I've talked to a few longtime camera shop owners about Pentax (I live in Iowa). It's surprising the amount of vitriol there is toward the brand, because of the way that Pentax treated their once-enthusiastic dealer network in the US. Right around 2008, I think, Pentax began requiring very expensive pre-purchases of new stock in order to remain a dealer. These dealers were generally selling a decent amount of Pentax product, and had been for years, but putting all the risk on the dealer like that (which, I gather, was not happening with other mfgs) was highly offensive, and a risk most of them were not willing to take.
I talked to one shop owner in Illinois - a Pentax dealer at the time - who said that other shops would even send them their Pentax trade-ins, because they didn't want to deal with the brand in any way whatsoever. Incidentally, I checked their website recently, and that dealer no longer sells Pentax new, either. They were the only one within 300 miles that I was aware of.
It may have been a necessary strategy financially, but IMO Pentax/Ricoh burned a huge amount of goodwill among the very people who wanted to advocate for their products. I think the situation is unrecoverable now; Pentax couldn't rebuild a dealer network in the US if they tried.
Last edited by babywriter; 02-20-2019 at 07:12 PM.