Calumet Photo is done

[pixjohn]

Calumet Hollywood help sink their own ship with poor customer service bad management and a revolving door of employes. In the film days you could walk in to calumet and walk out with a softbox, pack, grids and any other item a pro would need for a shoot the next day. You could no longer walk into the store and buy set supplies or equipment without waiting a few days to have it shipped in from another store and sometimes that was unlikely. I would have to run down the street to Samy's Camera who had the items in stock. I ordered a few items 2 weeks in advance for a shoot online with calumet and never received the items. When i called they said they where on back order? Nice of them to let me know in advance. I had to order from NY and pay over night shipping. When digital hit, i made a big mistake purchasing my Leaf back from them. I received no support for a $33,000 item when I had problems from day one.  . As a pro I avoided doing business with Calumet on a regular bases.

I personally thinks it stinks to not tell your employee's but I also understand from a business standpoint. How many items would have walked away and I am sure most workers would have taken sick days and not come in.

[Williamson Images]

The only item that I could have walked out with the last time I visited was seamless...

Robb

[Phil Indeblanc]

Thank you Brad in SF, and thank you Damion.
They were knowledgeable and assisted me in my -few- purchases.  

Calumet to me was a shop that had staff with knowledge, and they used that knowledge to sell you the right gear.
Their inventory as mentioned with the printed dept did narrow down things in grip, and they either had the creme de la creme, or the Calumet brand, and often, neither was fitting the need in that area.

Although I have not read the links posted here, it is hard to blame the company just on what I read (not much but the 2 pages here). The industry has changed and they had a long history and likely hopes to turn around?
This snippet post from bcooter stuck to me: "...The semi pro cameras (I guess they're mostly all semi pro now) ....". :-)  

And I thought the best business in photography now a days was selling the gear or teaching the trade...?

[Lacunapratum]

I loved the Chicago store, but being a Pentax/Rollei/Olympus/Panasonic guy there was little I could buy from them.  I often just went and bought some little things to support them. 

A guy named Steve Goldsmith was just a living dictionary of photographica and a young kid named Josh a bundle of creative energy. 

All wonderful, solid, nice people.  Hurts to see them go without saying good-bye. 

Tom

[RobertJ]

I will say that their "house" brands were better than others.  Calumet view cameras, rebranded Bowens travellites, rebranded Caltar large format lenses (you get the same lens at a lower price!), stands, grip, scrims, softboxes, etc.

In my area, we had Penn Camera, which went bankrupt, and then was bought and supported by Calumet.  So now, we really have two stores that are no longer in business.  Sad.

[Phil Indeblanc]

Time will take some others down no doubt.  Canoga Park closed in the past few months too.  Wouldn't be surprised if Bel Air Camera or Mel Pierce were next.
SG

If it weren't for Woodland Hills Cam's telescope side, I would guess they too might be having tough times. But I have found them to match other store prices when I needed it, and they are more a "owner run type" business. They are the only shop left in that area. I always preferred giving my business to WH over CC. There are the empty(mostly) walls of Hooper Camera in Chatsworth up north. Hooper hardly rents anything, although they work with borrowLens website as a "partner".

I never got a good vibe from the Canoga Camera manager, or the guy I ended up usually seeing working the SRL/Lens area. But I liked and used their rentals. I bought my first Canon Elan2 at this place and a number of gear many years back. They never once valued a long term customer with anything. Once I found WHills I only when to CC for rental when need be.

Back to Calumet...The last few times I was in their Hollywood store it was about 2 years ago and it was putting most efforts in rentals. Even those items they were trimming down on as they sold me some of there less used LF gear.

[SecondFocus]

I was surprised at the news. I always thought they were a good alternative. But for the most part I don't really go into stores. I buy from established competent reps from businesses that specialize in what I need. So if I am interested in MFDB for example I am much more interested in a competent dealer and rep I can depend upon. If I need basic equipment from a big dealer I have a pro rep that I can call and get the best prices and quick service. Basically I make friends with people and do business with them. It works!

[tim wolcott]

I will miss the knowledge and ability to call them and get real answers.  Its a shame I had just got the proposal from Calumet.  We were going to do a tour celebrating my families 175 anniversary as well as Calumets 75th anniversary.  Would have been a good lecture tour.  I got the proposal the day before the news was sent to me.  What a shame, a good friend lost their job.  I liked the fact I could go down and test the gear before I bought it.  Something you don't get from the New York stores.  Will miss you guys.  Tim

[EinstStein]

Ty to support these "real stores" if you can:

-- Keeble & Shuchat (Palo Alto).
-- Bears Image (Pali Alto).
-- SAMYS (LA)
-- Freestyles Photo (LA).

and many more!

[Rob C]

Just a thought: could it be possible that companies might invest too much capital into equipment that they then hope to rent, but the rental market doesn't materialize at a high enough level because there simply isn't the work out there to drive the need for renting?

Was a time all the established photographers I knew of had their own studios; that seemed to change over the years, with more and more rental studios coming along. Apart from meaning that photographers lost a prime asset and the understanding of how their space worked - I had two of my own in the end, and the first worked very well and the second one not so well at all - I think it signalled a sea-change in the business, much as I suppose happened with the retailing industry. People with no assets worth squat could set up and eventually crush those who had built up a genuine, committed practice. You simply can't compete with prices when your competition truly has no fixed overheads, and price seems to have become the determining factor in everything. Earlier, it was negotiable and quality usually won the assignment unless you were trying to get work from some ad agencies who themselves represented dodgy clients.

No wonder you have to buy three or four things these days just to get a good one....

