Did you miss the fact that he visited Unique, then went home and placed his order with Unique?

He might have been able to accomplish the same thing (saving on the sales tax) by placing and paying for his order in store, and having it shipped to his home.

I have a favorite sales rep at Hunt's in their Wakefield, MA store. I live in NH, so if I place my order in store, or over the phone with my sales rep and have it shipped to my home, I don't pay any sales tax, but my sales rep still gets his commission.

I am in the Clearwater/Tarpon Springs area (near Tampa) and the only decent local camera store was on US19 near Palm Harbor. It didn't close because of pressure from "big box" stores or from the internet. It closed because the owner passed away and the family was left in good financial shape (via the sell of the assets of the store and the insurance). None of the family members wanted to continue the management of the store and so, they locked the doors and sold the inventory out of state. The local Best Buy is a joke and the owner of the only other "true" photography store, in downtown Clearwater, was owned by an elderly guy that retired. In addition, the building his store was located in was purchased by Scientology, (part of the reason he chose to retire rather than go through the trouble of moving. I'm sure there are other small shops but they haven't shown up in Google. There is a couple that "specialize in video but when called, they have nothing in the way of digital.

I've been dealing with Hunts for many years and have had nothing but excellent service. This is my experience with Hunts Photo, Eric & his staff.

When I bought my Canon Pro100 printer, I was to get a box of paper and rebate. Unfortunately, Canon was back ordering the paper. Hunts was expecting a supply within a few days. Well days turned to weeks and more. Fearing I would miss out on the rebate, I went back to the store and Eric did whatever he had to do to insure I would get the rebate as I was willing to wait for the paper. He also gave me a small supply of the Luster (LU 101) to hold me over.

Well after waiting several more weeks (yes, I did get the rebate), I went back looking to negotiate getting different paper of equal value. One of the sales people (forgot his name unfortunately, but if he monitors this website, he'll know who he is) over heard me and asked if I could hang around for a few minutes. He left the shop and returned shortly with the case of paper. He said he went to his home and he gave me a case from his personal stash (sealed/unopened). That's what I call customer service! I don't know any big box store that would do that.

While the Manchester, NH store is a distance from where I live, I do have family in Manchester and work close by which makes getting to their store easier. Even if I didn't have family or worked nearby, I will and still do make every effort to go to them first.

Kudos to Hunts Photo!

I am originally from Philly and remember the day when we had many fine shops, Willoughby-Peerless, Mid-City and even Ritz Camera where I worked back in the 70s. The advent of good point and shoots which didn't generate accessory sales and then digital that hurt the in-store mini-labs which, in many cases was the last thing keeping those stores alive, all contributed to their decline.

Even before Amazon, there was an active mail order business out of NY and we had lots of "customers" come in to learn from us and then order from them. I vividly recall one guy who'd come in often and stay for an hour or more asking questions and looking at stuff without ever buying a thing. We worked out a code for him and others like him that we could use for a new, unsuspecting salesperson to warn them to cut him off. One of us would interrupt the sp to ask if a film pack adapter recently ordered had arrived. A film pack adapter was a real thing but it was the initials that were the tell: FPA, think about it (hint: the last word is ass).

Anyhow, I now live in South Florida and am fortunate to have The Pro Shop for Photographers in West Palm where I get expert advice and service. I bought a D810 there, a used Nikon 16-35, a new Tammy 70-200 and a Think Tank bag plus filters, memory cards etc. In some cases I paid a little more than I could have, in others, the prices are fixed. But the point is, nothing is for free. If we want to have a store where we can get good advice and services, we need to be willing to pay the premium to keep them in business. Nothing makes me crazier when I see people here or elsewhere complain that an in-store price is higher than Amazon. Of course it is and it should be.

A few recent posts have made me think about the quality of help available to photography novices. In one post, staff at what is said to be a "local camera store" told someone that their SD card may have been damaged magnetically.

Obviously not true.

I would expect this from a clerk at WM or even BB, but not at a dedicated camera store.

Are the Big Boxes making it more difficult for local camera stores to find/afford quality staff?

I am in Philadelphia and (since the closing of Calumet) have to go outside the city to get to a good reliable store with knowledgeable staff.

How are local stores in your area?

Are you sure that they get any commission? When I worked at a professional camera store years ago, you got a small (very small) commission on mostly the accessories. The bodies and lens all had a set dollar spiff of either $5 or $10. If it wasn't on the spiff list, you got nothing. I quit when I had a client come in and order a 500 F4 Nikkor lens, we had to call Nikon to get a price, and he came back with a certified check for the total before we ordered the lens. There was a mistake on the quote and we had an extra $1000 in profit in the sale, but the boss (owner's son, who spent most of his time in the office redoing the commission schedules so that you never made any money) not only didn't give me a bonus on the sale of the lens, but wouldn't even fork over a $5 spiff on the sale because it wasn't on the spiff list.