I manage a local camera shop (we do have 9 stores) which still carries 4x5, 120, and an assortment of darkroom stuff. I have a few customers with specific needs that I will fill special orders for or do my best to stay competitive with internet pricing. On most things I can stay very competitive, but the tough thing is none of us make the margins on darkroom/film sales that we used to and it is becoming more and more difficult to justify carry them. Although that being said I'm hoping that as more and more of the smaller shops start to turn into digital mini labs that stores like mine will be able to absorb those customers and keep film and darkroom equipment on our shelves.
I certainly couldn't afford a thousand euros of PanF and would shoot much smaller quantities. I did do the internet shop thing for a while but now I prefer to buy local.
There are some great internet stores in the UK Channel Islands but I doubt they will ever be able to supply me with a 5L bottle of fixer.
Why not split your big order of PanF, to the internet retailer and some to the local shop?
I look at the store and what services they provide. If they are able to give me advice that helps me understand something or helps me in decisions about gear or supplies, I buy from them. However, if I have to go looking elsewhere because they don't carry it, or if I get poor advice or no help at all, or if they charge what I consider unreasonable amounts for supplies or gear, you bet I look other places. I will always give the local place the chance to meet or beat the prices found at competitors.
When does it stop being good business practice and becomes a charity?
This is an interesting point. But charity is something that you just give and not lose. So, if you already feel you've been loosing something, it isn't charity at all...
I mean this is where we should consider what the reasonble prices are for the products we consume in general. How much is too expensive and how much is not? And also do we really wanna buy things real cheap, I mean the cheapest all the time?
There are two local stores that sell film and paper. Both are getting smaller and smaller inventories of the traditional products. Some of the salespeople are a pain because I still do traditional. At least on the web nobody is going to criticize you for how you make images, be at film to paper, hybrid, or fully digital.
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I look at the store and what services they provide. If they are able to give me advice that helps me understand something or helps me in decisions about gear or supplies, I buy from them. However, if I have to go looking elsewhere because they don't carry it, or if I get poor advice or no help at all, or if they charge what I consider unreasonable amounts for supplies or gear, you bet I look other places. I will always give the local place the chance to meet or beat the prices found at competitors.
What Robert said.
OTOH here I've no idea who the closest real camera shop is.
In Toronto the nearest camera shop was supported when it made sense. I can't buy what they don't sell or what they over price. I'm perfectly willing to pay more then internet prices. I save shipping. I get it now. I can see it before I leave the shop. All worth some money to me. But at some cutoff [the cutoff varies ] I get pushed to click instead of drive to the shop.
Location: Datchet, Berkshire UK- about 20 miles west of London
Posts: 280
I buy virtually all my films and most other consumable items remotely via phone or web. I do feel a degree of loyalty to the voices on the phone that have serviced my needs reliably and at good prices sometimes for years, and have sometimes gone out of their way to provide exceptional service. Even equipment is largely bought remotely.
Meanwhile there are no local photographic stores that I care about- nothing above Jessop's and one or two other similars that do not understand what service and added value mean and whose days IMO are numbered. This doesn't bother me at all- I see no merit in supporting outlets or channels that combine poor stock availability, no advice that I should value, and poor pricing. If they wish to survive then they need to work out the way the wind's blowing and respond. I honestly feel I have a stronger relationship with the remote suppliers, and certainly I get a much higher standard of discussion on availability, relative film popularity etc.
There are a couple of outlets in London that I use retail or remotely, depending on convenience, whether I fancy a walk or whatever.. Two of these I use because they sell (and hold stock) of things hard to find elsewhere. The other is competitive on new equipment and I'm pretty sure uses web and phone driven volume to sustain competitiveness over the counter. Maybe there's a couple of business models there that could work elsewhere, though the size of the London market doubtless makes it easier.
Finally it is of course possible that an outlet from which you order remotely is someone else's local store. B&H is a case in point- so a decision to buy remotely is not necessarily a strike against retail per se. But in any case it is more important to identify the outlets and channels that serve you well in all respects and do what you can to secure their survival than to assume there's something significant about "local". If Mailshots or Speedgraphic or Discount Films Direct disappeared I'd be really sorry. If all the camera shops in Windsor closed tomorrow it might take me a year to notice.
I look at the store and what services they provide. If they are able to give me advice that helps me understand something or helps me in decisions about gear or supplies, I buy from them. However, if I have to go looking elsewhere because they don't carry it, or if I get poor advice or no help at all, or if they charge what I consider unreasonable amounts for supplies or gear, you bet I look other places. I will always give the local place the chance to meet or beat the prices found at competitors.
Thats a good point, one store two weeks ago charged me euro 7.50 per roll of Ilford FP4 35mm and they are unhelpful twits. I wouldn't buy from them only in an emergency, as it was. While the guy was getting my change he said 'not many shooting film anymore' to which I answered 'incorrect, not many paying 7.50 per roll'
The other store I like to use couldn't be any more helpful, they are just super people and really committed to Film.
The current biz model is to sell for less over the internet, as you have no overhead (store, rent, employee salries, some taxes, etc) and so we buyers want to shop for less and buy over the 'net. We save a little now, but sooner or later, our towns will become ghost towns, as nobody shops there anymore. I see the number of banks, gas stations, etc. declining in the future, as the model goes generic - ie, Generic Bank, Generic Oil Company, etc. Much less competition (and lower costs) that way. And so it goes...
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