interesting snippets from the Freestyle Photo "industry snapshot"

[Bob Michaels]

Freestyle Photo issued an "industry snapshot" dated Feb. 2012. You may have received the e-mail. I found these two snippets to be interesting.

"Kodak's sales in their film division increased 20% last year, and this division continues to be a profitable segment"

"While Kodak is an important and high volume supplier of ours, in actuality, we do more business individually with Harman Technologies in Ilford Brand B&W Film and Paper, Foma, Fotokemika and Adox brands."

Interpret them as you may. Freestyle does not care which film you buy, only that you buy film and buy it from them. They get my business.

 

[Freakscene]

So do they mean the sell more Ilford than Kodak, or more of everything else combined than of Kodak?

Anyway, I get all my film, and most of my everything else from them too.

Marty

 

[boomguy57]

I get all my film from Freestyle since the local shop drastically cut their inventory.

 

[Corto]

Good Info.

Luckily for me I still have a mom n' pop photo place 10 minutes from my house that keeps me in film.

 

[whitecat]

Thank God for Freestyle!

 

[dogbunny]

I really like Freestyle. Are they talking in terms of profitability for them, or the industry as a whole? I will keep buying from them. Their prices are fair and they haven't screwed up an order yet. That is good enough for me.

db

 

[f6andBthere]

I do wish they'd be a little more reasonable with freight costs to OS customers.

 

[mfunnell]

Freestyle does not care which film you buy, only that you buy film and buy it from them. They get my business.

I tried to buy from them once, for a large bulk order. Aparently too large. For an order that size I was apparently too, well, un-American for them. I paid the extra 10-ish percent ($500 turned to more like $550; no big deal given the overall savings) and bought from Adorama, who never seem to have a problem dealing with us foreigners (unlike, say, B&H).

For a moment there I felt like asking "what's your problem?" given the level of potential business, and the low risk. But I simply couldn't be arsed: this is the frequent "you're not from around here, are you" problem that pretty much everyone outside the US has to deal with from time to time, when dealing with Americans. The same thing that makes me think that if I ever sell something through the classified's here, I'll put a caveat on it saying "I'll sell to anyone who isn't in the US" to make up for all those sellers who plain won't sell to us.

...Mike

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

mfunnell,

i am surprised you had problems with ordering with fs.

we did a mass sale in Oct /Nov 2011, around 2k+ with 300-400 usd of frieght charges to singapore with no issues.

of coss, they had to assign a sales person specifically to handle my order.

raytoei

 

[mfunnell]

mfunnell,

i am surprised you had problems with ordering with fs.

we did a mass sale in Oct /Nov 2011, around 2k+ with 300-400 usd of frieght charges to singapore with no issues.

of coss, they had to assign a sales person specifically to handle my order.

raytoei

In some ways it may have been similar: I had an in-person (with no realisation of time-zones) phone call where they said they wanted me to go to my bank, produce documents authorised under my bank manager's signature, which I then would have had to fax to them etc. The day off work that would have entailed was way more than the $50 saving over Adorama, who just accepted my credit-card payment and shipped the goods, no fuss and no muss.

When I tried to point out that this seemed a little over-the-odds, the rep from Freestyle pointed out they'd had problems with foreign orders before, and wouldn't quite see that "Australia" and, say, "Burkina Faso" might have different risk profiles. Like many an American, he divided the world into unequal halves: "American" and "non-American" (of course the first was the far more important "half"), and probably wouldn't count anything north of Chicago or south of El Paso as American, and probably (as many Americans from those states would attest) doesn't count Hawaii or Alaska as part of America (the whole "lower 48" thing).

...Mike
[who has spent many years of his life living in places like San Antonio and Montgomery and Los Angeles and Omaha; so I'm not unfamiliar with the joint; and, yes, it really was a long drive and I do speak amazingly good English; and, no, you can't book the Vienna Boy's Choir in Sydney, even at the Opera House]

 

[dfoo]

I like Freestyle, but I dislike their surcharge when shipping to a Canadian address.

 

[newsgrunt]

^^ and this is why BH is getting more and more business from Cdns. Cheaper shipping and they take care of duties.

 

[finguanzo]

"But I simply couldn't be arsed: this is the frequent "you're not from around here, are you" problem that pretty much everyone outside the US has to deal with from time to time, when dealing with Americans."

"Like many an American, he divided the world into unequal halves: "American" and "non-American" (of course the first was the far more important "half"), and probably wouldn't count anything north of Chicago or south of El Paso as American, and probably (as many Americans from those states would attest) doesn't count Hawaii or Alaska as part of America (the whole "lower 48" thing)."

Someones angry...

 

[f6andBthere]

Australia's reluctance to become the 51st state of America has caused some problems! 😀

 

[finguanzo]

Lol........

 

[literiter]

The same thing that makes me think that if I ever sell something through the classified's here, I'll put a caveat on it saying "I'll sell to anyone who isn't in the US" to make up for all those sellers who plain won't sell to us.

...Mike

A few of us Canadians would like to do the same thing, believe me.

 

[aad]

Give them a break-many businesses have merchant accounts that limit foreign sales.

 

[newsgrunt]

Most Cdns will sell to pretty well anyone. It's the US sellers who are too lazy to fill out a piece of paper who piss us off. Not very many mind you but they're out there. They just want the package to be picked up at their home and that's that. I have no problems filling out custom forms that ask for two names and addresses, value and what the item is. That's it.

I've seen enough of these items languish in the classifieds when someone int'l is willing to buy at the asked for price, that it baffles me why the seller doesn't reconsider.

 

[Harry Lime]

Well, Australia used to be a penal colony, so can you really blame them?

Ok, that was low, but really now, is it fair to write off a large portion of Americans as knuckle dragging Neanderthals, because one company is reluctant to ship overseas?

There is an enormous amount of fraud going on these days and most smaller companies are very suspicious of large overseas orders. Also with the ongoing recession, no one wants to gamble their job on a major screwup.

 

[gdmcclintock]

Freestyle is more expensive than B&H for Provia 400x by almost $2 per roll!