Black's Photography (Canada) closing all stores by Aug. 8 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 25, 2015, 01:17:30 pm
content: Heard the news yesterday, apparently announced on June 9. They are like the RadioShack of photography... Also bought a few years ago by Telus (a cell carrier) to push phones.I went in yesterday to check their liquidation sales, nothing special. Poor camera selection, 25% off but even with that it marginally beats others. Their SD cards were 50% off... 8gb SDHC was regular $30 reduced to $15... Still 2-3x more than comparable cards at retailers and large online shops.Another one gone...They say "cell phones killed the camera store". I beg to differ. This store killed itself with uncompetitive prices, poor selection and untrained staff who weren't helpful or didn't convey excitement to customers. They were using the outlets for pushing cell-phone subscriptions which had nothing to do with their core business of photography. Sounds a lot like RadioShack doesn't it?

author: codeboy2k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2015, 08:47:09 am
content: back in the 70's and 80's I used to visit Blacks all the time. They were my go-to shop for papers, films, equipment, lenses, etc. I haven't been to Blacks for over 20 years now.I think when the digital era came here, they didn't know how to change to stay relevant. And there are places like Henry's in Toronto and B&H in New York that just swept over them. On top of that, digital cameras and accessories are being sold in all the big-box stores and online stores now at greatly discounted prices, and then there's the smart phone revolution with each new phone having 10-15 Megapixel cameras that are 'good enough' for 90% of camera users. They probably felt they had no choice but to jump on the cell-phone bandwagon but even that wasn't enough to save them.Most mall stores like Blacks have become irrelevant to me, anyway. Except for food and (some) clothes, I do about 90% of my shopping online now.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2015, 11:52:36 am
content: Retail electronics is (slowly) doomed.I recently went to buy a printer online but due to courier issues it got lost. So I decided to buy one at retail. The first shop I visited (Argos) were £30 more expensive than Amazon, and refused to price match them. I then went to PC world who would price match and 10 minutes later I had my printer. But I have to wonder. If the online retailer sells it at £69, how can a retail store survive at the same price? Amazon has huge economies of scale, bigger than any retail group, so they must have made less, or even a loss on the sale.

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2015, 04:28:32 am
content: Well that's the issue isn't it... When you buy an item like electronics based on specs and reviews, not really needing to "try it on", what is the purpose of having it in the store to look at? Large warehouses with much less overhead cost (like Amazon) can be set up in huge shipping hubs and directly send it to the customer. No sales employees to hire, no expensive mall or plaza leases, huge savings that can be passed on to consumers and that just kills retailers.I'm not sure if this is the same for other types of items, but electronics seems to be most prone. Personally for a camera I would like to have a place with a bunch of them all powered on so I can play with the settings, actually see their speed/responsiveness and how well they focus and at what range and depth of field, how they feel in the hand, etc. You can't get that from specs or online reviews alone.But for many other commodity-style computer/electronics and peripherals, I have no need. For example, I ended up buying a LOT OF 6 HipStreet byteBank SDHC class 6 8gb cards from eBay for $12 US + $10 expedited shipping, received it today (2 days later) for a total of $22 US (still under $30 CAN - or $5 a card). Black's wanted $15 for 1 card. BestBuy wanted $10 for 1 card. So I still scored them for 2-3x less. Not sure if the "quality" would have been better at Black's or BestBuy... These things are assembled in Taiwan. They sell the same ones in Wal-Mart for $8-10.Just wait until we start having drone delivery...