[kwb]

I had some errands to do in Tokyo today, and between these I managed to visit Bic Camera in Shinjuku, one of the large retail stores.

(Update: There are three Bic Camera stores around Shinjuku station, the one I visited is the West Exit Store. There's also East Exit Store which used to be called Bic-Qlo, that one doesn't have as many Pentax products according to JPT. There's yet another store (called 新宿東口駅前店 or "Store Right In Front Of The Station East Exit"), that was much smaller than the West Exit store as I vaguely remember.)


Almost exactly 6 years ago, I posted about this place (PENTAX/RICOH store presence in BIC Camera, Shinjuku, Tokyo - PentaxForums.com). I've heard that Pentax/Ricoh significantly reduced store presence in Japan since then (see this great thread about the state of Pentax availability in Japan by JPT Where to find Pentax in Japanese camera stores in 2022 - PentaxForums.com). I thought I'd make a comparison of now/then at a single location.

Today, Pentax DSLRs and lenses occupy 3 shelf units (each unit is about 1m wide and 1.8m or so tall). Two K-3III (one black, one silver) as well as a K-1II are on display, so are most current lenses, it seems, but I don't know if all current lenses are there.


Back in 2016, K-70, K-S2, K-3II and K-1 were all "current" models, and these four as well as lenses occupied four shelf units, see the picture below. As far as shelf space is concerned, now=75% of 2016. That's not bad.


Greater reduction in store space came from GR and compacts.
One shelf unit for GRIII and GRIIIx combined today VS three shelf units just for GR (distributed to three different locations in the store) back then. I only post "now" picture here.


0.5 shelf unit for tough compacts (one shelf unit shared with Olympus and Kodac(!?)) today VS two shelf units back then.


And they used to have 0.5 shelf unit for Q and 2 for Theta, I found zero today (though I didn't search seriously).

To give you some sense of scale, the store space for Pentax/Ricoh combined today is about the same as that for Olympus (I know because I counted the number of shelf units), and probably about 3-ish times smaller than that for Nikon/Canon/Sony (I don't know for sure as I didn't bother to count ).

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Last edited by kwb; 08-01-2022 at 03:28 PM.

[JPT]

I think this is the Bic Camera on the west side of the station in the Odakyu HALC building, isn't it? Not the newer Bic-Uniqlo collaboration building on the east side near Isetan. I might have to update the thread I made, because that is much better than I saw when I was in the other Bic.

Anyway, it's still quite a good display. It's probably also worth mentioning that the area they devote to cameras as a whole has shrunk, not just Pentax. And the Odakyu HALC branch moved all the cameras up from the former prime location on the 2nd floor up to the 4th floor a couple of years ago..

[kwb]

That's right JPT, this is the Shinjuku West Exit location in the Odakyu HALC building. I've never been to East Exit location, I didn't even know that it existed until your post. I added the clarification in the original post, thanks!

I think this is the Bic Camera on the west side of the station in the Odakyu HALC building, isn't it? Not the newer Bic-Uniqlo collaboration building on the east side near Isetan. I might have to update the thread I made, because that is much better than I saw when I was in the other Bic.
Anyway, it's still quite a good display. It's probably also worth mentioning that the area they devote to cameras as a whole has shrunk, not just Pentax. And the Odakyu HALC branch moved all the cameras up from the former prime location on the 2nd floor up to the 4th floor a couple of years ago..

[ramseybuckeye]

With the newer upper cabinets it looks as there may be more on display now, and I think it looks slightly more organized too.

[clickclick]

Having a camera store with Pentax on display at all is so nice to see. Sounds like they still have a good presence, especially with the contraction in the overall market.