Calumet Photographic: gone

Shame. I was in their new Cambridgeport showroom a few weeks ago in Boston, but honestly it didn't have the selection their old one down the street did. If anything, I appreciated that they had a selection of house-brand studio products that you could play around with in store.

But they had a coffee bar!

Oh well. We've got Glazers here, and that's all I care about.
Seems like these days to stay afloat as a B&M you really need to be in the video and rental market as well.
 
Some great folks working there for many years. There certainly won't be comparable job opportunities for them. What a bummer for them.

John
 
zauhar said:
From petapixel:

"Everything about the situation is grave as grave gets. Court papers show that Calumet is declaring less than $50K in assets and between $1M and $10M in liabilities. And to make the situation even worse, the company seems to have handled the bankruptcy extremely poorly, giving their employees ZERO notice until this very morning."

How could they conceivably have only $50 K in assets. The rental equipment in one store should be more than that!
Click to expand...

That does sound more than a little dodgy.
 
Unbelievable! In a way, it's not surprising. B&H has eaten everyone's lunch. As for the NYC store, it's been a long time since I liked that place. Recently they sent an e-mail promo to sell their used and excess rental inventory. I got the e-mail and within 4 minutes of it being sent it, called the NYC store and paid for 2 used Nikon 50 1.2 lenses -- they said they had 3 in the store and even examined them while I was on the phone so they could ship me the two nicest ones. The price was good, not crazy but a good deal. The salesman, whom I always thought was nasty called me 15 minutes later to say he was refunding my credit card -- because guess what both lenses had been sold to someone else -- even though there was nothing in the computer and I had called within minutes of it being listed. When I complained he said, oh wait, one is going to repair. So I say, okay can I buy it when it comes back, and he got all evasive. He did the same thing to me a few years earlier with a Polaroid camera. In the 80's the place was okay. In the 90's it was still okay but not as good. Recently when they absorbed the store Lens & Repro -- to me it was curtains. I really pity the photographers who had items reserved for rental for upcoming shoots -- they're left high and dry. And, it's a bad sign for the industry. I visited Central Camera two weeks ago, and that place is weird 🙂
 
Oh Lens & Repro... now that was a real camera store!

I remember I bought a Leica R4s there, put a roll of film in it and went on my way. It died within a block so I just circled back and returned it, lol.

If only you could have browsed their shelves they had some exotic stuff. I wonder what the Kayes are doing now?

It's online and I doubt he would let you into his studio but this guy rivals the old L&R and has an entertaining/very photo geeky website to browse around:

http://glennview.com
 
zauhar said:
Phil, thanks! I have never been to Webb Cam, I will check them out soon.

Randy
Click to expand...

Yep, Webb Cam is great, just located in Chinatown, although 135 films are bit pricy compared to BH or Adorama, but it feels safe that you have a place to grab something when you really need it all of a sudden or just running out of them.
Try it.
 
In NYC, I've been a B&H (since 17st store) and Adormama customer for a long time... never cared about Calumet. I'm one of those horrible customers that buys from out of state to avoid sales tax on larger purchases. I guess I'm just not that sentimental. I do feel for the employees though... kind of slimy there Calumet. I feel the online stores have been more loyal to me than the brick and morter stores.
 
Frank Petronio said:
Oh Lens & Repro... now that was a real camera store!

I remember I bought a Leica R4s there, put a roll of film in it and went on my way. It died within a block so I just circled back and returned it, lol.

If only you could have browsed their shelves they had some exotic stuff. I wonder what the Kayes are doing now?

It's online and I doubt he would let you into his studio but this guy rivals the old L&R and has an entertaining/very photo geeky website to browse around:

http://glennview.com
Click to expand...

I loved Lens & Repro. I was really sad to see them go.
I have never liked B&H for anything other than film purchasing. I've never been treated with courtesy at the store, nor on the phone talking to someone about ordering a lens or whatnot. The most pleasant experience that B&H has given me is quick shipping on an online order of a whole bunch of Plus-X before it went the way of the dodo.

Now that one of their bigger competitors is gone, they are free to raise their prices just a bit more, so I'm going to shop exclusively at my local camera store here in Philly out of spite for B&H, Adorama, Freestyle and whomever else (Samy's?) In spite of my pocketbook as well but I really want to help keep Webb open.

Phil Forrest
 
Want to sell one of those 1.2's?

