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I came across an interesting point on the Medium Format Digest a few weeks ago, a posting that came in the middle of a thread about the difficulties Canadian photographic distributor Lisle-Kelco is having in the face of today’s changing markets. Lisle-Kelco is the distributor (perhaps “was” by this point) for such marquee brands as Hasselblad, Leica and Rollei among others. These are obviously well known brands and represent the blueblood if you will, of the photographic industry, each of which has a long and distinguished history of producing some of the finest cameras and lenses known. They are also expensive products to sell and where once upon a time Hasselblad was king of medium format in North America and could count on a loyal and strong contingent of portrait and wedding photographers to buy into the brand, the onslaught of digital has apparently dried up that market demand. There were also some apparent business decisions taken by Lisle-Kelco that prompted the receivership status. Such as pricing Hasselblad products so high for the retail stores carrying the brand that the retail outlets either gave up carrying Hasselblad or else sought grey market goods from the US that undercut the official distributor costs. This is just the background into the origins of the thread, but the real point of discussion that I want to make is the notion that the retail outlets must carry a wide variety of equipment in order to maintain the loyalty of the fickle consumer. It is no secret that bricks and mortar shops face great pressure from mail order outlets that either have a minimal store front or else are nothing more than warehouses of goods to be sent out when an order comes through the Internet, with Amazon.com being the best known example of the latter.
There is an obvious contradiction to the fickle consumer’s post, in that he would still not be able to touch and feel the product desired anyway from ordering from an online source. However, he did also mention that the online source would be cheaper to help mitigate the lack of handling the product before purchase, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10%. Some responses from people who actually work within the retail sector or in the distribution chain attempted to point out the financial difficulties that his demand for showroom models of anything and everything he wanted to purchase would entail. Would it make sense for a retail store to stock every single one of the over 18,000 different filters made by Heliopan for example? Or how about Kaiser copy stands that have over 200 models from house-sized models to portables? The fickle consumer appeared not to see the point and remained adamant that if a store could not provide a sample for him to handle before purchase, that store was useless and of no purpose to him. Ah, as if the world spun around him only and that all retailers should service him on a whim. I wonder how he gets through doorways with such a swelled cranium. Hell, a large and well-supplied store would have difficulty in stocking every single item that popular tripod brands Manfrotto and Gitzo make never mind any item from really exotic brands. Sure I want to handle the goods in my hands as much as the fickle consumer, but I also understand market reality that dictates the store is only going to carry a good supply of popular items in stock and that less popular items will indeed require special order. I also appreciate what a good relationship with a retail outlet can mean for any difficulties that may be encountered with any items bought at the store. If something is wrong or not working to specification it is a far more easy and convenient task to return the item to the store than to mail the product back and wait for the mail order outlet to process and then credit back the item or send another sample. And that is only if the mail order outlet is reputable and operates ethically, which many do not, as many would know from posts rallying against one or another advertiser in the pages of Pop Photo or Shutterbug. I also do not accept that the local retail outlet cannot or will not compete with the mail order shops for price. Granted that there will indeed be some stores unwilling to match any competitor’s price except for other local shops and for them mail order prices need not apply. This is unfortunate for them because sooner or later these retail outlets will have to contend with this increasingly popular method of purchasing goods. The ones that will survive and thrive will be those that recognize that higher margins on sales must give way to legitimate price competition from reputable mail order outlets. This is certainly not to suggest that the traditional bricks and mortar stores must compete against the excrement outlets that advertise in Popular Photography or Shutterbug magazines, but against legitimate outlets such as B&H, Calumet and Adorama amongst others, the local shops will have to look at their pricing vis a vis these reputable outlets. My comments about US based outlets and stores ends here because I know little about this market and have only purchased limited accessories, mostly pieces not readily available in Canada. For the Canadian market and in particular, my local Vancouver market, my regular store may not offer the absolute last word in price competitiveness for straight retail prices against Camera Canada, based in Ontario, but I’ve not been turned away when asking for a price matching deal.
