B&H puts another local camera store out of business (with my help, unfortunately)

Ken Hart wrote:
"=(8)" wrote in message
...
Thats the problem with local shops they don't feel that they have to
compete with the places on the internet. A local store here closed up
after nearly 50 years because they didn't feel they had to compete. They
sold everything at suggested retail, all sales were final even if a
product was defective they wanted you to deal with the maker, etc. I told
them that they can do that and stay in business and they couldn't now they
are gone.

We have one more store here a Shutterbugs they charge suggested retail for
nearly everything, they too didn't have a return policy until I e-mailed
them and told them that without a return policy I would have to continue
to shop online so they now have a 15 day return policy though the stress
that it isn't to be used to buy something, test it out and then return it
if you don't like it. It is incase there is something wrong with the item
(defective).

It floors me how many local stores simply don't get it. I will always shop
online when I can get a better deal. They need to understand this or they
go bye bye plain and simple. I have no sympothy for businesses this
stupid. This is a global world now when it comes to shopping we don't have
to put up with high priced local stores with poor customer policies,
support and before sale support. Screw'em is what I say if they can't keep
up or are too worried about the extra couple of bucks.



Most small stores do not get the price breaks from the manufacturer that the
big online sellers get. That's why their prices are typically higher. It's
not because they don't care, or "get it".

Harvard Camera (that had a thread a while ago in one of the groups I'm
in) once told me they paid more for that model slide projector than the
advertised price at Caldor, and I should definitely buy it there.

"G.T." wrote in message
...
Happy Traveler wrote:
With the states pushing online retailers to collect their sales tax (and
some large retailers already complying), the equation is changing back in
favor of the locals. I priced several carbon fiber tripods and ballheads
yesterday in a local store, then compared to B&H. In most cases the
difference was between zero and $10. And then there is shipping: the
expense, the delay and the hassle if you are not at home when the brown
truck arrives.

Well, the solution to that is to shop places that don't use UPS. UPS
sucks and is the most inflexible of all the delivery services. With FedEx
everywhere I've lived I've been able to pick my package up at a FedEx or
Kinkos the very same day I've missed deliveries. And the farthest a
FedEx/Kinkos has been from me is 3/4 mile, UPS is far too centralized and
the UPS depot is 15 miles through heavy traffic, and their hours are much
poor.

Greg


I think the shipping company performance depends a lot on where you live. In
this area, UPS is the best shipper.
The nearest Fedex or Kinkos is over sixty miles; the nearest UPS depot is 15
miles. Personnally, I won't shop places that don't use UPS.

But the shipping company has nothing to do with sales tax. If I buy
something from out of state, and no sales tax was charged, I am obligated to
pay 6% to the state (Indiana). The average Joe, of course, isn't going to
even think about making the effort, but as a retail merchant, there is a
line on my sales tax reporting form where I am required to enter sales tax
due from out of state purchases. Since I have to sign that the report is
"true and accurate", I fill in that line...

In rec.photo.digital.slr-systems ASAAR wrote:
On Sun, 27 May 2007 03:54:39 +0000 (UTC), Paul J Gans wrote:

Thirty years ago New York was awash in photo stores. My
favorite then was 47th Street Photo, which, oddly, was actually]
on 47th Street...

I bought a lot of stuff there, but oddly, no camera gear. If
there was ever a time when their business was primarily
photographic, it must have been long before I discovered them, which
IIRC was some time in the 1980's.

Yeah. I bought my Minolta SRT-101 from them back in the stone
age in the '70s.

B&H is branching out into all sorts of other gear too like computers.
I hope they don't lose sight of their primary business.

--
--- Paul J. Gans

"Michael" lakediver.houston.rr.com wrote

I shipped via UPS for 20 years, when I owned a camera repair business,
with just one loss.

I've been running small businesses for 30+ years and I don't remember a
single UPS screw-up.

There aren't (m)any retail UPS outlets because they don't do retail
.... try and find a Cargil store. If you are a business then the
truck stops by in the morning to drop off and in the evening to
pickup. UPS sends a bill at the end of the month. It's hard to
get more convenient.

If UPS needs a signature it's because the sender is requiring a
signature. If the sender doesn't check "[]Signature Required" on the
shipper then you don't have to be home to pick it up, UPS will
drop it off at the door.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Darkroom Automation: F-Stop Timers, Enlarging Meters
http://www.darkroomautomation.com/index.htm
n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com

David Dyer-Bennet writes:

Harvard Camera (that had a thread a while ago in one of the groups I'm in)
once told me they paid more for that model slide projector than the
advertised price at Caldor, and I should definitely buy it there.

And if memory serves they went out of business within the last year. It was
always somewhat sad when I went in there, where they didn't usually have stuff
that I wanted. So now, if I want to try stuff out or talk to a salesman, I
drive into Melrose to go to Hunts.

--
Michael Meissner
email:
http://www.the-meissners.org

Rita Ä Berkowitz spake thus:

David Nebenzahl wrote:

Follow the logical conclusion: if all the local merchants in your
area close down, what will your community be like? Deserted
buildings? Homes for vermin (both four foooted and two footed)? No
money for municipal services?

What does she care? Apparently, as long as she gets her stuff when she
says "gimme!", everything's hunky-dory. Don't need no damn municipal
services, just my high-speed internet connection and a place for UPS &
FedEx to drop stuff off. Very common attitude these days.

Spoken like the very same people that sneak off to Wal-Mart after hours so
their neighbors don't see them getting *their* deals instead of buying from
the local merchants they *claim* to support. Hey, it happens.

