andybarton Posted March 28, 2007 Share #1 Posted March 28, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Sign of the times in the "popular" end of the market... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6503633.stm Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted March 28, 2007 Posted March 28, 2007 Hi andybarton, Take a look here Jessops shares nose-dive 70%. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
dkCambridgeshire Posted March 28, 2007 Share #2 Posted March 28, 2007 Remember almost 30 years ago when Jessops was one of the first price slashing retailers ... and customers would travel miles to Jessops Leicester and queue in the street for their Canon AE1 or Nikon FM outfits ... and was similar story with Tecno ... and 'grey importers' eg McKewan's were undercutting everybody ... Jessops expanded and became the biggest photographic chain in UK ... and then twenty five years on internet trading started ... and then the digital revolution. There have been a number of big name photographic dealers go to the wall over the past few years ... So difficult for retailers in such a competitive buyers' market. Jessops overheads with all their stores and staff must be terrific. Dunk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
biglouis Posted March 28, 2007 Share #3 Posted March 28, 2007 The internet has unfortunately made reselling a very difficult business and I say that as a former consumer electricals reseller. Manufacturers do not always help either. The continual churn in technology leaves resellers with unsold stock especially when they can sometimes be the last to know that a model has been upgraded or replaced. I agree with other comments that Jessops helped to break the lock on the photographic market by Dixons by challenging RRP selling and introducing bucket shop pricing. Unfortunately, consumers are incredibly fickle. The internet was invented by nerds for nerds who buy and awful lot of high tech products and nowadays mainly do it through the internet. I've always reckoned that big high street resellers would hit a tipping point where their property portfolios would become worthless and leave them with awful balance sheet problems. I suspect this is the problem with Jessops. Yes, they've got lots of stores which in turn generate less and less sales and become uneconomic overheads. I'll be surprised if they do not dump the format and follows Dixons into being an internet only retailer. LouisB Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkCambridgeshire Posted March 28, 2007 Share #4 Posted March 28, 2007 Jessops .. and that means those responsible within the Company ... made a big mistake i.m.o. years ago when their IT bods failed to respond to demand for on-line interrogation of their stores secondhand prices ... the items were listed (if you looked hard enough) but there were never any prices!! So, having traced a s/h item via the internet any prospective purchaser then had to find the telephone number of the store(s) and then phone the store(s) to find out the price(s) !! It was often a long-winded procedure .. especially when their staff did not answer the phone .. and when they did answer there was no guarantee they could find the item. They must have lost many customers because of such inefficiency .... and then they announced a couple of years ago that they were withdrawing from the secondhand camera market because it was uneconomical and secondhand sales were falling. But ... secondhand camera sales are still thriving elsewhere and other retailers are still in business .. other photographic retail chains can and do list all their stores' s/h stocks on-line (eg London Camera Exchange) . It used to be a pleasure browsing Jessops windows for secondhand bargains ... now they just have new stock ... and not very well displayed. Dunk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunsworth Posted March 29, 2007 Share #5 Posted March 29, 2007 Dunk, I;m sure for specialised used dealers second hand sales are still healthy, but for Jessops I'm guessing that buying used cameras off people was just a way of persuading them to buy new equipment and I doubt that they were a ;arge percentage of their total business. When the re-sale mark up is taken into account the prices they were able to offer seemed very low - especially when the seller could put the item on eBay. However I agree that as a potential buyer it was a very poor system. As a current example I made some enquiries - not with Jessops I add - about selling my Tri-Elmar. I was offered £700. Less than I can get on eBay, so why should I sell to a dealer? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
superfrog Posted March 29, 2007 Share #6 Posted March 29, 2007 I bought a digital P&S (not Leica!) for my wife from Jessops last weekend. The advice and support was great, but when I got home, discovered I could get it for £80 less at Dixons or online. I don't mind paying a small mark-up for good service, but that's really pushing it. Much as I like to support my local shops, I'm going to have to take the camera back and buy it from one of the "faceless" big chains... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
elansprint72 Posted March 29, 2007 Share #7 Posted March 29, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Slightly off topic- we were looking for a 42" HDTV just before Christmas, walked round Comet, John Lewis etc, where the price was just shy of 2 grand, took advice form their knowledgable staff, went home and bought it on the internet for 830 quid! It must be so difficult for high street electrical retailers; presumably they rely upon folks without web access these days, which is a rapidly declining sector. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
zanydave Posted March 29, 2007 Share #8 Posted March 29, 2007 Slightly off topic- we were looking for a 42" HDTV just before Christmas, walked round Comet, John Lewis etc, where the price was just shy of 2 grand, took advice form their knowledgable staff, went home and bought it on the internet for 830 quid!It must be so difficult for high street electrical retailers; presumably they rely upon folks without web access these days, which is a rapidly declining sector. All you need now is a bigger monitor! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
elansprint72 Posted March 29, 2007 Share #9 Posted March 29, 2007 All you need now is a bigger monitor! Did Lord Barton put you up to that, eh, eh? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted March 29, 2007 Share #10 Posted March 29, 2007 Retail business is very tough. As evidenced, 'we' will take the benefits offered by our local stores to see, demo, discuss an item, then wander off and buy it from an e-tailer who has no overheads of High St premises or staff. In such an enviroment more and more retailers will surely fail. Of course the long term effect is that in future you might not be able to see an item working before you buy it, you'll have to buy off the net and hope it does what you want. Jessops problems are more of their own making IMO. They ditched the 'photographic' business to become box shifters, when sales of digicams were going through the roof. Typical of a short term business approach, they failed to predict a) that the average consumer isn't a photo-nut and won't upgrade their camera every year people share their snaps by e mail and won't be returning every week for materials and accessories c) the rise of the mobile phone camera. Supermarkets are also hitting all sectors of retail hard. Most now sell a very small range of cameras, printers ink & paper, so Jessops have competition from this area too (as do clothing retailers, Bookshops, Record shops etc). Jessops also have far too many branches. In Croydon alone there are 4! Yet chances are, if you call into any of them, they don't have what you actually want. Stocks seem very random. Its hard to see how they can survive without a massive restructuring. People aren't suddenly going to go rushing out to buy digicams again in 6 months time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkCambridgeshire Posted March 29, 2007 Share #11 Posted March 29, 2007 ... Jessops also have far too many branches. In Croydon alone there are 4! Yet chances are, if you call into any of them, they don't have what you actually want. Stocks seem very random. Its hard to see how they can survive without a massive restructuring. ... . When Jessops and Tecno merged they did not amortise branches ... thus in Peterborough there are two Jessops branches within 3 minutes walk of each other ... I think maybe they could not just cancel the leases ... must be very difficult trying to generate enough sales to support two or more branches in one locality. Dunk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkCambridgeshire Posted March 30, 2007 Share #12 Posted March 30, 2007 Have heard today that Jessops Classic in Gt Russell St near British Museum is to re-open on 10 April as a normal Jessops store ... but not sure if they will be selling any collectable cameras ... their website is still showing collectables including Leica ... not sure if the stock is left over from the old store website or if it is in readiness for the re-opening. Hope they give the old shop a lick of paint before it re-opens; it always needed brightening up. Dunk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybarton Posted March 31, 2007 Author Share #13 Posted March 31, 2007 Did Lord Barton put you up to that, eh, eh? No, he didn't. Spend some of the eleven hundred quid you saved on a 20" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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