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Thread: Calumet Closing!!!!!!!!!!!!

  1. #101

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    Re: Calumet Closing!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Even 5 years ago, BH was most likely selling more pro gear then all calumet locations combined. They have set tone for the entire market (in price and service) for at least the past 10 years if not longer.
    Dont get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with BH as it stands, because they do offer a great service at a ridiculous low price. The problem is that their existence, directly negates the existence of any other photo retailers save maybe one or two other companies with the same level of absolute market control.

  2. #102
    Roger Cole's Avatar
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    Re: Calumet Closing!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by Ari View Post
    Too bad, but to be honest, they were a frustrating store with which to do business over the last ten years.
    They seemed to be in perpetual disarray, and never caught on to the computer thingy as a business/inventory tool.
    That was more or less my experience too. They were great (if really excessive on shipping, particularly liquids) in the 90s because they carried such a wide range but they haven't really been important on my radar for some time.

    Quote Originally Posted by Taija71A View Post
    The last time that I called Calumet for something listed as 'In Stock' on their Web Site... They asked ME what the item was?

    I tried to explain to 'them'... That it was for a 4x5 Large Format Camera...
    They then asked ME... "What is 4x5 ???"

    Enough said
    ...
    ___

    Best regards,

    -Tim.

    _________
    That's sad - and really unforgivable even nowadays for a store catering to pros.

    I called them once since my return to photography to oder the plastic GG overlay for my Calumet 6x7 RF back. They transferred me to a guy in the warehouse who knew exactly what I wanted and got me one. Might have been Jose mentioned below, but I'm not sure.

    More recently I ordered some 3x3" acetate filters (yikes! I will miss those! Glad I have the ones I need, I think) and some cardboard mounts for them to drop into my 3x3 filter holder. I got the ordered filers, no cardboard mounts, and a compendium lens shade listed at something like $120! I'd paid only for the filters and frames. I called and they were very grateful and (of course) sent me via email a return label to return the lens shade, but said the cardboard mounts were out of stock. No worries, I can make them quickly and easily with a pair of scissors, an exacto knife and some card stock, it would have just been easier to use those. The did promptly credit me for those.

    Still, I had no legal obligation to return that lens shade. If someone sends you something you did not order, you can legally keep it, and they had no idea the error had occurred anyway. That would have been a fairly costly mistake sending it to some people and makes me wonder how often things like that happened. Not enough to impact their bottom line and be a big contributor to this I'm sure, but it was certainly sloppy.

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    I once did quite a bit of business with them. But then their focus changed. They bet all their money on one horse (digital studio), always seemed to have annoying
    upcharges, had a hokey website hard to find stuff on, and if you called them, took some luck to find someone with a knowledgeable background who could tell you
    what they actually carried. I didn't expect them to survive, and am surprised they held on this long.
    The big issue, besides a crappy web site, stuff not in stock now or probably ever, and no longer carrying all the cool film stuff they used to carry (uh, that's a long list of "besides") was the shipping charges. They were always just way over the top, more so back when they carried darkroom stuff because they insisted on shipping any liquid separately, one per box, and charging accordingly. It was really prohibitive.

    Meanwhile Freestyle ships anything, to the 48 CONUS at least, well packed, never got anything damaged, including ORM-D, and the only reason the rates are a bit much seems to me to be the fact I'm shipping from California to Atlanta. I can live with their rates. First rate operation.

    Quote Originally Posted by Kirk Gittings View Post
    Frankly though they were my "go to" store into say the year 2000 or so, in the last while because of their dinosaur website or not stocking what I need etc. they became the last place I shopped in recent years. So this does not effect me personally at all. The businesses I frequent now seem to be going strong, Freestyle I always give the first shot (I believe they have a long term commitment to the kind of photography I do) and then if that fails B&H.

    But its "the sign if the times" this represents that I find dismaying. Even with bad management I think they would have survived in a better economy and industry perhaps. A friend of mine who finally just left Calumet last summer summarized it thus-it was simply "terrible management". He didn't blame the economy or the industry.

    I think a comparison is in order. As Calumet was tanking Freestyle was growing and prospering......what might we surmise from that obvious fact in this situation? Now I have a dog in this hunt-the CEO of Freestyle is an old college fraternity brother of mine, and I am on their advisory board, but I think their success is pretty clear beyond my affection for the guy and his organization. He likewise had absolutely NO background in photography when he was recruited to take over the company but did have some real success actually salvaging distressed companies before Freestyle.
    I love Freestyle and do try to support them, but I admit on most film (aside, obviously, from their re-branded Foma) and many paper orders that their prices send me to B&H. I'll pay a little more but if all I want is film, or a pack of paper, the combination of higher price and longer distance make the difference just hard to justify. But I do still order many things from Freestyle and often group film and paper in with those orders.

    Support those who support you - Calumet quit being that place a decade to a decade and a half ago. Freestyle is that place now and I too try to support them.

    B&H is good but is a huge mega-store selling many different lines. I do buy from them, but always at least check Freestyle.

  3. #103

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    Re: Calumet Closing!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by koh303 View Post
    ALL american apparel stuff is made in CA. But all that stuff is made by slaves who get paid less the mexican minimum wages, if there is such a thing. So in that sense, american made does really mean anything for the american worker (see NAFTA)...
    And you please elaborate on that, if the stuff is made in California, how can it be made by workers who are making Mexican wages? That doesn't make any sense either they are working for minimum wage, were they are not being paid in America, or the business is running an illegal operation which I doubt..

  4. #104

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    Re: Calumet Closing!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by StoneNYC View Post
    And you please elaborate on that, if the stuff is made in California, how can it be made by workers who are making Mexican wages? That doesn't make any sense either they are working for minimum wage, were they are not being paid in America, or the business is running an illegal operation which I doubt..
    NAFTA means that American companies, can own and operate or use the services of factories inside the US (but close enough to Mexico), employ Mexian day laborers who cross into the US daily for work, inside what is called a "trade free zone" (no taxes applied to business done there). As such they are also not obligated to US labor laws (whatever those are...) as the employees are Mexican, and remain under Mexican law even while they work in the US.
    As the factories are in the US, there is no import duty on what they make, but also no US regulation on their working conditions (as if the US regulates working conditions for salves inside the US elsewhere).
    You can read a bit about the great benefits of this type of operations here:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maquiladora

    As it is, many of those "made in America" cars are made in such factories, with material which is imported into Mexico by GM, the waste left in Mexico (for free) and final assembly of many components in Canada only to be sold in the US. 85% of those cars actually made in the US, are sold for Export...

    At any rate as Mcdonalds recently explained to the American public, if you are so lucky to have minimum wage job in the US, it means you only need to have at least one other full time minimum wage job in order to have enough money for food and shelter (but nothing else).

  5. #105

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    Re: Calumet Closing!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Thread off topic, politics, etc. Closed.

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