The weird thing was that our medical school book store located in the children's hospital where I work had a pretty big Pentax section. They were expensive as hell though. And then one day they got wiped out, except few small left over items like batteries for K10D which I picked up for 5 dollars a piece(got 6 of them). They have Canon and Nikon there now.

[GordonZA]

Most stores here in South Africa stock Pentax with a few exceptions.

[Bulldogface]

well ,here in alta, north norway is pretty much all pentax gear availabe only on order'&'wait basis...just now i' m waiting for sigma 10-20...but they matched inet price, so i'm saving postal and have local waranty

[rfortson]

ritz hasn't had them for awhile, doubt they will. privatized shops with the backing of a chain can risk buying a small inventory outside the canikon bubble. i talk to the ritz people every couple of weeks, they never know anything. i dont even think they understood what happened when their business reached bankruptcy last year. unfortunately pentax's exposure has been suffering because it took so long for ritz camera to get with the program.

Given the amount of money Ritz owed to Canon & Nikon and the defaulted on, I'd say it was good that Pentax limited their "exposure" to Ritz.

[rfortson]

Wonder how many of us have actually bought a camera via a local camera store in recent years? I buy most of my stuff online though I do throw a bone to a local Mom & Pop now and then. Last one was the D300 the day it came out--because they had one in stock with my name on it, and because it was the same price everywhere but for the local and state taxes (which, here in CA, are between 8.25 and 9.75%, and which is not trivial).

95% online for me. The remaining 5% is for impulse purchase of accessories whenever I visit stores.

[landscaped1]

Here in Louisiana we have a great local shop that carries all 3 brands, but are really knowledgeable, which is a surprise these days. They actually are they ones that showed me the k20 and suggested it over others.

[indyphil]

Lots of talk about Ritz. Around here we had Wolf Camera (which is the sister version of Ritz). Wolf recently Dropped Canon! Now they stock only Nikon/Sony/Olympus. Id like it if Pentax could get back into Wolf/Ritz because those are the only camera shops remaining in any number in my area.

Of course there are some independants but those dont stock Pentax either.

[noblepa]

Lots of talk about Ritz. Around here we had Wolf Camera (which is the sister version of Ritz). Wolf recently Dropped Canon! Now they stock only Nikon/Sony/Olympus. Id like it if Pentax could get back into Wolf/Ritz because those are the only camera shops remaining in any number in my area.

Of course there are some independants but those dont stock Pentax either.

I don't really know if this is true, but I've heard that Nikon provided financing to the founder of Ritz, to buy the remaining stores from the bankruptcy court. This may be Nikon's strategy to try and get at least some of the reported $26M that Ritz/Wolf owed them. If true, this may also explain why Ritz is reluctant to sell anything but the big guys, N & C.

Even if its not true, my impression of Ritz was that it was a camera store for people who knew little and cared little about photography. They just wanted to buy a camera to take vacation shots with. How many serious photographers patronized Ritz before or after the bankruptcy? Even in the N & C line, they only stock the entry level models, like the Rebel XTi or the D5000. They might be able to order a D3 or D700, but they don't stock it. These are the kind of people who see Ashton Kutcher on TV and decide that they have to have a Nikon, or their brother-in-law has a Canon and tells them that its the best, so they buy one.

That said, we have a regional chain, here in Cleveland, called Dodd's. They are the store that local pros go to. In their downtown store, they carry all the big brands, including Hasselblad and Mamiya. You want a six foot softbox or umbrella and a 300W studio flash? They've got 'em. These people know serious cameras. They never really stopped carrying Pentax, but even they cut back. Now, they've started stocking the K-x and K-7. I even saw a red K-x in one of their suburban stores, which typically caters to the entry lever or casual photographer.

So, yeah, Pentax seems to be gaining reground in brick and mortar stores. When I was in Dodd's downtown store a couple of weeks ago, one of the salesmen told me that, at least in their store, Pentax was overtaking Olympus in sales.

[apemen]

Well, we have a new distributor here now, in Turkey, after some years : )

Pentax bodies have been started to be sold on online stores,
and will be on shelves of some grand tech stores - Turkish buyers usually prefer to touch before buying.

I can say that Pentax has ben spreaded out quit well in Turkey, considering we had minimal reach for stores and support.
It seems Pentax is doing well, I can see it here in my country too.

[Jyrkira]

Wonder how many of us have actually bought a camera via a local camera store in recent years?

I have bought all my Pentax cameras locally including K200D and K-7. And all the lenses i have bought a new. I just noticed that even I have bought them locally they are all from different stores. I think Pentax is quite well distributed in Finland nowdays.

[narichey81]

I was traveling for work in Greenville, North Carolina,where East Carolina University is, and stopped by a local camera shop there. They had a whole case of pentax lenses including some limiteds and all the da* zooms, the k7 and kx . I almost went home with a kx when i saw that iso 3200 on the screen looking like iso 800 on my k20d, but i figured my wife would divorce me if i did. I live in a metropolitan area of over 1million people and only have 1 even halfway decent camera store, and a couple of Wolf Cameras, which I believe are the same as Ritz, and are utter crap. I would probably have to go to Atlanta to find a Pentax, but I am content to acquire most of my gear through this forum's marketplace.

[Blue]

I don't know exactly who backed him, but Ritz did buy back the remaining stores which seemed like a very dodgy deal, especially for the companies that got stiffed for 10s of millions of dollars. Canon may have gotten stiffed the worst.

I don't really know if this is true, but I've heard that Nikon provided financing to the founder of Ritz, to buy the remaining stores from the bankruptcy court. This may be Nikon's strategy to try and get at least some of the reported $26M that Ritz/Wolf owed them. If true, this may also explain why Ritz is reluctant to sell anything but the big guys, N & C.

Even if its not true, my impression of Ritz was that it was a camera store for people who knew little and cared little about photography. They just wanted to buy a camera to take vacation shots with. How many serious photographers patronized Ritz before or after the bankruptcy? Even in the N & C line, they only stock the entry level models, like the Rebel XTi or the D5000. They might be able to order a D3 or D700, but they don't stock it. These are the kind of people who see Ashton Kutcher on TV and decide that they have to have a Nikon, or their brother-in-law has a Canon and tells them that its the best, so they buy one.

That said, we have a regional chain, here in Cleveland, called Dodd's. They are the store that local pros go to. In their downtown store, they carry all the big brands, including Hasselblad and Mamiya. You want a six foot softbox or umbrella and a 300W studio flash? They've got 'em. These people know serious cameras. They never really stopped carrying Pentax, but even they cut back. Now, they've started stocking the K-x and K-7. I even saw a red K-x in one of their suburban stores, which typically caters to the entry lever or casual photographer.

So, yeah, Pentax seems to be gaining reground in brick and mortar stores. When I was in Dodd's downtown store a couple of weeks ago, one of the salesmen told me that, at least in their store, Pentax was overtaking Olympus in sales.

[elho_cid]

Here in Prague I actually didn't observe Pentax being ignored by the shops. One shop stopped selling Pentax gear, but then they also stopped selling Sony and now they are about close to stop selling anything at all. I liked them, the salesmen were knowledgeable.

Other shop that never sold a single Pentax before suddenly included K-x in their offer. But they broadened their portfolio a lot - it used to be a small HW store few years ago and now they even sell cars and perfumes. They do not know anything about the stuff they sell, but they keep large stock while keeping low prices.