The photographic industry needs your support right now, and I'd like to take
a moment to convince anyone who is willing to listen why you're better off
buying from local camera shops than internet sites or big box stores.
When you buy something from a local store, there are two major advantages
for your community (this is from a US point of view, so things may be
slightly different elsewhere). First, your money is supporting local
businesses and jobs, and it stays local. It doesn't go to some corporate
headquarters on the other side of the country. Second, the taxes you pay
support your local municipalities, such as schools and fire stations.
Buying online does not support any of these services, which you may need
some day.
Buying local can also be more convenient in the event you need any sort of
customer service. The fact that you can talk to someone face to face means
you can usually get your problem solved in a more timely manner. At the
very least, having a local specialty shop to go to usually means a large
portion of the staff knows what they're talking about, and since they want
to keep you as a customer they will usually do what it takes to make you
happy (managers especially).
Big box stores (by which I mean places like Fry's, Best Buy, Wal*Mart, etc)
and internet stores don't care about the customer; they usually care more
about sales volume. Their prices are low because they move so many items
they don't need a large profit margin on most things. Their prices are also
low because their staff is often not as knowledgeable about the products
they sell as staff are at specialty shops, like the one I used to work at.
In other words, the box stores tend to hire cheap labor.
A lot of internet stores sell low-quality accessories at high markups
because they know the customer won't know what they're getting till it
arrives in the mail ("it comes with a memory card? great!"). I know a lot
of PDML members probably wouldn't fall for that, but it something a lot of
everyday buyers have no clue about.
There are plenty more reasons for shopping at local stores and specialty
shops, but suffice to say, if you want local camera shops to exist AT ALL in
the future, please consider buying from them in the present. Yes, you'll
probably pay a little more, but it's worth it in the long run.
Isn't it?
John Celio
(if it weren't for so many people buying online and at big box stores, I'd
probably still be working at Reed's)
--
http://www.neovenator.com
AIM: Neopifex
"Hey, I'm an artist. I can do whatever I want and pretend I'm making a
statement."
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
[email protected]
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
