Another brick and mortar store bites the dust.

http://www.penncameras.com/message.html


Lee Baylin

I just saw the notice a few minutes ago. There are hardly any local places left to go and buy serious photo gear in the Baltimore area. I long patronized the Camera Mart on Harford Rd. in Baltimore. They merged with Penn Camera a few years ago and closed that store. The remaining photo places are a long drive from me, so I guess I will now be buying sight unseen from internet stores for my B&W needs.

Matthew

Service Photo is the last one here. I try to buy there whenever I can.


Lee Baylin

This thread has also been posted in the Shops Forum, let's keep the discussion there. Thank!

That thread can be found here.

Thanks!


Anthony

The Moderator Page and My Gallery
The important things in life are simple; the simple things are hard.

Only thing I can say is "wow" but then again it is hardly surprising. I use to love going to the older Penn Camera shops when I was in DC. I was like a kid in a candy shop. They would have small and hard to find things such as Nikon F body assessories, etc. I would drool over the used equipment. A number of years ago, when searching for a new low supplied item, Penn Camera would be the 2nd stop after checking with B&H Photo.

Back in Feb 2004, when living out in Colorado, D2Hs were scarce. You simply couldn't find them because of the low supply since is was so new. I gave Penn a call and they had one and I quickly scarfed it up. I had it in the next morning and the sales rep. called to make sure I received it. This was my last purchase from them but then again, I haven't made too many gear purchases since.

As I mentioned, it is a sign of the times with regards to brick & mortar stores but then again many of Penn Camera's problems were certainly self-inflicted. They were large and could compete with B&H prices so they did have volume power. They hardly progressed to keep up with the times however. In terms of E-Commerce, they were poor and hardly exhibited any forward thinking or skill in that department. You still had to call to see if an item was in stock. Their ecommmerce site certainly wasn't like B&H. This said, it has been a while since I have been to their website so perhaps they did get better but by the time they did (if they did), it was probably too little and too late.

Mel
An Opinionated Old Curmudgeon from Virginia


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