Closed Camera Stores - We Miss You!

Fondly remember George's Camera Store in El Cajon,CA. My dad used to drop by every time we where on the San Diego area (about every month or so). They used to have lots of used equipment and was a really nice store. Im told they sell mostly digital now so I guess the camera shop of my memories is mostly gone.
 
Its so sad I miss the days when you could find a camera store just around the corner, l never realised how good those days were
 
I bought my first adjustable lens camera, a Ricoh 500G, at Green Acres Camera Exchange in nearby Valley Stream.

Later in my serious formative photo years (mid to late 1970's) I patronized Nassau Camera in Franklin Square, Long Island.
They sold mainly by mail order but maintained a relaxed showroom where you could handle everything. :cool:
Their prices were close to those of the big Manhattan dealers, but without the pricing subterfuge.
More importantly my mom was willing to drive me there from our home in southeast Queens.

The older couple who ran Nassau Camera were very patient with me. :angel:
IIRC when they retired their son fairly quickly ran the business into the ground.

Combine Camera ran the photo concession at several local TSS department stores (Times Square Stores).
I'd go there for film, chemicals and many other small purchases.
For awhile a friends brother worked there and would throw in the occasional freebie. :eek:

Chris
 
sara-
Len Lyons at R.G.Lewis introduced me to Leica and was patient with my awkwardness .
I ended up buying a IIIc / M8 and lightly used Digilux 3 from him .
He would often travel on the train to town when I was working .
My other IIIc is from Wallace Heaton in Bond St , but later CLA by R.G.Lewis .
I don't think anyone missed the Dixon chain LOL

dee
 
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.


mail in repairs Saskatchewan
 
I don't miss camera stores at all. They are a thing of the past and the heartwarming stories from yesteryear only demonstrate that we only miss them because of nostalgia.

I am trying to think what I would buy at a camera store and come up with nothing. Camera stores used to have a very limited inventory and chances that they have what I want are slim anyway, and if they do, then only at a steep price point. I would have to talk to a store employee who knows less about the product then I do, and he'd probably try to convince me that I need something else, something more expensive. That's my memory of camera stores.

I have a few Leicas and Leica lenses and won't be shopping for new camera gear for hopefully a long time. If I needed another lens or body, what are the odds that my local store would have them, and at what price?

Everything you want is only a mouse click away on the Internet and due to the worldwide online competition, you can compare prices and find amazing deals.

The only photography-related items I buy are expendables, mostly film, chemistry, and a few accessories once in a blue moon. So I drive to the B&H superstore once a year and buy in bulk. If I run out of film or chemistry, I order online and it will arrive at my door steps the next day, at rock bottom prices. If I need a new lens, I certainly wouldn't run to my local camera stores; I'd go online and get it shipped to my door. The other day I wanted a Super Angulon 21mm lens. The combination of forum classifieds, online Leica stores, EBay, Amazon, etc, gave me a great choice and two days later I had a wonderful lens that didn't cost an arm and a leg. Perfect! The Internet is a shoppers paradise and couldn't be more convenient.

Do I miss camera stores? Not a bit.
 
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Lancaster UK
The original business of Vince & Co 1797 was as Chemists/Apothecary who started in photography by selling raw chemicals for processing. Over the years the photography side became a more important part of the business and the chemist side was dropped. I have a pharmacy bottle somewhere in my collection with a Vince and Co label.
 
Mackinaw said:
Adray Photo in Dearborn, Michigan. I bought my first quality 35mm camera at Adray's back in 1971 (a Canon FTb) and my Leica MP in 2005. There were a full-line camera store (analog and digital) right up to it's closing back in 2009. The store was successful too, even in today's economy, but the owner got tired of the grind and decided to retire. Our loss.

Jim B.
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I cannot agree... everything was insanely overpriced there. I am surprised they survived as long as they did.
Other one was Century Camera on Woodward. OK place but stuff was as rude and condescending as they get.
By-by.
 
I remember the over-the phone purchases from most of stores, where you cannot get rid of a salesman trying to sell you a warranty or additional cleaning kit.
I don't miss catalog stores.
I do miss Costco's film development services (my local guy would charge me about a dollar a roll of color film development only, no prints, and did it fast too). That I do miss.
 
MIkhail said:
I remember the over-the phone purchases from most of stores, where you cannot get rid of a salesman trying to sell you a warranty or additional cleaning kit.
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LOL, it's their job to upsell! :) They're paid to do it, and they get commission if they close on it.

It's your job to tell them "NO" very assertively. Same way with the appliance dealers (or, LOL, the rental car counter) in real life. Tell them flat out to close the sale now or you will "walk" and go elsewhere. Try it, it works. :)
 
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Seattle -The Camera Show

Seattle -The Camera Show

The Camera Show in Seattle -owned and run by Ed Olson. When I was too poor to be playing with Leicas, he and his store were quite accessible. I managed to get my Leitz Minoldta CL there and later an M2. I also got a Minox GT that I was able to trade-up (at Glazers) for my first 35mm Summicron- Black 8-Element for the GT and about $300. Once ebay came on-line, I realized the value of that lens, selling it to get both a Pre-asph Summilux and Summicron ASPH!
 
:: Mark said:
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.
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ARPI was quite decadent for a long time. I remember peeking at the store a couple of years ago and it really seemed to be a shell of the former. Read about their legendary used camera building but never went in.

C/Pelai by Plaça Catalunya used to be the camera store+HiFi Row, nowadays taken over by clothing stores.
Casanova's original store was there and moved to a bigger place.
Nivell10 was a well priced and large store and simply closed down, the premises are empty and not a clothing store. I knew one of the saleswoman there and she told me it was simly because the owners/tenants retired and shut down.
Fotoprix was a large film processing chain and they had one of their main stores there, closed recently. Last year they went through bankruptcy but somehow survive.
Fidelcolor, which was a good HiFi soruce but also had cameras, for a long time has been a furniture store now.

I did not visit the stores much. I studied in Barcelona (saw you had a couple pics of my campus Mark!) but never lived in the city. The tourist pressure is not only on camera stores and the township+government want to redistribute tourism towards other regions because it is getting crowded.

The general economic problem was the nail in the coffin. In Barcelona itself rents are high, while wages tipped in the recession and remain low all over the country. 1000€ is the normal wage nowadays, and rents are disproportionate with that base.
 
Livesteamer said:
Jim Kuehl was not a store but a dealer in Iowa. In 2001 and 2002 I had some disposable income and bought a bunch of Leica M stuff from him both new and used. The first item was a used Noctilux for $1,500 that he charged on my credit card. The next month I ordered a Tri Elmar and was about to give him my credit card number when he said "Let me just send it to you and if you like it send me a check to cover the invoice." And he did. I bought two Leica M's and several new lenses that way.

A wonderful Gentleman to deal with. Thank You Jim Kuehl.

Joe
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This above was on page two of the thread and others already seconded Jim Kuehl. He was the consummate gentleman -had this amusingly great phone voice, and very fair prices.
 
lxmike said:
Its so sad I miss the days when you could find a camera store just around the corner, l never realised how good those days were
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Yeah - I remember how great it was that wherever in the world you were, if you needed film and saw the yellow Kodak sign, you knew that you could get it.

I miss Kadet Photo in Pittsburgh. I used to get most of my chemicals there, as well as all of my Cibachrome (paper and chemicals) in the late '80's - late '90's.
 
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