Support your local camera store

[bodeswell]

I ordered an RF 85 F/2 in mid-October from Amazon at a time when they were suggesting that they would have stock available to ship "soon". After a month they asked me if I still wanted the lens. I said yes. A couple of days later they changed the status to "preparing to ship" and charged my credit card. Hurray, I thought. Two weeks passed and they were still "preparing to ship". A local camera stored had e-mailed me that it finally had the R5 and R6 in stock. They didn't mention lenses, but I thought I might as well call them. Well, they had the 85 f/2 on the shelf. After cancelling the Amazon order I zoomed over and bought it, and observed that they had several other RF lenses on the shelf behind the counter, including the new RF 70-200 F/4 L. So, if you are waiting and waiting and you still have a local camera store, you may want to give them a call.

 

[MPrince]

I would love to support my local camera store.

If only there was one.

There used to be two within 40 minutes of me, but both are long gone.

 

[johncal]

I would love to support my local camera store.

If only there was one.

There used to be two within 40 minutes of me, but both are long gone.

You are fortunate if you have a camera store you can deal with. I am fortunate enough that I had one in my area to buy my EOS R, and they were the only ones that had one at the time, but they don't give you the time of day, so I have allegiance only with stores that have what I want at the price I want.

I am only supportive and loyal to those who are supportive of me. I have an auto dealership I have gone to exclusively for the last 10 years, they pick up and deliver my vehicle for service at no charge, and will match anyone's prices to keep my business. It's a business friendship. If I had a camera store that was loyal to me, I would support them 100%.

 

[SteveinLouisville]

I have bought all of my RF gear, body and lenses, at our local store in Louisville. Murphy's Camera. It has been here 40 years or so, and the staff are super knowledgeable and helpful. Canon USA authorized dealer prices are the same, online or brick and mortar. Support local businesses when you can! It's less than a 10 minute drive from where I live, so that helps. They had the EF-RF control ring converter when nobody had it online. Got my RF 85mm 2.0 macro from them when nobody had that either.

 

[tenordrum]

I am fortunate to have a great pair of local camera stores (District Camera, and Ace Photo). I have purchased from both, and often trade at District camera if they offer a competitive trade in price.

 

[MPrince]

I am fortunate to have a great pair of local camera stores (District Camera, and Ace Photo). I have purchased from both, and often trade at District camera if they offer a competitive trade in price.

Ace Photo is probably the closest to me now, but still too far away to consider local, especially as I hate driving on Rte 7 and hate driving through Leesburg. Too much traffic.

 

[JustUs7]

Norman Camera. Two locations in West. Michigan. Knowledgeable staff every time I’ve gone in. Quick to let me know about different specials, mail in rebates, etc that apply things I’m buying. I’m far from a volume buyer, but we’ve gone there for over 20 years. Unfortunately being smaller, sometimes they don’t get first priority with vendors in inventory. I’ve picked up a couple accessories online (hoods and such) when I couldn’t get them there.

 

[Bassman2003]

I agree with the sentiment but sadly, sometimes the local sales people are just not very easy to support. Gear is gear and the sales industry has largely adjusted to internet pricing. So I think one can get a fair price locally. I lean towards buying at a local shop, but if I get a whiff of arrogance or being bothered if you want to hold a camera or lens I am out of there.

Back along time ago when Nikon was making a big splash with the D700, I was at a local store and asked if I could hold one that was sitting in the case. Being a Canon shooter, I wanted to see if it would be something I might want to be a part of or not. He flat out told me "No". He was burdened to unlock the cabinet and spend the effort to let me fiddle with for a few minuted. I have never returned to that camera store.

 

[davidwien]

When buying cameras, lenses and accessories, I usually look around for the best price. But on Friday, when I was shopping for an EF to RF adapter with control ring, I not only found that there was no price advantage to be had, but that at many places they were back ordered. However, the local Canon dealer in Vienna, Digital Store, had stock. I have only once bought there before (before internet pricing became so aggressive), but otherwise I just window shop there.

I cannot say that the people behind the counter are snotty or otherwise unpleasant, because it is not so. My decision not to shop there was purely based on price. For that reason, I would not go in and insult them by asking to look at something and then go home and buy it on the internet.

On Friday, the shop doors were closed, as we were in a second lockdown and camera stores are not considered essential. But Digital Store were still open for business on the internet. Free delivery was quoted as 1-2 days, so I decided to give them a chance and ordered the adapter.

Imagine my surprise when a friendly man showed up at the door at lunchtime today (Monday) with my adapter in a plastic bag, in a case, in another pop-cell plastic bag, in its box, in a nice fancy carrier bag.

I can understand that a store like this, which must have quite a few employees, and not at minimum wage, is hurting at a time like this. The internet and the pandemic together have already almost destroyed high street shopping in the UK and elsewhere. Luckily, that has not been the case here, where we stil have lots of book and CD stores and a few places where you can buy cameras and telescopes. They need our support and this is a wake up call!

David

 

[Thomas A Anderson]

I ordered an RF 85 F/2 in mid-October from Amazon at a time when they were suggesting that they would have stock available to ship "soon".

