[Adam]

News update from the official Pentax website:

Denver, CO. ...If you dream of owning a PENTAX K-r digital SLR in a color that stands out in a crowd, your wait is over! PENTAX RICOH IMAGING AMERICAS CORPORATION just announced the K-r digital SLR soon will be available exclusively on www.walmart.com in limited edition colors including pink, purple, blue, green, yellow, navy, metallic brown, gold and silver. Each new color kit will ship with...

Adam
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[magkelly]

$799.98 for a K-r, $1499.98 for a K5, they're on there as of this morning. Nice to see them, but forgive me I'm not breaking out the Walmart card for them just yet, not at full price, lol. I don't see any colors as yet though, only black. I do have a Walmart card though, sigh. If they get to $500 for a pink or green or purple one, oooh, never mind, I cannot even think about going there. I can't afford to use the card now for the interest. It's hideous...

[Adam]

Is pentax trying to mess with our minds? One day we see the k-r being discontinued, the other day we see them starting to bring over more colors from Japan....

[eddie1960]

$799.98 for a K-r, $1499.98 for a K5, they're on there as of this morning. Nice to see them, but forgive me I'm not breaking out the Walmart card for them just yet, not at full price, lol. I don't see any colors as yet though, only black. I do have a Walmart card though, sigh. If they get to $500 for a pink or green or purple one, oooh, never mind, I cannot even think about going there. I can't afford to use the card now for the interest. It's hideous...

i looked too, the prices are seriously out to lunch so it won't make much of an impact. If they had them in stores that would be different. Retail presence would be a huge boon to Pentax even if it is wally world (where i absolutely refuse to shop anyway but that's a P&R discussion)

[eddie1960]

Is pentax trying to mess with our minds? One day we see the k-r being discontinued, the other day we see them starting to bring over more colors from Japan....

Well to be fair the only source of discontinued was B&H and the other retailers still show it as regular, and I believe someone got an email from Pentax stating it was still in production. B&H may have jumped the gun on a notice from Pentax

[photoleet]

Well, if I am not mistaken this is only walmart.com and not retail stores ?

But good news nonetheless, that colors will be available on there.

[yucatanPentax]

News update from the official Pentax website:

Denver, CO. ...If you dream of owning a PENTAX K-r digital SLR in a color that stands out in a crowd, your wait is over! PENTAX RICOH IMAGING AMERICAS CORPORATION just announced the K-r digital SLR soon will be available exclusively on Walmart.com: Save money. Live better. in limited edition colors including pink, purple, blue, green, yellow, navy, metallic brown, gold and silver. Each new color kit will ship with...

April 1st is a while off yet....

In all seriousness, the silver, black, silver may be appealing.
Pink, yellow, and green altogether make me a bit queasy....

The colors! The colors...!

---

Last edited by yucatanPentax; 11-23-2011 at 12:33 PM.

[sjwaldron]

It says limited edition, so I don't see that the discontinuation of the K-r is wrong. The gold and silver K-r look pretty nice.

[JinDesu]

Adam, just a minor niggle - whenever you give Pentax official broadcasts that end in ellipsis, can you link the Pentax page you got it from in your post ? Save me the trouble of typing in Digital Cameras by PENTAX - Waterproof Digital Camera - Digital SLR!

[eddie1960]

i do like that yellow black model, like a bumble bee.

[maxfield_photo]

Is pentax trying to mess with our minds? One day we see the k-r being discontinued, the other day we see them starting to bring over more colors from Japan....

Ah ha! I suspected something like this might be the case when B&H announced that it had been discontinued with no successor announced. Remember the K-x was sold well into the life span of the K-r. W@lmart probably placed a huge order for the K-rs, huge at least by Pentax standards, and they are don't have the production capabilities to meet any other demands until the camera's replacement. W@lmart has strict rules about their product demands. If a manufacturer can't keep up, or if they can't get the product to the company within two weeks, they have to pay some pretty hefty fines as a part of their agreement.

