I work in a store that sells camera equipment. We're the last store in a very large area that sells certain higher-end brands of equipment. We stock more than most other local stores, but there's zillions of cool goodies that we can't afford to stock. Most of us employees have forgotten more about cameras than the majority of our customers know . But there are some of us employees who know more than others, and there are some serious amateurs and dedicated professionals who know much more than any of us employees do.
There are lots of cool things we'd like to stock. But (from an accounting point of view) we're already swimming in inventory costs, and one more $1000 item that we'll make $78 or $116 "profit" selling is only going to be truly profitable if we can:
1.) Move it quickly - the lost use of the money and/or the interest on the loan money spent buying it is crippling if it sits there for long.
2.) Move it at or near full price - this is already way below the fantastical "list" price, but above the (real or supposed) ultra-low prices of our mega-store competitors.
Most of the time, when we get in a pair of cool new toys (as opposed to our bread and butter guaranteed sellers), the display gets fondled by every camera buff in the area, three of these "loyal customers" buy one off the internet, one person buys the non-display model, and someone else argues us down on the price of the display, since it's already been lovingly caressed by the folks who "got a better deal" from some place where they couldn't touch the item before purchase, and offers no after-sale support.
Either the above, or no else shares the passion that we had for the item, so we employees get to check it out in the store, then sit on the inventory for six months until we eBay it at a loss because it didn't sell.
None of this excuses rudeness to customers, or poor customer service.
It does leave a bad taste in one's mouth, however, and I am deeply sympathetic to guys trying to run an independent shop without the purchase power of a chain or wealthy corporate structure behind them. It always kill me when somebody expresses shock and/or outrage (and they do) that we don't stock every single camera, lens, accessory and sundry that, say, Mamiya sells. Never mind that the Mamiya America Corporation catalog is about an inch thick, lists thousands of current and obsolete items, and it's one of three dozen dealer catalogs just like it on our shelves.
I tell you all this because I see striking parallels between the firearms marketplace and the camera marketplace, with the primary difference being the firearms industry is tightly regulated, in a way which I suspect inevitably adds a lot of overhead costs to the cost of doing business.
-twency
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I like shooting. Any gun, any camera, any time. (Within reason.)
