Jessops are not winners
I’m not about in Coventry at the moment, but I will continue to update the blog. With a bit of luck, some photos should be coming up soon since I have (another) new toy.
As a quick update, my Sigma sold for £110 inc. P&P, so somebody is getting a nice lens for a good price there. I had hoped to get about £130, but there we go - market depreciation does indeed suck the big ones.
Anyway. I was in a branch of Nationwide today and couldn’t help but notice the BBC business headlines whilst Sarah was paying in some monies. Turns out, Jessops are closing 81 stores and laying off 550 staff in the process to cut costs and turn business around. It’s a shame because there are very few camera stores left in town centres these days, and generally trying out camera gear is a good thing to do before using it.
However, I just can’t see how Jessops is running their business. Firstly, they have a lot of stores, but Birmingham has three stores (one of which is extremely large, selling all kinds of stuff) with both Coventry and Plymouth having two. What’s the point? They’re fairly specialized anyway - most people go into town with the purpose of going there, as opposed to buying equipment on a whim.
Most importantly however is the prices they have in-store. Advertised today was a Sandisk 2gb Extreme III CompactFlash memory card. You can pick this up for £17.99 at Play, and about £20-25 elsewhere on the web. Jessops’ price? £65. Absolutely crazy. Similarly, the 70-200mm f/2.8 IS retails for about £250 more than you’d find it online.
On the other hand, I managed to pick up a Slingshot 300AW bag, retailing for about £100 for £40 in there the other day, so there are the odd bargains to be had, but they’re few and far between.
I only hope they turn things around before it’s far too late.