Jessops in trouble?

Same as Jessops open as usual, but got a shock when i seen one of our local camera stores (Bonsers) had closed on Monday
had a feeling something was up when i was in last week and all the commission sales had been cleared from the shelves .

Sad to hear about Bonsers. I did a lot of business with them in my film days and knew some of the staff quite well.
As for Jessops, I was in the MetroCentre a few days ago and they had recently moved from a small shop into a much bigger store. And they had a good selection of gear, including quite a lot of Pentax cameras and lenses. There was a white K30 (not as pretty as my blue K30). It was a big enough Pentax presence to make me feel that things were looking up.
Then just a couple of days later news of the administration broke.
David

PPG: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artists/davidtrout

BBC now reporting administrators have closed all jessops stores with immediate effect.

And the website (http://www.jessops.com) confirms it.

Whatever anyone says, it's a sad day for a once great company.

Feel sorry for the staff, but not the chain, never found them very helpful, and always banging on about Canon or Nikon cameras.
never prepared to price match, any products, and therefore bought Pentax elsewhere!

That was the problem, they wouldn't price match so customers went elsewhere where they could get a better deal and service.

The notice on Jessops website gives little encouragement to any idea that something might emerge from the ashes. Things look terminal.

http://www.jessops.com/

Yeah looks a bit daunting,

Normally, a company runs out of cash, and the bank pulls the plug.

This almost happened to Jessops a year or two back, but the chaps in charge at the time talked the bank into buying most of the shares.

So this time, the bank was actually the biggest shareholder, and prior to the closure had been trying everything to make it work or to sell it.

As they had failed to do either, there was never any prospect that some of the stores might be saved.

Jessops used to be a decent company, but after the family sold out in 1996 it started to lose its way. Some years back it sacked most of the people who knew anything, and replaced them with smart-alecks who didn't know an F-stop from a Full-stop and were only there for the commission.

Then came the internet, camera-phones, and the recession. Amazingly, they kept opening stores when anybody with an ounce of sense would have consolidated into a small number of large, well-stocked places that people would be happy to travel to.

And so they are gone. Looking for a silver lining, it is possible to hope that this will give a shot in the arm to those specialist stores that still soldier on, like SRS and Park.

G

Well I agree and disagree with sections of your post.

It's certainly true that people who just want to take snaps without too much worry about image quality are getting satisfied by the IQ of their phone cams.

Ease of portability is important to people and if they can merge a number of functions in one device then all the better.

I hesitate to even call mobile phones, 'phones' anymore. Making phone calls is is a small fraction of their function.

And even though your correct in that a mobile phone camera can't compete with the IQ of a DSLR, it's worth remembering that in the modern climate of 'war on terror' nonsense, waving a DSLR about is socially unacceptable. Plus can you really practically take your DSLR with you 24/7 ??

So while I love my K-5's, I have bought a Nokia 808 'phone' as a compact. I like taking pics of everyday life and as, unlike a DSLR, a mobile phone is not viewed as some sinister terrorist tool by the Hi-Viz wearing Borgs and paranoid public, I can snap candid street pics with it which I wouldn't get away with using DSLR or even regular compact.

The Nokia also serves as a personal organiser, sat nav, MP3 player, notepad. I don't even use it as phone - I haven't even put a SIM card in it.

Of course I still use my K-5's on proper shoots, but the Phone cam allows to me get the shots I couldn't get with DSLR's.

So when you say 'RUBBISH!' please bear in mind that there's a lot more ot photography than IQ.

that is quite simply untrue, they would always price match other High st retailers.

Like others my experience with Jessops has always been mixed - and better in the olden days.

Last Century ! I bought my Contax RTS II from the shop in the Finchley Road at Hampstead - a small but well stocked branch with well informed staff.

Later, I bought my Pentax *st DS from the excellent branch at Strutton Ground near Victoria - but the last time I returned there (last year sometime) the shop had halved in size and only stocked a limited range of mainly Canikons.

More recently, I had popped into the branches at Harrow and Greenford Cross and the over-riding impression was that of a Currys/Dixons but without the TV's

Sadly, as others have observed, they used to be a proper camera store - but they hadn't been for years. They have gone the way of Dixons (who at least were rescued when they became DSG). I still have Dixons printed catalogues from the 50's.

Anyway you look at it, the continued reduction in proper camera usage is a bad thing for enthusiast photographers. However misguided he is, the "man in the street" does think he can take perfectly good pictures on his iPhone.

The crux of the matter is that for the use they will be put (Facebook etc) the iPhone is perfectly competent.

I took one with my phone and the file was so small, I couldn't make it bigger or anything.

Shame nobody told the Salisbury branch that then.

So sad to hear that the stores are definitely all closing. We have a superb store here in Birmingham, where I've been able to see everything Pentax has to offer up close, from the WG2 to the 645D. I was looking forward to trying the MX-1, with a view to buy. With Jessops gone there is very little chance of that happening now

Obviously you never went to Essex mate as the fact as stated is true!
Can't speak for you Scottish members, have to comment as I have found!