Local Stores vs Internet Stores

[markbb]

Originally Posted by arigram

I would be interested to know what would you do if you had to order from "overseas", waiting weeks for delivery, paying very high prices for shipping and putting up with the trouble of massive heavy packages.
Honestly, I would like Americans and Brits to be forced to order from mainland Europe and see how that affects their thinking and practices.

Unless film was only produced on the mythical Island of Atlantis, this is unlikely. Why don't you buy film from Greece's own film manufactures?

[arigram]

Originally Posted by markbb

Unless film was only produced on the mythical Island of Atlantis, this is unlikely. Why don't you buy film from Greece's own film manufactures?

Huh?

[arigram]

Originally Posted by Sino

Ari,

I would help if I could, but the quantities I order are quite small. Even the photographic clubs here do not order large amounts of paper and film.

Exactly my problem, because I thought about it.
But then, who is around here so devoted to film photography that makes it his career and spends all his earnings on more film, paper and chemicals?
All the photographers in Crete would still not buy half the stuff I do.
Often I feel I am fighting a losing battle, but I am more practical than ideological and I know I am sticking with film because of the properties it gives me as an artist. If I also did sculpture I would act similarly with the materials needed. I don't know how long I can survive though, especially if film disappears from Greece.

We still have to meet for a cup of coffee or a raki though. :-)

Man, you know, the invitation still stands.
You should get your girlfriend and come over for a weekend or so.
Fun is guaranteed!

[arigram]

I just had a long conversation with the store owner I told you about.
She is very pessimistic about everything, not film, but the whole photographic business. She is a fan of film herself, not only for her use, but for others, but her only customers are some schools and universities that buy film in very small quantities. I mean, I buy a lot more! She has almost no profit for selling digital cameras and because they become obsolete so quickly or because of special offers she can't stock them or sell them easily. Even the market for albums (baptisms, weddings) has been very reduced.
The representatives of equipment in Athens also have very little in stock and she has trouble finding things for her customers who often have to wait months for something small.
I told her about getting film from abroad but she is very concerned about the bureaucracy and she doesn't think the trouble is worth it when she doesn't sell.
She told me she wished that the film companies would do more to promote, because they are completely invisible.

Ilford, Kodak, Fuji, are you listening?

[David H. Bebbington]

Ari, is there some problem with mail to Crete that we foreigners don't understand? I would normally have thought that you could, for example, order from the UK. 10 rolls of Ilford 35mm cost £24.90, fast airmail with tracking and insurance costs £10.32, as Crete is an EU country, no VAT or import duty is charged. Is there some hidden difficulty?

Regards,

David

[arigram]

Originally Posted by David H. Bebbington

Ari, is there some problem with mail to Crete that we foreigners don't understand? I would normally have thought that you could, for example, order from the UK. 10 rolls of Ilford 35mm cost £24.90, fast airmail with tracking and insurance costs £10.32, as Crete is an EU country, no VAT or import duty is charged. Is there some hidden difficulty?

Regards,

David

Like I've said, I can order from Germany. My last 1000 euro order of film cost me about 30 euros in shipping. I usually try to avoid ordering from the UK because of the "overseas" bullshit charges, but I have been a customer of Robert White and Kentmere for example.
In regards to a merchant buying and reselling products, I can't speak because I don't know the troubles involved but it seems its not that easy as buying retail for personal use.

[arigram]

I forgot to mention, that the lady who owns the store, is really hoping in a revival of film.
She believes that the digital craze is a passing trend.
*sigh*
I wish I could give her hope.
I am not too optimistic myself.

[haris]

Ari, I will explain you how I stopped to buy from local stores: I calculated next things:

Price of products at my current supplier
Price of transport
Custom and TAX expences
Bank expences when make payment
Then I added 10 percent to that for sallaries of emploees and for expences of bussines (renting, electricity, etc...)
Also I make note that usual time from ordering products till have them in my hands is 15 days.

Everything together was my reference amount of money. Let us call this amount of money as X.

Then I visited local stores. I discovered in all local stores they want about X+30 percent up to X+100 percent. And in all local stores time from ordering till having products in my hands is about 60 days. So, in my local stores they have prices almos double of my referent amount of money (X), and for much longer delivery time. I considered that as plain robbery and as local store owners are making me fool.

I tried to make some fair arrangement with them, but they refused. Especially some of them weren't happy as they considered my orders too small for them to work with me.

After all that experience, and as I was already found very good, willing to help seller over internet, I am happy with them and I am their loyal customer for several years now.

As I told local store owners: "If you don't want my money, there are people over the world who will be glad to take it. Your problem."

So, I respect your desire to help local store and your ethical dillema, my experience with local stores was so bad that I don't feel any regrets to go to internet shopping.

Regards

[haris]

Oh, for almost 5 years now, here are no stores selling b/w material (or colour except Kodak Gold and Fuji Superia films), so today I don't even have to think will I buy locally or not. Last year last local store selling EFKE stuff went down. I did buy there, but me alone couldn't help. They also had high markup prices, but basic EFKE prices here were low, so I didn't felt exploited by them and could accept those prices