Freestyle Sales Co has gone UpTown

[Jim Galli]

Since my bride's family is all in So. Cal. we usually wind up there at Christmas. Such was the case this year, and so while the ladies went galoping off to the post Christmas sales I made my yearly pilgrimmage to Freestyle Sales Co. in good old E. Hollywood. Sha-Zaaam! It's all fixed up like Yuppy Heaven. No more floor to ceiling racks with dusty old stock and mark-down prices. They were out of stock on the 3005 JOBO I went in looking for and I was about to exit when I noticed that they now have a gallery area where there is some truly excellent work on display. Worth a stop just to see the beautiful photography even if you don't buy something. The work is from their ADVISORY BOARD OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PROFESSIONALS Henry Gilpin, Huntington Witherill, Rod Dresser are but a few of the names I am able to rememeber.

[tim atherton]

"Freestyle Sales Co has gone UpTown"

so has their service and prices... I've given up ordering from them since their shipping and handling costs came to more than the film I ordered....

[Jim Galli]

Yuppiness doesn't come cheaply. I must admit I'm very pleased with the ASA 125 5X7 and 7X11 I've gotten from Photo Warehouse.

[Nick_3536]

So has anybody tried the new EDU film from Freesytle? Who makes it?

[darter]

It is unfair to accuse Freestyle of excessive shipping charges. Shipping charges (unless way out of line with those of similar sized businesses) are largely a matter of how much of a discount the retailer can wangle from the major package shippers. Massive volume shippers like B&H and Amazon have much more negotiating power in this regard. In my opinion, Freestyle is doing a great service to the photo community in expanding choices for large format and darkroom users, as are Photo Warehouse and J&C Photography. In contrast, the largest photo retailers are totally passive regarding the large format and darkroom market. I have heard from a reliable source that Arista EDU film and paper is re-packaged Forte. Photo Warehouse film is reportedly rebadged Ilford, as is regular Freestyle Arista.

[jantman]

Freestyle has some great deals. I'm sure that it will be thanks to them that I finally do some mural-size prints. And it's thanks to their prices that I'm lucky enough to be able to shoot color in 8x10.

[David Karp]

I also heard from a good source that the new .edu films and papers are from Forte.

[Ted Harris]

Trying to remember but I think the last time I was in there was either 2 or 3 years ago and they were all fancied up then. The place looked more like a 'photographic Staples' than what it used to look like. Seems they still had many of the great deals on out-of-date film but gone was all the truly funky used and bizarre equipment.

[Jan Pietrzak]

Jim,

I will try an add more to your memory banks Jill Enfield, Elizabeth Opalenik, Dick Garrod, oh and the 4 pt/pd on the side are mine. Yes Freestyle has done a lot of changing. But we are not done yet. A number of things are on the boards. As for film and paper the edu. product, yes it does come from eastern europe and we have found it to be a good value for the dollar. We hope that it will help keep the cost down for some of the school programs. Freestyle has made a commitment to photography and we will do what ever we can to keep materials coming. I am proud to be part of this program. If any of you feel a need for some thing, or have an issue then e-mail us or me. We will see what we can do about it. Oh, Jim I hope you got your tank.

Jan Pietrzak Freestyle Board

[Eric Rose]

As long as the service is there, the products are there at a "reasonable" price and they respond to customer concerns I don't have a problem with paying a bit more for it. People are so ingrained in the "WalMart" mentality these days it seems they are not willing to pay for the extras. It appears many want everything for a rock bottom price, therefore low margin for the seller, but then in the same breath they want customer support too. Ya just can't have it both ways.