B&H No Longer Shipping Chemistry

[Sal Santamaura]

...Do I think the personal attacks on henryp and the snide comments...have been helpful? No, and I think it's damaged the reputation of this forum (and apug) as a whole.

I disagree. In my opinion, the personal attacks and snide comments have damaged the reputations of those attackers/commenters only, not the forums overall.

[Drew Wiley]

Gosh. The office manager here prefers to buy all our computer monitors and gosh knows how much related stuff from clear across the country at B&H, despite the
plethora of local sources. So they must be doing something right. I just have to make sure the receiving department reads the labels correctly, so my personal
shipments don't get confused with theirs.

[Greg Y]

From a customer standpoint, I've had good service from B&H. Freestyle, has not been a paragon of customer service. First they jacked their shipping costs to Canada up. I was going to Arizona, so I made an online order, & wanted it shipped there. They had lost track of me as a customer, so they would only take a $250 order...
We'll see if this BH order arrives....

[Mrportr8]

It is practically impossible these days to rely on just one supplier. So I plan to buy what I need from whoever has it in stock and can/will ship it. Local suppliers have gone the way of the Do-Do bird and this is our new reality. If B&H chooses for whatever reason not to ship chemistry then too bad, so sad, find another vendor. Attacking their decision will not change their mind. Money speaks louder than words.

[brad martin]

B&H is selling outdoor gear. Need a tent?

They probably hired some big 4, 2, or 3 accounting/consulting firm to streamline/maximize their profit centers and shipping chemistry did not make the cut.

On the other hand after the consultants leave and managment goes back to sleep they may walk into work one day and decide "that was stupid" and it will be back to business as usual.

I've seen it happen.

[Duolab123]

I for one purchased the bulk of my chemistry locally while I could. Specialized things that the local store couldn't get I purchased from another shop a bit farther away. Unusual items came from B&H. When the camera store 45 minutes from me closed doors (after Walmart drove them out of business) I drove an hour and twenty minutes to the big shop about once a month. They diversified, started selling computers and little by little, as the hobbyist market for photographic materials dried up, the pros went to digital, the photo-finishing business evaporated and they couldn't compete with the big box stores they went out of business. They sold chemistry and paper and film to us die-hards till the end. All six or seven of us. Our first iMac came from them. I purchased paper from B&H because the most local option only carried Kodak RC, and could only order by the case, the pro shop didn't have much variety after a few years. I actually ordered Agfa paper and their version of Polytoner from the local rep back when there still was such a thing. It was delivered to the local mini lab, then to a larger minilab/camera store about 1:45 away after the local one switched to Fuji (they too are long out of business). I purchased Sprint chemistry through a shop over in NH for years, they are now a shadow of their former selves, no longer develop film, sell cameras or chemistry and mostly do banner printing. They might still have film, I don't know, a trip there to be asked "we used to sell cameras?" doesn't yield much, the last film I bought there was insanely over-priced. B&H is the last option on the East Coast for getting anything on short notice, barely slower than driving to Boston or NY or Montreal, each of which is a whole days work. (Not to mention the apparent illegality of transporting the stuff on a regular drivers license...) I've not tried carrying chemistry over the border myself, I can only imagine the cell I'd spend my time in trying to bring such suspicious powders and heavy liquids into my country.

The lack of clients for darkroom services makes the slower timeframe from Freestyle less problematic than it would have been ten years ago, as most of my paid work comes from a scanner and Photoshop these days. My Freestyle order will arrive today, enough developer to tide me over till summer. I will have to order from Sprint soon as I'm about to open my last cube of fixer.

Having had far too many bad experiences with Adorama selling me things they don't have in stock and playing the back order game for weeks on end and Unique Photo not carrying many of my usual materials it is down to Freestyle or Fotoimpex for me.

