I could not agree more John. Support your community, and all that. That's all good shit.
But unfortunately that's all it is, shit. In my little community I have a local photo store. Right there, 100 meters away from my house. But no Pentax gear. When I go there, the boss is never in, and those who are present most of the time know nooothing, about nooothing. I've asked them for a hood for a 70-210, what they came up with was a general Hama rubber hood. About 20$, for something that was useless for me. I bought it, in the name of good community spirit. I've also asked them for something to clean the sensor with. After three months the boss told me that the Canon 400D would have built in sensor cleaner. So all I had to do was to buy a new more current body. He knows that I am a Pentax user, he also knows I have more K-mount lenses than he has Canon lenses in his store. I was amazed, he told me to change system to get my sensor cleaned. And I was also a little amused by this answer, knowing that the K10D also will have a sensor cleaning system. After a friendly community spirited debate, we agreed that the sensor cleaner on the 400D will not clean the sensor in my DS ;-) One example of the knowledge of the regular staff: They believe that a 40$ tripod does the same job as a proper tripod. They don't know about mirror slap. I am afraid this is pretty typical. I believe that it is the same in almost whatever community you live. Knowledge and dedication is long gone. Gone with the aperture simulator ;-) Sorry about the sarcastic tone in my reply. I am a bit emotional about this, and that because I think it is important. I really wish the situation was different. I wish my local photo store was a resource of knowledge, a place I did not have to wait for 3 months for useless replies. This said. Give me an alternative, within two hours travel. Assuming the prizes are acceptable (less than 25% above internet prizes), I'd sure use them. Tim Mostly harmless (just plain Norwegian) -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Celio Sent: 25. oktober 2006 21:39 To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List Subject: Support your Local Camera Shop (was: Re: Price of K10D in Oz) 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 mark-ups 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 -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
