Another camera retailer goes bust (Jacobs Digital)

<p>I tried to visit my local photo store today - closed - sign on the door says 'in administration'.<br>

The store in question was Jacobs Digital in Newcastle.<br />As far as I know they were the last 'real' camera store in the area.<br>

If I want to browse in a non-virtual camera store I now have to travel 90-100 miles (York ? Edinburgh ?).</p>

<p>There is only 1 camera store in the whole Atlanta Area with any size and stock I know of and it's on the total other side of the city from me. Even the little kiosk stores are almost all gone now. For me I have to drive about 45 minutes to an hour to get to that one last one.</p>

<p>What a shame, the Jacobs family have a long history in the Photo retail business. Seems like most of the older names (Tecno, CCE and other, individual, businesses) are disappearing fast. Just a fact of life, running a high street business is very costly compared to an online outlet. Problem is, as we all chase low prices, where are we going to be able to go to try out new cameras. It's the one piece of advice most people here are consistently given when asking what camera to buy but where are they supposed to do it?</p>

<p>Small and even mid sized camera stores are becoming a thing of the past. They can't compete in price with the big discount stores and online dealers. They used to make a big part of their profits on film and developing, but that's gone now.</p>

This is a shame. I always found Jacobs to have better stock of pro level items than most bricks and mortar stores (got my

2nd d3s from them after 4 other London stores were quoting 4 weeks, and they got me my d4 from the first batch that

Nikon released) and their staff were knowledgable too. I've also used their pro-lounge a few times in New Oxford Street,

and they organised regular talks for and by working photographers there every month.

<p>So many of us, if we wish to buy something new, have to buy on faith sight unseen. That might be alright for a camera strap or filter but for $1000 and up items, well that is a little nerve racking. All the Costco's and Best Buys have are Nikon or Canon in interchangeable lens cameras. I'm interested in an OMD but would not take a chance on that kind of money without first handling it. Does Pentax, Olympus, Sony, etc realize the potential loss of sales by not promoting their wares on a broader base of retailers? Somehow I doubt they give a rat's hind end about their limited exposure in the market place.</p>

<p>There's a very good reason why independent camera retailers have gone (or going) out of business - because no one is buying form them. </p>

<p>It's all nice that they offer touchy-feely hands-on service, but that's of no value when customers decide in person that they like a product but decide to buy elsewhere because it's cheaper. </p>

<p>What Michael is talking about is called mooching or showrooming. Someone goes into a brick and mortor store checks an item out and then goes online to get a better price. Some even do it in the store. Consumer Reports even recommends doing it.</p>

This is fair enough, but what if the camera is $500 online and $800 in the store? How much extra must you pay before

supporting the local store is no longer worth it. I'll pay more but not WAY WAY more.

 

And I bought a lot of stuff from the store. I didn't switch to buying them online till they were pretty much all shuttered.

>>> Someone goes into a brick and mortor store checks an item out and then goes online to get a better

price. Some even do it in the store.<P>

 

There's an <a href= "http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?

ie=UTF8&docId=aw_ppricecheck_iphone_mobile">app for that</a>. By Amazon, not surprisingly.

<p>Sure, they are pricier than Amazon, BH and Adorama. They ought to be but David's $800 vs. $500 is but a hyperbole. Usually, it's about 5-15% plus taxes in my experience. And usually, there are no discount / deal / free shipping etc...</p>

<p>It's fairly simple why they are going away...most of us are guilty. Personally, I try to buy accessories from local stores and give cameras/lens a real calculation. If it's no more than 7-8%, I'd buy from a local shop. One day (to most, that day is now), sadly, it will be Amazon, Walmart, Costco or used/ebay way...</p>

<p> </p>

<p> One of the things I miss is that I never even see many of the new camera's that come out. Basically if it's not at Cost Co I do not see them. I pretty much have to buy photo products on-line. I do buy some film from Target but not that much. <br>

However i buy local all the time for other types of products. I purchase almost all of my bicycle products right in town or at REI. I spend more on bicycles then I do on photography. There is a bike store in town and they carry most of the things that I need regularly such as tires, tubes and chains etc. They do charge more then mail order. Sometimes it's kind of excessive but they are nice guys and they treat me well and I want to have a store in town. However they do not sell Voler cycle clothing and that is the only brand I wear. It is bought mail order. </p>

<p>The big guys like "Best Buy" are also having trouble. I read a business article today that they may go private and shut down many of their stores. People use Best Buy to look at electronics, and then order it from their smart phone because it's a lot cheaper on line. On another issue, I understand that margins on DSLRs are extremely thin and retailers may have to order and sell the same manufacturer's P&S digital camera at no markup in order to get their allocation of more expensive equipment. I suspect that this is going to be really short-sighted by the camera manufactures since they will have many fewer places to sell their equipment as smart phone cameras take over more of the photography marketplace. </p>

<p>How can they compete with online retail which offers User Reviews, Free shipping and NO taxes.</p>

<p>The only way they can compete is with service. Unfortunately many people will come into the store, handle the cameras, lenses, etc, get free advice, and then buy online anyway.</p>