Amazon customer service is not a thing. There comes a point where they are so big they simply don't have to care about a few thousand unsatisfied people. As they put more and more small businesses out of business they know that you have fewer and fewer options. I stopped giving a dime to Amazon a couple of years ago. Ebay, Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, Best Buy, and even buying direct from a manufacturer can all be alternatives for things that are hard to find locally (many of those have local stock as well).

First, spend all the money you can at local small businesses and avoid chains.

Second, spend money locally if you have to buy from a chain.

Third, spend money at small online businesses that aren't chains.

Last, find an online seller that isn't Amazon.

And never give Amazon any money.....which means even coming to this website is somewhat dubious, but we can't avoid ALL connections EVERYWHERE all the time because it's just not possible.

After a month they asked me if I still wanted the lens. I said yes. A couple of days later they changed the status to "preparing to ship" and charged my credit card. Hurray, I thought. Two weeks passed and they were still "preparing to ship". A local camera stored had e-mailed me that it finally had the R5 and R6 in stock. They didn't mention lenses, but I thought I might as well call them. Well, they had the 85 f/2 on the shelf. After cancelling the Amazon order I zoomed over and bought it, and observed that they had several other RF lenses on the shelf behind the counter, including the new RF 70-200 F/4 L. So, if you are waiting and waiting and you still have a local camera store, you may want to give them a call.

Never buy anything from Amazon. They're business model is predatory pricing that is used specifically to put other companies out of business so they can eventually absolutely control the price without input from any competition. They bully their Marketplace sellers and publishers by holding their sales hostage. Their treatment of employees borders on third world practices.

Never buy anything from Amazon. Don't give them a dime. They are leading the race to the bottom and should be avoided at all costs, even simply not getting what you want.

 

[Suave]

LOL. LOL. LOL. My "local camera store" is either a Best Buy 40 minutes away, or a huge electronics warehouse 20 minutes away, but that's over the county line, so extra 3% in sales tax.

 

[Microprism]

I ordered an RF 85 F/2 in mid-October from Amazon at a time when they were suggesting that they would have stock available to ship "soon".

Amazon customer service is not a thing. There comes a point where they are so big they simply don't have to care about a few thousand unsatisfied people. As they put more and more small businesses out of business they know that you have fewer and fewer options. I stopped giving a dime to Amazon a couple of years ago. Ebay, Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, Best Buy, and even buying direct from a manufacturer can all be alternatives for things that are hard to find locally (many of those have local stock as well).

First, spend all the money you can at local small businesses and avoid chains.

Second, spend money locally if you have to buy from a chain.

Third, spend money at small online businesses that aren't chains.

Last, find an online seller that isn't Amazon.

And never give Amazon any money.....which means even coming to this website is somewhat dubious, but we can't avoid ALL connections EVERYWHERE all the time because it's just not possible.

After a month they asked me if I still wanted the lens. I said yes. A couple of days later they changed the status to "preparing to ship" and charged my credit card. Hurray, I thought. Two weeks passed and they were still "preparing to ship". A local camera stored had e-mailed me that it finally had the R5 and R6 in stock. They didn't mention lenses, but I thought I might as well call them. Well, they had the 85 f/2 on the shelf. After cancelling the Amazon order I zoomed over and bought it, and observed that they had several other RF lenses on the shelf behind the counter, including the new RF 70-200 F/4 L. So, if you are waiting and waiting and you still have a local camera store, you may want to give them a call.

Never buy anything from Amazon. They're business model is predatory pricing that is used specifically to put other companies out of business so they can eventually absolutely control the price without input from any competition. They bully their Marketplace sellers and publishers by holding their sales hostage. Their treatment of employees borders on third world practices.

Never buy anything from Amazon. Don't give them a dime. They are leading the race to the bottom and should be avoided at all costs, even simply not getting what you want.

And based upon what I was told by a friend whose business used to sell on Amazon, they use your own sales figures against you. If your business has a good-selling unique item they put out bids for someone to copy it at a lower price.

 

[Wezre]

I would love to support my local camera store.

If only there was one.

There used to be two within 40 minutes of me, but both are long gone.

No kidding. I either need to go out of state or I need to drive down to NYC anyways to buy from B&H or Adorama. Might as well have them ship the gear up to me.

 

[tkbslc]

Never buy anything from Amazon. They're business model is predatory pricing that is used specifically to put other companies out of business so they can eventually absolutely control the price without input from any competition. They bully their Marketplace sellers and publishers by holding their sales hostage. Their treatment of employees borders on third world practices.

Never buy anything from Amazon. Don't give them a dime. They are leading the race to the bottom and should be avoided at all costs, even simply not getting what you want.

Sadly, here we are using an Amazon owned company given them ad and referral revenue. At least it seems the DPR staff are treated well and given a lot of autonomy from the Amazon machine.

Too bad American anti-trust laws don't have teeth. A lot of these mega corps really need to be broken up. Amazon should be about 50 different companies, as should Google.

 

[Suave]

Unfortunately, bezoses, brins, and zuckerbergs can (and do) spend any amount of money to elect people who will put quick end to this sort of dreams.

