Another one bites the dust...

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Sadly, the independent shop that I used whenever possible has closed its doors - the Devon Camera Centre has packed it all in. I've known that their Exeter shop has been up for rent for a few months but they were hoping (well, the staff were, it seems that the owners had different plans!) to move to cheaper premises. Since I'm lucky enough to have pretty much all I want (and far more than I really need!!!), I haven't been in for a couple of weeks and in the meantime, POP. Hopefully the staff will find alternative employment but with only a branch of the London Camera Exchange left in town, opportunities in the photographic sector are rather limited, although IMO the DCC staff were far more knowledgeable than the LCE bods.
 
While ever the market continues to buy purely on price, the days will forever be numbered for the smaller retailers, not just camera shops but all all sectors. Most of our high streets are all identikits of o2 stores, Poundland, McDonalds & Costa Coffee etc.
 
Apparently it wasn't so much the showroomers (those who visit bricks'n'mortar then buy as cheap as possible from the net) that were the problem but the manufacturers who require their "profesasional retailers" to carry a huge value of stock in order to be supplied direct. Chains such as Jessops, LCE, Calumet etc. can do this and supply all their branches but the smaller retailers who have one or 2 outlets simply can't afford to have that much money tied up in stock. To even begin to compete with the internet, margins for the independents are around £40 on a £1,500 body once they've paid the wholesaler their cut and if you're paying even a skeleton staff, business rates, electricity, insurance etc. there's sod all point!
 
was told theres only 30 indepenants left in the uk :(, and gwc said fuji dont care about them at all :/, and they have sold fuji for 30 years
 
Wouldn't the independents be better clubbing together and spreading stock between them like the euronics buying group did with smaller electrical outlets to compete with currys etc?
 
Possibly, Suz, IF they could persuade the manufacturers to supply them direct as a single entity. However, the indies would probably have to have the stock delivered to a central distribution point then arrange couriers from the warehouse to the individual stores. That would mean they would need to rent a warehouse somewhere and staff it, insure it etc. which could well drive their profits per unit down even further.

Such a shame that 5 knowledgeable people have been lost to the local pool - all of them were keen amateur photographers as well as sales advisors and knew what they were talking about in terms of technique as well as kit.
 
As someone already said, it is a similar story across many sectors when it comes to High Street retailers. The camera manufacturers certainly aren't making it easy for independents to survive and I guess their view is why should they, there is little benefit to them, it's pure hard nosed business and it would take a hugely concerted effort, across the whole of Europe [I say Europe simply because I don't know how important the traditional high street is in other parts of the world], to convince them that Independent High Street stores are important and convince them that doing their tiny little bit to maintain such community is beneficial to the consumer, even if not to them. I suspect even if that happened, it would be too little, too late now.

As an aside, talking about High Streets generally, here on my local high street, a couple of shops are now given over to several smaller, complimentary independent businesses, working together from a single shop [we have 2 of these at the moment] and that is proving very successful. After a LOT of hammering at council doors, the rents/rates have been dropped to make them more affordable and sharing those costs means we now have 10-12 very small businesses in the high street that would never otherwise have managed it on their own, or at the previous costs. It is a start, but it took a lot of time and effort to persuade the local council that it was worth it and better than having empty shops inbetween the bigger retailers. Just a shame they didn't see the light 5 or 6 years ago before a number of long standing independents had to close their doors.
 
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Well the councils are another bunch of short sighted idiots not helping the cause in my book. We're short of cash so we'll put the rates and parking charges up, driving more customers to the out of town retail parks where you can park for free. Want people back on the high street stop breaking your town centres to panda to the big retailers, make it free to park for 2 hours, make small affordable retail space for small independents, and encourage those over faceless chains.

These local companies will support other local business, local causes, local employees, all putting money back into the local coffers.

Our local town centre still has the local town indoor market because one small independent drove a campaign 20 years ago to stand up to the council and stop them knocking it down, they've just revamped it now and the council is all proud of it, and that local independent is still there.
 
Most people used to shop on foot but now so many shop by car so town centres need to be car and pedestrian friendly. If there aren't places that are convenient to park in then people don't bother. The out of town places are so much less hassle. Parking is generally free and a minimum of several hours. Most town centres charge by the hour then slap a fine on you if you overstay. Who wants that? Who wants to be clock watching the entire time they're out. Councils own policies have killed the high street. They've made them rubbish places to visit.

Only decent town centre near me is Shrewsbury. They have all day free parking in the park and ride and you take the bus into the town centre for about a quid. That's civilised! Town is thriving. There aren't loads of empty shops. It's not full of estate agents and charity shops like the local towns are.

Internet shopping is so much more convenient for a lot of people. A lot of families really don't have the time to spend hours on a Saturday dragging screaming kids around shops to find one thing when they can look on Amazon and have it delivered. If they don't like it then they can just send it back. No fuss.
 
Yeah I love internet shopping, makes my business viable too. Running that has made me a lot more aware of who/where we shop at, minimise Tesco who just run amock over towns (and suppliers), but lean towards smaller suppliers where we can, especially the butchers (their sausages are just yum).

