Jessops going under (again)

[MatBin]

Oh dear

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50066623

 

[Fuji Dave]

Oh dear

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50066623

Well if they close my local one, I`m glad I got the Xpro2 the other week. If it does close then will buy from Wex again.

 

[Mark Dell]

Just ask yourself as I just did - when was the last time I went into a Jessops store?
its sadly another nail in the coffin of the high street isn’t it?
all on line shopping now

 

[MatBin]

Raises a question though, if they do go under where do you stand with the guarantee, guess Fuji would honour it? And a grey import backed by the shop/insurance?

 

[Fuji Dave]

He might keep some open.

But sources close to Jessops said Mr Jones still saw a future in the business and would not say how many of the chain's stores were at risk of closure.

 

[tijuana taxi]

Not that surprised if my local store is anything to go by.
Hardly any cameras to try or even look at when I went in looking to buy.
Told me the camera I was interested in wasn't even released yet
Ended up buying it in John Lewis a few hundred yards away and yes of course it was out

 

[Fuji Dave]

When I traded some things in the other week, I made sure I`d do the trade on the day my Xpro2 came in. Sad it now might close down again, but that`s life as we have empty shops on our high street.

 

[f/2.8]

Not that surprised if my local store is anything to go by.
Hardly any cameras to try or even look at when I went in looking to buy.
Told me the camera I was interested in wasn't even released yet
Ended up buying it in John Lewis a few hundred yards away and yes of course it was out

The Belfast store is the same they very rarely have stock of anything and seem determined to push you towards buying from their website. Then when you do buy anything from them online their customer care is pretty much non existent.

 

[tijuana taxi]

Wonder what will happen to Camera Jungle who I believe are owned by Jessops

 

[Fuji Dave]

Wonder what will happen to Camera Jungle who I believe are owned by Jessops

They will go the same way as Woolworths, Online only.

 

[tijuana taxi]

They will go the same way as Woolworths, Online only.

They are already online only, just seen they are lowering their prices by 20% (no reduction on the lens I have been looking at for the past few weeks)
Plus a code for 10% off, expect some bargains on there in the near future

 

[Fuji Dave]

They are already online only, just seen they are lowering their prices by 20% (no reduction on the lens I have been looking at for the past few weeks)
Plus a code for 10% off, expect some bargains on there in the near future

Ooops my mistake, we have a camera shop here in town that I think would never close. Clock Tower cameras they are called and what a great shop it is too, as they do all old film cameras as well as digital.

 

[Phil Maddocks]

No surprises, I've never liked shopping at Jessops. Maybe I've had some bad stores, but I've always found them pushy and quite rude in some instances. When I was about to buy my X-T3 and lens I went in to ask some questions about it only to feel I was wasting this persons time. I asked if I could have a look at it with the 16-55 attached and was told to "come back when I am serious about buying it..." Never been spoken to like that before...funny story though as I went to WEX two days later and spent over 2.5k on camera gear....

 

[Retune]

Do any of their high street stores sell secondhand these days, or is it just online via their website and Camera Jungle?

 

[Vintage Racer]

i'm out!




.

 

[tijuana taxi]

Do any of their high street stores sell secondhand these days, or is it just online via their website and Camera Jungle?

Never seen any secondhand gear in their shops, didn't see much new stuff either

 

[tijuana taxi]

i'm out!
.

Good for you, must be a weight off your mind

 

[andrewc]

Peter Jones is the director of four Jessops businesses and Camera Jungle. Camera Jungle isn't a high street operation, so may survive. Jessops Online isn't a high street operation, so the online business could be untangled if necessary from the high street stores.

I never bought much of value from the high street shop, but their local one was useful for printing of small batches of things, as I could use their hour service and do other errands at the same time, saving postage delays for mail order prints.

Sadly Norwich City Hall is hell bent on making shopping in the city harder, citing traffic pollution. The death of the high street is not just the fault of online shopping, other players are to blame also.

