Roger is completely right, the problem with the companies is that they're salesman focussed, rather than product focussed.
Both Fuji and Kodak make some incredible products, and we've established that film can be profitable, and for many is still a competitive option with digital.
Yet at the same time as delivering incredible products, and innovating (Kodak's movie stocks are truly special, and I can only hope that one day we get to use them), they keep making Salesman decisions that undermine their positions.
Firstly why is there such a huge price difference between their consumer and "pro" films?
I don't know how much difference there is in production, but I suspect a lot of the differential is for the word "Professional" on the box.
Secondly, the endless price hikes.
There's also a tier system between where the films are available, lots of places only stock the consumer films.
If you need to increase your sales, and you have some incredible products, why make them harder to get and more expensive? Why not try to get your product into as many people as possible's hands?
I personally prefer to support brick and mortar stores, I will, and have ordered online, it has it's place, but I prefer face to face.
Just before Xmas I had to take a DSLR into Calumet to see if I could get it repaired, I stopped at the film counter there, hoping to pick up some Portra, the film fridges were almost bare (Apart from Ilford who were well stocked.), there was a handful of Tri-X and some boxes of 120, and that was pretty much it.
I asked about it, the response was "No, we haven't got any, They only want to sell it to us by the crate, and we end up having some that goes out of date that way"
So because of a "Salesman" decision they're unlikely to bother ordering any more.
Calumet is a pro shop, and it's always got customers when I go in, and yet I can't buy film in there.
There's another store in the same town that sells a lot of Lomo type cameras, but also has a film fridge. They stock Fuji and Ilford.
A single roll of Fuji Pro400H in there costs £10.20.
So in a very major city I have the choice of no film, or being price gouged for a single roll.
They're making the film, I'm trying to buy the damn stuff, but there's a disconnect between the two because of decisions made at a Salesman level (that are losing them sales).
Kodak's film success was about making their product available to and usable to everyone, now I can't even buy the damn stuff.
Notice how I mentioned Ilford as being available at both places?
Ilford seems to be a very product focused company, they know their product, they work hard on it, and base their additional offerings, and their activities around their product. (processing/printing/pinholes/compiling the darkroom list etc).
The product is at the centre of what Ilford do, and oh look, they're doing well.
The salesmen are (I should say have been, I don't want to write off Alaris) at the heart of the decisions for Fuji and Kodak, and they're screwing things up.
