dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

Personally, if I buy local, I spend an extra 7% for anything that I purchase. Now, if I have to pay for shipping, that is a different matter but, Adorama, B&H and some others provide free shipping on orders over a certain amount. So, small or immediate stuff, I buy local expensive stuff or great deals, I buy where I need to.

drbart Loc: Chatham, NJ

In my limited experience, although over many years and fortunate to live in NYC, I find that the very large photography stores, which deal with professionals and have a large on-line presence can be very helpful in choosing which lens to buy for which camera, and will answer any question you may have! They will also have other photography experts available to ask. Many of the sales experts are photographer's themselves and have personal experience.
For those not nearby these stores have excellent service and I believe will have a knowledgeable sales help to talk on the phone. But personally I haven't used done it.
As I re-read what I just wrote, I sound like a paid advocate for these places. I am not at all; however whenever I go to some NYC photo stores they can be very helpful and take the time to explain.
I do not know if I can mention the names of the places I visit?? Not aware of the UHH rules about mentioning the name! My apologies if I am able, but just realized the topic does mention Adorama & others.
If you do not live near these large stores that do a lot of online business; then you have your local camera store, that maybe you brought your roll of film in years ago and sells one or two big name camera's and can order a specific lens for you; but is usually lacking in knowledge about other brands and to compare one vs. another would be hard.
I would love to give my business to a store that has been in town for years and are very nice! But it seems the photography world has expanded so much and so fast, that to compete in this arena is very difficult. I see the smaller places of all businesses even in a large city will not re-new their lease, due to the major competition.
Just a mention that the large stores like B&H or Adorama have many lectures and hands-on classes available that are free, and other types of photo information for non-professional photographers.
My apology for taking up a lot of space!!

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

drbart, many of us regularly mention the names of both good and bad stores. As I mentioned earlier, I deal a lot with Adorama and B&H. But I also deal (when I can) with those local stores that are still in business. One in particular in the Clearwater/New Port Richie area of Florida seemed to be doing fairly well and had a decent staff until the owner passed away. Most of the other local "camera" stores that are still in the area are Best Buy ( the camera guys in that store don't know the difference between a point and shoot and a Hasselblad), Walmart, Sam's, Costco and a couple of other "big box" stores.
Personally, if I have to drive to Orlando or Miami to purchase camera equipment, then I will just shop from the online majors. Now, when I lived in Oklahoma City, we had a very good camera store back in the 70's and 80's but they sold out to some guys out of Arkansas (Bedford Camera) and I know very little about them but what I have heard was okay. As for local stores here, Cam-Tec in Tampa, when you go to their website via Google it comes up as selling folding chairs.. Doesn't give a lot of confidence in a store. The others are primarily one hour photos and one that specializes in underwater video. The other listings are photographers doing weddings etc.

My point is that in many places, the good locals are no longer in business or haven't been for some time. When I was in the Washington DC area, I would have had to drive to Baltimore to find a REAL camera store and that was 7 years ago.

So, I am glad to have access (even via the web) to someplace like Adorama, B&H KEH (for used) and a few other "Authorized and, or real" camera stores rather than the ripoff and grey market stores that we hear a lot about on here.

If you are fortunate enough to have a good local store, then great, support it all you can. If you are like me and not among those fortunate to have a good local source, then we need to support the stores that do offer good service from afar.

drbart Loc: Chatham, NJ

I totally agree! My experience at B & H has always been good. The sales help are very knowledgeable and helpful.
Most recently I purchased a new mirrorless camera system, mostly at first because of a wrist injury, but I love the Fujifilm X-T1 camera and some lenses I purchased at the same time and B&H was very helpful.
I highly recommend them!

drbart Loc: Chatham, NJ

Thanks for your reply and now that I know its no problem in mentioning specific names, I can do so easily and did a little earlier.
Would be no help or point if not giving specific information about who we give our business to!! Bart

Noctilucent

…Never try at home and then buy elsewhere…

drbart Loc: Chatham, NJ

Great to read all the replies about this topic. It would be nice to deal with a smaller dealer with similar prices, or lower. Living in NYC, I'm fortunate to be near B&H and Adorama and others. Although very busy at times, they still can be very helpful, and have all you would ever need! I did use on occassion many years ago a smaller store; but they eventually went out of business due to a higher lease rental and not enough traffic!! With all the on-line business making it very easy to order anything you want at good prices; the cost of doing business in general makes it very hard for the small stores to compete! This is found in all types of business! Is this a good future to foresee?

mrfisher77 Loc: Mayfield Heights, Ohio

For the most part, everyone that posted has already overstated the same thing. Your basic bullet points are this:

1:) The pricing is fixed. Your only value add is the package bundles where the big box stores add the freebies.
2:) Online will save you money by not paying tax.
3:) Local will most likely not be the best deal but supports local business and gives you easier access to service should you need it.

Having pointed out the above I would like to add...

I recently bought a D750 myself and I love it. Having stepped up from the D5100 the auto-focus is FAST, the size is nice, U1 and U2 custom settings is awesome, faster shutter speeds, and amazing low light performance. I purchased it as a bundle (body only with the storage kit (4tb WD and 32GB Sandisk SD)) from B&H with ZERO regrets. I comparison shopped a lot and found the best deals I could to stretch my money as far as possible. Quite frankly, I agonized about the purchase every day for a week...from Black Friday until I finalized the purchase at the last minute...before the deals closed ($1796, no tax, free expedited shipping).

