Closed Camera Stores - We Miss You!

[lxmike]

Bonsers, big market, newcastle upon tyne, also Heads of Gateshead on saltwell road sadly both no more

 

[MISH]

I worked at Fairborn Camera much of the time you were in Dayton, and remember BK and Malones well (check page 2 of this thread for a few Leica day pics). Columbus Camera Group is still there, though their inventory is a shadow what it used to be. I make semi regular trips there and over to Midwest. Mainly hoping to converse with the other "oldtimers" about days gone by.

The big M3 display piece belonged to Roy Baker (owner of BK) he sold it soon after the store closed, via the Cincinnati Camera Show. One of the used dealers offered him a ludicrously large sum for it.

Here's Roy right before he let it go..
[/QUOTE

I always wondered what happened to that big M3, they used to have it hanging from the ceiling over the counter, they also told me that when they used to have a parade in Troy they would mount it to the top of a car and drive it in the parade. I used to always make it to Fairborn Camera for Leica Days to get a chance to hold some of the new Leica gear I could not afford and while not a frequent visitor any time I was in the Fairborn area I would stop at Fairborn Camera (and Foy's) check out the used case and have them get the titanium M6 out of the new case for me to check out. I am sure I must have met you a time or two.

 

[lxmike]

Charles Eagle in Durham has now closed very sad indeed

 

[lxmike]

Bonsers in the Big market, Newcastle, bought my first Bilingham bag there back in the early 1980's and my first Pentax Mx. The store is sadly gone, l pass this store, boarded up, every day on my way to work

 

[Ronald M]

Fairborn Camera and Video in Fairborn Ohio.
In business since the 40's and owned by the same family right to the end.

I was lucky enough to work there from 1998 until the store closed in 2010. i met a lot of amazing people in that time. Most of my best friends today were people I met while I was behind the counter at Fairborn Camera.

FCV was a long time Leica dealer and many of the "Leica elite" were regular customers.

Leica Demo Day probably 1999-2000
Pictured in the center is Roger Pelham "Mr. Leica" one of the founding members of LHSA and a good friend.
He believed everyone should own a Leica and over the years he probably sold more of them than anyone else on earth.

Leica bad boy Greg Metzger

Dick Bailey

Like most of the stores listed here FCV was as much a gathering place for local photogs as it was a store.

Roger was a great guy. Two states away, but he came to camera shows in Chicago. He even came when he knew the end was near, dear fellow.

 

[Ronald M]

We had dozens in Chicago from small to super big, Altmans.

Only Central Camera in Chicago proper now. La Grange Camera and Video in western suburb of La Grange.

All this happens first when you shop local and buy from New York. Now the cell phone.

 

[Emile de Leon]

I miss my local camera store..digital..killed it..no more film processing for them...no income..done deal years ago...
Was a great place to hang out with like minded souls..

 

[02Pilot]

A week from today Sam's Camera Exchange will close up shop after 77 years in business at various locations in Westchester County, NY. Stopped by today to say goodbye to the guys - one of them worked there for over 40 years. They were essential in facilitating my return to film photography. Same old story - online competition, digital, etc.

 

[ftw1952]

Sigh. Central Photo Service, on Chicago Avenue, East Chicago, Indiana. My first job, in the 1970s (from age of 12, yes, 12, a legal and paid position). Andy Adams (nee Adamchik), proprietor. The store is long gone, as is the shopping street.

😎 I grew up in Hammond and had neighbors from East Chicago then. The father had a shoe repair business in EC on 151st and Baring Avenue I think it was. It was closed in the late 60's I know for sure

All I have in my area now is Gary Camera in Merrillville, Indiana. Great people to deal all the time since they have been in business for decades. They started on 5th Avenue in Gary, Indiana when that town was booming

 

[Godfrey]

Keeble & Shuchat Photography in Palo Alto, CA, is now scheduled to close at the end of October:
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/...eble--shuchat-photography-to-close-in-october

That's the last decent camera equipment shop in the SF Bay Area Peninsula neighborhood. :-(

​

It wasn't 'digital' that did them in. It was shifts in buying habits by customers due to the on-line world that's come into being and the cost savings in mail-order shopping. The brick and mortar camera shop has simply become an unprofitable business.

G

 

[Range-rover]

A week from today Sam's Camera Exchange will close up shop after 77 years in business at various locations in Westchester County, NY. Stopped by today to say goodbye to the guys - one of them worked there for over 40 years. They were essential in facilitating my return to film photography. Same old story - online competition, digital, etc.

Wow that's to bad, I live in Westchester as well and I didn't know about
that, one of the last great camera stores in Westchester!

 

[sara]

There used to be a camera shop just across the road from my university.

R.G. Lewis in Southampton Row, London.

(picture from Google)

Anyway, I would pass by most of the time admiring Leicas at their window display (I was a poor student and couldn't afford one). The two guys working in there were friends with my photography tutors.

At the end of my third year, I went to buy my first Leica (M2) from them, and they were nothing but spectacular in service. Even looked around to find an original M2 handbook, and threw in a Leica guidebook (which I still have).

