CANON DID BLOW OUT OF the ANAHEIM PMA SHOW
Canon USA did not attend the PMA. Elliot Peck, Canon USA's Vice President and General Manager, the decision to bow out of PMA 2010 resulted from "changes in the industry.""We find that product life cycles are moving so much faster and that product introductions are happening in such shorter time frame that we needed to be much more agile,".
INSIDER NOTE and TRANSLATIONS:
They were however big at the CES show. The largest show on the planet possibly other than Photo Kino and all about ELECTRONICS. This is all about changes to the industry. The indicators were there, last year at the PMAi. I wrote a year ago about the marketing of information and distribution in the photographic trade show business, I predicted some changes. As usual like the ostriches, they had their heads buried, unfortunately not in sand, but in a more northernly direction from the ground up.
NEW ERA: TIPS TO THE PMA
• For many companies, the cost of the PMAi show has been sky high.When you send almost 70-90 live bodies to Vegas, feed them, provide lodging and assembly areas, transportation for five to seven days, some Chief Financial Officers get nervous. Thats why they are having lunch with the Credit Managers every day.
• Vegas of all the show towns is the hot spot. Anaheim, was not. It's the Play and Pray town. You had the Crystal Cathedral to pray and many brought their kids, registered at the show as delegates for the tax break and you learned to pay. When you see the 7 year old with a VP on his label badge somethings not Kosher.
• Many this year feeling the competition from the knockoff onslaught on a slag economy cut shows. Add the ancillary costs, rental space, union set ups, electricians, fork lift, drayage movers, carpet layers and on-sight labor. That bottom line went sky-high and some companies had opted out.
SHOW QUALITY:
• The PMAi is "a living thing". It changes with the wind. Touted as one of the largest shows, at one time, it reflected a healthy base level industry comprised of thousands of Mom and Pop camera stores.
Digital, the Internet and Big Box Stores, killed Mom and Pop. I know I attended many funerals. We bought them out .20 cents on the dollar
But the show must go on and the PMAi has done it's best to maintain a good show level though it has dragged in the past few years as themes shifted and they refused to do part of the show on separate days as a trade show for the public.
THE FUTURE STORE (LA BOMBA):
When digital first came in and tides shifted to pixels, the show became smaller, as did the cameras and the PMAi expanded into the camera store of the future theme. They even had a full people size mock up of the camera store of the future. Very pretty, sort of a social looking place with comfort and warmth in the theme.
For about a half million you too could fail bigger than Eniwetak Atoll. That year the failures were POLAROID, AGFA, and Gretag Imaging and thats after the large printers that do buses and advertising left the PMAi to form their own group, better shows and less costs and they are doing well.
NEXT GENERATION OF NOTHING:
Now selling space to fill the arena during the show took precedence. So, the show producers combined with smaller groups and made them part of the PMA. Framing became part of the PMAi and firmly integrated into photography. That held attention for about five minutes. Now your store needed an artistic director and more space and more equipment and a kiosk. The next brain-fart to come along was scrap-booking, AKA child adoration 101, came into the game.
THE KILLERS:
Thats before someone thought up the words "BIG BOX STORES". I found out what that meant in 2007.
When a rep from Nikon said to me; "the Big Box stores and super chains are the photo industry of the future. Early in 2009 in Las Vegas, I again asked that Nikon fella, how did he feel about Ritz and Circuit City now that they cost him 36 million together in lost sales. He is no longer there and retired.
UNEASY FEELINGS
• The 2009 show was morose to say the least. I was seeking all the important earth shattering revelations to tickle my readers fancy. If you needed tickle, you would be better off and go buy an Elmo. Many I know including myself opted out of the show. I remember 30,000 dealers attending those shows and we spent a week there.
• The web has changed all that and digital changes with the ebb and flow of the tide and so do the products. No company can afford to hold a product back. It's a leap frog, market share world. Lack of attendance and participation has been on the downswing as we lost both the numbers and the social aspect of the show. It was CLOSE TO DEAD rather than low attendance, The biggest hit at the show last year was the show next door.
• The Bar and Night Club show. Now that was a gas, gorgeous ladies, free drinks, dancing, and did I mention very endowed exposed gals... if you knew your way through the back corridors of the Convention Center it was a gas, no it was a blast...
CUTBACKS:
• You sensed cutbacks because there were few big bashes, or parties and the swollen economy has cut many of the freebies, keychains, flashlights, pen holders, iD badges and other goodies they gave out.
• Almost everything was either shown, leaked, or already cloned in China by the time the show opened. Even Gary Fong has been copied by three Chinese clones of his light sphere. Thats retribution.
ECONOMY and THE INDUSTRY:
• Trade shows tell you a lot about an industry and the clues were there in 2008. It does affect the consumer more than you might think. It means we are looking at the final death shift from photography as we knew it in the retail business. It was an the art form serviced by small independent retail stores offering myriads of helpful information and a one to one relationship to a more bland, stark, high tech colder relationship.
Yes, the money and profit in the industry come from the products sold and the "software" techniques, schooling, seminars and training sessions are products of the mind today.
Big business for some photographers with "reputation" supported by organizations acting as booking agents, for their magazines ARE their advertising.
This might just be the finale for the 50 years of thinking for the retail camera stores as the thrust of their ideas in the past turn to dust.
It was "The Premier Insider Wholesale Photo Industry Show". Lots of friends, in Vegas, parties, celebration, failed timely procreating attempts and a good debauching time.
Canons move could start a stampede to leave the two PMA shows, push their advertising straight to the consumer shows such as the WPPI, PPA events and shows like the CES. Or, we will see the PMA host their own consumer shows.
Canon also has new plans for dealers. And a new breed of credit manager, the belt has tightened and the pants won't fall down for the survivors.
