[Wethphotography]

If I need gear in a hurry, can't wait for B&H to ship, and Penn Camera is out of stock, I will use Ritz. The two DC stores I have frequented have been very helpful and supportive of Pentax. In early March I needed a 2nd Pentax Flash; while I was purchasing it, the clerk asked if I wanted to have a look at the new K20D. It had just arrived and he was very enthusiastic about it and the relatively new DA* lenses. He was also a good salesman in that he knew he had a Pentax user in front of him. The next time I am back in that store I will get his name as it is equally important to drop a note for excellent service as it is for bad service.

[LDB]

The local Wolf store is in a jumbo size strip center across the street from the mall. The Ritz that used to be in the mall is closed and gone. This Wolf store is staffed by kids who are actually into photography and know something about the subject. Granted, the one I've talked to more is a Nikon user but does know at least the basics of Pentax and is able to compare/contrast different models of the Nikon, Canon and Pentax lines they primarily (it seems) sell. Most of the independent local shops, sadly, have closed.

[monochrome]

Don't judge all Ritz stores by a bad experience in one. I happen to manage a Ritz store in Idaho and we sell Pentax as much or more than any other. The problem that we run into is supply. Ritz still doesn't order enough Pentax and when they do, they distribute it poorly. If you want your local Ritz to carry more Pentax then there needs to be more Pentax sold/ordered from that store. Just my view on the matter.

Nick

Nick: Thanks for being a member of this Forum - but I have to ask:

• if Ritz coporate doesn't order enough Pentax and
• the Ritz store doesn't stock enough Pentax and
• the salespeople steer potential sales away from Pentax

how can the Ritz store sell more Pentax so they can stock more Pentax?

Paul

[cardinal43]

I'm going to put one more check mark on the helpful side of the ledger for Ritz (at least for 1 saleslady in 1 store). I bought my K100D in September 2007 at a Ritz in northern VA and the young lady took the time to find out what I wanted, what type of shooting I planned to do, and what experience I had. I told her that I was really only interested in the Pentax. She mentioned that Pentax was an "excellent" camera and would probably serve me well. I asked her what she used and she said Nikon, but she also added that the Pentax had 2 advantages over her Nikon -- shake reduction built into the body, and every Pentax lens made would fit on the K100D. I was happy with the purchase, the service and the "attitude".

[cardnick]

The thing that happens is that Ritz orders enough pentax to keep it in the warehouses for ordering. The larger "ultra" stores will also be supplied. Many of your local ritz stores are not classified as "Ultra" stores, so the supply is more limited. The K100D super and the K10 were heavily supplied and carried in almost all the stores, but many of the stores did not get behind and support the product. The rocky mountain region of the US is the area where the majority of the Ritz/wolf/kits/inkleys stores really support pentax.

One of the main reasons that Nikon/Canon do so well with Ritz is training and demand. Canon is easy to sell. The advertise so much and have such name recognition that it is easy to sell. Pentax takes more work to sell in most cases because it is not advertised as heavily.

Nikon does national training at least twice a year and that motivates the new sales associates to sell nikon because it is something they know about.

Many times if a Ritz associate does not sell pentax it is because of a lack of knowledge or that they are lazy. The product can be obtained if the employee is willing to do a little leg work. Unfortunately it is usually the case of "I don't have it so I won't sell it".

I own Pentax and love the product. That makes it easy for me to sell it. If I tell someone that I am the manager and I own the K20D, Many times they will understand that if I could have any camera and I chose the pentax, it must be a good camera.

Just my 2 cents though.

Nick

[LDB]

I own Pentax and love the product. That makes it easy for me to sell it. If I tell someone that I am the manager and I own the K20D, Many times they will understand that if I could have any camera and I chose the pentax, it must be a good camera.

Nick

That makes me think of my first job. I was 16 and for the Christmas holiday worked in a store called Joske's that now is Beall's. I was in the camera/electronics department. It was Dec. 1973 and they mainly sold Kodak Instamatic 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60. I had a nice Spotmatic F system at the time and would have loved to be selling real cameras but that was the job I found.