Not me, honeybunch: I've never set foot in a Wal-Mart, and never intend
to. And you know what? it's not hard to do.


--
Any system of knowledge that is capable of listing films in order
of use of the word "****" is incapable of writing a good summary
and analysis of the Philippine-American War. And vice-versa.
This is an inviolable rule.

- Matthew White, referring to Wikipedia on his WikiWatch site
(http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/wikiwoo.htm)

Rita Ä Berkowitz ritaberk2O04 @aol.com writes:

David Nebenzahl wrote:

Follow the logical conclusion: if all the local merchants in your
area close down, what will your community be like? Deserted
buildings? Homes for vermin (both four foooted and two footed)? No
money for municipal services?

What does she care? Apparently, as long as she gets her stuff when she
says "gimme!", everything's hunky-dory. Don't need no damn municipal
services, just my high-speed internet connection and a place for UPS &
FedEx to drop stuff off. Very common attitude these days.

Spoken like the very same people that sneak off to Wal-Mart after hours so
their neighbors don't see them getting *their* deals instead of buying from
the local merchants they *claim* to support. Hey, it happens.

I dunno, ever since the quality of Walmart's local photo lab severely went down
hill (about the time many of managers who ran the place and knew the Frontier
machine backwards and forwards seemed to also disappear), I don't find any
reason to shop at Walmart, except to stock up on light bulbs. If you have low
prices, but you don't have stuff I don't want to buy, I still won't go in
there.

--
Michael Meissner
email:
http://www.the-meissners.org

On Sun, 27 May 2007 13:03:02 GMT, Rebecca Ore wrote:

UPS guys will also pass the place, sign that they attempted delivery and
nobody was home when you saw the truck roll by without stopping.

UPS has been many times been guilty of that, but it's been better
the last couple of years with the new UPS delivery guy. I once
walked over to at a parked UPS truck that had already passed my
address, described the package I was expecting, and it was quickly
found in the back of the truck. Oops. Fedex on the other hand,
occasionally fails to deliver, reporting "Address does not exist".

"Ken Hart" wrote in message ...



I think the shipping company performance depends a lot on where you live.
In this area, UPS is the best shipper.
The nearest Fedex or Kinkos is over sixty miles; the nearest UPS depot is
15 miles. Personnally, I won't shop places that don't use UPS.

But the shipping company has nothing to do with sales tax. If I buy
something from out of state, and no sales tax was charged, I am obligated
to pay 6% to the state (Indiana). The average Joe, of course, isn't going
to even think about making the effort, but as a retail merchant, there is
a line on my sales tax reporting form where I am required to enter sales
tax due from out of state purchases. Since I have to sign that the report
is "true and accurate", I fill in that line...


I shipped via UPS for 20 years, when I owned a camera repair business, with
just one loss.
While every shipping company makes mistakes, FedEx made theirs the very
first time I used them.

Rita Ä Berkowitz spake thus:

Ken Hart wrote:

TOTALLY IRRELAVANT! I don't believe in passing out subsidies nor
do I feel I have an obligation to enrich a local merchant. The
merchant need be very competitive if they want loyalty and a
chance at survival.

Spending money in my local community does the following:
-- provides employment for other local people who would otherwise
have to drive miles to work elsewhere.

Sorry, but I'll bet these very same people commute out of you neighborhood
to get the more lucrative and rewarding jobs. There's no sense in wasting
four years chasing a degree to work at Ace Hardware.

Why impugn Ace Hardware? As a handyman, I spend lots of money there, and
I could think of far worse places to work.

-- provides a tax base to pay for essential services such as police,
water, sewer, etc

Doesn't my property tax take care of that?

Come out to California, where we have this little thing called
"Proposition 13".

Whenever possible, I will buy from the hardware store down the street
rather than Home Depot ten miles (and a county) away.

I would like to support that theory as well, but have you ever looked
at which big hardware corporation these "little" work under? My local
hardware store is under Ace Hardware and their prices are beyond
criminal. I'll burn the extra cost in fuel going to Home Depot so
hopefully those gouging *******s will be run out of town. It's simply
not worth my time supporting the "local" merchants that aren't loyal
to the community. Price is a good indicator of their community
loyalty.

Well, as someone who faces the choice all the time whether to shop at
Ace Hardware or Home Despot, the choice is easy: I avoid the Despot as
much as possible, and only buy there when I really need to (i.e., when
the cost savings is considerably more than the aggravation of dealing
with that monstrosity). For one thing, there's that matter of people who
actually know the products they sell again, which I'm much more likely
to find at *any* Ace than the Despot. Then there is the fact that Ace
Hardware, unlike Home Depot, is *not* a monolithic corporation, with
nearly-identical stores that could have been plopped down by helicopter.
You see, Ace stores operate as franchises, and are not required to
adhere to some ironclad set of guidelines that control what they carry
and how they operate.

To illustrate, there are 3 Ace stores in my area that I shot at,
depending on what I want and where I am. One of them is unique, in that
it's an old-style store where instead of browsing shelves, you go up to
the counter, tell them what you want, and they get it for you. What a
concept! This store is prospering, the conventional wisdom about the
Internet and big-box stores to the contrary, because it actually serves
the needs of the neighborhood.

The other Ace stores have all the things I need when I go to Home Depot
but can't find there. And if things are a few cents more there, BFD.
It's worth it.


--
Any system of knowledge that is capable of listing films in order
of use of the word "****" is incapable of writing a good summary
and analysis of the Philippine-American War. And vice-versa.
This is an inviolable rule.

- Matthew White, referring to Wikipedia on his WikiWatch site
(http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/wikiwoo.htm)