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Jessops doomed (1 Viewer)

Keith Reeder said:
If I'm honest my local Jessops is much better now (I bought my last 30D from them, even though I could've got it much cheaper online) because I do like the ability to take stuff back to real people in real places - good thing too, given that the 30D I bought had a knackered shutter!

They replaced it without a moment's hesitation too when I showed them the photographic evidence.

But there's a sense of "too little too late" about this.
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I said some weeks ago about the fate of Jessops. A friend of mine was a director there until recently and he told me to was all going (blue) tits up.
What amazes me is that everytime a shop closes in Croydon or Sutton it reopens 3 months later selling pizza or kebabs!!! More grease for the great unwashed and more litter for the local authorities to clear up.
 
postcardcv said:
not really... if Jessops had the sense to price competitively this would not happen. My small independant local camera shop offers excellent service and competitive prices (often even better than WHE), if Jessops could offer this they would not be having problems. It's amazing that a company with the buying power of Jessops cannot do this.
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Quite. I have always beens amazed that they have such buying power, and yet charge high prices. A bit like Currys and Comet I guess.

Service is lousy in my opinion. After sales service is better from Warehouse Express IMO. As are prices.

And they have terrible supply problems. I ordered several Nikon items from them over a period of a few years, and each time I cancelled the order after waiting a few months.

Good riddance is my view, though I would not like to see the staff unemployed. (Generally poor service is due to poor training and/or management.) I guess some of them must already be practicing phrases such as "And would you like fries with that Sir?".
 
Those of you who have been keeping up with my search for a superxzoom camera will know that I haven't exactly had the best of service from any of the high street stores including Jessops. They seemed unable to be able to provide me with a working version of the camera I wanted to try. Couldn't tell me anything about it beyond what it said on the box and proceeded to try and sell me something completely different. They also don't seem to have the Canon S3IS in any of the local shops which is another one I wanted to try out. Nevertheless, I am sorely tempted to use my bonus bonds at jessops and get the Fuji F31FD for digiscoping since it is currently £129. Is this a good deal or should I perhaps wait a while longer?
 
PYRTLE said:
Personally I believe that internet only companies are the primary reason for this announcement today. I hear of high street shops specializing in optics, closing down week after week - they just do not have the buying power of Amazon et al. The single independent guy will continue to struggle..he has to sell the camera or lens at cost and hope to make a small profit on any accessory such as case or card.
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I agree that this will be a problem for the small independant shops, but company the size of Jessops should have significant buying power. I think a bigger problem is getting staff who know and care about the products they sell. Having to staff several hundred stores it's not suprising that some staff have little or no photographic knowledge. In the past two years I've only spoken to one member of staff in a Jessops store who was enthusiastic about cameras and photography.

I think having multiple stores in one town (as they often seem to) is clearly a poor business tactic... perhaps these store closures will put this right and allow Jessops to move forward and improve.
 
PYRTLE said:
Personally I believe that internet only companies are the primary reason for this announcement today. I hear of high street shops specializing in optics, closing down week after week - they just do not have the buying power of Amazon et al. The single independent guy will continue to struggle..he has to sell the camera or lens at cost and hope to make a small profit on any accessory such as case or card.
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Another reason is that in the past we would rely on magazines and shop staff to tell us about gear. Now we read internet reviews, and know more than the shop staff before we even enter the shop.

IMO there is still a valuable place for specialist dealers who know their Arsats from their Elmars. (With thanks to the late Dr. Stewart Bell for the nice turn of phrase.)
 
Sad to see but I foresaw this several months ago, watching the stocks and shares indices... Two mates work in the local shop, don't know their fate yet but am hopeful as they both know their As from Es.
 
The cost of maintaining shops with high business rates, high street rentals and staff overheads is more likely the reason for this annoucement than the impact of the internet, allied with the demands of shareholders for bigger profits.
 
postcardcv said:
I think a bigger problem is getting staff who know and care about the products they sell. Having to staff several hundred stores it's not suprising that some staff have little or no photographic knowledge.
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So they're given training - or should be.

It can't come as a surprise to a new starter at Jessops that some awareness of cameras etc. would be a requirement of the job, and it is the responsibility of any good employer to ensure that their staff are suitably "skilled up" and then made to do the job they're employed to do, which earlier incumbents of the posts at Newcastle clearly weren't.

It's a management issue, really.
 
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It must be an expensive problem keeping all the latest models in stock. The manufacturers seem to change their ranges rapidly these days and if I go into a shop I expect the product to be in stock so that I can look at it and buy it on the spot.

My old film Olympic OM cameras stayed in production for years but my new digital ones are out of date in a few months and if it's an old model I expect a substantial discount.

Ron
 
NoSpringChicken said:
It must be an expensive problem keeping all the latest models in stock. The manufacturers seem to change their ranges rapidly these days and if I go into a shop I expect the product to be in stock so that I can look at it and buy it on the spot.

My old film Olympic OM cameras stayed in production for years but my new digital ones are out of date in a few months and if it's an old model I expect a substantial discount.

Ron
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Yes, many of the specialist dealers that stay in business have online operations as well as a bricks and mortar outlet, so I guess the bulk of the sales will be online. I used to visit Digital First, and the shop was little more than an online trader with a sales counter. Even they went bust due to competition. And they told me that keeping items in stock was risky due to continual price drops. They were also one of Nikon's biggest buyers.

Maybe there is no longer room for the local photographic shop?
 
In the words of Metallica " Sad but true " but this is the price of progress as determined by human beings I guess.
 
It was much easier buying things in 'the old days' when everything had a fixed retail price. You just went into a shop, saw what you wanted and bought it. I know, as consumers, theoretically we benefit from competition but it's such a headache working out if you have got the best deal and it's so annoying when the price is reduced the week after you make your purchase.:C
 
Leif said:
Maybe there is no longer room for the local photographic shop?
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It does make you stop and wonder just where we are all going with this constant striving for cheaper and cheaper goods. We can't all work in a service industry in this country and import our goods from aboard.

The high street is one of our biggest employers if we start loosing its diversity then we are playing into the hands of the huge supermarket chains.
 
As someone else pointed out though, Jessops isn't just a local photographic shop - it's the nearest thing in the UK to a photography supermarket, at least from a ubiquity point of view...
 
This is Jessops' take: http://www.jessops.com/corporate/press_results_detail.asp?ReleaseId=443

Clearly they aren't rolling over just yet!

These quotes add a useful perspective (my italics):

Planned closure of 81 stores – 47 overlapping, 31 loss-making and three subject to redevelopment;
Remaining 234 stores are profitable and cash generative
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Our results show the extent of the tough market conditions we have faced in the past eight months and the severe price deflation affecting our markets. Despite this, the number of cameras sold increased and we continued to make market share gains.
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Jessops has been working closely with its suppliers and the shortage of key product lines is now much improved going into the busy summer trading period
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NoSpringChicken said:
It was much easier buying things in 'the old days' when everything had a fixed retail price. You just went into a shop, saw what you wanted and bought it.
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Precisely... i detest all this price matching business, there should be a price and that's that. I used to be a tradesman in a previous life... you give the price that you can do the job for and that was it, no discounts or 'one week only' special offers.
 
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