[philbaum]

There were many more stores carrying Pentax in the Seattle area, e.g. Talls, Ritz, kenmore, in the Seattle area when i bought my K10 in 2007. Due to a more enlightened approach now, there may be no retailers carrying them in Seattle, WA, although i've heard of possibly one in South Seattle.

In any case, i think PentaxUSA staff should get out of the office occasionally and talk to retailers . I can't believe they have essentially no prescence in the US. There is the concept of "priming the pump" and Pentax has more market share now than they did in 2007. I'm being a little rough on them, but i can't believe that there isn't a way to get a few cameras out there, somewhere. Ideally, there should be regional centers.

[Docrwm]

There were many more stores carrying Pentax in the Seattle area, e.g. Talls, Ritz, kenmore, in the Seattle area when i bought my K10 in 2007. Due to a more enlightened approach now, there may be no retailers carrying them in Seattle, WA, although i've heard of possibly one in South Seattle.

In any case, i think PentaxUSA staff should get out of the office occasionally and talk to retailers . I can't believe they have essentially no prescence in the US. There is the concept of "priming the pump" and Pentax has more market share now than they did in 2007. I'm being a little rough on them, but i can't believe that there isn't a way to get a few cameras out there, somewhere. Ideally, there should be regional centers.

In their defense I have seen Pentax K-r's at Costco on several occasions over the past year.

[magkelly]

My guess is the store with the boutique just wasn't pushing the brand enough or making enough sales for Pentax to want to continue. How many times have you walked into a photo store only to have someone steer you straight towards the Canon or Nikon counter? If they're making more because Canon and Nikon are making it advantageous for them to sell more of their product then of course the Pentax stock in the store isn't likely to get sold as fast or in the same volume.

Maybe Pentax wants their products in places where it will get a fair shake and maybe this store just wasn't giving it their all when it came to actually promoting and selling their cameras. Just because they have a display doesn't mean they're actually pushing what's in it as hard as they should.

I seem to recall someone on here not too long ago mentioning visiting there not too long ago and saying that no one was near the Pentax counter and that he had a hard time getting a sales person interested in showing him anything from it. If that was so then we probably have an answer as to why they are taking the boutique out.

[zackspeed]

I've read a few posts here and there that appear to outline a seriously flawed approach to Pentax's relationship with its retailers. Canon and Nikon will allow retailers to buy on credit and pay once a sale has been made, in contrast Pentax apparently only sells on a cash basis. Nikon and Canon will allow smaller retailers to pick up their lines on a very limited basis initially, again in contrast Pentax apparently requires something in the 6 figures to begin the relationship. If those things are true I can understand completely why so few retailers carry Pentax.

Maybe in US,in Europe it sounds like nonsense.
Pentax has very positive points for the resellers.
We like it to have buisness with Pentax,it is a friendly style of Partnership.
Much easier than .............

[Rondec]

How much did Pentax lose when Ritz went out of business? How much did Nikon/Canon? As I recall, Nikon was owed 26 million, Canon 13 million. I'm sure they didn't lose all that money, but certainly things were tied up in bankruptcy for awhile...

[juu]

Selling on consignment is probably very expensive if sales are slow; on the other hand if sales are so slow that retailers will only keep inventory on consignment, then you have the choice between that and not having any retailers.

[theperception2008]

Well when I went there this past summer, I overheard a customer ask the assistant for a DSLR that he could take into nature. He wanted to take it camping and what not. He asked which brand and what model he should get. The sales rep there suggested the Canon 50D as a camera fit for him. I was looking at the Pentax DFA 100WR at the time and I couldn't stop thinking, wouldn't the K-7 be the best choice? Better WR and smaller for outdoor activities... (K-5 was not out yet :-P) And the sales rep went on to say that the lenses and camera were designed with the outdoors in mind...

So maybe Pentax is dropping them because they were not represented fairly.

The sales rep could at least have suggested the K-7 and Nikon D90 and then present the pros and cons of each model to give the customer a choice. But while I was there the rep did not do so.

[ebooks4pentax]

The short answer is that more sales are now done through the internet, and that's not going to go away. People like to go to a local brick & mortar store to see and feel the equipment they want to buy, and then...purchase if at a cheaper price from online stores such as B&H, Adorama, etc. Nikon and Canon have advertising budgets bigger that the value of the entire Pentax company. Presently, they can be more flexible in selling to stores on credit, but that will fizzle away with the Internet sales increasing steadily.

