<So, while YOU think they're "way off," they don't seem to feel the same way, and, as far as I'm concerned, I'm glad that they are providing for my film and darkroom needs - and at a reasonable price as well. And there are a lot of east bay photogs who feel the same way.>
Quit being so defensive and really listen to what I am saying please? I never said they shouldn't keep on catering to the film folks, in fact I am glad they do given the student and pro base around here, (and hey I am soon to be one of them so of course I am glad there is somewhere I can still buy film and stuff reasonably...) but I do think that they are not catering as much to the digital crowd as they could be and that's going to cost them money-wise in the future if they don't get more up to speed. Ok, I'm going to lay it on the line. Yes, I was talking about LG Photo in Berkeley, and yes, I love the darkroom, the fact that they have everything in terms of film, etc and yes, they do have a selection of digital cameras though for a store that aims to be THE photo store in the area they don't have all the lines they could. When I went in looking for one the sales staff was far sketchier on the digital end of things than the film. Having a Nikon rep in once in a while isn't the optimal way to sell cameras. KNOWING the cameras, the different lines and what the advantages and flaws of each one are is. Stocking digital stuff is a pretty recent thing for them. A year or so ago I was trying to make a good decision on which digital camera to spend my money on and no one behind that counter really knew more about the cameras than I did walking through the door and doing some research online. I needed a semi-pro camera and lenses, etc. Something to get me from school to my first pro assignments. No one behind that counter had the stats and experience I needed to make a good decision. They were all gung ho on selling me a film camera, but nearly blank when it came to finding me the best digital one. When I finally did buy one, elsewhere, I still went back for my lenses, but it took a staff member a good amount of time to figure out what lenses and adapters go with my particular camera, and in this case, as it happened they were wrong about a certain lens being a good one, and I had to replace it with another, better one to get what I needed. Time and money wasted.... They're only now getting to the point where they are handling digital pics in bulk, doing prints from CD's filled with pics, and they still don't offer any real help regarding the digital imaging end of things. No digital lab. You come in as a novice looking to crop and edit yourself and you're out of luck. They have a machine to do it for you, sorta, but they could be offering BOTH. A lot of people simply can't afford photoshop, but would love to be able to regularly access a computer that has it...Or could use some help getting started in that direction. Fact is, a great portion of LG's knowlege and facility stops at film, and that's not as up to date it could be. I say why not have BOTH labs? But when I did, they looked at me like I was from Mars... I spoke to a higher up when I did my interview. The impression I got from him was that they did not want to deal with digital but they felt they had to. It was almost a reverse snobbery thing and it bugged me a bit. You look on the book shelves and very few of the good books on digital photography are even there...They have a lot on film, but there interest clearly stops there. Yeah, B&N and Borders can cover that, but do they have a staff that is well-versed in both kinds of photography and that can answer questions raised by reading or who can suggest the RIGHT book? Not really.... I personally personally like BOTH formats and think each has it's own advantages and that if allowed they can compliment each other. But I got the impression this guy was resistant to digital and couldn't be bothered except for the fact that it was beginning to impact the profit line.... He's not seeing the bigger picture, I'm sorry, and that is bad for business. ANY business. You have to grow or you'll stagnate. To get new business you have to offer MORE, not stay with the staus quo... Yeah, you always want to offer your basis products, that's what keeps your current base customer happy, but you also want to cater to what's new and developing...You always want to gain NEW customers. This store should be doing a thriving business via web, but it's just poking along....They should be COURTING the digital user and they are just BARELY covering the area. This store is lucky. Like you said, it's in an area that is saturated with students and pros who need or like film. It will probably survive digital or not, maybe not as well, if they chose not to get more into it, but unless the schools go all digital and that's not likely, they'll do okay. (Except for the fact that they have a ton of film-related equipment they are admittedly stuck with, things like enlargers, that they are contemplating selling at a loss because of the fact that sales of those things has fallen to a crawl...) This is not the case for other stores elsewhere. There are a lot off stores across the country who will fold if they don't get more into the digital end of things. Film sales are steady among serious hobbiests and pros, but the guy on the street who used to buy 2 and three rolls a month to travel with or to take pics of his grandkids? He's buying digital media cards... Just an FYI, my 80 year old friend who is about the most computer phobic guy I know just went out and replaced his traditional camera with a digital model. Why? Because he can shoot all he likes and not waste money on film and bad prints. Bottom line? He saves money, and the developing labs lose out. I've got a couple of buddies who do lab work and film is not nearly as in demand as it used to be. Folks are shooting more digital, dl to CD's and memory cards and sending those in to be teched and printed. Yes, they're still getting rolls too, but the digital is catching up FAST. I personally think it cost me more to do my own prints so I send out for most of that, but as far as the cropping, correcting, and enlarging goes? I'd rather do that myself than pay a lab guy to do it... It's less expensive. Let's face it, if I was confined to ONLY film, I'd hardly ever shoot...I couldn't afford it. Until digital? Photography, even as a hobby, was simply out of reach for me. My digital camera has paid for itself in the year and a half I have had it in terms of what I didn't spend in film. I have film cameras, but except for school, I doubt I will be using them much, unless my finances change drastically for the better and unfortunately that's not likely for me...Health issues...I often can't afford ONE roll of film, but I can always erase the CF card and start over.... That's important to me, and it's the main reason I am mainly a digital gal. I don't think digital will ever completely replace film. There is a certain artfulness to using film and many photographers love the experience of developing thier own film, but I do think that eventually the market will be maybe 2/3 digital to 1/3 film, and that ANY store that doesn't recognize and court that business deserves to lose their business. There are too many folks out there like me now not to see that. Digital cameras on the midline and below have outstripped the tradtional film ones to the point where some manufacturers are seriously close to cutting them altogether. Even the pros are adding digital to the repitoire. Why? Because it's FUN, and it costs less...You get instant satisfaction and no wasted film.... LG NOT going there with full speed is just stupid retail and having spent my life in retail I have no patience for this kind of "Well, we already have this and it's worked for us forever so we won't change all that much" kind of attitude. In my time I've watched a lot of people die retail-wise because they didn't adapt as well to changing times. I've watched more than one small company self-sabotoge themselves right out of business and I don't like to see that, really...They can do both, and do well, and they SHOULD. LG is a lovely store, can't be beat on the film end, but they could be a GREAT store for the digital folks too and unfortunately I am not sure they wanna go there.. They'd rather stay in a niche market than cater to the whole market, fine for them maybe, but unfortuately that's a bit risky for most of the stores out there... They're not all that lucky..... As for the "expanding labs" that a bit of a fallacy actually. It's not so much that there are new ones as the ones that are there are going online, and advertising more to catch up with the market as a whole. A lot of labs had business enough that they never had to worry too much about where the business was coming from. They didn't have to court it as hard. Now they have to be more visible if they want thier share. When Mom and Pop can sit down at the computer and print their own pics and often DO? It's dog eat dog time....