NY_Dan said:
Unbelievable! In a way, it's not surprising. B&H has eaten everyone's lunch. As for the NYC store, it's been a long time since I liked that place. Recently they sent an e-mail promo to sell their used and excess rental inventory. I got the e-mail and within 4 minutes of it being sent it, called the NYC store and paid for 2 used Nikon 50 1.2 lenses -- they said they had 3 in the store and even examined them while I was on the phone so they could ship me the two nicest ones. The price was good, not crazy but a good deal. The salesman, whom I always thought was nasty called me 15 minutes later to say he was refunding my credit card -- because guess what both lenses had been sold to someone else -- even though there was nothing in the computer and I had called within minutes of it being listed. When I complained he said, oh wait, one is going to repair. So I say, okay can I buy it when it comes back, and he got all evasive. He did the same thing to me a few years earlier with a Polaroid camera. In the 80's the place was okay. In the 90's it was still okay but not as good. Recently when they absorbed the store Lens & Repro -- to me it was curtains. I really pity the photographers who had items reserved for rental for upcoming shoots -- they're left high and dry. And, it's a bad sign for the industry. I visited Central Camera two weeks ago, and that place is weird 🙂
Click to expand...
 
My small-town camera shop died years ago. It was inevitable. We're a small-ish university town and for years the on-campus bookstore stocked film, paper, and chems.

Once the local shop was gone, the campus bookstore dropped chemicals. I don't know what the students did for chems. Then the bookstore's paper and film selection slowly dwindled to the bare minimum to support the last few art classes that still use film/darkroom. I consider myself lucky that, for the time being, I can walk into a store and buy Black and White film on a whim (or "emergency"). They still have Tmax, FP4, HP5, and AristaEDU in 135, Tmax and FP4 in 120, and FP4 in 4x5. However, they haven't replenished stock in 120 or 4x5 for months and I fear once they're gone, they're gone. It'll soon be 35 only, and soon after that....nothing.

Funny thing though: for many years I've had little interest in the new lenses and bodies offered at my local store (latest DSLR or consumer point-n-shoot). Only the used section held my interest, and it rarely had something I wanted. So, in a way I'm not missing the small camera shop as much as I thought I would. The camera shop I want is not realistic for this town.

Lucky for us, Freestyle has Silvermax! Whew. At least there's the internet.
 
I don't mind paying a bit more if the customer service is helpful.

Digital photography and the Internet have been a double-whammy on real stores.

Most people would rather buy online or from Amazon. "Showrooming" is one of the factors hurting Best Buy. That and the utter disorganization that I've witnessed at many of their stores.

By and large, most people only care about price.
 
ZeissFan said:
I don't mind paying a bit more if the customer service is helpful.

Digital photography and the Internet have been a double-whammy on real stores.

Most people would rather buy online or from Amazon. "Showrooming" is one of the factors hurting Best Buy. That and the utter disorganization that I've witnessed at many of their stores.

By and large, most people only care about price.
Click to expand...

One thing I don't understand about large chains suffering from online sales is, well, where are these potential buyers shopping? I mean, maybe it's just me, but if I can't find something from Best Buy in store, I buy it from their website.
Calumet, I always assumed, was a pretty substantial online retailer too; I get emails from them probably 3x a week. Must be some crazy mismanagement.
 
Phil_F_NM said:
Now that one of their bigger competitors is gone, they are free to raise their prices just a bit more, so I'm going to shop exclusively at my local camera store here in Philly out of spite for B&H, Adorama, Freestyle and whomever else (Samy's?) In spite of my pocketbook as well but I really want to help keep Webb open.

Phil Forrest
Click to expand...

Phil, I will join you in that, even though I have not started shopping there yet. I always shop local/brick and mortar unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise.

Randy
 
I'll miss them in San Francisco. It was really the only place you could go and handle an item you were considering...or pick up big items like wide body printers that don't ship UPS...

Prices weren't the best but were decent...too bad they treated their employees so poorly. At least in SF they were all pretty darn good.
 
majid said:
There's still Samy's, Photographer's Supply and (shudder) Adolph Gasser.
Click to expand...

Sadly, we can add a "shutter" to that (shudder):

Photographer's Supply will close its doors in early April. What I've heard is that the owner passed on last Fall and the family has decided they don't wish to continue running the business.
 
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