stores are equally as bad, however their prices are

Ian

This must be a strange Worcestershire thing because the Redditch branch has paper and chemicals in the window. Think the female worker may be at LCE in Worcester now.

 

[Snapper]

I loved the look I got of complete bemusement when I went into the Fenchurch Street branch in London and asked if they had any Tri-X, as though I was the first person to have asked for film for about 5 years.

 

[Paul Jenkin]

Whilst travelling up to Manchester on the train last week, I picked up a photo mag to see what is going on in the world of photography these days. I nearly gagged on my sausage roll when I read that they are "The People's Choice" top phot retailer of the year (or some such).

Are these "people" blind and stupid? There is nothing whatsoever in Jessops I cannot buy somewhere else from more knowledgeable salespersons at a better price with better pre and post sales customer service. No second hand gear, no trade-ins, VERY little film / film related gear and staff that wouldn't look out of place stocking shelves at a "Pound" shop.

 

[Marizu]

The guys in Manchester's Trafford Centre store are usually ok. They mainly seem to be students from local colleges. They keep some chemistry and darkroom papers in stock and wouldn't suggest that you run them through an ink jet.
There was also a nice guy in the Llandudno store who knew exactly why I would need a loupe for taking a picture.

For most people, photography IS digital. There is a whole generation that wouldn't know what to do with a sheet of film. Whilst it's not their fault, it's not particularly useful to the people around here but we are in the minority.

Obviously, there are other shops that serve my particular needs better.

 

[whojammyflip]

Jessops in Leamington is a bit daunting...get accosted as soon as you look at the cabinets. Best to go via the pub first, so you're weaing beer armour. I tried convincing my brother about the merits of a 50mm prime for his new Canon, and we were pounced on immediately. Actually put him off buying anything I think. There's a nice little Fuji shop down the road in Wellesbourne where the chap knows his stuff though I buy all my film stuff from 7dayshop, Nova or Ag Photographic. Its kind of ironic that the digital era is killing off the camera shops.