Wanted to weigh in with my local tale of woe. I live near Tallahassee,
Florida, which used to have a small camera store, ("Chevet's", I believe). It
was sort of a rathole, difficult to see from the road and crammed full with old
camera gear and chemicals, etc. Never any customers or new gear, and appeared
that they never made a sale. I understand they had been in business since 1974
or some such, had been an authorized Olympus dealer, also did repairs, etc. I
always made a point of stopping in, hoping for a Olympus find, but never found
much besides advice.
Anyhow, on my last check, they were out of business. Never heard a peep
about it. This leaves a town of 100,000+ with two camera stores, "Ritz" in the
mall, and a second shop whos main focus is new, but has one, repeat one, ten
foot case of used equipment. Amazingly, that had a couple of non-Zuiko lenses
for sale.
I am in no small degree of shock over how a town that size could have no
shop with at least a slight focus on the used market. Tallahassee is a college
town (FSU), and you would expect some sales to students, etc. Seems like quite
a sad occurance, but thank goodness for the members of this list. Otherwise,
my scant Olympus outfit would be hopeless, and I would be forced to convert to
another system. (If I could just get my Nikonos UW to take more lenses. . .)
Larrry Harris
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