In my area there are four Ritz stores and the abilities vary widely. In
two about half the employees are pretty knowledgable; in the others not so
much. One is a friend of mine and she is quite helpful and a damn good
photographer to boot.
Like many businesses they bit off more than they could chew. Ritz has
swallowed up a number of other chains (Wolf comes to mind) but off course
are competing with the likes of WalMart, Costco and on-line processors. They
have done some pretty stupid things. Case in point: I dropped off a roll of
film at a Ritz near where I work. They told me they no longer developed film
but would send it out. I assumed (silly me) that meant the Ritz across town
that I *know* still develops film but *noooo* they sent it to their central
lab in Atlanta and promptly returned it in nine days. Grrr.
Charlie
PS Of course I warned them years ago they had better stock Olympus or they'd
belly up. ;^)
On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 2:22 PM, Sue Pearce <bs.pearce@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Based on my experience with the local ritz mall locations, I think that
> they
> were killed by the same thing that got Circuit city- bad service and high
> prices.
>
> The clerks were poorly trained and of low intelligence.
>
> Bill Pearce
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ken Norton" <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: "Olympus Camera Discussion" <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 10:48 AM
> Subject: Re: [OM] Ritz going under
>
>
> > >
> >> I would assume Ritz is going under because of the general decline in
> >> photofinishing (which is often what keeps a store profitable) and the
> >> large
> >> number of mail-order dealers with a Web presence. As much as one would
> >> like
> >> to think it's due to poor service, it's almost certainly a combination
> of
> >> other factors.
> >>
> >
> >
> > The camera store I used to work for was essentially just a front for the
> > pro
> > lab. The "store" was just to keep us counter-wonks busy.
> >
> > One thing I did was every few months, I'd go through the counters and
> > completely rearrange items. Obviously, the Olympus used counter had no
> > inventory due to the employee who kept scarfing up every item that came
> > through, but I'd get pretty wild with the displays until the boss
> > recommended that I "chill". However, he did have to admit that I sold
> > more
> > cameras and accessories than anybody else and I only worked four hours on
> > Saturdays.
> >
> > One day, I came in and there was a new rack display of Minolta binoculors
> > Minolta came out with a line of beautiful pocket-sized folding binocs.
> I
> > got all excited about those things and was very impressed with them--even
> > bought one for myself. I sold ALL but one of them, just by
> pidgeon-holing
> > the guys coming in and my saying "hey, you've got to check these out".
> >
> > The point is, if you can get the counter-hacks excited about something,
> > they'll "tell their friends".
> >
> > AG
> > --
> > _________________________________________________________________
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> > Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
> >
>
>
>
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>
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> _________________________________________________________________
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