Calumet Announces Immediate Closing in the US

<p>From Calumet's Facebook page:<br>

After 75 years of business it is with a heavy heart that we announce our immediate closing in the United States (our European stores will continue). It has been a joy to share our passion for photography with you all of these years. We'll miss each other and we'll miss all of our customers. Thank you for everything.<br>

Their site and Twitter accounts are offline. My sympathies to their employees.<br /><br>

Henry Posner<br /><strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong><br /></p>

<p>From http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/2014/03/calumetphoto-chapter-7-bankruptcy.html:<br /><br />Calumetphoto.com LLC has voluntarily filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, listed as case #14-08908 in the Northern District of Illinois United States Bankruptcy Court. The filing is dated March 12, 2014</p>

<p>Henry Posner<br /><strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

 

<p>Henry,<br>

Thank you for posting this. I'm sorry to read it. When Calumet had a branch store in Santa Barbara it was a wonderful local resource. As good as B&H and Adorama are, a local store can do things that a far away store cannot. Classes were often held there. You can't try half a dozen camera bags with your equipment without creating a returns problem for an internet store. Although they focused on professional photography, they treated everyone well. If they weren't busy, you could go in to buy a dozen cotton gloves and get a free half-hour lesson in photography. Not being busy, of course, led them to close the Santa Barbara branch. I didn't know that the entire company was in such trouble.</p>

<p>Some trouble indeed. Their bankruptcy filing lists assets $0 to $50,000: http://t.co/RyMLGQSIro<br>

Henry Posner<br /><strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

<p>The problem here in San Francisco is that they were one of the best equipment rental shops and their big parking lot made it easy when renting lighting equipment. Fortunately, Samy's recently opened and has a decent rental department.</p>

Ugh. Locally, Penn Camera only survived because Calumet gobbled them up. Glad that Adorama and the others can get

things to me next day.

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<p>Some trouble indeed. Their bankruptcy filing lists assets $0 to $50,000</p>

</blockquote>

<p>To me that suggests their inventory has already been sold. I hope their employees had more warning than the public.</p>

<p> </p>

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<p>Fortunately, Samy's recently opened and has a decent rental department.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Even when Calumet was open in Santa Barbara and the local Samy's was smaller than it is now, Samy's rental department had more inventory and faster service for the items they didn't have locally. Our area has a small population, but Samy's has expanded in the last ten years or so, even as other stores have closed, and usually looks busy.</p>

<p>I think that bankruptcy filing pertains to the subsidiary that runs the web site. For a large company with multiple operations like that, it would be common to see different entities that have to file separately. There might be a separate filing (or more than one) for other parts of the company.</p>

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<p>I hope their employees had more warning than the public.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Based on comments posted on Calumet's Facebook page, employees had no prior notice at all and some were not permitted to enter stores to retrieve personal property.<br /><br /><br>

Henry Posner<br /><strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

<p>Just walked up to their former Penn Camera location on E Street here in Washington. Doors are locked up tight and there's a printed message taped to the door with the same language as Henry's first post from their Facebook page. All the stock appears to be in place inside but the lights are off and the security gates are down.<br /><br />It was only a couple of years ago that Penn Camera went out of business and sold out virtually all of the stock only to be bought by Calumet at the last minute. I got a lot of good bargains but I have relied on them for years for rental. Washington certainly has enough professional shooters to support a good rental house so I hope somebody takes over that end of it at least.</p>

<p>A bit more here. Looks like staff was blindsided but who knew better things were wonky:</p>

<p><a href="http://petapixel.com/2014/03/13/calumetphoto-us-declared-bankruptcy-gave-employees-zero-notice/#more-131414">http://petapixel.com/2014/03/13/calumetphoto-us-declared-bankruptcy-gave-employees-zero-notice/#more-131414</a></p>

<p>IBM has boldly predicted that local brick and mortar retail will beat on-line sales in 5 years, and they have the cognitive computing technology to facilitate it. I'd be dismissive of it if it wasn't IBM making the claim:<br>

<a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/cognitive-computing/machine-learning-applications/retail-stores.shtml">http://www.research.ibm.com/cognitive-computing/machine-learning-applications/retail-stores.shtml </a></p>

<p>The bankruptcy filing Henry found was for a subsidiary. <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/212265191/Calumet-Photographic-bankruptcy-petition">Here's the filing for the core company</a>, which was linked to by the <a href="http://voices.suntimes.com/business-2/calumet-photo-files-for-bankruptcy/">Chicago Sun-Times</a>.<br>

Assets $50,000,001 to $100,000,000, liabilities $10,000,001 to $50,000,000. So it must be a cash flow crunch.<br>

