And that's the trouble with - and for - many smaller stores: they have to offer to order stuff too often.
You can do that yourself quite easily. And people do.
And when you do, you get what you want for (often much) less money too.
So there is not a big incentive for people to work with their local camera store.
The result is that shops have changed, and now only offer thingies they know will be in enough demand to sell in numbers. Consumer goods.
Digital P&S, batteries, picture frames, small camera bags, memory cards, and not much more. Anything else has to be ordered.
They can't offer advice about anything than these consumer thingies anymore: it's a fulltime job to keep track of the many different models of digital P&Ss alone, know what battery they take, etc. It doesn't pay to keep someone posted about what happens outside the consumer segment.
So if you do not know how to put a memory card into a particular camera, or how to make the images on that card appear on your television set, they are the ones to turn to.
Want to see a decent tripod, or need advice about developers, all they can do is recite catalogues and sales brochures.
But that's what the market forced them to change into.
What really bothers me is when they keep asking $1000 for second hand gear that goes for $200 in the Bay and elsewehere. When i see stuff they are trying to flog sitting on shelves for 10+ years.