But yeah I hope some of the smaller suppliers survive, as the Jessops etc are the ones I'd rather not trade with to be honest.
 
srichards said:
Internet shopping is so much more convenient for a lot of people. A lot of families really don't have the time to spend hours on a Saturday dragging screaming kids around shops to find one thing when they can look on Amazon and have it delivered. If they don't like it then they can just send it back. No fuss.
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Although that in itself can easily involve 2 trips to town, queues and frustration when the courier leaves a card because you're out when he tries to deliver so you have to go to the collection office (not the easiest place to park here in Exeter and VERY regularly patrolled by the enforcement officers...) to collect it then go back to the post office (usually the carrier of choice for smaller packages) if the item is deemed unsuitable. I'm a bit of a fan of internet BUYING (as opposed to shopping - buying is when you know exactly what you want/need while shopping is trying things on etc..) so rarely need to return stuff and being retired can usually arrange to be in for deliveries when they're expected (thank the pantheon for DPD who tell us an accurate time slot and are also happy to leave parcels in a secure[ish!] location if we have to be out). As for the busses here, it's cheaper (in terms of pure fuel and parking) for me to drive to town and park for an hour or even 2 than it is for me to get a return ticket on the bus. No park and ride from this side of town and that's not a cheap option either unless you have a free bus pass!
 
Sad to hear I'd actually only used them for the first time last month to buy a bag, great service from them.
Personally I've switched from using Amazon over the last few months, sick of their useless couriers and tax dodging, would much rather support a local or independent if I can, I actually try and get things from my local Calumet if I can rather than online but it can't always be helped for stock reasons.
 
srichards said:
Most people used to shop on foot but now so many shop by car so town centres need to be car and pedestrian friendly. If there aren't places that are convenient to park in then people don't bother. The out of town places are so much less hassle. Parking is generally free and a minimum of several hours. Most town centres charge by the hour then slap a fine on you if you overstay. Who wants that? Who wants to be clock watching the entire time they're out. Councils own policies have killed the high street. They've made them rubbish places to visit.

Only decent town centre near me is Shrewsbury. They have all day free parking in the park and ride and you take the bus into the town centre for about a quid. That's civilised! Town is thriving. There aren't loads of empty shops. It's not full of estate agents and charity shops like the local towns are.

Internet shopping is so much more convenient for a lot of people. A lot of families really don't have the time to spend hours on a Saturday dragging screaming kids around shops to find one thing when they can look on Amazon and have it delivered. If they don't like it then they can just send it back. No fuss.
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I'll second Shrewsbury. We stopped off their on the way back from colwyn bay (great camera shop there by the way).
 
I try to support the local camera shops when I can, but find that if an item is not in stock, I often cannot order it without waiting several weeks. The reason; some camera equipment suppliers place a minimum order value on the shops of typically £300 (in my case for a QR tripod plate), the shops can't place an order until they have a consolidated list. Is it any wonder that I then buy the item on-line and receive it within a couple of days. I also wonder what happens when manufacturers require stock holdings of poor selling lines like the Nikon 1 or Canon EOS-M series, I rather doubt that Camera Shops with these items sat unsold on the shelves get any help. Manufacturers have also demonstrated a consistent policy of overpricing virtually all new cameras, which then are cut and cut again to something approaching half price, so who carries the risk here, the camera company or the independant? The current policies applied by the camera companies and equipment suppliers to small local camera shops will continue the cull and ultimately damage the market for all concerned.
 
If we look back to the days when every town had several Grocers stores and villages had grocery supplies in the village shops. They all gradually disappeared when the supermarkets started to gain a larger and larger market share. Most local bakers also disappeared with the march of the supermarkets and mass produced bread. With the retailing of Camera equipment disappearing from our high streets due to margin pressure by larger chains with buying muscle, might we see the same thing happening to the camera manufacturers as has happened to the suppliers of food and drink to the supermarkets with the supermarket chains telling the manufacturer what price they are going to pay them for their products? If this happens or may be its already happening the camera manufacturers will have two choices, eventually go out of business or agree to the dictated prices because their many other channels of smaller retailers have disappeared. Or maybe the manufacturers will start selling direct on the internet? The point HarveyM makes about the manufacturers putting new products on the market at high prices is because they know that a lot of buyers will pay those prices to have the latest kit. When sales begin to decline they lower the price to bring in customers to keep up sales volumes.
 
My local camera shop is WEX, which is either good or bad depending on your outlook. There is an LCE, but Jessops hasn't come back to Norwich yet.

There was a small independent in Norwich but that has closed, and Norfolk Cameras in Dereham recently closed as well.
 
Patrick1 said:
If we look back to the days when every town had several Grocers stores and villages had grocery supplies in the village shops. They all gradually disappeared when the supermarkets started to gain a larger and larger market share. Most local bakers also disappeared with the march of the supermarkets and mass produced bread.
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Yes but...

When we moved to Maidenhead in 1994 there were two bakeries in the town centre. Now there are five: Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsburys, M&S, Greggs. Some people might say they're not really bakeries, but they all bake a range of bread and cakes daily on the premises, and that's a good enough definition for me.

Same story with butchers. Same story with greengrocers. The supermarkets have largely put the independents out of business, but those services are still there.

It isn't quite the same with camera shops.

Or is it? Behold:
 
Kind of is, as Curry's sell camera, Tesco sell cameras etc, OK, they aren't all carrying the specialist kit we're all looking at, but for the majority of the market they've got the definition covered.
 
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