I am also at the stage that what I want or desire I research as much as possible, surfing the net for reviews and comments by users at the best review sites. I visit the manufacturer’s site to get the specs and compare to their competitors, then when I have finally figured what I really need and often times, what I can actually afford, I check out what the best prices might be in Canada and sometimes from the US. Checking out the US price is not for any real potential to actually buy from the US source but more as a price comparison after converting to Canadian dollars. If the price of a product from B&H converted to Canadian loonies falls in line with what the Canadian retailers price it at, then I know the price is fair. If not, then I know either the store is gouging or else the distributor is taking a much larger chunk of the pie than is deserved. And that may well have been the downfall of Lisle-Kelco. For warranty considerations and hassles, it is almost never worthwhile to buy from the US. However, I have made purchases from Vistek, likely Canada’s largest photo retailer, for products not available in Vancouver, or priced at such outrageous prices that it made no sense to support the local shops. One such example is for some Prat Portfolio books for photo prints. An 11x17 inch book costs over $200 in Vancouver at the two or three shops that carry them, none of which are photo retailers. Vistek sells the same books for a mere $90, beating even B&H in the US by a wide margin. The only catch is that if Vistek has no stock you may wait several months for them to receive some, not through any fault of theirs, but because the French manufacturer in Paris is notorious for very long delays in production. However, the French play no favorites and they screw the little boutique stores equally as the largest outlets. An example of a real photographic purchase that I benefited from by comparing local prices versus mail order is for my Lowepro Pro Trekker backpack. At the time of purchase this backpack was priced at $400 in the local stores, but Vistek had it for $350. Taking in their catalogue (when they still produced them before their website became functional) to my favorite local shop got me an easy price match. I of course still had to pay an extra 7% in provincial sales tax, but I figure that was a good enough trade off in not having to pay for courier shipping and handling to order the large 15 lb backpack from Toronto. Another example of mail order saving me some pocket change was with the Nikon MB-D100 grip for the D100 camera. July 2002 was when the D100 became available in Vancouver and it was hot, so hot that for some strange reason the local shop had the grip priced outrageously at $500 instead of the normal and still current $400 that it should have been priced at. I had little desire to pay that anomalous premium to the local store and it helped the cause that they had no stock of the item either. I ordered the grip from Vistek and received it in a couple of days instead of waiting for however long before the local store had stock again. So, what
I’m trying to say is this:
Building a relationship with your local shop is the crux of my comments here. If you’re a serious photographer then it is likely that you will need to buy cameras, lenses, filters and other accessories at regular intervals. How regular is up to you, but in my case, I’m no longer buying big pieces of kit like I did in the first few years of this hobby, with perhaps one major item per year if I’m lucky. I’m not adding to my sales guy’s kid’s education fund like I use to; however, we’ve been building on our relationship and friendship for years now and I’m no stranger at the store. When I walk into my regular store, the other sales staff do not bother coming to me unless they’re new and don’t know me. They know that I only deal with one person in the store and if he’s busy at the time, I just wait quietly for my turn and then get on with my business when it is time. The store has provided flexibility for me during times when they did not have to by official store policy and yes, this long-term relationship has helped me out with price considerations for big ticket items. I suppose I could save more money by scouring e-bay and the other used sources for the best price, but the way I was raised was one in which buying used was not looked upon well unless you knew and trusted the seller. I cannot do that easily from e-bay or magazine ads and since I like having warranties in place, I’ll pay the extra amount for new status. There will always be consumers who demand the lowest price and expect to pay not a dime more than what it cost the store to bring the goods in. Store costs and overhead? Staff wages? Not my problem, just give me the lowest price and I’ll walk out and never see you again. Not in stock? Well too damn bad ‘cause I wanted it yesterday, so what are you going to do for me and I don’t care if what I wanted, nobody else has ever bought before? I know costs is a big factor in these days of bear markets and uncertainty about retirement thanks to the tech bubble bursting in a bad way; however, that does not mean that the bricks and mortar shops can repeal the basic business model of keeping a store as an ongoing concern. Stores have to change with the times certainly and provide the products demanded of its customers, but customers should also realize that you cannot just walk in and expect the store to carry every single item your heart desires on the off chance that you would actually be able to buy all of it. It doesn’t mean the store cannot order it for you, but realize that the business model for the store is different from a pure on-line or mail order only outlet. Look at how many years it took for Amazon to post a profit amidst how many years of bleeding millions in red. Also consider that the most reputable mail order and on-line outlets for photography equipment are also backed by bricks and mortar too. B&H, Adorama and Calumet in the US and Vistek and Camera Canada in Canada, all have stores that cater to their home cities. |
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Correspondence & About this website Copyright © 1998-2008 Edwin Leong |
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Edwin's
Vignettes -
The Fickle Consumer is Always Right?
The
post that piqued my interest was from one such fickle consumer who
stated that if a retail outlet could not provide a showroom model
for him to touch and feel that the store lost the sale immediately,
even if they could order the product he wanted. Instead he would prefer
to find an online source for what he had wanted to touch and feel
and purchase that way instead.
That
is the reality today. I have less reliance on what the sales staff
will have to say or offer me in terms of experience and knowledge.
It is has been more often than not that the sales staff I’ve encountered
in some local stores know very little about photography and even less
about the equipment I have an interest in (Leo’s Camera Supply is
not one of them though with their staff generally being the most knowledgeable
I have encountered in Vancouver).