Jessops to close 81 shops

[PeterW]

Jessops, the UK's biggest digital camera and photo retailer is to close 81 of its shops, about a quarter of the total, following a £22.5 million loss in the six months to the end of April. This is at a time when global sales of digital cameras is booming.

The company, and most business writers, blame competition from supermarkets, catalogue shops and the intenet.

No-one mentioned the lack of product or general photographic knowledge by shop staff which I have found in two of Jessops' branches.

The assistants were well trained to greet me and be pleasant, but when I asked for details of any of the cameras on display all I got was a reading of the display card alongside the camera giving its basic specification. When I asked about using other lenses on the camera via adaptors and whether or not I would still get auto focus the young lady assistant looked blank. She called over a male assistant who also looked blank, and didn't even know which of the cameras on display had interchangeable lenses, let alone what mounts they were.

This happened in two branches, so I thanked them for their trouble and walked out. I have heard similar stories from other people on the internet. I wonder how many other potential customers did as I did and just walked out?

PeterW

[doubs43]

Peter, there was a time in the US when it was expected of camera store employees to be well versed in the equipment they sold as well as basic photographic procedures. The camera stores, of course, expected the customer to buy from them and come back for more advice and supplies. Chain stores and the like - Sears, JC Penney etc. - sold cheaper and their sales people rarely knew how to load a roll of film properly.

The one real camera store left in my area is staffed by people close to our age and they know their business. The national stores such as Ritz and Wolff's that are found in malls are hit-and-miss. Some staff know the things they sell and some don't.

Some 35 years ago one of the two local camera stores was sold to a man who was a salesman without camera experience. He hired people who were experienced and they kept him afloat. More than once he'd have me answer the questions a customer would ask if his staff wasn't available that moment. He bought another store in a city 22 miles away and sold the one I used to a man who knew the business. Competition from the big stores evenually killed off his sales and he closed.

The other camera store in town was unique..... to say the least. Wall-to-wall may have been 15 feet wide and 25 feet long with just enough room to walk betweem the boxes and the display case for the customer and about the same amount of room behind the display case. (There was storage room in the back that the customer never saw.) Every available inch was piled high with every imaginable item, most of it covered in a layer of dust. The owner - E. Ray Wachter - was tall and thin. Customers didn't browse..... they asked for what they wanted. As cluttered and in disaray as the shop was, Mr. Wachter knew every item he had and exactly where it was located. It was little short of amazing to ask for something and watch him go straight to it even if it had been there, buried under piles of other things, for several years.... or more. He had the account for the local newspaper and all of their photographers went there. Mr. Wachter knew photography inside and out. He was one of those individuals who had forgotten more about cameras and film and everything else related to photography than most would ever learn. An unusual, unique and fascinating man. I suppose he qualified as a true "character".

Walker

[herron]

Peter:
I find what you're saying to be so very true. The shops that sell cameras these days will train their employees to be nice and polite...but not too much in the way of real equipment knowledge, and I suppose it's hard to find help that already knows something. I had a young kid in a Ritz store actually reply "What kind is that?" when I walked in asking for a roll of 120 film...any 120. He honestly had never heard of it.

Walker is right in what he's saying, too. The day of the specialty camera shop may be waning. It's too difficult to compete with the mall stores and chains like Ritz and Wolff's. There were only three left in this area, and one of my favorites, Woodward Camera, just closed for good the end of May. I honestly don't know how long the others will be able to stay open (or who they will replace the "old timers" who sell for them...and know their stuff).

The one really good store I know of isn't even in my area. It's B&H in New York. That is one amazing store, and they have one of the better web sites, too -- which may keep them in business for a long time to come. Their customer service people know their stuff, and they sell just about anything photographic.

Kind of sad, really. In this "auto everything" world, no one (with the possible exception of the real pros) takes the time to learn how to properly set up a camera to take a shot...or what can be done to use lens X with camera Y, or what things like reciprocity mean.... Today's serious amateurs, all too often, just point and shoot...even with the best of equipment...then try to fix the mistakes in Photoshop.

[Rachel]

I can recall when our local Jessops was always packed with customers. You would often have to wait a long time to get served but people were prepared to do that. Their staff always seemed to be enthusiasts and prices were competitive. In recent years, though, they seem to have got in a lot of younger staff who don't know much. Perhaps they are cheaper to employ. In the past few years they have opened two new branches here but now two are to close. The surviving branch is the newest and largest in a recently opened shopping mall which has not been the great success it's promoters had hoped for so whether this last branch will last much longer I don't know.

We have a London Camera Exchange branch here as well and they seem much more dynamic despite having mainly younger staff. They also have a good display of used cameras and equipment. I am more likely to look in their shop than the Jessops one.

[Reiska]

As Peter wrote we can put the blame on supermarkets, catalogue shops and the internet, that the expertise of the sales personnel is going down all the time. Another apparent reason could be the huge increase of sales both in articles and features. Today there are “T-Cameras” and “Volkskameras” for sale. In the most cases it is the price and the amount of mystic abbreviations and phrases, that counts. (If you explain their meaning the magig power will fade
The “fundamental set” of customers don’t want, neither can be able to understand even the basics of the equipment what they buy. As to cameras, they buy, pay, point and shoot.
Still nothing is miraculous to them. “It is a camera, it has a zoom lens ??, AF??, IS??, a face detection?? and 5 megapixels more than the neighbour’s camera and it takes a picture if I push a button”

[PeterW]

Yes, Reiska, I think you're right. The attitude of most people today is:

and it takes a picture if I push a button

I've talked with people who are pessimistic about the future of amateur photography as a hobby, but I'm far from pessimistic.

'If I push a button it takes a picture' was also the attitude 100 years ago when Kodak coined the phrase "You push the button, we do the rest".

A lot of people stayed with that philosophy, and were quite happy filling albums with prints of family and holiday snapshots, but an increasing number wanted to know more. So we got the gradual widespread evolution of the knowledgeable amateur photographer, and magazines to cater for them and foster their new-found enthusiasm.

Today we already have the magazines catering for digital users. Yes, they cater mainly for the more advanced digital user in the camera equipment they review, but some of the most popular features, and the point-of-sale 'free CD' attractions, deal with after-treatment of the picture using a computer. I notice a few 'back to basic picture taking' editorial features creeping in.

Most new 'button pushers' already have a computer, and I think the next stage in the evolution of amateur photography is going that way. In the early days people were thrilled just to get a picture. But they soon wanted to learn more.

There will always be the 'happy snapper', but the attitude seems to be increasingly "OK, I've got the picture. That was easy. Now what?" My guess is that the next generation of knowledgeable amateur photographers will be talking with each other about changing backgrounds, removing unwanted objects from a picture, combining individual shots of people into a family group and so on. Amateur photography will move from the camera + the quick-print shop to the camera + computer and home printer.

Discussions on colour balance, saturation, histograms and so on will take the place of film speeds, shutter speeds and apertures. Discussions on fundamentals like better composition, using different focal length lenses, types of lighting, the pictorialist versus the candid street shooter - all will rise again like the Phoenix eventually, and inevitably.

Possibly camera shops will disappear, their place taken by computer shops that also sell cameras, and have knowedgeable assistants to talk with customers about what type of computer they need to go with their camera, different types of software, picture editors, how many gigabytes of hard drive space you need, storing images on CD or DVD, printers, scanners and so on. Maybe eventually holograms?

A change in equipment and technique yes. Perhaps better described as an evolution in equipment and technique.

But, and this is the important thing, there will always be the urge to produce better pictures. And that can't be a bad thing.

Plus ca change ...

OT from camera collecting, but never mind.

Peter W