 

[bass_junkie83]

Last time I visited, about a year ago, both the London Oxford Street and New Oxford Street stored had camera jungle branded display cabinets containing second hand gear.

 

[Retune]

No surprises, I've never liked shopping at Jessops. Maybe I've had some bad stores, but I've always found them pushy and quite rude in some instances. When I was about to buy my X-T3 and lens I went in to ask some questions about it only to feel I was wasting this persons time. I asked if I could have a look at it with the 16-55 attached and was told to "come back when I am serious about buying it..." Never been spoken to like that before...funny story though as I went to WEX two days later and spent over 2.5k on camera gear....

There were some good stores back in the day, where you could talk to someone who knew the difference between a tripod and a light stand, and negotiate a price match to an advert in Amateur Photographer - my F100 and D70 were bought that way. But even before the last buyout they'd become more like the camera section in Currys and, in London where we're still lucky enough to be spoilt for choice, there are half a dozen better options.

 

[Retune]

Last time I visited, about a year ago, both the London Oxford Street and New Oxford Street stored had camera jungle branded display cabinets containing second hand gear.

Perhaps I should pop in if they survive - it generally just doesn't occur to me to go there nowadays, which is I suppose the problem.

 

[Fuji Dave]

When I would trade in at our local store one lad named Sam was great, yes he did his job but he would go that extra mile to help you out sadly he left the store last month but as a salesman he was the best I have ever come across.

 

[Nod]

If anyone has any Jessops vouchers, use them now before they stop accepting them (like they did last time they went pop...) IIRC they were still selling vouchers but wouldn't accept them in payment then went under.

 

[Fuji Dave]

If anyone has any Jessops vouchers, use them now before they stop accepting them (like they did last time they went pop...) IIRC they were still selling vouchers but wouldn't accept them in payment then went under.

I better hurry and take some more photos then, as I get 50 Free 6x4 prints as have the voucher from when I traded in last week.

 

[the black fox]

oh dear a pity but not unexpected these days .. as for camera jungle I have bought used from them a couple of times (lenses) but had to return them for a refund due to not working properly .obviously there stock is not checked before re-sale ...
with wex on the other hand every item is better than described .. beats me how one can do it and the other can't

 

[Nod]

One's a photography based business, the other is a box shifter with both eyes on the bottom line rather than customer service.

 

[garryknight]

I went into Jessops in Oxford Street a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to buy a small tripod and a Bluetooth remote for my phone. They didn't have any. I went to PC World. They had them but they were about £44. So I went into a small, independent retailer near the south end of Tottenham Court Road and got a Benro with a detachable BT remote for about £28.

From the article:

Asked then whether there really is a market for cameras that are not integrated into mobile phones, Mr Jones said: "The amateur photographer, you wouldn't see them walking down the street taking that perfect picture with a mobile phone."

Oh, no? If I pixel-peep, my 50mm f/1.8 lens gets better photos on my Sony A6000 than my XS gets, but a) I get higher-quality photos on the XS (including raw photos) than with anything other than my 50mm; b) I'm an amateur; c) I don't pixel-peep (unless it's for fringing or noise); and d) I know which one I'd rather carry with me all the time. Perhaps PJ should get to know his potential market better.

 

[4wd]

There must be some profit in the stuff they sell, it's the High Street Shop model which is all but impossible to make a go of due to high cost of rents, rates and staff.
I know I wouldn't make the slightest effort to get into a major town or city, running the gauntlet of traffic jams and parking fines just to look an item in the flesh (if it was actually in stock when you got there!).

 

[Cagey75]

Wonder what will happen to Camera Jungle who I believe are owned by Jessops

They share the exact same used gear online too. Always thought it odd, the exact same item would be up to a couple hundred pricier on Jessop's site than on CJ [when there's a 20% sale on]

 

[jamiewednesday]

They also have competition from overseas of course.
Many HK firms are now considered ‘respectable’ and while much of the difference may be down to the tax, tax doesn’t fill the gap between £2,000 for a new body here and £1,200 from abroad does it?
So if someone knows what they want, why go to Jessops?

