Lack of camera shops.

Yesterday I decided I needed a bigger camera bag, problem is I live in the Stoke on trent area and found out rather quickly I had the great choice of Currys or argos to buy one from.

Now I live slap bang in the middle of the country and yes I could travel 50 miles in any direction but its a Saturday and I have better things to do then spend hours in the car for a simple purchase of a new bag.

Yes I can order online, but with something like a bag I have found to my cost that you do need to see it in person to see if its fit for use.

What has happened to all the camera shops I can remember a time when they were everywhere, I thought I would just share my despair of having to plan weeks in advance of making a photography related purchase.

They all died out due to internet shopping, rising cost of doing business, lack of local support etc. I loved my local Jessops, yes prices might have been higher, but I took that as part of having a local store and getting better service when if things went wrong. Nearest Jessops is now Glasgow, the majority of camera shops in Edinburgh have shut down over the years, like you I'm forced to use online, I refuse to buy a camera from Curry's/Argos.

Cheers

WalterH

I believe 1st Cameras are in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Could they perhaps help?

Nice little and it is a little store, but now only deals in developing and passport pictures, has a tiny bit of kit in for show, but mostly everything is done online.

KILLED OFF BY JESSOPS

All the decent camera shops were bought out by jessops and look what happened to them

Try Calumet in Birmingham. Less than an hour on the train from Stoke.

They have a good range of bags for you to try.

Or going further afield, have a day out in the Cotswolds and visit Morris Photographic in Chipping Norton.

agreed, Jessops ate most of the good camera shops then went bust leaving us with nothing.

Those of us within striking distance of Watford are ok, everyone else is a bit stuck.

There were no camera shops in my hometown until Jessops opened a store. There was one in Edinburgh at Shandwick place, been there years along with Edinburgh Cameras on Lothian Road and Cameramatics in Morningside that I was aware of, latterly Jacobs opened - now there is Cameramatics, I think Calumet are now in place as well. I canny blame Jessops for shutting my local shops down. I got good service and deals in my branch of Jessops, others may have different experiences.

Jessops stores were indeed a very mixed bag, it was very much pot luck whether your local store manager knew anything about cameras or not. One of the two in Nottingham used to serve me very well when I was there.

I separate the individual stores (some of which were useful) from the overall brand, which I consider was a blight on the camera shops of the UK.

The staff in the Hanley branch would of been better of selling fruit and veg, used to go in just to have a laugh at the comments the sales staff use to make.

I went in and asked for a ND filter and the manager came out with a selection of filters, not a single one what I asked for, I asked him if he knew what one was, and he stated yes " it's to make blue skies more blue".

I also over heard a sales woman explaining that more mega pixels on a compact camera means better image quality for night time shots and if it had over 20 mega pixels they could take pictures in the dark, she was selling to an elderly couple and I just had to step in at that point and put her and them right.

What with their lack of skill and knowledge and uncompetitive pricing it was only a matter of time they went to the wall.

there are a couple of great camera shops in Edinburgh, one is Calumet. There is also Calumet in Glasgow which is 40 seconds off the M8, can't really see what your problem is.

The range of camera bags is far too big for any high street retailer to stock more than a limited selection. Even Morris, who rightly boast that they stock more than 150 bags, carry only a fraction of what is available. The required return per shelf foot just isn't there. Online shopping has made possible the proliferation of choice that we now have. Whether we need so much choice or it just makes things more confusing is another question of course...

Good point, Phillip

[/quote]there are a couple of great camera shops in Edinburgh, one is Calumet. There is also Calumet in Glasgow which is 40 seconds off the M8, can't really see what your problem is.[/quote]I have no problem Ken - If I want a camera I buy on line from source that is very reliable. My last purchase was to replace the dead Nikon D700 with a Pentax K-50 twin zoom kit. Before the demise of Jessops I would have shopped at my local branch. The OP was asking the question..I am quite content with shopping via Internet.

Cheers
WalterH

I always used to use my Auto110 as a yardstick by which to measure a Jessops I had not used before. I would walk in with the 110 on a wrist strap, and only deal with shop assistants who recognised what it was, or were at least interested in it.