I'm lucky I have TWO Real camera stores locally (about 25 miles apart). I'm good friends with both shop owners. I am able to get Genuine real Flexicolor C-41 and Fuji RA-4 . I have bought at least $50,000 worth of stuff from these guys over the years (They have helped me sell a lot too). Only one has much in black and white chemistry This fellow GIVES me a lot of stuff people drop off just to get rid of it. I haven't ordered chemistry from BH in probably ten years. I would always pick stuff up from my buddies. Film and paper is a different story. They don't have any sheet film, only one has 120 film.
There used to be 6 shops in my home town of around 110,000 people now one.
It's a whole different world.
Best Regards, Mike

[sepiareverb]

I'm lucky I have TWO Real camera stores locally (about 25 miles apart). I'm good friends with both shop owners. I am able to get Genuine real Flexicolor C-41 and Fuji RA-4 . I have bought at least $50,000 worth of stuff from these guys over the years (They have helped me sell a lot too). Only one has much in black and white chemistry This fellow GIVES me a lot of stuff people drop off just to get rid of it. I haven't ordered chemistry from BH in probably ten years. I would always pick stuff up from my buddies. Film and paper is a different story. They don't have any sheet film, only one has 120 film.
There used to be 6 shops in my home town of around 110,000 people now one.
It's a whole different world.
Best Regards, Mike

Rural VT had stores every 50 miles back in the day, they were down to every 75 miles or so when I arrived here in 1995. Now there is one in Burlington that doesn't sell much for chemistry or paper. Another good camera repair/used shop, but no supplies. I know of three private darkrooms within a 30 mile radius. I know of three others that are no more. The college where I taught for years is close to shutting down the darkroom, the only thing keeping it going is that they don't have the money to gut it and turn it into a computer lab. No wonder there are no shops around...

[denverjims]

B&H must have told it's people to blame UPS, but obviously it was an internal decision to shut this down.

Absolutely!
Think on it. Our many of our local photo stores get their products delivered via UPS and, if this was a UPS policy, most of the photo stores in the country would no longer be able to sell chemicals because they could not get it delivered to them. This does not seem to be the case. The owner of my local told me that there has been absolutely NO change in policy by UPS that they are aware of. They are getting their Ilford chemicals delivered just fine for me to buy. Unless it a NYC ONLY policy, B&H's explanation does not wash.

As far as I'm concerned, B&H can make whatever decision they wish about changing their product offerings and, I guess, it's their business - literally. Frankly, at the price they were selling liquid chemistries at plus the free shipping, I was surprised that they could afford to ship from NYC to Denver area for free and still make any money. So I'm not shocked. However, to not be up front about the reason bothers me a lot.

I'd be lying if I said that I will never buy from them again, but it will affect my future decisions as to where I will look to buy.

But we have to face the fact that we are a small demographic in the photographic retail/wholesale marketplace. The damage we might do to them by our moving away may be equivalent to the damage that the bulldozer threatening Arthur Dent (in the Hitchhiker's Guide) would have sustained if it had rolled over him.

[faberryman]

Back before all the bruhaha began, I ordered a tripod head from B&H. It was defective. Fortunately, B&H's return policy and procedure is good. I received an e-mail from them yesterday notifying me that a replacement had be shipped. I checked UPS status this morning and learned that it would be coming by UPS Ground.



If UPS Ground is a speedy enough delivery method for tripod heads, surely it is a speedy enough delivery method for photographic chemicals. I am sure their customers, myself included, would not begrudge them an extra day or two delay in receiving their orders. It seems to be the shipping option of choice for all other retail suppliers of photographic chemicals.

[Drew Wiley]

They certainly don't sell MUCH outdoor gear. Why not a token tent along with binoculars? Bird watchers and hunters shop there too, not just photographers. By the same token, REI sells binoculars and GPS phones along with a big selection of tents. If a particular marketing approach keeps you efficiently in business, you'll still be around to help people next year too. The problem seems to be that, when a market trend skews, businesses forget who they once were, where they came from. That is what the shift to digital has done, but also brought in a lot of new competition. So once again, the squeaky wheel gets the oil, and in my case, the squeaky wheel needs traditional film and darkroom paper. And yes, they did have in stock what I needed yesterday, and will probably have it too me faster than my West Coast sources. But I also like to support the camera store down the street, to encourage them to keep film and darkroom supplies healthy
locally, which they've done, even though 60% of their business in now digi-camera related instead.