Originally posted by BigMackCam All of the brands know this, and their pricing - at release, throughout the lifetime of a product, and at various times of the year, via different sales channels and individual dealers - leverages those distinct customer buying practices.
That topic regarding Pentax representation at B&M stores has been discussed many times. Even when I bought my first Pentax almost a decade ago, Pentax wasn't sold in every shop, back then only some shops sold Pentax cameras, I would say less than 50% of retailers carried Pentax in my country, more than 15 years ago. When I bought my first Pentax almost nobody bought a camera online. Over the years, I've seen the number of camera shops that sell Pentax being less and less, and I've also seen people buying online more and more, to a point that we now buy online with much apprehension. The first camera I bought it in a shop, the two models following I bought them to amazon, and I bought the K1 kit in a shop but only because they purchased back some of my old cameras / lenses (and he is selling online as well otherwise his camera shop would have died...). Again and the K1 II online again. In total, if it wasn't for selling my used equipment, I'd have bought more than 80% of my Pentax cameras and lenses online. Good for amazon, and very bad for the local retailers. And interestingly, now there are camera shops 100% online who do sell all Pentax models.
---------- Post added 17-09-19 at 15:38 ----------
Honestly, buying online is great for people spending a good part of their life at work:
1) I can read the reviews and spec of what I want to buy online
2) I can read comments/feedback from other customers who bought the same product to the same online retailer, that's very useful, I can do that at the B&M shop.
3) I use my work address for delivery of the camera or lens, so that if there is no one at home you don't have to go to the warehouse pickup the parcel
4) When I receive the parcel, I open it the same day, check than everything works, and if something doesn't work, I fill in the return form and given the parcel back to the post-man the next day (all this without moving)
5) Prices tend to be slightly cheaper online, and I can even compare prices of the same product in different countries within EU. I happened to have ordered a lens at amazon.fr because it was 100 euro cheaper than from amazon.de. Sometimes it is cheaper at amazon.it or amazon.es
And if I want to sell my used Pentax gear to buy something new, I can even do it online, because some camera shops also buy back used equipment from distance customer, such as SRS in the UK (actually I've bought my DFA150-450 to SRS).