Originally posted by monochrome That's old news.
It is clear that when Ned Bunnell announced the 'Box Store' strategy, Pentax under Hoya specifically modified its Dealer Agreements and - I've heard - credit terms (the REALLY BIG DEAL) such that nearly every B&M store was forced into the new Distributor model. Adorama, B&H, Crever Couer Camera in St. Louis, Abe's of Maine, Hunt's and a few more continued to stock product but the one-store guy on Main Street just moved on.
Jim Malcolm would love to have Dealers return Pentax to store shelves and Pentax has focused its efforts on dealer distribution to the point that their sales pitch is now about the higher profit margin on their gear. They invested significant money in thier Exhibition and Conference Room space at CES to make exactly that presentation. Unfortunately, Dealers have a long memory and Pentax is not making much headway achieving new Distributions yet. Jim has very openly said it has been much harder to get back in stores than he originally thought it would be, though there have been some promising announcements since the K3 was released..
Hoya and Ned Bunnell essentially poisoned the well, salted the fields - whatever metaphor you want to use - for Pentax in the USA, possibly forever. Pentax may be forced into an internet-only model because no one wants to upset their existing relationships with their current brands, compete with Amazon, Adorama and B&H and take product stocking risk - just to put a great camera and lens line that's an unsupported third-tier brand back in their stores. Ricoh doesn't seem to want to spend marketing money in the USA until volume supports it. We seem to be at an impasse.
As I've written, Dealers seem to be saying, "I'm a chicken. You're an egg. This time the egg has to come first."
I was talking to a salesman on the floor at Camera World of Oregon just this morning. They have a good stock of K-50 kits in various colors as well as a couple K-3 and K-500 bodies. They also had most of the Pentax DA lens offerings, but I did not see any DA* or Limiteds on the shelf. I asked him about sales of the K-3 and he indicated that they only moved about 1-2 per month, but that was fine with him since they have trouble getting stock from Ricoh. He said something about things being shipped from Britain and getting hung up in customs and high tariffs and...at that point, he quit, seeing that the angle of my eyebrows indicated astonishment. I mentioned that duties are zero for most cameras and lenses from most-favored nations and wondered why they were not dealing with Ricoh Imaging, U.S.A for inventory.
He then volunteered that working with Ricoh was much better than dealing with Hoya. Hoya placed most of the risk on the dealer and required a huge investment in paid-for inventory just to offer the line. Ricoh is much easier. He then said that he wished that Pentax would move forward on FF development as an option to the Canon and Nikon offerings.
The good news is that they had more Pentax than Olympus or Fuji and actually had a big round display of multiple colorful K-50s! They are a Sony dealer, but have some sort of agreement with Sony that they will not compete with Best Buy. Therefore, no Sony lenses or cameras either. Go figure.
At the end of things, I asked him what it would take to assemble a kit of the K-3, grip, and Sigma 17-70/2.8-4. He told me that both the lens and the grip would have to be ordered and that he could not confirm pricing on special order items. You see, they only stock Canon and Nikon mount for Sigma lenses. The thought going through my mind was, "Why should I buy from you if I have to wait on shipping and cannot evaluate quality before I buy? Oh, and there is also the matter of the grip maybe being held up in customs for 5-6 weeks." Adorama is looking real good right now. Walking in, I was interested in a K-3/Sigma kit and maybe would swing to Sony if I liked the camera. Walking out, there was no sale due to lack of inventory. What you don't have, you can't sell.
I guess that sort of explains part of the Sigma-Pentax situation. If the dealers won't stock the inventory, they can't very well sell the product. Why the store's buyers do not stock the excellent Sigma 17-70 in all mounts for which they sell cameras and coach their salespeople to promote that lens in combo with higher-end offerings such as the K-3 is beyond me.
Oh...one last rant...the only feature of the K-3 the guy seemed to be aware of was the excellent weather sealing. According to him that was the camera's main value point.
Steve
Last edited by stevebrot; 04-04-2014 at 09:24 PM.