 

[Thomas A Anderson]

I ordered an RF 85 F/2 in mid-October from Amazon at a time when they were suggesting that they would have stock available to ship "soon".

Amazon customer service is not a thing. There comes a point where they are so big they simply don't have to care about a few thousand unsatisfied people. As they put more and more small businesses out of business they know that you have fewer and fewer options. I stopped giving a dime to Amazon a couple of years ago. Ebay, Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, Best Buy, and even buying direct from a manufacturer can all be alternatives for things that are hard to find locally (many of those have local stock as well).

First, spend all the money you can at local small businesses and avoid chains.

Second, spend money locally if you have to buy from a chain.

Third, spend money at small online businesses that aren't chains.

Last, find an online seller that isn't Amazon.

And never give Amazon any money.....which means even coming to this website is somewhat dubious, but we can't avoid ALL connections EVERYWHERE all the time because it's just not possible.

After a month they asked me if I still wanted the lens. I said yes. A couple of days later they changed the status to "preparing to ship" and charged my credit card. Hurray, I thought. Two weeks passed and they were still "preparing to ship". A local camera stored had e-mailed me that it finally had the R5 and R6 in stock. They didn't mention lenses, but I thought I might as well call them. Well, they had the 85 f/2 on the shelf. After cancelling the Amazon order I zoomed over and bought it, and observed that they had several other RF lenses on the shelf behind the counter, including the new RF 70-200 F/4 L. So, if you are waiting and waiting and you still have a local camera store, you may want to give them a call.

Never buy anything from Amazon. They're business model is predatory pricing that is used specifically to put other companies out of business so they can eventually absolutely control the price without input from any competition. They bully their Marketplace sellers and publishers by holding their sales hostage. Their treatment of employees borders on third world practices.

Never buy anything from Amazon. Don't give them a dime. They are leading the race to the bottom and should be avoided at all costs, even simply not getting what you want.

And based upon what I was told by a friend whose business used to sell on Amazon, they use your own sales figures against you. If your business has a good-selling unique item they put out bids for someone to copy it at a lower price.

Absolutely they do. This really is late-stage capitalism at work, and it's not the first time such practices have been used to create monopolies in this country.

One thing Amazon does is combine their platform and their resources to do just what you stated: they are so dominant in the marketplace as a platform that many businesses must use them in order to simply reach enough customers, but that then allows them to leverage all of that data they collected to then either sell similar items at a loss until their competition goes out of business or simply make their own version of that product at such a huge scale that they can undercut smaller companies.

Another form of market domination is taking the power of their platform and holding companies hostage in negotiations. For example, Amazon started out as mostly a book seller. Now they sell so many books that publishing houses either give in to Amazon's demands on how things are priced or Amazon can choose not to sell the publisher's books and put them out of business. The worst version of this outcome is that Amazon would then buy the publisher in its weakened and undervalued condition at pennies on the dollar. I'm not sure Amazon has ever done this, but others have.

A few years ago I noticed Oakley's customers service went straight to hell. Not long after I discovered why. There is one company that owns almost all the manufacturer's for glasses, both sunglasses and prescription glasses, as well as almost all of the retailers where those things are sold. I forget the name of the company, but I think they own something like 90% of the entire US eye wear market. So that company wanted Oakley to drop their prices or take less profit. When they refused the monopoly stopped selling Oakley glasses, which tanked their stock price, and then the monopoly swooped in and paid almost nothing for this huge brand. Now when you buy Oakley is just another brand earning money for a single company.

Anyway, deregulating the world will only make it easier for huge companies to destroy the free market.

 

[cutterpup]

My only "local camera store" these days is a Best Buy. I would consider buying from them as I can actually hold and check out the item, but they have never matched the prices of B&H for new gear and I usually buy used.

Local store rant. Where I live now buying from a "Mom &Pop" is very expensive. If I want selection among the big name stores for anything, then it is a 35 minute drive each way. However, much closer to me is a lone Walmart. A few weeks ago I went there with a shopping list. My thought was at least I could shop in person and help maintain the cashier jobs, etc for the local workers. Not a thing on my list was in the store, but all could be had from them online. I am talking as simple as a man's wool watch cap in a color other than black.

 

[Bobthearch]

I've been around my area for almost 35 years, and in that time there has never been a local camera store.

There is a local store in the city, a 2-1/2 drive away. But my experience in there, I'd rather shop online. Their store is small, prices are high, and they always have a problem with the knobs. Not knobs on the cameras, the knobs who walk into the place. Stand at the counter forever, blah, blah, blah, taking up the employees' time and robbing other customers of service.

The only place guaranteed to have worse knobs, a gun shop.

 

[mamallama]

The internet gives and the internet takes. The internet has changed the world as we once knew it.

 

[Bobthearch]

The internet gives and the internet takes. The internet has changed the world as we once knew it.

For shoppers, I'd say it's changed the world for the better.

More price competition, reviews and feedback from real buyers, side-by-side comparison tools, better selection, better service, the most convenient hours, shop for anything from practically anywhere in the world...