Good people 🙂

 

[zuiko85]

Wow, old thread. Since I moved out of Chicago in 1978 don't think I've been in a real camera shop more than 3 or 4 times. Last time was about a year ago in Portland Oregon. I visited Blue Moon Camera. Very interesting place, not one digital camera in sight, all film. Thought the used stuff was a bit overpriced but fortunately I've lost my buying lust, now days it's only film, paper, and chemicals. I build pinhole cameras for fun and use paper as negatives. Blue Moon was a happy place with a keen staff and lots of film and paper. I bought a couple of rolls of B&W for my Minox IIIs, they are the only place I know in the US who sell it now.

 

[:: Mark]

[URL="https://transienteye.com]

[/URL]

An old thread, but an ongoing problem. This was Arpi on La Rambla in Barcelona, and which closed at the end of last year. The closure is partly because of the immense tourist pressure on the area, whereby only downmarket tourist trinket shops and places for food and drink survive.

The shop was in two parts, with a front on La Rambla and a second multi-floor shop inside what otherwise looked like a residential building. This was a treasure trove of older cameras and film gear.

It is tempting to see the closure of shops like this in Barcelona as part of a general economic problem, but I suspect that it has more to do with sclerotic business practises than anything else. Stores like this probably derived much of their business from official (government) work, directly or indirectly, and which for a long time allowed them to receive inflated prices for goods and services. When this dried up as a result of digital cameras and the collapse of professional photographic services, many photographic businesses here failed to adapt.

The largest remaining "traditional" photographic shop in Barcelona is probably Casanova. They have many of the same problems as Arpi, with seemingly random prices which are sometimes competitive and sometimes absurd. Most astonishing is the price of Leica gear, new or second-hand. I can buy from bricks-and-mortar dealers in London at prices often 20-30% lower than Casanova.

 

[02Pilot]

On the subject of camera stores not just surviving but actually doing well, when I was in Nice, France this summer I was surprised to find two shops seemingly thriving, albeit with two radically different business models.

One was right in the middle of the tourist area and had literally dozens of film Leicas in display cases, along with more modern stuff. They were clearly selling mostly to wealthy Russian tourists (lots of businesses have signs up in Russian as well as French and English). One clear indicator of their target market: in spite of having many film cameras for sale, they don't sell any film.

The other was deeper into the city, close to the train station. It was working shop, packed with stuff. Still had a C-41 minilab IIRC. They had a small selection of film, but it was surprisingly comprehensive: 35mm and 120 from Kodak and Ilford, plus Instax.

 

[______]

One of the reasons routinely proffered for the demise of local brick and mortar camera shops is the internet. I would remind everyone that even as far back as the early 1970's when I first became interested in photography, local brick and mortal stores faced competition from mail order sales (how quaint) from the New York camera superstores, where camera prices were significantly lower than local prices. As a student in the hinterland watching every nickle, I ordered my cameras and lenses from NY both for cost savings and greater selection. They even accepted trade-ins which my local camera store would not.

 

[johannielscom]

One of the reasons routinely proffered for the demise of local brick and mortar camera shops is the internet. I would remind everyone that even as far back as the early 1970's when I first became interested in photography, local brick and mortal stores faced competition from mail order sales (how quaint) from the New York camera superstores, where camera prices were significantly lower than local prices. As a student in the hinterland watching every nickle, I ordered my cameras and lenses from NY both for cost savings and greater selection. They even accepted trade-ins which my local camera store would not.

Which eloquently points out the bigger-than-internet issue: the lack of responsiveness to new developments. Or maybe the inability.
Yes it's nice that those brick and mortar shops were rocks in the changing tides of photography sales, but that also led to their demise.

Occasionally organising a sensor cleaning event, workshops or exposure, composition, wildlife photography, summer camera check-ups, or asking a (local) photographer to host an evening talk and show in their shops could have made a difference in both clientele and sales. Instead most of them chose to advertise in local newspapers like they always did, etc and not cater for changed needs with their customers.

 

[giganova]

Camera store?? What's that? I haven't seen one in years!

 

[02Pilot]

Which eloquently points out the bigger-than-internet issue: the lack of responsiveness to new developments. Or maybe the inability.
Yes it's nice that those brick and mortar shops were rocks in the changing tides of photography sales, but that also led to their demise.

Occasionally organising a sensor cleaning event, workshops or exposure, composition, wildlife photography, summer camera check-ups, or asking a (local) photographer to host an evening talk and show in their shops could have made a difference in both clientele and sales. Instead most of them chose to advertise in local newspapers like they always did, etc and not cater for changed needs with their customers.

I pushed the guys at my soon-to-close (T minus 3 days now) local shop to start offering classes. They had all the expertise and were in an area that could easily support charging premium prices for it. I saw countless people coming in for free advice, many with cameras they bought elsewhere. It could have been a real lifeline for them, but I think the owner was already caught in the death-spiral mentality and just chose to ride it in.

 

[mpaniagua]

Camera store?? What's that? I haven't seen one in years!

About a month ago a Camera Store opened on my city (Mexicali,Mexico), although they mostly sell DSLR and do photo studio works. Seems they are doing fine, although been a film photographer havent bought nothing from them.