What a "Ritz-off"

[steve_wagner1]

<p>Who on Earth would buy pro gear from Ritz?<br>

<br />Canon 600mm f4</p>

<p>B&H - $8,050<br>

Ritz - $10,062</p>

[mbkissel]

<p>The unaware?</p>

[jim_j2]

<p>Our local Ritz/Wolf Camera store's (several in the Metro area) quit carrying Canon's!<br />I hadn't been in one for over a year and was surprised last week when I went in looking for some ball head mounts for a monopod. The last time I had been in the store I had noticed that they were carrying a decent stock of Manfrotto stuff! But no Canon equipment/accessories/advertising was to be found! Don't know if it's just a local or National trend.</p>

<p> </p>

[john_tran14]

<blockquote>

<p>Who on Earth would buy pro gear from Ritz?<br>

The Non-Pro people</p>

</blockquote>

<p>When I first saw a Sony A850 in a Ritz store, I asked them "How does the 850 compare to the 900?" They answered:"The 850 just come out now, you'll have to wait a year or so for Sony to upgrade it to some 900 or something, until then the 850 is the top of Sony"</p>

 

[craigd]

<blockquote>

<p>Our local Ritz/Wolf Camera store's (several in the Metro area) quit carrying Canon's!</p>

</blockquote>

<p>No, actually, Canon stopped sending inventory to Ritz/Wolf due to payment problems even before Ritz/Wolf went into bankruptcy.</p>

<p>But it's no great loss. Ritz/Wolf prices are never very good and their staff are mostly pretty clueless, as John Tran's anecdote shows.</p>

[daverhaas]

<p>I saw an ad on Craigslist for a Ritz Camera store management position... I think that in and of itself says a lot about the company. </p>

[zml]

<p>Not commenting specifically about Ritz (never bought anything from Ritz and probably never will) I often patronize local stores and I am willing to pay 10-20% over the NYC mail order prices for the luxury of having a local photo goods marchant (not to mention supporting my local economy.) This aspect may or may not be important to the OP but it is important to me.</p>

[hjoseph7]

<p>They had some pretty good out-of-business sales around my about a year ago. Canon 24-70mm f2.8 L series lenses going for about $800. </p>

[hjoseph7]

<p>They had some pretty good out-of-business sales around my about a year ago. Canon 24-70mm f2.8 L series lenses going for about $800. </p>

[richard_beisigl]

<p>I keep hearing stories about how much higher prices are at Ritz camera.<br>

However, when we had a store where I live, their prices were less than some of the independent camera stores in San Diego, as well as B & H and Adorama.<br>

I bought a new Nikon N80, a Nikon D40, a new tripod, camera bag, and a Nikon SB-600 flash from them for less than the other stores I have listed, not at the same time though.<br>

And ALL of the sales staff were very friendly and knowledgeable.<br>

When I decided to buy the D40 (a big mistake on my part), Heather told me it would be $549.99, but when she rang it up, it was $499.99.<br>

So as you can see by my post, I was very pleased with the service I got from Scott, Heather, Michael, and all the other sales people at our now departed Ritz camera, which I really do miss.</p>

[wpahnelas]

<p>i suppose you gotta decide whether you want to sell cameras or sell boats... the ritz guys wanted to be wheels in the boating world, and when that business collapsed during the great recession, their camera business took a big hit, too. that's what damn near wiped them out...<br>

truly, they were fair to middlin' before, and now they're weak. used to be they had a fair selection of photo gear at list price; now they stock far less, and the prices aren't any better. i try to get by there from time to time, but they just don't carry anything i'm looking for. in fairness, my hometown camera store is trending in the same direction -- the bricks-and-mortar operations seem to be slowly atrophying and forcing me to take my business elsewhere.<br>

i did get a nikkor 20/2.8 on clearance at ritz for $320, i do have to acknowledge that, but it's been downhill ever since.</p>

 

[wogears]

<p>I worked at a small Ritz store in a far western suburb of Philadelphia. We knew our stock well, but we did not and could not cater to professionals or gearheads. There is no way a store like ours could store or display the amount of stock that a big-city pro shop could. For one thing, we did not have the space; for another, we did not have the demand that would keep expensive stock from sitting on the shelves.</p>

<p>I did hear enough stories about some Ritz stores to believe that they did not have qualified salespeople. We did. The Ritz bankruptcy was due to a number of factors. Boater's World was certainly one of them. Another was the company's failure to adapt to the digital revolution. In the film era, a customer would buy a 36 exposure roll, shoot it and bring it in for development. Most of the time, they would pay for the 36 prints we would produce. This created a steady income for the company--sales of cameras and accessories were in addition to the bread and butter lab work.</p>

