Originally posted by jhaji CameraStoreMan, Ritz used to sell a number of rebadged Tamron and Sigma lenses under its Quantaray name. Did they cease that after the previous bankruptcy?
I think they did. I bought two Sigma lenses the same day I bought my K10D back in May, 2009. And in their Ultra stores they continued to have some stock of both these and genuine Pentax lenses for a few further months. After that, all Pentax merchandise was recalled and I assume went to the sellout store in Texas (sorry, I don't remember where). Since then the only way to get a lens that would fit a Pentax camera through Ritz was to special order a Tamron lens. They had an excellent reputation because they had pretty good quality, a six year warranty(!) and were significantly cheaper than manufacturer branded lenses. We were told that in fact Tamron was often the actual manufacturer of many camera brand lenses. An easy way to tell was if both Tamron and some camera manufacturer simultaneously announced the availability of the same lens. I noticed this with some Nikon lenses (oh how I wish I remembered which ones).
To other news, somebody still working for Ritz revealed that C & A Marketing bought at least 12 more Ritz stores from the receiver last Monday, including the Bethesda store here near Washington DC. I don't know where the other locations are. I had called to find out what had happened to my employment records after not being able to get through to the headquarters. I was told that for all practical purposes, Ritz has already ceased to exist as a corporate entity. The only thing left was a customer service line (and nobody answered that either).