It is not hard to see why the stores push digital. The digital camera makers give "spiffs" to the clerks for selling the merchandise. This amounts to a commission on each camera sold. They make more money by selling digital. This goes directly to the salesperson, not to the store, so those people are motivated.
negs.
Don't kid yourself, there were plenty of spiffs on film cameras too. It isn't a film/digital thing, it's a move the inventory thing. More often than not, spiffs offered by the manufacturer go directly to the store, not the employees. This is one of the tricks used by most online dealers to get the prices below "wholesale" prices. Unless the manufacturer jumps through some hoops, the salespeople usually don't see the money. Other times, the store will get most of the spiff and give the employee some of it...
But it isn't just the manufacturers that offer spiffs. The store will give spiffs on items that they are desperate to move and/or things that are highly profitable for the store.
For example, Tamron lenses had large spiffs on them (especially the superzooms) both because they were very profitable for the store and because there were significant discounts to be had for volume sales. The largest spiffs I ever got was with selling Canon EOS-1 series cameras and Contax compact cameras. Both of those were film, and in the case of the Contax, the spiff was there because digital had taken over that market. So there was every reason to try to sell the film camera, and I did...
The reason that stores and employees sell more digital stuff is because that is what most people like. Photo salesmen tend to be inherently lazy, so they sell what is easy. And take it from me, it is very easy to sell digital cameras. With the turnover at those places, I'm willing to believe that most of the sales force doesn't know anything about film or the cameras that use them. Add to that the almost complete lack of new film equipment to sell, and you're going to get some resistance to talking about film gear.
So, even though spiffs aren't "to blame" for the sales people not talking about film gear, the fact that they are trying to make money is. The vast majority of people do not want a film camera anymore. I love film, but I sold digital every day. For most people, a digital camera is the right thing for them and they certainly all came in wanting one. I would bring up film for the occasional customer that it would benefit, and I would even sell some sometimes because of it. I will keep saying this, customer demand is what drives digital sales, there is no conspiracy on the part of stores or the salesmen...
Isaac