 

[footman]

Some very mixed opinions on Jessops here, I can only say that I’ve had excellent dealings with the Kingston store. The staff have been generally knowledgable, if I found that one person had limited knowledge there was always an alternative member available.
When I moved from Canon to Sony they gave me better part exchange deals than either Wex or MPB, probably didn’t do much for their bottom line though hence todays news.

 

[Retune]

There must be some profit in the stuff they sell, it's the High Street Shop model which is all but impossible to make a go of due to high cost of rents, rates and staff.
I know I wouldn't make the slightest effort to get into a major town or city, running the gauntlet of traffic jams and parking fines just to look an item in the flesh (if it was actually in stock when you got there!).

Some independents and small chains are still surviving, at least for now, especially if they have a complementary mail order business with keen prices, a decent secondhand range, or a particular speciality. In London we have branches of Park, Camerworld, Wex and LCE, Grays the Nikon specialist, at least five (!) shops selling mainly Leica, including a new branch of secondhand dealer Aperture, not to mention Mr Cad for vintage gear and places like Process Supplies for film and darkroom stuff. Most cities can't support this sort of diversity, of course, but there are a bunch of independents dotted around the country that you'll see listed on Camerapricebuster that mostly have both a high street shop and online sales. What there doesn't seem to be room for is a nondescript box shifter where good advice is thin on the ground in many branches. And if you know exactly what you want, why not go to John Lewis (where at least they tend to be polite) or your nearest Amazon locker?

 

[garryknight]

Not to mention the Camera Cafe, specialising in panini and Hasselblads. Oh, and the camera stall in Brick Lane - great for old film gear.

 

[Retune]

Not to mention the Camera Cafe, specialising in panini and Hasselblads. Oh, and the camera stall in Brick Lane - great for old film gear.

I've never tried Brick Lane - will have to take a look the next time I go to the Rough Trade shop. The Camera Museum/Cafe is fun - spent far too much money there in its previous incarnation as the original branch of Aperture (I think a member of the same family runs it).

 

[hashcake]

Funnily enough I was only talking to someone earlier about Jessops and how I was surprised they are still going.
When my good lady goes shopping I sit near our local Jessops waiting for her. Every time I've been there I've not seen a single person in the store.
A couple of times I've popped in to look at lenses only to find they were out of stock.
I scored a good deal with them in last years black friday with a manfrotto tripod.
Apart from that the last time I bought anything from then was in 2008 when I bought my Canon 450D.

 

[StephenM]

I last bought from them back in January, when I popped into the branch in York, had a chat with the staff about the camera round my neck (Bronica ETRS) and bought some 120 film. It was one of the branches where, at least on the day I went, the staff were actually interested in photography.

The branch in Bath has also surprised me by being able to supply a less common sized lens cap from stock.

 

[Fuji Dave]

Some very mixed opinions on Jessops here, I can only say that I’ve had excellent dealings with the Kingston store. The staff have been generally knowledgable, if I found that one person had limited knowledge there was always an alternative member available.
When I moved from Canon to Sony they gave me better part exchange deals than either Wex or MPB, probably didn’t do much for their bottom line though hence todays news.

That is the reason why I`d only use my local Jessops store, got best trade in than any other place and all the staff knew about all the cameras in store too.

 

[Box Brownie]

Last time I visited, about a year ago, both the London Oxford Street and New Oxford Street stored had camera jungle branded display cabinets containing second hand gear.

Camera Jungle operation used to be above the Oxford Street one......hand delivered my gear . Now based I think in Reading but no hand delivered allowed there.

 

[the black fox]

Camera Jungle operation used to be above the Oxford Street one......hand delivered my gear . Now based I think in Reading but no hand delivered allowed there.

No based in slough these days on the trading estate

 

[nandbytes]

Raises a question though, if they do go under where do you stand with the guarantee, guess Fuji would honour it? And a grey import backed by the shop/insurance?

one good reason to pay via credit card. Section 75 is great