Anyway, folks would come in and ask for the 10 and I'd show them and then ask to show them the advantages of the next model. I'd go through whatever they were.. I can't really remember any except I believe once you got to the 60 the lens was real glass instead of plastic. I usually always wound up selling a 30 or 40 and did have one customer that came in to buy a 10 and left with a 60. By the next summer I got a job at a local store called The Camera Center and got to work with all the real cameras. I sold a lot of Pentax because that's what I owned and liked. Those were good times. Too bad they're wasted on youth.

[247nino]

they're the oldest "surviving" pioneer.

i think Canot and Nikant users should be reminded that they were japanese companies making rangefinders, and decided to copy the asahiflex...


taken from:
Milestones
"From 1951 to 1983 Asahi Opt. Co. Ltd. manufactured only SLR cameras, from 110 to 6x7 formats, concentrating all of their research on the step-to-step development of the SLR concept. This also resulted in better feeling with SLR users and more effective innovations. Pentax marketing was also only focused to SLR users, and that helped a lot giving Pentax the role of SLR leader. In the late Sixties / mid-Seventies, Pentax manufactured more SLR's per month that Canon and Nikon together, thus making well visible how much successfull they were at the time."

I think Pentax can do this again. I think is still focused on the user but i think it will be the high prices that will continue the legacy.

Wolf/Ritz is not a camera store. They are Canikon drone reproduction shops. To my core, this is my belief.

You give them too much credit. They are just a 'Holiday Snap' store. When I had some pictures printed there they were printed off centre. I asked them to print them again and again they were off centre. their excuse was "thats how digital images come out and they could do nothing about that". Loading the paper in straight might of fixed the problem but maybe that's too technical.

[247nino]

went to a ritz/wolf today, asked for 120 film and got the reply "OH YOURE NOT GOING TO FIND THAT STUFF ANYMORE, NO ONE REALLY USES IT"

if i was that stupid associate i would have said
"sir we dont carry 120 but the pro shops like kamera korner, and keeble and shuchat do"

because if someone asked me about 120 then the person asking about 120 might know a little more than I do about who still uses 120...

enough said, I USE 120 gaaaah

[falconeye]

the smaller 'mom and pop' camera stores are much better, that and wolf camera sucks as much as any other major store.

I would say that a US phenomenon strikes twice here: The US really, really is into big brands and nation-wide chains. I guess this is coming from the fact that US citizens are moving that much across the country and well known brands help to re-establish and feel at home. But maybe there is a "winner gets it all" mentality involved as well.

So, it is Ritz/Wolf for the store and Canon/Nikon for the camera. Double strike.



As an anecdote... I once visited the "US biggest mall" close to Minneapolis. Big indeed. But with shockingly poor diversity (for me European), with every store in the mall being there four times at least. I know there are excellent speciality stores in the US but they are hard to find and far away from each other.

[jmdeegan]

I don't think I've ever been in a Wolf. I may go today as there's one downstairs from my client office, just because I am bored....

but I think as a generalization, because people know Canon and Nikon because of their branding and visibility in the market, it's easier to sell. And it sounds like a lot of these sales folks aren't much better than the sales staff at a Best Buy type store-that is, more often than not, you get regurgitated stuff, not their own thoughts or experience.

I buy a lot from Adorama, but I was sold on Pentax camera by this forum and my local shop in NYC. They carry all the big brands, (not too much sony, as the sales guys even tell the customers they only carry good cameras. woman didn't pick up on that one too fast...). I was at the time debating k100, k10 or a canon or nikon. admittedly, I was leaning heavily toward pentax to begin with, but even though they probably would get more from C or N sales than Pentax, the salesguy didn't push them. Basically knew I had done my homework, supported the theses I had come to, and that was it. He also said he shoots a k10d, but i think he may have just said that (or, he shoots em all because he's a good sales guy and he should know what he's selling).

Also, a nice thing to do, if you have a smartphone or something (or if the store had a magazine section....)...show them the k20d ad, either via the web or in print. that'll make em a little embarassed

[Nowhere Matt]

About a year ago, my wife bought me the K-10D as a birthday gift.
She went to Wolf/Ritz and left with a Nikon and a hugely expensive and incorrect memory card because they told her that Pentax did not make a dslr over 6 mb. The next weekend, I returned to the store getting a refund for the Nikon and memory card and left with my Pentax K-10D, two lenses, additional insurance coverage, correct memory card and Epson PrintMate for about the same money.