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Ritz/Wolf camera update

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accupix said:
I find it strange that DPREVIEW did not feature a story, not even a word, on Ritz Camera chain closing in the NEWS section. Ritz is the largest camera store chain in the U.S.
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FWIW I haven't seen a word in the NY Times or WSJ either.

--
Henry Posner
B&H Photo-Video
 
It is becoming more and more difficult to find a store where I (we) can fondle cameras to see if we like them before a purchase - well at least if you want something other than the big box stores sell.

Thus having Wolf/Ritz leave the brick and mortar space will do nothing but further increase the frustration for finding something akin to what I write about in the first sentence.
 
Personally I never found that my local Wolf camera store had much to touch and hold. I found the employees nice but other than the manager their knowledge was not very substantial. I also found the store inventory lacking for the nicer highend items - way too much store brand merchandise. Still very sorry to see them go out of business.

Really hard to make money in a store when there is nothing that keeps regulars coming in the door on a standard basis. In the past, photographers would come in to buy paper, chemicals and film. With that traffic pretty much gone they were left to sell cameras and printing. Both areas have lots of competition not just from the internet but also big box stores.
Waterengineer said:
It is becoming more and more difficult to find a store where I (we) can fondle cameras to see if we like them before a purchase - well at least if you want something other than the big box stores sell.

Thus having Wolf/Ritz leave the brick and mortar space will do nothing but further increase the frustration for finding something akin to what I write about in the first sentence.
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The original owner of Inkley's has opened a store in Ogden Utah called Imagingdepot. The Layton Inkleys location appears will soon be replaced with an Imagingdepot as well. Mr Inkley owns the building in Layton so it makes perfect sense.

http://www.theimagingdepot.com/

--
Bill
Keep on keepin' on!
 
As I case out the doomed Wolf Camera stores here in Denver, I'm impressed by how little worthy inventory they really have. I don't need a new camera, but I always am replacing flashes. No Sony or Nikon flashes in stock-- oh well, I can score used Sony flashes for dimes on the dollar soon, since Sony's changing its shoe mount. How about a good lightweight tripod? Quantaray and Vivitar are the stars at Wolf, with just a few Manfrottos like the one I already own in stock. There's no used gear, which was always what drew me into camera stores to check the ever-changing, limited stock, so all that's left is some cheap, no-name studio lights (a good deal, perhaps, if I wanted that) and a lot of UV filters.

The Wolf stores have been dying on the vine for years. This seems like a mercy killing.
 
John McMillin said:
As I case out the doomed Wolf Camera stores here in Denver, I'm impressed by how little worthy inventory they really have. I don't need a new camera, but I always am replacing flashes. No Sony or Nikon flashes in stock-- oh well, I can score used Sony flashes for dimes on the dollar soon, since Sony's changing its shoe mount. How about a good lightweight tripod? Quantaray and Vivitar are the stars at Wolf, with just a few Manfrottos like the one I already own in stock. There's no used gear, which was always what drew me into camera stores to check the ever-changing, limited stock, so all that's left is some cheap, no-name studio lights (a good deal, perhaps, if I wanted that) and a lot of UV filters.

The Wolf stores have been dying on the vine for years. This seems like a mercy killing.
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I drove by the store I used to work at last night in the Denver area . . .

The lights were on but they were closed and there were two cars in the parking lot that I didn't recognise (as I know most of those that were still working there).

Of course, the front windows were all plastered with "Going Out Of Business...Everything Must Go!" and "Liquidation Sale!" signs.

I was also told by a couple of people that came in to my store yesterday and Sunday that they had gone by a couple of different Wolf stores and they were shut down for business.

Looks to me like the stores around here have been shut down and the remaining inventory will be sent to some bigger stores elsewhere to consolidate the number of stores they need to keep open while they liquidate.

This is the Boulder store where I started at Wolf back in 2002 (which was closed in the last bankruptsy three years ago):

 
Doug Pardee said:
pavi1 said:
Anyone in retail in this century and no internet presence does not deserve to be in business. It is not always about saving $5, it is the convenience of having it delivered to my desk for less than the cross town drive.
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The study wasn't about that. It was about people already in the store who decided not to buy there and to buy online instead in order to save $5. Or in the vernacular, showrooming ... going to a store to handle the merchandise and maybe get advice from the staff, then snubbing the store and buying online.

--

The LightZombie Project: volunteers providing support for LightZone. http://lightzombie.org/
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I've walked into Ritz many times hoping to get some advice on a product and would buy from them if I felt like their help made it worth my while. Needless to say, I've never bought anything from them. I have however taught their employees some things about the camera's they sell that they couldn't read on the little sales tag. Epic fail of a company.
 
This should tell you all you need to know. They are having this going out of business sale and you can still get stuff cheaper from others online.
 
Doug Pardee said:
Doug Pardee wrote:

The study wasn't about that. It was about people already in the store who decided not to buy there and to buy online instead in order to save $5. Or in the vernacular, showrooming ... going to a store to handle the merchandise and maybe get advice from the staff, then snubbing the store and buying online.
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Showrooming is a trend that is good for frugal-minded shoppers, but not so good for retailers. It is the habit of using a handheld device in a store to comparison shop with online competitors for substantial savings. Now that there's an increasing frequency of showrooming , many retailers are fighting back by agreeing to match the prices of their online competitors.
 
dpreview is a unit of Amazon.
 
Wolf is back. http://www.wolfcamera.com online and with limited stores vs. what they once were. All the stores in CO are now gone. They used to have a big shop in Downtown Denver where I used to buy most of my film back in the late 90's early 2000's.
 
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kwa_photo said:
kwa_photo wrote:

Wolf is back. http://www.wolfcamera.com online and with limited stores vs. what they once were. All the stores in CO are now gone. They used to have a big shop in Downtown Denver where I used to buy most of my film back in the late 90's early 2000's.
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Actually, not all of the Colorado stores are gone for good . . .

Five of them will live on under a new name . . . to be announced very soon!

Including the downtown Denver store!
 
I remember being in Denver once and finding a nice camera store where you had to go down stairs off the sidewalk. I bought a Yashica T4 because it had a very good lens and was splashproof. Don't remember the name of the store. The salesman took a lot of time showing me a number of cameras that fit my needs. I have never found a Ritz/Wolf Camera that had that knowledgeable of salespeople.
 
DaveOl said:
DaveOl wrote:

I remember being in Denver once and finding a nice camera store where you had to go down stairs off the sidewalk. I bought a Yashica T4 because it had a very good lens and was splashproof. Don't remember the name of the store. The salesman took a lot of time showing me a number of cameras that fit my needs. I have never found a Ritz/Wolf Camera that had that knowledgeable of salespeople.
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That would have been Robert Waxman's . . . which later became the downtown Denver Wolf Camera store.

It was moved from that location a couple of years ago to a better location on the downtown mall.
 
DaveOl said:
DaveOl wrote:

That's right, it was Waxman's. It probably went downhill when it became a Ritz.
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That's it. Right now the best store in Denver is Mike's Camera off of Colorado Blvd.
 
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