Well I guess I'll be buying my cameras off the internet from now on

[carusoswi]

The Mrs. and I were having a conversation generic to this thread this morning as we traveled back from Cherry Valley, NY. Along the road we passed a sign for one of those large "buy whatever you need for your home from us and eliminate the middle man" type of stores. I think someone earlier hit the point I would make . . . it's less a matter of the local mom/pop price matching (they cannot and stay in business), as it is a decision by the manufacturer that the service mom/pop can offer is not of sufficient value to support mom/pop by controlling the number of distribution channels so that mom/pop do not get submerged by alternate routes to market.

The business in question is an aggressive marketer in the "buy direct" category who, according to their advertising, has such purchasing power that the manufacturers (of a vast array of home/home construction materials/furnishings) are willing to sell to them at next to manufacturing cost.

Obviously, few businesses can be this important to so many vendors. The ploy is nothing more than an alternate route to market by any manufacturer who agrees to sell the subject firm.

Customers who get sucked in by the slick TV advertising will be presented in short order with evidence of how they saved $x.00 off of mfr suggested pricing, but, deprived of information they need to compare the actual bottom line installed price.

With photo equipment, the comparison exercise is much more basic and stark. The mail order houses are contrasted to local stores under the burden of local overhead, local taxes, limited market reach, high labor costs and limited access to qualified labor.

The equipment you buy is essentially the same, no matter where you purchase. If you are knowledgeable, local support becomes a non-issue.

Reality does not favor local photo shops.

Caruso

 

[Don Simon]

I will buy from shops who offer good prices and good service, regardless of whether they're local, far away or online.

My local camera shop doesn't always have the most competitive prices but occasionally it has deals. If (as is sometimes the case) it can then offer me the product at only slightly more than an internet seller then I will happily buy it there and have the advantage of having it instantly rather than waiting for delivery.

Or a short train journey away there is the best camera shop I have yet found. Prices are excellent (they sell online too), staff are knowledgeable and helpful, and best of all, if you ask for something and they don't have it, they will get it in. It doesn't have to be a £1000 lens. I have seen their staff on photo forums responding to requests for viewfinder magnifiers and other small accessories. By contrast my experience with big internet sellers (and big stores in general) has generally been that if it's not currently "ranged" then as far as they're concerned it doesn't exist.

Finally there is a shop in London - a chain store but a decent one - who I also buy from sometimes. Their prices are close enough to internet ones. Obviously they are not exactly a small local store and they do a lot of business, but still, being a physical store rather than a purely online seller they offer advantages. Once I found a problem with an SLR I bought from them. It was about a month after I bought it, and I took it back to them expecting to be told to mail the camera off for service. Instead they took the camera body and gave me a brand new replacement, practically no questions asked. They accepted the hassle of filling in the forms and returning the camera in order to keep this customer happy. Now there may be online sellers who offer that kind of service but I haven't found any yet.

Having said that, the big chainstores (like Jessops in this country) can be truly appalling... they may have internet prices, but often have sub-internet service. Then there are the local stores who do themselves no favours by not only charging a lot for their products but also making no effort at customer service. If the choice is between these shops and, say, Amazon, I have no reason not to buy from Amazon.

If I can find an equivalent of someone like B&H here then I will be happy to buy most of my equipment online. In the meantime, I'd rather give my money to people who go out of their way to be helpful, and I haven't yet found an online-only shop - or an electrical retailer which sells cameras - who are willing to order small items for a handful of customers on request or haggle on price.

 

[bellacat]

I have not found a local shop here in northern California since i moved here from Los Angeles but i will say back in so cal i would try to buy everything from my local community shop than to go to the big guys. As it is, when ever i have serious questions I will ask them before i go to someplace like Best Buy. Now that said I did find a knowledgeable person at my Best Buy who helped me tremendously. Still I have not decided what DSLR i want to buy but I'm hoping that if Canon releases a new one to upgrade from the 30D then my decision will be made for me

bottom line i think its worth spending the extra buck or two to support a local shop but when the money is really tight or the price difference is just too huge to pass up then i will buy my equipment through a huge store.

 

[Zoso]

wtf some salesman are the scum of the earth they dont give a **** what you need they just want to make a sale infuriates me

I've wanted to buy things online but I'm too scared I like to buy then and there Having said that my main problem is lack of what I can buy then and there lame :x

 

[redchaser]

We have an excellent local photo shop here and I support them when and how I can, because their advice has been invaluable. I wasn't able to buy my latest camera/lenses from them becaus they only sell Cannon, Nikon and Olympus and I was set on Pentax, but I did get my tripod and Crumpler bag from them. On these items their price was pretty close to online shops to boot. On bodies and lenses they are more expensive then the big boys but that's just the nature of the business and volume buying.