<p>Bookstores are dying out for the same reason. People browse the bookstore, find a book they want, then get it online for less. My local mall used to have three bookstores. Now there are none. We have over 500,000 residents and we have one B&N Superstore and two small private bookstores. I buy my books at the B&N even though I can get them a few dollars cheaper online because I love to browse and once the B&N is gone there'll be no place left to browse except the two small bookstores, assuming they don't go out of business too.</p>

<p>I live in one of the outer boroughs of NYC so I can go into the City to B&H or Adorama or into NJ to Abe's of Maine which is closer and easier to park. I feel sorry for those of you who have nowhere to go to handle the gear you want to buy.</p>

<p>Going high end or niche market normally helps with some commodities, but probably not photography gear since the surviving big retailers already carry the goods and the service quality buyers look for. </p>

<p>Its a shame if only because Jacobs were the only competition for Jessops ( who were themselves balancing on a knife edge last year) on the UK high streets. Less competition is always a bad thing for consumers and this will I am sure be reflected in the deals and service offered by Jessops in the future.</p>

<p>You can't really blame the demise of camera shops on the internet. What is killing them has been killing them since at least the 1960's. I live in Springfield, Illinois. Everyone thinks of Illinois as Chicago, but really, Chicago is in the upper right hand corner of the State. Most of Illinois is farmland with an even distribution of small cities of 15,000 to 200,000 people.<br /><br /> In the 1960's, most of the larger small cities had at least one camera shop. Some supported 2 or more. My home town of Springfield, the state Capital, supported TWO camera shops. By the 1970's, most were gone, well before the internet.<br /><br /> Today, I think there might be one camera shop between Chicago and St. Louis (in Peoria).<br /><br /> What killed the camera shops isn't the internet, it was the changing demographics of photography. in the 1950's, cameras were expensive, well made, precision instruments that you bought and expected to last the remainder of your life. If it broke, it was expensive enough that you got it fixed at the camera shop, where you also went for developing and prints. If you were into darkroom work, you bought your supplies there as well. And all of that was backed by helpful traind professionals who loved photography as much as the customer.<br /><br /> But technology from the space race, and the booming post WW2 economy, 'democratized' photography. Instead of a high margin service industry that required a fair amount of knowledge to work in, it became a low margin commodity industry, built around inexpensive disposable cameras built by robots in generic Asian factories that could produce very good, but but unrepairable cameras in the millions. All that was left was photo processing to support Camera shops, and for shops in small towns, there wasn't enough volume to support the shop. <br /><br /> Digital photography then killed the photo finishing business. I am always amazed when I hear from other countries that THEIR camera shops are just now starting to close. I guess different economic policies in various countries managed to stave off the inevitable for a while, but now that the 'global economy' is real, even that support is not enough to animate the camera shop corpse.<br /><br /> So don't feel bad about buying your camera from the internet, or a 'big box' store. Your actions aren't killing the remaining shops, they've been dead for quite some time, they just haven't taken the time to lie down yet.</p>

<p>I went into cameraworld in London the other day and noticed two things. Excellent service/knowledge (far better than any chain store staff) and second hand equipment. In fact their prime selling real estate (the front window) was at least 50% filled with second hand kit. I was in there for about 40 minutes browsing and the place seemed pretty busy - far busier than the Jessops and Currys/PC world stores on the nearby high street. A couple of people bought second hand stuff (one newish refurb camera and one "classic" old camera) and several others buying lenses, batteries and trading in/up. The staff actually knew at least two of the customers by name.<br>

<br />I would say the key to their success is building a relationship with their customers, good service and offering something that the chains don't (trade in/refurb kit). The cameraworld staff were helpful and informative whereas the chain store staff can't tell me anything I don't already know.</p>

<p>I guess if I was younger I would have walked out and bought online but I just preferred to get the stuff straight away. </p>

<p>Well if Jacobs have gone I have to say that I'm neither surprised nor particularly saddened. I guess I've been in their New Oxford St store 20 times in the last decade and have never bought anything. Just one example, I went there a couple of years ago to look at and buy a "Think Tank" bag. Jacobs were the UK distributors and I thought that if anywhere would have the bag I was interested in in-stock then they would. But no, none there and the closest they came to being helpful was looking at the computerised stock listings for other branches to find that they did in fact have it at another branch several miles away. No offer to get it across for me, no offer to call the branch to make sure that the item really was in stock and reserve it. Jacobs were an example of the breed of retailer that feels aggrieved that they can't sell stuff whilst being more expensive, less helpful and more poorly stocked than their internet/telephone alternatives. So their demise was inevitable- they weren't providing any reason to buy there. </p>

<blockquote>

<p>Jacobs were an example of the breed of retailer that feels aggrieved that they can't sell stuff whilst being more expensive, less helpful and more poorly stocked than their internet/telephone alternatives. So their demise was inevitable- they weren't providing any reason to buy there.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>+1 to this. Not just in relation to Jacobs but to all chain stores. The company reaches a size where the founders are no longer on the front line infusing the staff with their passion and more and more staff are there just for a job and not because they have any interest in the product. In computerworld there were no young staff working to save up for their round the world backpacking trip. All the staff were mature and obviously knowledgeable (or certainly seemed to be based on 40 mins of listening to them talk to customers/on phone).</p>

<p>I was missing Jacobs badly today. What I find maddening is shops that <a href="http://simoncroftsphoto.com/blog/?p=1631">offer you cameras that they can't actually sell</a>. What kind of business model is that? </p>