If you're curious, best combo was body only with storage at B&H, Meike battery grip and most other misc on Amazon. I would steer clear of gray market. Ebay has great deals on lenses if you look and wait.

This post is quite divided and divisive in opinion. Good luck!

Bugfan Loc: Toronto, Canada

Regarding your third bullet "3:) Local will most likely not be the best deal but supports local business and gives you easier access to service should you need it." ...

That's not what the point was. Some retailers do have higher prices, others compete with online. Sometimes the savings are simply the tax when buying online. The real benefit from the local retailers is the relationship you are able to build and the ensuing trust that offers you advice that is not generally available from the online retailers. And yes of course it's also to keep these businesses alive into the future too, if we lose them there will be no place for building that all important relationship.

I got a sense that this was what many including myself were trying to point out.

tradio Loc: Oxford, Ohio

My latest upgrade came from Dodd's in Cincy. I have had good results from them as well as B&H. Also had great results from Central in the windy city before they went nuts up there.

therwol Loc: USA

I've been thinking about this through these many posts. Big mail order stores are run by multimillionaires who pay their employees salaries (and possibly commission.) Local businesses are more likely to be owned by real people who are living their dream to own a business, who are invested in their community. We are in an era where that dream has become impossible for many people, no matter what they are trying to sell to make a living. It could be shoes. Maybe we'll never go back to a time before the internet, when small retail stores were the norm in every community. I don't suggest we have to live in the past. Things are the way they are. I would just like to see people support local businesses when they have a choice. I do it as much as I can.

Bugfan Loc: Toronto, Canada

Yes, that is exactly the point I've been trying to make in my posts on this subject. When I was in grade school everything was closed Sundays. One Sunday we blew a main fuse in the house. So we called the local hardware store. The owner lived upstairs. He told us to come to the back door in the laneway and he'd sell us the fuse we need and he did. I never forgot that. Could you call a Lowes or a Home Depot in the off hours and get some help? I doubt it. We save a lot of money from their pricing but at the same time we get nothing in return as a rule. They're into mass merchandizing not into building personal relationships with their customers.

When I started in photography I went to a little store on our main street called Jerry's. It was owned and run by three guys. They knew me by name, they knew what I liked to photograph and how I tended to want quality stuff and often they also offered an aggressive price. I gave Jerry's my business for about twenty five years but alas they went out of business leaving me desperate for a new relationship. By then we had a huge camera store that was more like a corporation and it offered better pricing which is what killed Jerry's.

It took me five years to finally find another one, Vistek. This wasn't a little privately owned company but I did manage to get a good relationship again and this endured for fifteen years when my favourite sales person retired. Now I'm on the hunt for another little store but alas there are very few left now. I think that's sad.

It also makes me wonder what this is costing me. I don't know how much money I saved by having both stores advise me what I should be buying instead of what I wanted to buy. I suspect I probably saved a lot and perhaps a lot more than I've saved from the online retailers. I wonder what I am also paying taxes. As we lose the little camera stores and many other mom and pop stores we lose the relatinships and the expertise these people had which helped us grow in our passion for photography. And these people still need to be employed. How much of my taxes are going to paying unemployment insurance, welfare, retraining and many other programs to try to get these people employed in a field they were never trained for? Do we really save money buying online or do we lose money when the entire impact is considered? I don't have an answer to that question. It's also like the jobs lost to overseas. The companies save a bundle of labour costs and we get a break on the cost of our products but what does it cost to help the people who have been displaced? When we manage to get a cheap product from Korea or Japan of China, are we really getting a bargain at all? It's an interesting question that no one seems to be asking.

mrfisher77 Loc: Mayfield Heights, Ohio

I completely agree and you are 100% correct. My guess is that if we engaged in a political conversation outside the constraints of photography forum we would agree on many things...inflated GDP of China, loss of American jobs, etc., etc. Having said that...this is not the post to rant or rave. I have trimmed my next comment to following:

I'm saying don't shop local. I live in a suburb of Cleveland. We had a Dodd camera store. I frequented this store, made many purchases, and used the equipment rental program. They closed. Mayfield Heights, Ohio was not an ideal location for them. It's the way of business and in most situations cannot be changed as futures cannot be told.

I believe that each person should do what they can, how they can. Need a pocket knife? Buy a Benchmade! Made in Salt Lake, UT with American sourced steel. Need a new grill? Buy a Huntington! Made in Huntington, IN...a town saved by grill company that bought a defunct and closed GM facility. Need to weld? Buy Lincoln Electric! 100% of the equipment and wire is sourced from America and made / built in Cleveland, Ohio...even the PC boards are made in Cleveland! Buy a Honda Accord made in Marysville, Ohio with 98% of its parts sourced from Ohio or a Toyota Camry made in KY and IN, the #1 domestically sourced vehicle. Sadly, each of the latter comments elicit the "not American", "not union" comments. They are however, American jobs, in American towns, supporting American economy, and helping fund American schools.

My long winded point is this. Do what you can, when you can. I can't purchase local photography anymore but I do purchase American sourced products when available and / or support local business. Cheers to you for standing up, I couldn't agree with you more but, I regret my original post and question if I should post this one. C'est la vie!

kb6kgx Loc: Simi Valley, CA

Excellent point.

fdoyle3 Loc: Glenolden Pa.

Just about all of the local camera dealers have gone out of business and most of them don't carry professional type of equipment. You can't go wrong with Adorama or B&H