> Calumet posted the following on Facebook later in the morning:
>
> "Stay tuned, as we are exploring opportunities to reopen select
> locations to keep serving our customers. We will post any updates here
> if there are any."
When one files for Chapter 7, it's a pretty good indication that the
business is toast. Chapter 11 would eliminate some creditor debt, but
Chapter 7 is telling us that the entire business model no longer
works. Not surprising at all. I can't see how it would work.
As a common retail store, I was no longer impressed by them. Even
their downtown Chicago location was pretty much just a front to the
warehouse business. The 8 year time between my first and last visits
there were pretty telling. That, and the fact that I was treated like
dirt, but that's another story. Sorry, I regress. But I will say that
my last time there was my last time there. If you catch my drift.
Not all stores are created equal. Having worked in one, I can
recognize a few traits...
As to the "mail order" aspect. Porters and Calumet failed to make the
transition to the Amazon/B&H world. I believe that B&H will survive
because they have become the masters of selling a high volume of low
volume products (Olympus, Pentax, etc) while maintaining a solid
market penetration in everything else. Amazon has perfected the model
of direct sale and pass-through sales. It never ceases to amaze me how
seamless it is between the two. If they got it in stock you can get it
from them, otherwise, here is a retailer that will sell it to you
through Amazon and Amazon gets a cut of the action. This way, they can
stock EVERYTHING ever made without having to stock EVERYTHING ever
made. Brilliant. And they spiff every website and blog publisher in
the country, which makes all us publishers want to buy through them
too. So Amazon has even incorporated the benefits of MLM (multi level
marketing) without going the Amway way.
The duopoly that I pay attention to is B&H and Freestyle. It's
fascinating to see how those two companies have decided to be strong
in two different directions. Freestyle is more expensive than B&H in
digital, but Freestyle is less expensive than B&H in
film/paper/darkroom. It's almost as though they have a signed truce
between them.
I suspect what MIGHT happen is that one or two stores may reopen as
"franchise" stores using the Calumet name.
This cycles back around to something we talked about a couple weeks
ago. Back "in the day", Calumet had their own house brand of products.
These were less costly than the mainline products, but the margins
were better.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
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