Originally posted by Alex645 And where I live, and I believe this is a trend worldwide, buying online is becoming a necessity rather than a choice. I donʻt like it, but it takes huge resources for Canikony to stock demos and fill inventories at brick and mortars stores globally. Retailers also donʻt want to give up shelf space if they perceive 90% are looking to buy a Canikony and they canʻt afford to compete with online prices for Pentax.
I see it as a "Catch-22". Iʻve been pushing one of our local retailers to carry Pentax (because I believe more students will buy Pentax if it were carried locally), but the owner claims Ricoh makes it more difficult to become an authorized dealer, more than any other brand he carries. Is it incompetence? Or is it by design that they only want to work with a few select mega-retailers? Or is the local owner not being truthful because he doesnʻt want to take a risk on the minority brand?
So ultimately, I think we all agree it is one of the cons for Pentax. Does that con outweigh the good? For me, itʻs only an annoyance.
This happened because back when Pentax was in the stores, so many store salesmen were constantly steering users away from Pentax. Trained Nikon and Canon salesmen were essentially working in most stores. Pentax cannot increase market share by putting product in these stores. What the salesmen didn't tell you is both Nikon and Canon subsidize sales space in the stores. Pentax ended that practice for the above mentioned reason. "You take our money but you don't sell our product." This is complete dishonesty on the part of store owners.
You have to be careful who you trust. As a lesser known brand, Pentax need salesmen committed to understanding the brand. What Pentax learned is, if you don't have money to bribe owners, you won't get a fair shake in the retail market. Clearly given market share, that's not a battle Pentax is going to win. So Pentax puts up some hurdles before they put their gear in your store.
As for not getting business from Pentax users, the store owners brought that on themselves. Don't be feeling sorry for them. Sony used to have Sony stores maybe they still do. They didn't do all that well because people want to compare brands. Camera stores want to create the illusion of choice, but most carry only a few brands. They just don't label themselves as such. In reality, my closest store should be labelled a Nikon Store. They have a lot of brand names on their sign, to pull customers on the street, but really, if you are not a Nikon user they have nothing for you.
And that really hurts them. They had a K-1 in for a while. I would have bought it from them, but I didn't know they had it and didn't think to check there. And that's because of last 5 times I went in and asked if they had any Pentax gear that might be of interest they said no. Then they bring in a K-1 and wonder why they can't sell it.
Like most of the retail world Camera stores are under increasing stress from pass through internet retailers. Retailers who order their gear from Pentax after you've placed an order with them. They don't actually have inventory except for a few select hot selling items. And they cheerfully ad, "but we can order whatever you want." Well these days, I can order whatever I want, I don't need you for that.
IN defence of the store owners, I have also worked in computer sales in Windsor Ontario, right across the Detroit River from Detroit, and because of a $200 difference in prices U.S. to Canda, people would come into our store, ask me to set up package for them, go and buy everything on my list across the river, then come to me when they had problems with their equipment. " I didn't sell you this equipment, I'm under no obligation to help you with it. We service what we sell. But if you come and do some house cleaning and laundry as fair trade for my time, I'll help you out." People who think they can scam the system are thinking extremely short term. Sometimes consumers are their own worst enemy.