Ritz shuttering 300 stores nationwide...

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090402006348&newsLang=en

There is a PDF on the web site showing which stores are closing. The sell-off of inventory starts Saturday, April 4th.
--
Regards,

Steve

Good riddance! They'd become increasingly irrelevant and overpriced. The last time I was in one, was the time the store manager explained that they don't price match with their own website.

--They will start out raising prices 30% , then discounting by 20%. All the closing stores use the same formula. Best to wait, and get a good price on scraps.

2 Close to me are staying open, both are in Annapolis MD. I am kinda surprised they did not close at least one of them.

--
E-30, HDL-4, 12-60mm SWD, EC-14, FL-50R

Ritz/Wolf, this is a sad commentary.

While they may have been the master of their own demise they did provide a service to many folks with less camera savvy than some of us here.

I was a regular Wolf Camera customer back in my Canon Film days and the staff was, at that time, helpful and knowledgeable.

I checked the PDF list of stores closing that's attached to the link that Steve provided and my local store is not listed... yet.

--
Bill Turner
Eschew Obfuscation, Espouse Elucidation
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Infrared Gallery: http://www.pbase.com/wmdt131/ir_photos

I see 38 stores in California are closing. The store in Pasadena is about 2 blocks away from the Circuit City store that just closed. I've never been in the local Ritz camera store. Samy's Camera here in Pasadena and LA is much better and promotes Olympus.
--
Dave
Underwater Photographer w/ E-3 & C-8080
http://whaleshark.smugmug.com

My local store, which is on the list, was slow in getting any kind of current models in stock. Plus they held the high prices on older models while everyone else was discounting them.

But I do have fond memories of driving 20 miles to the closest Ritz as a teenager and half of the store was darkroom supplies (which I used). The cameras were well stocked also. I remember checking out the "new" small Olympus OM-1 and thinking how cool it was. How high the prices were back then...who knew? You didn't have anything to compare with!