<p>When digital cameras took over, Ritz tried to continue the same business model, and it didn't work. At our store, we made good prints from digital files, really we did. We would check each other's work, and remake what we didn't like BEFORE the customer came for their prints. I brought my laptop to the store (against 'company policy') and set up a color-managed workflow with our Epson 7800. My 16x20s would match with any pro lab's basic enlargements. But price ruled. People would rather have mediocre prints for 10 cents than good ones for 20.</p>

<p>Just one more note. Our Ritz store catered to a clientèle that needed us. It's fine to laugh at soccer moms popping off their tiny flashes in the stadium, but they are a real piece of the digicam market. We patiently explained scene modes, image stabilization, f-stops and all of that, over and over. These people depended on us. I still work part-time in the store that once housed our Ritz. People still lament its passing, and come to me with their battery issues and jammed SD cards. </p>

[henry_l]

<p>In the Seattle area, of the 2 stores that I've been to, my usual experience is that, when I walk in the store, I'm usually the only person in there. I have never seen any other customer. Is it just me?</p>

[steve_wagner1]

<p>1. Ritz is a national chain, not a mom and pop store<br>

2. They have plenty of buying power, they just choose to charge $10k for a lens that B&H charges $8k for</p>

[mark_drutz]

<p>Brett, they may have had plenty of buying power but their cost structure was different than B&H or Adorama. Ritz had lots of small stores, many in malls with high rents relative to their sales volume. They catered to amateurs ranging from soccer moms to serious amateurs. There was no way they could compete in price for pro gear and probably didn't want to. That wasn't their market. Also as Les said, they made a lot of their money from film and developing and you know what happened to that. That also killed off a lot of the small independent camera stores who depended on film and developing.</p>

<p>I went to the Ritz in Woodbridge, NJ when I wanted to handle an item before buying it. They were competitive on some items and not on others. If they were reasonably competitve with B&H and Adorama, I bought from them. If not I bought from B&H or Adorama. I found that the sales help ranged from very good to very bad. All in all I miss the Woodbridge store.</p>

[steve_wagner1]

<p>The 600mm I quoted is from Ritz online though, coming from a corporate warehouse, not a store in the mall. Maybe Ritz had to pay Canon $2k more than B&H did to get the same lens, but somehow I doubt it.</p>

[daverhaas]

<p>In fairness - I did buy some stuff from Ritz - like a D40 (499 + a free canon printer); SB 600; and a few memory cards, etc...</p>

<p>In the twin cities - they had 3 or 4 stores in a 3 block area of downtown Minneapolis. They also had 3 stores within 2 miles of each other in Minnetonka / Wayzata. </p>

<p>What I found was a wide difference between the quality of staff that the various stores. I understand that a lot of the duplication in stores was caused by the ill-timed acquisition of Pro-Ex (which here was primarily a Studio and print shop). But even after they all became Ritz camera - staff at one location would be very knowledgable and helpful and staff at another location struggled to do simple tasks like ring up a magazine. (I honestly didn't mean to cause him to have a nervous breakdown ringing up Pop Photo...Honestly...)</p>

<p>As for the catalogs - I never purchased from them - I'd check the price online or in their catalog and then go someplace else and buy... 99% of the things were cheaper locally or online from someone else.</p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

[john_tran14]

<blockquote>

<p>I was very pleased with the service I got from Scott, Heather, Michael, and all the other sales people at our now departed Ritz camera, which I really do miss.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I noticed that the good guys/gals are gone. The remaining are not so good.</p>

<p>I bought a lot of cheap things from Ritz: 18-200mm $30, 28-300mm $5, filters $1 each, Lithium batteries $1 each, 50mm F2.8 macro 1:1 lens $60, Contax TVS $70, Big rechargable 7.4V batteries $3 each I can use this battery for a lot of different DSLRs and P&S</p>

[art_thomas1]

<p>"...stores in San Diego..." , ... service I got from Scott, Heather, Michael, ..." </p>

<p>Was that store in the Grossmont Center? </p>

[mark_drutz]

<p>Brett, I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm guessing. My experience with Ritz was that they were usually competitve with high volume items but not with low volume ones. I'd guess that that was true online too. I never ordered online from them. They certainly aren't going to sell any at that price. You can sell a lot of a given item at a small profit on each like B&H and Adorama or a few of them at a high price. They obviously made a lot of bad choices or they wouldn't have gone bankrupt.</p>

<p> </p>

[richard_beisigl]

<p>Art,<br>

No, the store I bought my photographic gear from was the El Cajon store.<br>

I saw Michael at the Grossmont Ritz store around Christmas last year, but he said that he was there just for the Christmas season.<br>

He did tell me that Scott was working at another Ritz store in San Diego, but did not want to be a manager anymore.<br>

By the way, the Grossmont store has the worst salers people I have ever met. They have been downright rude and unfriendly every time I have gone into the store.</p>