LIONS EAT THEIR CUBS WHEN STARVING:
• The retail Mom and Pop stores got eaten in steps. Camera stores relied on sales of new and used, repairs, in-house or out-house labs, specialty printing, small parts, lenses and accessories, cases and bags. They had over the years developed a customer based loyalty program with sociological bindings called consumer confidence.
• With many companies, they took their representatives and district managers and replaced them with computers and the web. Buying offices handled purchasing and disbursement. Personal relationships were gone, no feedback.
• The chains got fed better. Wolf and Ritz bought out 1200 Mom and Pop operations. Either replaced them or went in the malls. Literally mauled the operation". When RITZ went into their Chapter 11 toilet, many stores (70%) died and with them the promise of good times.
• The Big Box stores like Circuit City and Best Buy, offered a nicer visual open toy store environment and inventory, selection and cross shopping. Lots of glitch and open late at night and weekends when owners didn't.
• Photo Processing became popular at PUBLIX, A&P, ALBERTSONS and just about every other grocery chain plus the free marketeers like Sears, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Wal-greens, CVS, Eckerds and other chains.
• Add the integration of electronics with cell phones into cameras and the I-Pods and other devices and the perfect storm was born.
KA-KA HITS WHIRR-WHIRR (sh*t hits fan)
Then Circuit City closed all it's doors, and Ritz now in death throbs, killed by the economy and a stale marketing plan. Too many bad personnel choices at CC, from management to the "kids on the block". Together thats about 2000 stores so far including RITZ in the port-o-let.
FUTURE:
I thought it was a good move for CANON. There is another part to the story. The back door. Their product message gets out cleaner to the enduser better when they are represented live at a direct show. Direct shows such as the CES, WPPI, NAPP, and PPA get to the "buyer".
Put your efforts where the money is coming from. Not from the changes, innuendos, opinions, and falsifications the retailer might make about a product. "That I could write a book on". This is one of those brandisizing industries that the line between fact and fiction is as thin as a hair.
The last one, I attended in Tampa last year had over 8700 attendees, and they had a huge B&H line of tables with twenty laptops taking names and gently relieving wallet pressure from credit card-itus. And the B&H boys were kicking ass and the vendors were selling product. A lot smarter than closed doors.
I SENT LETTERS:
The PMA show used to be the premier show in the Photo Industry. BUT, some think the PMA is overdue for a streamlining. Repeated suggestions in letters I wrote over three years recommending make the five-day show venue split, two for the wholesale industry and three for the consumers fell on deaf ears till recently in September. Only took three years to do this and they picked a horrid venue. On the other hand, they did something. Someone's finally thinking. Stinking thinking but thinking.
THE RITZ SITUATION:
RITZ, not looking better; a year later after bankruptcy court; after losing 30 million; and 600 or so stores; thats severe. The situation still has not improved at RITZ.
A few small (not too bright) investors might have bailed them out with the idea they could re-birth themselves in malls like a BEST BUY. Especially since many of their sores are right next to Tandy's 'R" ADIO-S HACK"
And the stores they kept are in better malls with high overhead and hours. Inside malls work in cold weather.
The trend here in the south is leaning to open malls. They need perhaps an area pro center like APPLE serving say a 150 mile radius if they want to get into the retail end too.
Dave Ritz's Mojo might be worn out so the rumor is the kids running it.
• Ritz Interactive, which is a separate web-based ordering company that licenses the Ritz Camera name and runs the RitzCamera.com website, could end up a loser if it does not make it clear to its customers that it is not involved in this bankruptcy filing. They are strictly internet.
• Ritz Camera is a major supplier to RitzCamera.com. (Suggestion: Change the name, stupid)
LifePics operates the RitzPix.com online photofinishing site for Ritz Camera, offering the usual on line mail delivery and print-at-store services. InfoTrends believes that Ritz is among its largest retail partners. The loss of Ritz would cut them significantly. Kodak Picture Kiosks are found in many of the Ritz stores.
• The winners will be the big box stores with larger selection. Wal-Mart and Best Buy are usually fast to jump on niche product lines and command the best pricing. Some smaller photo specialty stores like LakeShore camera in Palm Harbor Florida may see a slight increase in business, as they do go a step further in sales offering classes and full instructional education. You get instructions and advice when you pick up the new camera with followup. Something you never got when you bought from the chains. Some of these smaller photo specialty stores bought lab gear and printers from the closing stores.
The potential side effects of the Ritz bankruptcy are enormous. The fact they were selling boats and pottery (check out the company info at www.mufungo.com) tells me they lost track of what their business was and got into a lot of totally unrelated ventures.
Great point, Dave was into boats and thought the photo business was self sufficient, including his purchase of a personal dinghy, the SEA BOWLD, Sea Bowld is a 174-foot Oceanfast yacht which was launched in June of 2004. Our COAST GUARD has forty year old vessels to save lives with and he needs this while ROME burns.
ANONYMOUS - I'm kinda torn about this. I was a manager for Ritz for some time. I built three stores in Arizona, cleaned up stores in New Mexico and helped with the Wolf takeover in Dallas. The pay that Ritz store managers got was difficult to live on even in my stores which were performing well. If you were a sales person trying to make a living on what they paid was next to impossible.
AUTHOR and PHOTOGRAPHER: Al Jacobson, photographs and writes in the Tampa Bay area on a myriad of subjects. He is from NY and occasionally speaks English, preferring Brooklyn based meta-phonetic syllabication (aka Street English). His high school English teacher, once commented to his parents, "He should try learning a foreign language like English... in a foreign country". He retorted, "Shakespeare doth not a genius make, for he spake in terms reminiscent of a flake". She threw him out of the class.