In the short term, that's good for Ricoh, an order for 50,000 cameras means that the Pentax purchase has already begun paying for itself (I'll bet Hoya is fuming) But in the long run, I'd hate to see W@lmart do to Pentax what they did to Rubbermaid (google this one if you don't know the story). Their heavy-handed business practices left Rubbermaid a shadow of it's former self. When the new camera comes out, will camera retailers like B&H and Adorama be able to get any in? What about small "mom & pop" stores? It's a double-edged sword dealing with W@lmart, sure it means huge volume sales, but only on their terms. If you think QC is bad now, wait until W@lmart demands that Pentax move their operation to Outer Mongolia so that W@lmart can charge what they want to charge at a margin that they deem acceptable.

And what happens if Pentax ramps up production to levels which satisfy W@lmart's demands (and still allow some to trickle down to the rest of the retail world) and suddenly they decided that the camera isn't selling well enough, and drop it from their stores? That would leave them with a huge backstock that they'd have to move out of their warehouse quickly and probably at a loss. I hope this gamble pays off for them.

[v5planet]

Ah ha! I suspected something like this might be the case when B&H announced that it had been discontinued with no successor announced. Remember the K-x was sold well into the life span of the K-r. W@lmart probably placed a huge order for the K-rs, huge at least by Pentax standards, and they are don't have the production capabilities to meet any other demands until the camera's replacement. W@lmart has strict rules about their product demands. If a manufacturer can't keep up, or if they can't get the product to the company within two weeks, they have to pay some pretty hefty fines as a part of their agreement.

In the short term, that's good for Ricoh, an order for 50,000 cameras means that the Pentax purchase has already begun paying for itself (I'll bet Hoya is fuming) But in the long run, I'd hate to see W@lmart do to Pentax what they did to Rubbermaid (google this one if you don't know the story). Their heavy-handed business practices left Rubbermaid a shadow of it's former self. When the new camera comes out, will camera retailers like B&H and Adorama be able to get any in? What about small "mom & pop" stores? It's a double-edged sword dealing with W@lmart, sure it means huge volume sales, but only on their terms. If you think QC is bad now, wait until W@lmart demands that Pentax move their operation to Outer Mongolia so that W@lmart can charge what they want to charge at a margin that they deem acceptable.

And what happens if Pentax ramps up production to levels which satisfy W@lmart's demands (and still allow some to trickle down to the rest of the retail world) and suddenly they decided that the camera isn't selling well enough, and drop it from their stores? That would leave them with a huge backstock that they'd have to move out of their warehouse quickly and probably at a loss. I hope this gamble pays off for them.

Halloween was a month ago. Stop telling us these scary stories! ;-)

[jeffshaddix]

Interesting commentary maxfield. If Ricoh can play their cards right, I think this will be a massive win for them. A hefty portion of entry level DSLRs are sold by Canikon to people who buy them solely due to seeing them in mainstream electronics/dept stores like Walmart all across the country. All these entry-level sales push funding for higher-end equipment and promote brand recognition.

As you say, Wallyworld has a frightening business model, but I think Ricoh's international establishment will give them the means to push back if necessary. I've seen plenty of Canikon/Sony/Oly equipment in Walmart, and that hasn't affected them negatively AFAIK.

I hope this marketing trend extends to local photography stores soon as well!

[eddie1960]

For a long time Tier 1 suppliers (like Sony and Panasonic) wouldn't sell electronics to Walmart. When they finally broke down and began supplying them they sold them the prior model year and kept it in production. Walmart has gotten big enough in electronics that now they get the same model year as others.
and the idea of them picking up the brand then dumping it screwing them in the process is their classic model. I hope it works out, as it sits it's just online right now so not as big an issue. if it goes into the stores it could create all sorts of problems
I remember a small Canadian speaker company going under when I worked at Eaton's. We had bought most of the line tied up their production so they lost small dealers and when they didn't sell well enough we dropped them (along with taking 60-90 days to pay the bills) the lack of cash flow killed them. the next buyer stopped buying from small brands because he didn't want to see it happen again
Walmart does it all the time. I wouldn't sell to them as a small company too risky. Ricoh fortunately isn't small, so maybe they can get a return out of it

[Colbyt]

Wally World would not be my first choice of retailers to market the line but it may give needed exposure.