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Future of "Bricks-and-Mortar" Optics Stores? (1 Viewer)

brocknroller

brocknroller

porromaniac
United States
Saw something on the news tonight about how songwriters and music artists are not making as much money as they used to because instead of buying CDs, more and more people are streaming songs on the Internet. Roseanne Cash said that a song she wrote got something like 100,000 streams in the first month on Spotify, and all she made about 40 bucks.

It made me wonder in this day where people tend to do almost everything on the Internet, from banking to ordering food, from streaming songs to corresponding via email to meeting your future spouse, if people are also buying their bins online instead of buying them in optics stores?

If you have a credit card with an ample credit line and have a store with a liberal return period, you can even order more than one bin and compare them under real world conditions instead of in a store. Keep the one you like better and return the other. For those who live far from optics stores, this may be the only way to shop, particularly in the winter.

Also, without all the overhead - rent, insurance, and lots of employees with health benefits, paid vacation, maternity leave, etc. online stores can offer discounts that "bricks-and-mortar" stores can't match.

I wonder how many of you buy binoculars and/or spotting scopes online rather than from a "bricks-and-mortar" store, and what the future holds for optics stores, other than the biggies such as Cabelas, which carry a variety of other products, and big city stores that do high-volume business?

Brock
 
99% online! Even (big) bricks and mortar stores, like B&H, sell most of their products online. Small local stores w/o online sales carry a narrower and narrower selection of bins, and I believe they will end up by dropping bins and scopes completely and ....focusing on cameras and related products.
 
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Almost all of mine I purchased on line. Mostly from EO and CL. It's the only way I could have bought most of my binoculars.

You know who is currently complaining that he can't find an SF anywhere on the bay so he can pump and dump it at a profit later! Maybe the binocular companies are retaliating? You can buy any Nikon sold in America off their website and it even tells you if the binocular is currently out of stock. You have to wait if you order one from Camera Land where the EDGs are special order, delayed delivery.

Bob
 
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ceasar said:
Almost all of mine I purchased on line. Mostly from EO and CL. It's the only way I could have bought most of my binoculars.

You know who is currently complaining that he can't find an SF anywhere on the bay so he can pump and dump it at a profit later! Maybe the binocular companies are retaliating? You can buy any Nikon sold in America off their website and it even tells you if the binocular is currently out of stock. You have to wait if you order one from Camera Land where the EDGs are special order, delayed delivery.

Bob
Click to expand...
I am not pumping and dumping it. You thought you would sneak that by me, heh. I buy mostly online but sometimes I buy at a Brick and Mortar store just to see what I am getting.
 
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I vote for bricks and mortar. I believe anyone who's ever walked into The Audubon Shop in Madison, Connecticut will agree.
 
What happens to all the returned binoculars ?, they are no longer new, somebody has used them and rejected them, I can`t imagine this policy here in the UK.

Does the next person receive them as new or demo models ?

Are you rejecting models as flawed because somebody else has already abused it ?
 
Torview said:
What happens to all the returned binoculars ?, they are no longer new, somebody has used them and rejected them, I can`t imagine this policy here in the UK.

Does the next person receive them as new or demo models ?
Click to expand...

I've often wondered about that too...

In a bricks and mortar store, one uses demos for their intended purpose rather than turning new binoculars into demos.
 
I do think is depends in what country one lives.
In Holland, you drive in two hours from the west border to the east border and in three hours from "far north to far south". On this little stamp live 18.000.000 people.
One would conclude that with our very tight network of shops there is no need for electronic stores, well reality proves different.
The only way an bricks and mortar optic shop can survive is to specialize, educate the customer and to be able to deliver everything from stock.
This service comes with a cost.
If things like above are not available, no customer will pay more for the same product and E-buying will become the future.

Jan
 
in the last 20 years,
I have bought 5/20 binoculars
in brick stores
3/14 that I currently have

the other were not available in local stores

edj
 
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We buy our bins from a bricks and mortars dealer: Focus Optics near Coventry, UK. The round trip is just short of 200 miles but its well worth it. The store is set in gardens in rural surroundings with a pond visible from the viewing area.

The staff are friendly and helpful, everything you could ask for.
I first bought from here in 1986 and wouldn't consider buying bins from anywhere else.

For photographic gear we go to Harrison's Cameras in our home town.

I buy stuff on the internet but vastly prefer dealing face to face, but not everyone has this luxury.

