North South divide?

DonnaM

DonnaM

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West Cumbria is a great place to live, great scenery, great people but there is a downside apart from the crap weather, it is shopping or more specifically camera gear shopping. :(
Called in at a major camera retailer in Manchester the other week so that I could look at a bit of Pro Nikon glass. They did not have any new kit, only their rental item but I was able to experience handling the size and weight which is what I needed to do.
In conversation with one of the staff, he let slip that head office would not allow non London stores to stock expensive lenses unless there is a guaranteed sale in the offing. :eek: Huh what insanity is that? THE major city in the North West is not big enough to warrant holding Pro stock? I was flabbergasted! They were the losers, as I would have purchased there and then if they had stock but it set me thinking what do all you other "provincial" guys do when you want to handle before you buy?
 
Sometimes you just have to try it and place an order to be delivered.

I can understand the policy though. If you bought a camera or a £1000 plus lens and found that the box had been opened and there were pics of the shop on the card you, like me, would not be too chuffed at paying full price.

Take one major camera retailer with 10 shops nationwide. A full set of Nikon and a full set of Canon lenses for demo/rental stock is a huge investment. So they are unlikely to hold huge stocks on top of what they have to. Plus Nikon made a certain retailer run their stocks right down before they put the prices up. They, as manufacturers are controlling the supply too.

Having said all that I got right annoyed at waiting 8 weeks for an 85mm f1.8! Still, I got it £35 cheaper than it is now. :)
 
AliB said:
Take one major camera retailer with 10 shops nationwide. A full set of Nikon and a full set of Canon lenses for demo/rental stock is a huge investment.
Click to expand...

I can well appreciate that and would not expect it certainly from most retailers, but a major retailer who's advertising would suggest they serve the higher end of the market having no new Nikon glass over £1000 outside London? What is the world coming to?
 
My local shops are pretty much the same, they never have stock of anything more than consumer SLRs and point and shoots. They have a reasonable selection of lenses although they tend to be the cheaper DX end of the range. Now I understand this completely as a small shop can't afford to be getting £000s worth of lenses in but the problem I have is they always quote a week to two weeks for getting anything in. I wouldn't mind paying the premium of supporting local business if they could get stock in next day or even the day after but a week or two? No thanks, I can get it off the internet over night.
 
I'm sure it's not just the cost of the initial purpose, they then need storage and the increased security necessary to keep them safe. All this when the eCommerce market is growing astronomically. Shops simply can't remain competitive when keeping large amounts of stock that isn't being regularly turned over.
 
The BBC have the worst South/North division ever, all you ever hear about is London....




:popcorn:
 
The camera shops here in Cheshire are no better. I was enquiring about a Nikon 'AIS' lens recently, and Wildings in Northwich said they didn't know of such a lens, even though it is still available to buy new. The Manchester branch of Jessops said they could get it but would take around 4 weeks! I contacted Grays in London and they said they could send it to me within 24 hours.

Sadly, neither Jessops nor Jacobs in Manchester stock any second-hand gear either like they used to do years ago. The only shop I know of is LCE which also has a branch in Chester.
 
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