[RonHendriks1966]

The short answer is that more sales are now done through the internet, and that's not going to go away. People like to go to a local brick & mortar store to see and feel the equipment they want to buy, and then...purchase if at a cheaper price from online stores such as B&H, Adorama, etc. Nikon and Canon have advertising budgets bigger that the value of the entire Pentax company. Presently, they can be more flexible in selling to stores on credit, but that will fizzle away with the Internet sales increasing steadily.

Well here in The Netherlands old style photographic stores are closing down at rapid speed over the last 4 years and there is no ending to it at the time.

[ronniemac]

Well when I went there this past summer, I overheard a customer ask the assistant for a DSLR that he could take into nature. He wanted to take it camping and what not. He asked which brand and what model he should get. The sales rep there suggested the Canon 50D as a camera fit for him. I was looking at the Pentax DFA 100WR at the time and I couldn't stop thinking, wouldn't the K-7 be the best choice? Better WR and smaller for outdoor activities... (K-5 was not out yet :-P) And the sales rep went on to say that the lenses and camera were designed with the outdoors in mind... .

I had a similar experience in Oxford. Went to Jessop's and told the assistant I wanted a weatherproof camera, one I could take with me hill walking in rain and snow and to sea when yachting. He suggested either Cannon or Nikon saying they could cope with the weather. What about Pentax? I asked He looked blank so I showed him the little umbrella next to the K5 in their catalogue and asked him why other cameras did not come with a free umbrella?

Of course there wasn't a Pentax in sight, just in their catalogue and website and oddly, it was the only DSLR camera listed as weatherproof.

The fact is, he wasn't very willing to sell me a Pentax and knew nothing about them. In fairness to this guy, he was following company policy and by the time I turned up to collect it, he was a lot wiser. "That's a fine camera you have bought sir, really neat - and properly weather proof."

B.T.W. yesterday I went out in the rain and took photos of things I have not pictured before, like puddles and wet buildings (yes, I do architecture). Today the sun shone so I put my lovely 50mm 1.7 MX lens to use for the first time in 20 years. Life is good.

[falconeye]

I am not sure what has happened here. But like zackspeed said, we should be slow in assuming a fault on Pentax' side.

In Europe, Pentax is just sort of completing a transition from an "all shelf's" policy to a policy where only selected dealers can sell Pentax. The transition was along the lines of "if you don't represent Pentax well enough you won't at all". That's actually what all (or German only?) car manufacturers did ages ago.

In Germany at least, I see that the stores still carrying Pentax represent the brand well enough. Zackspeed *IS* Pentax for Berlin, you won't imagine a better representation. In Munich, there seem to be at least 3 stores left and they all showcase Pentax well enough. I've a 5 minutes walk to a K-5 Limited Silver showcased under glass

So maybe, the same is applied in the US now and Willoughby's just didn't sell enough / care enough about the brand? With the Pentax store just being an attempt on their side to obfuscate the fact? OTOH, the US may be populated too sparse to apply the European policy? I don't know.

[johnmflores]

I think part of the confusion stems from the fact that Willoughby's made the unprecedented move to create a Pentax store within their store. That sounds like a store wanted to push the brand, not the other way around. So for Pentax to pull out seems odd, but we obviously don't have the complete picture...

[BB_Zone28]

Until their recent demise, Ultimate Electronics had carried some Pentax cameras over the last couple of years. That included K-x & K20D DSLR's.

[BB_Zone28]

How much did Pentax lose when Ritz went out of business? How much did Nikon/Canon? As I recall, Nikon was owed 26 million, Canon 13 million. I'm sure they didn't lose all that money, but certainly things were tied up in bankruptcy for awhile...

I was surprised to find out after I walked into a Wolf camera about a week ago that that Canon had dropped them. Something to do with no longer being a compatible business for their products. They only had Nikon & Sony DSLRs, and very little of them.

[dnaseigel]

I was surprised to find out after I walked into a Wolf camera about a week ago that that Canon had dropped them. Something to do with no longer being a compatible business for their products. They only had Nikon & Sony DSLRs, and very little of them.

After perusing the top 50 accounts owed by Ritz/Wolf at the time of Bankruptcy Pentax was not listed among them. Pentax would very much like to grow their business with the still plentiful number of photo retailers out there, but it just doesn't make a lot of sense for them to incur the expense of managing an account, shipping, billing, etc. if a store isn't going to make it worth their while. That might sound a bit on the greedy side, but why does a company go into business? It does so to make money. That's it's sole reason for existence. If it does not make enough or any money with a particular channel of sales then it makes no sense to continue with it.

Before one suggests this is another marketing failure on Pentax's part, it just might be that Pentax made a good business decision to put their focus on better money making efforts. It was their decision making that left them off the debtor list in the Ritz/Wolf bankruptcy.