Ritz camera files for bankruptcy
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Mark Frauenfelder
Cory Doctorow
David Pescovitz
Xeni Jardin
Rob Beschizza
Jason Weisberger, Publisher
Ken Snider, Sysadmin
Oooh, camera deals?
Ritz has always had decent prices and a good selection, so this is kindof a shame. But their prices just don’t compete with online spots like J&R (which has brick&mortar outposts in NYC too). I seriously think retailers who flat-out won’t match any online prices are missing the boat. As long as they make some profit, it’s better to make the sale at 30% off MSRP than not to make it at all. That’s why I’ve bought an Eee PC, Sony Cybershot, and Canon Vixia online in the last two months, and no major electronics at Ritz, Circuit City, or Best Buy in a long time.
Also, while Ritz people definitely seem to have decent photo chops, the salespeople at Circuit City and Best Buy pretty much suck. In this economy, they could at least be a little pickier and focus on talented people in the applicant pool as opposed to dumb fucks who’s only “qualification” is that they can pass a drug test.
The camera guy at my local Best Buy is really knowledgeable and helpful. I feel a little guilty of using as a flesh-and-blood source of purchasing advice and then never buying anything from BB, but I can find better deals online 99% of the time.
Gee with attitudes like that it’s no wonder my wife might be losing her job…(aka Ritz employee)
yes, i just left my job at ritz, because the low commissions i got from that job, which were just getting lower and lower over the past year were barely enough to pay for groceries and gas. remember that part of the money from sales there is from commission so when you say ‘they just can’t beat online prices’ maybe you should consider the benefits of going to a store rather than online, such as walking out that day with the equipment you need and getting hands on advice as soon as you get the camera. i hated when people came in and talked to you for an hour just to leave and get the product online. that’s an hour i spent with them hoping to earn something from it when they just say “thank you but i’ll go buy that online”. maybe if customers weren’t so stingy with money, then the company would still be in business. i realize that statement is absurd but its just as absurd as saying a company should just “accept a 30% markdown rather than no profit” because there is no way stores – who have their employees and the costs of leasing a store to sell in – can compete with online prices – products that come straight from a manufacturer. there are no middlemen when you order a camera online, and whenever someone complained to me that they ordered a camera online and it wasn’t what they wanted, or didn’t get to them on time, i had absolutely no sympathy.
Hey, I work at Best Buy – IN the camera department, thank you very much, and I have a steady flow of customers who come to my store specifically to speak to ME about cameras. Most of them are repeat customers, some of them are word of mouth customers. I have repeat customers from Europe. I’m sorry if you ended up with some high school dumb ass just looking for a paycheck….I LOVE cameras, and aside from being out taking photos, what could be better than getting to talk to people about cameras all day? I absolutely love “new models” time of year…we get to open up the new cameras and see what they do 🙂
In my area, Ritz doesn’t pay as well as Best Buy, but better than Circuit City did.
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We can’t price match a store that isn’t our actual local competitor…so while there might be a mom and pop camera place in Alaska that has a better price (for example) they aren’t our local competitor. The same reasoning for internet stores, plus we would take too much loss in faked deals. (if you know computers, you know you can throw up a webpage to look like almost anything in an hour. That plus dumb high school kids would be a lot of loss) Also, we won’t price match if the other store is out of stock – cause you can’t get it for that price there either. With Circuit City gone, not only are we getting their customers, we are getting their theives. At least it’s never boring!!!
I’m no camera person, but i do get paid to run businesses and make them profitable. Here is my .02!
In a distribution business, personnel wages are usually from 35-55% of the gross margin dollars. Meaning that if they sell a camera for $500.00 and make $100.00 profit, their personnel expenses should be from 35-55% of that. So if they chose to go to market with knowledgable staff that can actually provide meaningful advice, they STILL must keep their Personnel expenses inline to make money. So the less you charge for a product, the less you have to pay your people. The less money you pay, the lower your quality of personnel. So if you want the best advice, expect to pay for it. If you already know exactly what you need, buy it online. But PLEASE, whatever you do… DO NOT go get advice from an expert and go bargain shop it online. If everyone did that, there would be nowhere to go for advice on products and it would cost us more money to be uneducated.
man, the #2 post up there really makes my case for me.
He said that he didnt understand why Ritz wouldn’t match other retailers prices. But he also said that the quality of people was certainly different than the other retailers… hmmm… we let’s put those 2 together. TRAINED STAFF IS EXPENSIVE. If all you want to be served by is dumb Fu@ks, keep buying online. But don’t complain when you put more experts out of business.