Some interesting creditors. Including Mack Camera, noted for selling extended warranties. So some folks may have bought extended warranties through Calumet that were never bought from Mack.<br>

Also electric, Internet, and phone companies -- must have really have had trouble paying the bills.<br>

So we're down to only Hunt's Photo Video in Boston area.</p>

<p>Curiously, Kodak is <em>not</em> among the creditors. I guess they must have paid that bill. Canon, Nikon, and Fuji are creditors, of course.</p>

<p>So one of the creditors is Fidelity Manufacturing. Apparently Calumet owned Fidelity. This may mean that there won't be any more new Fidelity 4x5 film holders. Of course, not sure if they were still making them, don't see them listed at B&H, just Toyo.</p>

<p>Apparently they couldn't muster the cash for last Friday's payroll. <a href="http://petapixel.com/2014/03/13/exclusive-calumet-employee-reveals-happening-behind-scenes/">Interesting interview with former employee</a>. Sounds like plenty of employees saw the writing on the wall.</p>

<p>What would people say was the main factor here, what was the trend that Calumet failed to react to? Was it mainly the "usual" thing of Amazon selling too much too cheaply, or were there factors specific to Calumet?</p>

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<p><a href="http://petapixel.com/2014/03/13/exclusive-calumet-employee-reveals-happening-behind-scenes/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Interesting interview with former employee</a>.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>PetaPixel: What does the future look like for photographers purchasing camera equipment?<br />Calumet Employee: Have you ever visited BHphotovideo.com?</p>

<p>Henry Posner<br /><strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

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<p>What would people say was the main factor here, what was the trend that Calumet failed to react to?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Too many locations, not enough employee training, an ambiance they were for pros only that discouraged amateurs. Best Buy, Staples, CompUSA, Ritz, Radio Shack, now Calumet. All multi-site retailers, all struggling or gone. Lots of other stuff too no doubt but running brick-n-mortar locations is not cheap.</p>

<p>Henry Posner<br /><strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

Oh! Henry! It seems inappropriate for a B&H Photo-Video spokesperson to be making so many comments about a

competitor's bankruptcy. As a B&H customer for many years, I can tell you that your comments do you no good.

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<p>Oh! Henry! It seems inappropriate for a B&H Photo-Video spokesperson to be making so many comments about a competitor's bankruptcy</p>

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<p>Nonsense. There is nothing inappropriate in his comments. He didn't cause their troubles. I will miss them but the issues about focusing too heavy on the pro market, lack of training and spreading brick and mortar outlets all over the map are all true. </p>

<p>The comments on Glass Door are pretty rancid. They managed to find a way to avoid "showrooming" (shop here, buy online) -- don't have any inventory in the stores. Of course, it was because they were on credit hold with all their vendors.<br>

It sounds like the Ritz Camera folks took over and seeded the management nest with the same people who drove Ritz into bankruptcy twice. I bet they paid themselves very well, unlike the salespeople who were paid poorly because there was nothing to sell and make commissions on.<br>

There were a bunch of very skilled old-timers at Calumet Cambridge. They also just spent a lot building out a new store there. (Maybe they suckered the landlord into paying for that?)<br>

They really had too many locations in some cities, especially the DC area. Keeping inventory in so many stores is expensive. Especially when it depreciates so fast, due to the high rate of product change. Also, when your prices are quite close to the "mail order places", you can't afford dead inventory.</p>

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<p>"It seems inappropriate for a B&H Photo-Video spokesperson to be making so many comments about a competitor's bankruptcy."</p>

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<p>Why? Who better to lend some insight than someone with experience in the business?</p>

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<p>"As a B&H customer for many years, I can tell you that your comments do you no good."</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I'm a satisfied customer of B&H, Adorama and a few other retailers. Henry's comments and links to articles don't seem inappropriate to me. He's just citing external sources, not crowing over the dead body. Insider insight doesn't necessarily equal hubris here.</p>

<p>If you read the Glassdoor profile (linked via one or more of the above articles) you'll see former Calumet employees confirming the same observations.</p>

<p>While I'm sorry to see any competitors vanish, and for employees to lose their jobs, those insider insights confirm my outsider impressions. Calumet seemed out of touch with online retailing a decade ago and they never did seem to really grasp how to adapt. They seemed perpetually stuck in the Shutterbug magazine tiny ads era that was over by the late 1990s.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>This i sad indeed. I have been a customer for over twenty years and I wish I could look forward to another twenty. Thank you my friends for great products and service.</p>

<p>-Owen O'Meara</p>

<p>Wow! Any stores in Chicago where you can still try and buy pro grade camera and studio equipment? Helix Camera went out maybe 2 years ago, now Calumet, who is left?</p>