Julian,
Nothing on the emotional level - and I am not a collector in any sense.
Companies like Browning Arms simply sell their obsolete stuff off in single
lots to major parts suppliers. This is simply a moral - or ethical issue if
you prefer - to me. That of pure waste.
I am intimately familiar with the practice of destroying and dumping goods,
having seen it done in my very presence on many ocasions in the past. I
simply do not consider it acceptable - and would tend to avoid buying
products from businesses that do so.
----Original Message Follows----
From: julian_davies@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Reply-To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [OM] Discontinued lenses
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 11:14:30 +0100 (BST)
Lee,
I'm afraid that however much I agree with you on an emotional level, Olympus
won't give a damn. Remember, you are *NOT* a customer of theirs, and by the
sound of it, never will be.
Offloading inventory to private repairers is fine, but isn't the same thing
as maintaining those inventories yourself. Somebody has capital tied up, and
the stock market doesn't like that, so I guess these "Browning" stocks
reside in the back rooms of hundreds of owner - managed shops scattered
everywhere.
The other issue is whether you can sell written off stocks. The tax
authorities don't take kindly to giving tax allowances for writing down,
followed by seeing income for those same stocks. It means that you have to
sell them dirt cheap, at which point the skip becomes more economic.
There is also a market condition to apply. I think you will find more
Browning owner/enthusiasts than OM equivalents in the USA. Not the same in
Europe.
It is hard to accept that we are part of a *VERY* small minority, so our
interests don't even feature in the plans of the corporations. The vast
majority of original OM buyers liked the Ads, and haven't given a damn
since. That's why great kit like OM2 are available used for ridiculously
little money.
Julian
> from: Lee Penzias <l_penzias@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 06:15:47
> to: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> subject: Re: [OM] Discontinued lenses
>
> Julian,
>
> I am quite familiar with this having worked in industries where they
> regularly write off merchandise etc for all kinds of reasons.
>
> But if you go to Browning Arms for instance, or several other
manufacturers,
> they have lists of parts inventories sold off to various dealers and
> businesses - with parts for items made before WW2 on and on back even.
They
> even have a published list on their own website of the dealers and
addresses
> to obtain these obsolete parts. And they still sell new guns - regularly
> every year. Result? Browning have a very wide and loyal customer base and
> their new sales are as good as any other.
>
> Oly-USA could have sold those parts off in one lot in one day. I bet it
> would not have taken but a few phone calls and a short meeting and
> inspection of the the items piled up in a shipping container on the dock.
>
> The people that generally hold on to such obsolete goods as OM cameras
are
> hardly going to let themselves be forced into buying any new product.
Should
> the day come all my OMs get trashed before I do, I will simply look for
> another old mechanical camera and lens from someone else. Attempting to
> force a customer base for what are in a certain sense of the durable
goods
> type, by dumping parts, into a disposable consumer market of throwaways
is
> not likely to work.
>
> Business is business, but I have a higher respect (and patronage) for
those
> businesses which exercize some moral as well as intellectual elements in
> their conduct. Waste like that is not among my list of acceptable
practices.
> The tax relief from such a write off is hardly going to put a large brick
in
> their new operation, and it it certainly will not endear any new business
> from me. I just hope Olympus Japan and their other major regional
facilities
> will not do the same type of thing.
>
> I for one will be writing to them to say so.
>
> Cheers,
> Lee
>
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: "Julian Davies" <julian_davies@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Reply-To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [OM] Discontinued lenses
> Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2002 22:54:08 0100
>
> This is an obscene waste. Not a unique example by any means though, and
does
> not come as a surprize.
>
> It would perhaps be a good idea for as many people as possible to write
to
> Oly-USA and Japan and beg them not to allow such a thing to happen again.
>
> Cheers,
> Lee
>
> Unfortunately, the stock market and the western tax regime make it more
than
> likely to happen again. My company has just had to do the same thing with
> spare parts for machinery we no longer use. On a personal level it pains
me.
> On a corporate level, sometimes it's all you can do. Of course, our
spares
> weren't irreplaceable bespoke parts for collectors.
>
> Even disregarding the corporate finance and taxation problem, Oly have to
do
> this. If they keep the spares, you can get old equipment repaired. If you
do
> that, you won't be buying as much new equipment as you otherwise would.
It's
> a reasonable percentage bet that enough people will remember how good the
OM
> gear was while it lasted, rather than how pissed off they are that they
> can't get it fixed, to make this policy a net sales earner. Don't forget
> that few (if any) people on this list are current Olympus customers. We
all
> trade in the aftermarket, from which Olympus earns nothing.
>
> Julian
>
>
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>
>
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