Ritz Camera of Bethesda, MD is GONE!!

A

alfredian

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Another one bites the dust - Came home to check my email and there was an Important Announcement from Ritz Camera: Pick up your pix & scans by COB Thursday 3rd May, we are CLOSING. Had some more text about how the Bethesda location was "struggling".

Location in Bethesda had to have high rents on a small store, plus scant parking. A few months ago they stopped being open on, of all days, Saturday. I was in yesterday to pick up some color prints & scans ( two 120s in 6x6 and a 3mm Ektar). Annie, who does their scanning and medium format developing went out of her way to clip out a couple of $2 off developing stickers for the two 5-packs of Ektar 120 I was buying. I spent about $230 all told, and my prints/scans were prepaid when I dropped them off.

I'm expanding in to Large Format & have been scooping up roll-film adapter backs for the 4x5 format - some with 6x12 pano format. My scheme: do 5x4 B&W at home, like all my BW and have Ritz do my color "LF" 120s. Now what? the last time Ritz collapsed I was referred to some (very local) "commercial/pro" places with a drop-off slot & prices okay for people who can count developing/printing as a "cost of doing business". I was expecting to start doing my own E-6 but may end up in C41 country soon. Have to dig up a Nikon 5000 I was given 6-7 years ago and see if it works.

When I was in Ritz Sunday I stood in a line that went across the store, easily 6-7 people in front of me, and another fellow left of at least one roll of film while I was picking up mine. I may take Thursday off from work to commiserate with the excellent staff, and maybe scavenge some bargains? Final word from Ritz HQ's memo is to "enjoy our successful Ritz.com". Bricks & mortar are gettin' shorter..--alfredian, Silver Spring, MD
 
It's always sad when a long standing brick and mortar store goes under, especially one related to something you love.

In Melbourne, Australia, a music store with decades and decades of history went into receivership. For its final months, I scavenged that place like crazy, and took photos of the store and the progress of the sales. The store was purchased at the 11th hour by another music store, but most of the locations had to close anyway. As well as commiserating with the staff, take photos! Document the closure!
 
If it had to happen to someone, all I can say is I'm glad it happened to Ritz. Their reputation is quite spotty. There is a history of charging a restocking fee on returns (this often happened after they sent the wrong items the first time), and possibly some gray market and bait and switch stuff as well. There was a store in Portland, and man, I hated to go into that place because of all the lies I would normally get. They had a boiler plate phone room way of selling gear. See below

http://www.photographybay.com/2008/03/18/confessions-of-a-ritz-camera-salesperson/

https://ritz-camera.pissedconsumer.com/review.html
 
sorry they closed but I never experienced a Ritz Camera store that was anything other than kind of cheesy. My take.
 
Steve M. said:
If it had to happen to someone, all I can say is I'm glad it happened to Ritz. Their reputation is quite spotty. There is a history of charging a restocking fee on returns (this often happened after they sent the wrong items the first time), and possibly some gray market and bait and switch stuff as well. There was a store in Portland, and man, I hated to go into that place because of all the lies I would normally get.
Click to expand...

You're spot on regarding Ritz. Sadly, the Portland store was formerly Camera World, a competent brick-and-mortar and mail order shop that was also one of the early e-retailers. Ritz purchased CW in 2002 or so and methodically drove customers away.
 
EarlJam said:
Sadly, the Portland store was formerly Camera World, a competent brick-and-mortar and mail order shop that was also one of the early e-retailers.
Click to expand...

That brings back memories! I ordered my N90S from them, back in 1996. Why I went with them instead of, say, one of the NY stores I can not remember.
 
I suppose there are still a few, perhaps 3 or 4 camera stores within a 100 mile radius of my house but all would be a minimum 3 hour round trip in always crazy traffic. And I’m too old and cranky now to go through that anymore. So...... it’s just order photo consumables (B&W only) through the mail.
 