Lee
 
I'm 100% brick and mortar on binoculars. I could save a little (or a lot) money online but truthfully I would prefer to give my money to someone who offers something of a service. On other items I have bought I have bought them online because frankly there is no option locally.

I dont really care what country you live in, if you dont purchase locally, there will be no local to purchase from in a short while. And when that happens someone will be out of work and stop buying, and it cascades down to every business that is local.
 
perterra,
I agree with that.
All people are doing by saving money by buying on the Internet is to make people unemployed.
Eventually you will become unemployed.
There will be a vast population of unemployed and unhappy people in a steadily increasing population.
At least that is how I see the modern world.

If at all possible I buy everything from bricks and mortar shops or at least their mail order counter.

I still have a milkman, even though it is much cheaper to buy it in a supermarket.
If at all possible I support sole traders.

There are vast swathes of local high streets in Britain with empty shops, caused by the Internet, local Council taxes and ridiculous car parking charges and traffic wardens paid on commission, I think.
There was an abandoned car parked near here, which had about 150 parking tickets stuck all over it. I think that the traffic warden gets paid according to the number of tickets he gives out. Eventually, somebody complained and the vehicle was towed away so that the traffic warden's cash cow disappeared.

Then there was a large Audi car parked opposite, where 4, illegals I think, were living. The driver had lost the electronic key and could not get in the car or open the doors. So they smashed a window and continued to live in the car for almost 2 weeks. I did not want to cause any further grief, but my neighbour asked the traffic warden, who was giving them numerous tickets, why he didn't report this. He gave all sorts of lame excuses, but was forced to inform the authorities. The car was towed away half an hour later.

We are living in a crazy world.
 
PT and Binastro

This is absolutely the case and we have been grateful for bricks and mortar dealers for service and expertise on many occasions.

And more than once we have been given service beyond what might be expected and indeed unexpected savings.

Lee
 
Torview said:
What happens to all the returned binoculars ?, they are no longer new, somebody has used them and rejected them, I can`t imagine this policy here in the UK.

Does the next person receive them as new or demo models ?

Are you rejecting models as flawed because somebody else has already abused it ?
Click to expand...
I think they resell the returned binoculars unless they are defective and then they return to the manufacturer for repair and then they are resold. They are all recycled.
 
Living in rural upstate New York limits one's access to brick and mortar optics stores......like none. Ordered my first bin (sight unseen) by phone from EO back in the day and continue via EO website and an occasional phone call. Same with photography equipment.........camera stores where I did business for years are long gone. For new equipment Hunt Photo and BH......for used online auction site.
 
It used to be you could go to a local store, of any sort, and get what you were looking for. Now, and it does not matter so much what sort of store, sporting goods, or otherwise. I am getting pretty tired of hearing the refrain..."sorry sir we don't stock that anymore, but we can sure order it for you". People are starting to refer to our little city as Catalog Falls instead of Klamath Falls. Brick and mortar won't survive as we know it. People also seem to have got the notion that way too much stuff, notably music, should be a free entitlement. So, the times are changing. While change is as inevitable as the advance of time, that doesn't mean it will all be for the greater good.

In spite of the fact that where I live has a reputation for high priced stuff, I try to use local stores as much as I can because I think they are important in economies of smaller places such as where I live. I have known many of them for a long time, and in some for generations of their family business.

I like to see what I'm getting in hand before I buy it. However that, particularly with binoculars, really is a practical impossibility for me here. It is pretty expensive for a small store to maintain much of an optics inventory, particularly if they want to have some quality stuff. We have ones small store here that does a pretty decent job, but they are too small to have a huge impact. They need to buy what they stock and that takes money, particularly when they maybe sell two SV binoculars and a half dozen CL Companions or Ziess Conquests a year.
 
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returns

Torview said:
What happens to all the returned binoculars ?, they are no longer new, somebody has used them and rejected them, I can`t imagine this policy here in the UK.

Does the next person receive them as new or demo models ?

Are you rejecting models as flawed because somebody else has already abused it ?
Click to expand...

I too want to know this question!
 
Torview said:
What happens to all the returned binoculars ?, they are no longer new, somebody has used them and rejected them, I can`t imagine this policy here in the UK.

Does the next person receive them as new or demo models ?

Are you rejecting models as flawed because somebody else has already abused it ?
Click to expand...

That's not so difficult.

They are used (and after that sold) as demo's in the shop and used as loan bins for the period the customers one is in repair (service).

Jan
 
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