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Thread: Bankruptcy Sale At Penn Camera

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Dec 1997
    Location
    Baraboo, Wisconsin
    Posts
    7,697

    Bankruptcy Sale At Penn Camera

    While Kodak's likely bankruptcy filing has been getting all the attention, a local photography institution in the Washington, D.C. area has filed for bankruptcy and they're having a big sale. I don't know how how much if any large format gear they have on hand these days but thought some here might be interested.

    It's very sad to see these household names disappearing. I grew up in Washington, D. C. and first got into photography when I was about 12 years old. I remember buying film and some very basic darkroom gear at a Penn Camera store in downtown D.C.

    http://www.penncameras.com/message.html
    Brian Ellis
    Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you do criticize them you'll be
    a mile away and you'll have their shoes.

  2. #2

    Re: Bankruptcy Sale At Penn Camera

    Too bad they'll die. I've experienced it several times in Europe.

    My guess: Digital ruined them. A camera store needs to stock cameras, but due to the short release times of new models they were doomed to lose their margins because of falling prices.

    They should have focussed more on film and analog equipment. I've made a quick search with the term 'large format' and guess what came up? Digital cameras! Then I submitted the term 'film', and after scrolling past some film material I ended up with worthless digital cameras.

    The hype is 'eating' it's children...

    Let's pray that at least the large format shops like Badgergraphic, etc. will stay alive for the next 50 years.

  3. #3
    Octogenarian
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    Sep 2003
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    Frisco, Texas
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    3,532

    Re: Bankruptcy Sale At Penn Camera

    From 1956-1958 I was serving in the US Army Dental Corps. Stationed in the Washington, DC area.

    While waiting to be discharged, I used my mustering out pay to purchase a used Rolleiflex f3.5 TLR from Penn Camera. A short while later, I traded it for a brand new f2.8 Rollei from the same Penn Camera Store.

    At the time, I believe Penn only had one store in DC. I was a huge, well stocked operation. They were great people to deal with.

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Rondo, Missouri
    Posts
    2,125

    Re: Bankruptcy Sale At Penn Camera

    I was stationed at Fort Meade in the early 70's. Penn was a regular institution for me. I got my RB-67 there and regularly bought film from them. Until I saw this post, I hadn't thought about them for years. But it does bring up a wisp of nostalgia.
    Michael W. Graves
    Michael's Pub

    If it ain't broke....don't fix it!

  5. #5
    Bob
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Maryland
    Posts
    226

    Re: Bankruptcy Sale At Penn Camera

    Actually they are only closing 5 of 8 stores. I don't think I even knew the 5 closing existed and I have lived here for the last 36 years. Stock from the closing stores will be sold as clearance at the three remaining stores.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Location
    Greenbank, WA
    Posts
    2,605

    Re: Bankruptcy Sale At Penn Camera

    Fewer people are doing wet darkroom work now. Very little film being sold. On the hardware side, people come check things out, use up the time of your salesperson, then find the lowest price on-line and buy it that way, getting a lower price and skipping the sales tax.

    Pretty hard for a brick and mortar store to overcome all that.

  7. #7

    Join Date
    Sep 1998
    Location
    Loganville , GA
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    14,409

    Re: Bankruptcy Sale At Penn Camera

    Quote Originally Posted by Kevin Crisp View Post
    Fewer people are doing wet darkroom work now. Very little film being sold. On the hardware side, people come check things out, use up the time of your salesperson, then find the lowest price on-line and buy it that way, getting a lower price and skipping the sales tax.

    Pretty hard for a brick and mortar store to overcome all that.
    B&H and Adorama are brick and mortar stores.

  8. #8
    Moderator
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Northern Virginia
    Posts
    5,614

    Re: Bankruptcy Sale At Penn Camera

    I'll buy from brick and mortar stores if they have it in stock. If they have to order it, then well hell I can do that for myself and not have to make a second trip.

    I have never ordered anything on line that I decided to buy after handling that item in a store. Personally, I think that's a myth. It seems to me, though, that instant gratification being what it is, people will pay a little more for what they are already salivating over rather than have to wait a week to get it from a mailorder house.

    Of course, Moe out at Ace Photo (in a much more accessible--to me--part of northern Virginia) has been willing to dicker on price from time to time to compete, at least for his better customers. Several times at Penn, when I've tried to talk to them like a grownup, I've gotten a rotten attitude in return. Maybe I've just been unlucky. I've spent many, many thousands of dollars at Ace Photo, and maybe less than a thousand at Penn (I think I bought a Vivitar 283 flash from them, and maybe a lens that was on sale, and my wife has bought another lens that was on sale). I've never visited B&H in person without walking out with something, and I'm quite sure I've spent more in their store in person than by mail.

    But since my return to large format, and since I've been augmenting my collection of Pentax 6x7 stuff, I've been able to find little to buy in any brick-and-mortar store. Mostly I'm buying from other people here, or in bits and pieces in stores I happen to visit while traveling. The last time I wandered into Penn at Tyson's Corner, I just couldn't find anything to be interested in, not even 17x25 inkjet paper.

    Rick "noting Ace Photo has a better selection of lighting equipment, tripods, and cases--the stuff many people really need to see in the flesh before buying--than Penn Tysons" Denney

  9. #9

    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    New River AZ
    Posts
    175

    Unhappy Re: Bankruptcy Sale At Penn Camera

    Quote Originally Posted by Kevin Crisp View Post
    Fewer people are doing wet darkroom work now. Very little film being sold. On the hardware side, people come check things out, use up the time of your salesperson, then find the lowest price on-line and buy it that way, getting a lower price and skipping the sales tax.

    Pretty hard for a brick and mortar store to overcome all that.
    Exact same thing that happened to Photomark here in Arizona - tirekickers kicked the store into the gutter - arghh.

  10. #10

    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Uralla, NSW Australia
    Posts
    379

    Re: Bankruptcy Sale At Penn Camera

    Yes, I don't think digital is killing stores, but the dreaded internet.

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