I bought my first camera on layaway at Ritz in Blacksburg, Va., with what I got paid slinging fish at Long John Silvers: a Canon AE-1 with motor drive, 50mm ƒ1.8 and Canon flash. That was a great store with really helpful employees who didn't mind answering this high school kid's questions.

The one now closing in Bethesda was probably the nicest and least cheesy Ritz I've ever been to, though it was a bit out of the way for me to frequent, it's sad to hear of its demise.
 
Thankfully there are still some good camera stores down here. Delray Beach Camera Shop is an oldie but a goodie. They feed my Nikon GAS. Also a great used section. Huge amount of camera bags, too. The Miami Leica store is a delight. Behind the glitter is the owner David Farkas, tremendously knowledgeable and a gem to work with. Once bought a used Leica M7 from him. I had problems with it and he lent me the floor model for 2 weeks while rooting out the issue with mine. Try that with a mail order house.
Long may they live!!
 
zuiko85 said:
I suppose there are still a few, perhaps 3 or 4 camera stores within a 100 mile radius of my house but all would be a minimum 3 hour round trip in always crazy traffic. And I’m too old and cranky now to go through that anymore. So...... it’s just order photo consumables (B&W only) through the mail.
Click to expand...

Me too, old and cranky. One store within 10 miles has decent monochrome supplies. My son takes his daughter to downtown orchestra practice and goes to Central Camera for some supplies.

That is two places in Chicago area, one being Glen Ellyn, and both cater to photo students.

Chicago used to be loaded with camera stores and the small burb where I lived in from 58 to 68 had 3 or 4, one left with much reduced size and sells film but no chemistry or paper. It is still my go to brick & mortar.
 
Ritz: Spotty reputation? Sadly, spot on. Compared to Baker Photo in DC that would spend hours with their customers and leave a kid alone, Ritz in my kid days at least, was all business. They even had a professional cinematic supply store in the back for the Washington DC that thought it was Hollywood (which sadly is more than we like to admit). There were some excellent and knowledgeable folks there, too, back in the 1970's. But as the chain grew, it lost it exchange expertise for salesmanship. And then lost out to the online and Best Buys of the world. I think the last time I visited one of their stores I was amazed they were still in business... but quickly understood why they were struggling.

We have a great store now in Ashburn, VA where the fellow sells EVERYTHING, new and used. He tries to make it a local B&H with the same prices and all stock you can touch and feel. Even promotes... yes... wait for it... photography. He's been expanding his store for 20 years against the tide.
 
Don't know how to start a poll but, it would be interesting to know what percentage of folks subscribed to rangefinder forum still have a local (let them define 'local') camera store. And how many here are forced to just order through the mail.
 
roscoetuff said:
Ritz: Spotty reputation? Sadly, spot on. Compared to Baker Photo in DC that would spend hours with their customers and leave a kid alone, Ritz in my kid days at least, was all business. They even had a professional cinematic supply store in the back for the Washington DC that thought it was Hollywood (which sadly is more than we like to admit). There were some excellent and knowledgeable folks there, too, back in the 1970's. But as the chain grew, it lost it exchange expertise for salesmanship. And then lost out to the online and Best Buys of the world. I think the last time I visited one of their stores I was amazed they were still in business... but quickly understood why they were struggling.

We have a great store now in Ashburn, VA where the fellow sells EVERYTHING, new and used. He tries to make it a local B&H with the same prices and all stock you can touch and feel. Even promotes... yes... wait for it... photography. He's been expanding his store for 20 years against the tide.
Click to expand...

Ace? If so, I bought my first Hasselblad 500CM there. It was used. I got a great deal. I wished I lived closer to the store.
 
In the DC metro area we have District Camera and Ace for general stores, two locations for each. Ace bought and revitalized Dominion Photo, my local store. Within a few blocks of my office is District Camera's DC location and the Leica store. District Camera wasn't even on my radar until my office gave me a gift certificate for the place, which was a happy day. ;)
 
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