Sooooooooooooo depressing!

[smoke665]

Not sure about other cities out there, but the advent of ever increasing sales tax is a major hindrance to brick and mortar business in my area. So many of the internet sites have a built in price advantage of 10% or more, because they ship it tax free. If the states manage to impose that tax collection on the internet sites I think you'll start to see a movement back to retail locations.

 

[tirediron]

Not sure about other cities out there, but the advent of ever increasing sales tax is a major hindrance to brick and mortar business in my area. So many of the internet sites have a built in price advantage of 10% or more, because they ship it tax free. If the states manage to impose that tax collection on the internet sites I think you'll start to see a movement back to retail locations.

I think a bigger issue is the sheer cost of maintaining a retail location in an urban center as opposed to an anonymous warehouse on the outskirts of Lower Gumboot Junction. Even in Victoria, retail space can run well north of $10/sq ft/month and I suspect in place like New York it must be even higher...

 

[smoke665]

@tirediron and there's that, but I've noticed that on the bigger ticket items the internet sites are not "substantially" lower than the retail sites when you account for the sales tax. If they're shipping for free then they have a cost of shipping to factor in. Products that are small in size and high in price benefit more from the sales tax advantage than larger more costly to ship items.

 

[unpopular]

PDX is small, like the 28th largest city in the USA..

"Portland is a small town! REALLY WE ARE!! I have the statistics to prove it! Hillsborough, Beavertown and the rest of the 1.5-million suburbanites aren't *really* Portland!! WE'RE A SMALL TOWN DAMNIT!!!!!"

Oh Portland. I love you and your denial.

 

[JustJazzie]

Sounds like you might need something a little stronger than a beer for this one!

Cheers to...
Wiskey? Gin? Moonshine?
And to online shopping, where you can shop in your underwear and no one knows you're drunk.

 

[thereyougo!]

Camera stores? Gosh. We used to have the worst camera stores in Bonn until Michael at Foto Brell decided that his pricing model kept people out of the shop. It was: RSP plus 20 Euros. Stupid.

Now he is more successful. He charges internet average plus 20 Euros and sells some not too cheap acessoires to add some profit and he has a great feeling what you might like and has it in his drawer when you come in. No waiting. Walk in. Decide. Have some really knowledgable people there to help. Pay. Go.

If Michael is not there I drive to Cologne. They have a lot of great stores there. My favourite is Lambertin Pro Store at Wallraffplatz. They serve the Photo Agencies. At times they have 30 of the last before current one digit Nikons in the window. You want some exotic 2000 Euro prime? They probably have 3 of them plus 5 used ones....

I've been into the Lambertin shop at Köln Dom. I bought a few Sony lenses back in the day when I had the A900. I bought the CZ 24 - 70 f/2.8 - great lens - it got stolen in a burglary at my brother in law's house and wasn't insured. The manager gave me his father's book on postwar Köln. I've been in since and bought an antique 35mm camera from a Dresden maker which has a waist level finder.

 

[smoke665]

Cheers to...
Wiskey? Gin? Moonshine?
And to online shopping, where you can shop in your underwear and no one knows you're drunk.

But then the first thing you know you're on FB, then the whole world knows you're drunk, and likely in your underwear. No personal experience - just saying you know

 

[JustJazzie]

Cheers to...
Wiskey? Gin? Moonshine?
And to online shopping, where you can shop in your underwear and no one knows you're drunk.

But then the first thing you know you're on FB, then the whole world knows you're drunk, and likely in your underwear. No personal experience - just saying you know

hmm... If my feed is set to public, can I get a ticket for public intoxication?

 

[tirediron]

Cheers to...
Wiskey? Gin? Moonshine?
And to online shopping, where you can shop in your underwear and no one knows you're drunk.

But then the first thing you know you're on FB, then the whole world knows you're drunk, and likely in your underwear. No personal experience - just saying you know

hmm... If my feed is set to public, can I get a ticket for public intoxication?

'For' or 'to'?

 

[Piccell]

Thought this was going to be a thread about our recent elections. Sorry about your camera store. I just bought a new body about 3 weeks ago (Fuji X-T2) and I bought it from our local brick and motar store for exactly this reason.

Joe

I didn't think the election was depressing at all. I like living in America and I like our system.

I think a lot of the reason camera stores are failing is because people use them to try things out, get a hands on test of it and then buy from Amazon.
I only bought one camera at a brick and mortar store and when I decided I wanted to exchange for a different, more expensive model, they actually charged me a 10% restocking fee, so I didn't make the larger purchase from them either, I just returned it and had the nicer one delivered the next day for free.

 

[Frank F.]

I've been into the Lambertin shop at Köln Dom. I bought a few Sony lenses back in the day when I had the A900. I bought the CZ 24 - 70 f/2.8 - great lens - it got stolen in a burglary at my brother in law's house and wasn't insured. The manager gave me his father's book on postwar Köln. I've been in since and bought an antique 35mm camera from a Dresden maker which has a waist level finder.

Yes, they have 2 main stores. The Lambertin on the Dome platform facing the train station and the Lambertin Professional at Walraffplatz, both are great shops. But if you want to see dream equipment in used and new by the dozen, go to Wallraffplatz, just 2 Minutes from the Dome: http://www.foto-lambertin.de/store/pages/zeiten.asp

 

[thereyougo!]

Yes, I have been in both. Looked at a B+W polariser before I bought a Lee one and winced at the price.

 

[minicoop1985]

My local brick and mortars have all sorts of Promaster stuff. I have some Promaster CF cards because I didn't know any better, but at least my localest (if that's a word) still carries mostly non-Promaster stuff.

 

[tirediron]

My local brick and mortars have all sorts of Promaster stuff. I have some Promaster CF cards because I didn't know any better, but at least my localest (if that's a word) still carries mostly non-Promaster stuff.

Lucky bastich!