;-(

Rob C

[BJL]

I'm sorry for the shops' owners and staff, but not for the photographers who fondle in real time and then buy elsewhere online.

Agreed, but nothing is going to stop a large and increasing proportion of people from doing that, and the ability to access lots of information and advice about photographic equipment online (along with a vast flood of opinions) makes online purchases ever more comfortable for ever more people.
So, what are the viable business models for a retail store that people can actually walk in to these days?

- Offering rentals, extensive expert technical support, and carrying a stock of many exotic professional tools for immediate purchase?
It seems that only a few very major markets support this these days (just NY and LA in the USA?) And Amazon's ever faster delivery options are narrowing the window of advantage for in-store stock.

- The single brand shop (like The Gap or Apple stores) where online purchases have to go to the corporate owner of the store/showroom anyway?
For photography, my first thought was that only a few prestigious photographic brands like Leica can do this, and then only in a few well-heeled markets.  But in a twisted sense this is happening with the two top-selling and most used brands of "camera": not only Apple but now also Samsung, which is starting some of its own "Samsung Experience" locations.

- Manufacturers and distrubuters paying stores to "showroom" their products?
The Samsung Experience locations (often within other shops like Best Buy) are sometimes on a pure showroom/internet-purchase model where even purchasing decisions made in-store are executed there online, for delivery.  So store operating costs become part of the advertising budget and less of that valuable retail space is wasted on stocking multiple units of products. So maybe companies wanting their photographic products on display for customers to handle before purchasing will need to pay shops to do that marketing for them, rather than paying shops only for products that get sold in-store.

- Any other ideas?

[Gigi]

went to the one in Chicago frequently - good pricing, reasonable supplies (although less in recent months) and nice people. Sad to see them go.

[Colorwave]

I guess I'd better start searching for a good alternative to the Brilliant Supreme Matte paper that I use for lower priced prints ($99 for 44" x 100' roll, 230gsm).  Ironically, I just bought a roll a week or so ago and asked the Calumet sales rep for online sales about the other Brilliant papers being discontinued, since they were removed from the website.  He said that they were out of stock, but he was not aware of them actually being discontinued.  He also told me that their paper was made by Hahnemuhle, FWIW.

[jjj]

Everyone one of my friends that worked at Calumet/Chicago all said the same thing - they knew nothing and all received a phone call last night telling them not to come into work today as they were closing.

This employee wasn't surprised....

[dgberg]

Very sad.  They were pretty much the only professional store in Philadelphia.

Allens in Levittown over Calumet any time.
Still sad to see anyone go out of business in this fashion.

[david distefano]

(I got my Phase one p45+ from them , then my Hasselblad hd50 and 60...BUt they voted... [MODERATOR EDIT: Inappropriate political comment])

this is about photography, not your political beliefs. look into the eyes of the employees who have just lost their jobs and tell them how happy you are that calumet closed their doors.

is the future of purchasing only to be online. for the average consumer of photographic equipment, it will in a real sense be to their loss. less competition, higher prices, and having to rely on people like "he who shall remain nameless" for purchasing decisions since they will not be able to actually handle the goods before purchase to see if it fits their needs.

[NancyP]

Well, people have to be willing to pay extra for brick and mortar store service. I support my local store - if I lay hands on a new item for serious and immediate consideration, I feel an obligation to buy it from them rather than from B and H or other online store. If I lay hands on a new item because I am thinking about a purchase, just not that day, and if a used copy comes around either at the same store or online, I may buy the used item wherever it appears.

My "new-old" used toy is my Calumet N studio monorail 4 x 5 (rebranded Cambo camera). Very well made, and there are a zillion basic monorails out there with the Calumet name - it was the cheapest new choice for students. Caltar large format lenses series were made by approximately 5 different manufacturers, the most recent series being made by Rodenstock. Caltar IIN is the Rodenstock Sironar N lens.

[Vladimirovich]

BUt they voted and support houssein Obama.

is it a racial slur ? you know, English is not my native tongue, so am I right that it is somehow derogatory for a person to have an arab name ? do you mind to enlighten me, please...

[Ken Bennett]

is it a racial slur ? you know, English is not my native tongue, so am I right that it is somehow derogatory for a person to have an arab name ? do you mind to enlighten me, please...

Yes, in the USA using the President's full name is intended as a slur.

Back to the original topic, this does make me sad, but I guess it's not really surprising. When I started my business in the late 1980s, I purchased pretty much all of my gear out of the Calumet catalog -- lighting, medium format cameras and lenses, my tripod, etc. Local shops catered to instamatic users, and didn't have much if any professional gear. When I took my current staff position in 1997, we bought all my gear from Calumet. But over the years it became much simpler to find and purchase items from the B&H web site than to deal with the Calumet site. Recently I've been shopping at Calumet (formerly Penn Camera) in Tyson's Corner, VA., when I visit family, and the stock levels were never very good for the things I wanted to buy.

[Rob C]

Yes, in the USA using the President's full name is intended as a slur.

Back to the original topic, this does make me sad, but I guess it's not really surprising. When I started my business in the late 1980s, I purchased pretty much all of my gear out of the Calumet catalog -- lighting, medium format cameras and lenses, my tripod, etc. Local shops catered to instamatic users, and didn't have much if any professional gear. When I took my current staff position in 1997, we bought all my gear from Calumet. But over the years it became much simpler to find and purchase items from the B&H web site than to deal with the Calumet site. Recently I've been shopping at Calumet (formerly Penn Camera) in Tyson's Corner, VA., when I visit family, and the stock levels were never very good for the things I wanted to buy.

My late wholesaler was no better...

;-)

Rob C