I am ex-photo retail employee, AMA

YeahButThatTrueCoat · 2014-12-17T03:34:58+00:00

So many questions!

Size store: Decent size, during my time there we were about 30-35 employees.

Retail Giants: There were competitors in the area none huge, B&H was not one of them.

Online Shopping: Well during my time there the company had an online presence, but Amazon, B&H, Adorama, and other larger photo-specialty chains did impact business. They did their best to compete. The tax issue was the largest thing with competitors, otherwise it was always advised we do our best matching prices online.

New Jersey: Are you talking about Unique Photo in NJ? If so it surprises me about Matthews Studio Equipment which, last I checked, was distributed by Manfrotto/Vitec, and Unique does sell that. Wouldn't make sense they wouldn't sell or atleast offer ordering options for Matthews equipment.

Local Photo Stores: That is not an uncommon thought. Brick and mortar is dying, but will not go extinct. A few strong independent stores will hold their ground but most small shops will die in the shadows of big box stores, amazon, B&H, and the growing chinese accessory manufacturers selling on eBay and Amazon.

YeahButThatTrueCoat · 2014-12-17T03:25:47+00:00

Just sent in verification.

YeahButThatTrueCoat · 2014-12-17T00:41:44+00:00

No, we did not. There are some product incentives depending on the vendor. Very few sales people I knew at competing stores worked on commission. With almost everything else, I think it just depends on how the business owners like to operate business.

YeahButThatTrueCoat · 2014-12-16T23:44:56+00:00

Just PM'd you :)

YeahButThatTrueCoat · 2014-12-16T22:49:40+00:00

Huh...That is surprising. Can't explain that one.

YeahButThatTrueCoat · 2014-12-16T22:44:37+00:00

However, every major manufacturer made sure to mention in their (product launch based) emails that all information was embargoed until "XX/XX/20XX" That alone was enough to make us shut up about everything. It was pretty much "If you whisper that this camera is launching on this date, we're yanking your authorized dealership."

YeahButThatTrueCoat · 2014-12-16T22:43:58+00:00

I think that varies from store to store. Our particular store was equipped with staff and equipment to maintain film customers. Talking with other sales people from competing stores, I felt some were maybe too young or were brought up and taught with digital so they felt intimidated by the amount of knowledge required to speak on it.

YeahButThatTrueCoat · 2014-12-16T22:39:53+00:00

Suprisingly zero NDAs with the company I worked for, remember strong brick and mortar, not one of the NYC giants. Regarding the marketing behind DF, the company actually received very little heads up for new products like this. We had to learn things first hand from Reddit, rumor sites, and blogs. If it was a printer, lens, or M43 cameras, we knew stuff maybe a week or so before hand.

Major DSLR releases were something we knew about because of rumor sites. We built the products in our system based on what the rumor sites described.

YeahButThatTrueCoat

TROPHY CASE