Ritz Camera closing 300 retail stores, liquidation sales start April 4th
By Ross Miller 
posted April 2nd 2009 11:21PM
posted April 2nd 2009 11:21PM
As part of its newfound bankrutpcy status, Ritz Camera's gearing up to close more than 300 of its around 700 brick-and-mortar stores across the US, or about 43 percent of its retail presence. Starting April 4th, the affect stores will begin liquidation sales that'll go on until -- in the words of the press release -- "everything is sold to the bare walls." Forget DSLRs, if you were needing any fancy, brick-and-mortal shelving units, now might be your chance! Hit up the read link for a PDF listing all the closing stores.
Why can't Ritz and all these other electronic stores just close up the store fronts, move all the merchandise over to East and West coast warehouses, revamp there web sites, drop the prices, and just sell online, because they have the name already people are familiar with and trust. Instead of killing all the jobs, hire the folks over, or retrain them to deal with web customers, service and technical support over the phones.
Most people dont realize that Ritz Camera Centers and the website Ritzcamera.com are two totally different companies. The website is Ritz Camera Interactive, they share the same warehouse, but thats about it. You can not buy something online and return it into a store.
Good riddance. They have horrible customer service.
Is that PDF of store closures sorted at all? It doesn't seem to be in any specific order beyond, perhaps, store number.
Writing a PERL script to sort it... :-)
there always expensive anyways, fuck em
how kind. you speak to your mother like that?
Expense is relative. If you want cheap, you get absolutely no service. Sounds like someone may be shopping for their photo equipment at Target? Now there you get cheap! Only problem is...no service! I'm willing to pay a little extra if I get to pick someone's brain or get a little one-to-one service. Have you purchaed at a specialized camera center? You'll pay through the nose, but they'll answer all your questions and show you how to operate that $$$ system you just bought. You get what you pay for. Enjoy your little point-and-shoot.
It's all because of bad advertising, image, and poor pay scale. Good associates leave companies that don't recognize and pay for experience. I weak ad-campaign that peaked with Cameron Electra is a joke. First time I wondered into a camera store, while checking out colleges to attend, I was so happy to see something besides best buy or walmart. Are people so ignorant to the fact that big box stores are evil, and have all ready ruined the economy. If they put in hard wood floors, carried key products, and and geared ad campaigns to the younger generations, all the yuppies would come running with mouths and wallets open.
I just recently bought a D40 from my local store and they were very helpful, I'm sad to see these stores close and I feel bad for the people who will lose their job. And remember that just because you have a bad experience at one store doesn't mean that the entire company is the same.
I work for a Ritz on the Massachusetts and Rhode Island border and yes I am losing my job as well in a few weeks. I have read the comments from quite a few "Haters" and frankly you are ignorant. You can only get so much information from the internet about what is the best camera for you, trust me. You get specs on the camera but you don't know if it fits you. I have heard more internet horror stories because people are buying sight unseen, usually based on a friends recommendation or a bogus review, too many times it is Gray Market, and they get screwed when they have to either return the unit or god forbid it needs factory repair. Just because 1 camera is great for your friend does not mean it is for you. To say that stores like Ritz cater to mom and pops and grandmothers is another ignorant comment. Are you the only person in the world? Everybody deserves to be treated properly and have their questions answered. I have an extremely diverse group of customers and I treat them all individually, from Pros to beginners, everyone is different. As far as not having the higher end cameras and lenses in stock. My thought is does it make sense to put a $5,000 body on a shelf just so some guy who is never going to buy it can play with it? If it was my store the answer is no but that is not the Ritz policy. Ritz does have larger stores that actually do carry these cameras and lenses and have them on display, I asked friends of mine who work at the store if they sell them as floor models and he told me it almost never happens, the customer wants it ordered new. If I have a customer who is buying a D300, D3 or even the 5D I have NEVER had a problem ordering one. Customers tell me they prefer something brand new, never opened and ordered specifically for them. They know what they are buying and don't need a tutorial. It would sit better with me if I was spending that kind of dough to know it was never handled. Plus if something is opened and it sits on the shelf people automatically want a discount for something that may or may not have ever been touched. Think before you judge. And I laughed when I read that they never have the 24-70 2.8 lens. Frankly that is more a function of what it is, probably the most versatile portrait lens made. I have ORDERED that lens countless times for this very reason. We can only stock so much. And again, you probably went into a smaller store that does not have order points for these products, look for an ULTRA STORE if you want to play with it. Or... do what most of us normal folk do and rent one, take it out for a week at about $70 bucks and order one once you are sure it will do what you want it to do. Frankly we need more companies that cater to people who may or may not be comfortable with buying online, Christ, with identities being stolen every second someone has to be there to help people with these purchases. There are too many of you who rely solely on the internet who have never even had a checkbook, seriously that's ridiculous, it isn't the future, its a sign of what the end will look like. I pay some bills online but my landlord is not set up with PayPal, sorry. And besides that, if you want to get face to face advice from a sales rep regarding what could potentially be a major purchase where are you going to go, Best Buy? Have you ever talked intelligently to an associate at Best Buy and asked them to explain what an F-Stop is or what ISO is. They haven't got a clue, they aren't qualified to carry my camera bag! People have the right to buy wherever they want but people come to us because we are a CAMERA COMPANY, our sales staff are camera people, we are photographers who are passionate about what we do. You don't buy tires at the grocery store do you? Feels kind of nice to go to a specialty shop where the sales staff knows everything you would need to know about tires. I also don't care to be lumped into what you call "Clueless" Salespeople you have dealt with at Ritz, I guarantee you have never dealt with me. Clerks at other retailers sell based on making more in commissions and they sell certain product that may make them more. They do not give a shit about the customers needs at all. Granted we all have to make a living but I would rather treat a customer the way they deserve to be treated than sell them the wrong camera just to pad my check. I ask the right questions, I show them cameras that fit their hand as well as their budget and I don't make them feel inferior, "There is no such thing as a stupid question". I doubt YOU were born with infinite knowledge. By doing what I do they come back, time and again, but more importantly they tell their friends and so begins the greatest form of advertising, referrals...not showing off with Carmen Electra. What truly bothers me about the closings though is that they have literally shut off entire areas to Ritz services. Between classes, Free Prints, Photo books and a number of printing services. Customer bases that we have built up over the years will now be forced to deal with lesser sales people and lesser quality labs. Ritz still has the best bang for the buck when buying a camera, they is extremely competitive with pricing and although we do price match I think I have done it only 2-3 times ever. I think most people realize that pricing on the internet is so bogus you cannot base it on that, 90% of those companies are pulling bait and switch, gray market, or flat out scams. I had a Woman in just after Christmas who saved $40 dollars on her camera buying it online but it didn't come with the charger that she bought from me for $39.99 because the camera was NOT RETURNABLE. That is a fact and that is why we don't match online pricing. I close with this as I realize I tend to get a bit wordy on these things but If you go out for a dinner at a 5 star restaurant and you have an amazing meal, great service, and just an incredible experience you may tell 2-3 people, however if at that same place you have the worst meal, and just horrendous service you wont even realize it but you will tell between 6-10 people.