Jessops close to administration?

[old_york]

HA

Sorry as I am now a Ex Jessops employee I can honestly say that all cameras were a loss leader.. The trade price on a 7D was around £1100 or more.. Jessops made huge losses on cameras sometimes well over £150.. The idea was to try and compete in the market but sell profitable items like memory cards etc with the cameras.. I shall greatly miss Jessops as I was a devoted customer before I worked there..

78 years of trading and servicing the general public has been torn apart in less then 2 days..

Sigh...Highlights again how some companies (in our case Canon obviously) use such territorial bracketing to keep strangleholds on the economies that are able/willing/daft enough, to pay more than others. The worldwide marketplace becomes a joke when Canon can say "nope...your warranty is no good because you bought a camera from outside your "territory".

The current 7D body only price on a certain Hong Kong based website (ie: "post trade") whose name may rhyme with rigital-dev, is £729.99. A far cry from the £1100 TRADE UK price that Alex mentions above. For once, it's not all money going to the exchequer, 20% on 729.99 is still only ~£876, so
(even allowing for rigital-dev's mass buying power and maybe loss-leading by up to around 30% on this particular example....and I severely doubt it's that much somehow!)
- somewhere along the line UK sales outlets (and therefore UK consumers) are getting screwed over.

To be fair though....we're still nowhere near as bad a situation as some continental European countries price wise...

Is part of the problem the fact that the larger territories (US/China) have retailers with significantly larger buying power so therefore are more competitive to Canon and the other such multi-nationals?  Possibly.
I just know at the end of the day what the camera/equipment is worth in to me. I'm not a pro so it is ENTIRELY about enjoyment, and thus I have to justify what I spend on gear to myself alone.....I would have paid Jessops' prices if I hadn't imported to save hundreds pounds on my last body (about 30%, so again more than just UK tax accounts for - and not rigital-dev as it happens ).  But the temptation to save that money and not feel like I'd been robbed, proved too strong.

To Alex, I have to say - good luck mate, sorry the administrators couldn't do anything over the past couple of days.
To the UK high street - good luck. Currys Group??? BHS??? WHSmith??? any chain that doesn't do something that can't be sourced in a visit to Tesco/Asda-Walmart/Sainsburys/Ikea had better develop some sort of USP very quickly.....or be ready to say goodbye. 
Sorry to sound so bleak !   Didn't mean to have a rant - Honest!

[Alex]

Sorry to hear you've lost your job. Hopefully, you can find something soon.

Thank you, I think the hardest part is yet to come when I have to pack up the store..

[Alex]

To Alex, I have to say - good luck mate, sorry the administrators couldn't do anything over the past couple of days.
To the UK high street - good luck. Currys Group??? BHS??? WHSmith??? any chain that doesn't do something that can't be sourced in a visit to Tesco/Asda-Walmart/Sainsburys/Ikea had better develop some sort of USP very quickly.....or be ready to say goodbye. 
Sorry to sound so bleak !   Didn't mean to have a rant - Honest!

Thank you.. From what iv read and heard Jessops had 4 offers to buy and save the company, but Pwc rejected all of them

[inky38]

It is a sad situation, but with the increase in on-line 'grey ish' importers it is to be expected.

I don't know how companies like Jessops calculate their cost price, but (for reasons I won't go in to) I've got a good idea as to their cost price for a 7d body.

This cost price to Jessops is roughly £250 more expensive than you can purchase it from well known reputable online dealers.
Jessops then put another £100 or so on for their margin.

The way that I see it, is they didn't make enough profit on the goods that they sold.  (not sure if this is down to their deal with the manufacturers/importers or simply import duty costs)

I understand that their most profitable part of their business is their printing side, so I expect that will be a service that is retained.

HA

Sorry as I am now a Ex Jessops employee I can honestly say that all cameras were a loss leader.. The trade price on a 7D was around £1100 or more.. Jessops made huge losses on cameras sometimes well over £150.. The idea was to try and compete in the market but sell profitable items like memory cards etc with the cameras.. I shall greatly miss Jessops as I was a devoted customer before I worked there..

78 years of trading and servicing the general public has been torn apart in less then 2 days..

That was my point.  How were Jessops ever going to compete with other online retailers if their trade prices were so much higher than the competition

[bchernicoff]

It's not just Canon. When my father owned a camera store in the late 90's he could buy Kodak film at Sam's Club cheaper than he could get it from his Kodak rep. Volume based price discounting has killed small retailers.

[expatinasia]

HA

Sorry as I am now a Ex Jessops employee I can honestly say that all cameras were a loss leader.. The trade price on a 7D was around £1100 or more.. Jessops made huge losses on cameras sometimes well over £150.. The idea was to try and compete in the market but sell profitable items like memory cards etc with the cameras.. I shall greatly miss Jessops as I was a devoted customer before I worked there..

78 years of trading and servicing the general public has been torn apart in less then 2 days..

Sorry to hear about your job, Alex. Hope you get something new asap. You sound pretty switched on, and positive, so I am sure you will have no problem.

As for Jessops, the business model you use there was always bound to fail. As I mentioned in an earlier post I have no objections to buying memory cards (not external HDs though), and other camera accessories online as these tend to be pretty solid, and low ticket items costing under £100. They are not something I want to touch, play with or need advice about generally, so why leave the house. When it comes to buying lenses or cameras though - the much more costly items - I always buy in store. I even do not mind paying slightly higher than the online price for it, as I can control delivery, get to know the sales person etc etc. I quite enjoy the experience, and hope that does not change.

Back to a personal note. Best of luck, again. Cheers.

[paul13walnut5]

Hi Alex,

I hope you find something else soon bud, wouldn't wish this on any of the frontline staff.
Hope the rats that jumped ship after steering the company onto the rocks get all they deserve.

All the best

[GuyF]

Yes Alex, I hope you find something soon. I suspect the clowns at the top will be okay though with pension funds and drawings/bonuses from the business. When you come to clear out the shop you could always make sure a 1DX "falls" into your pocket 

As a slight aside, the one thing I just didn't like about Jessops was when I went in to price the gear I bought last year (about £5k), the bloke said, "yeah and if you give me a minute I'll get you details on insurance too." I pointed out I was quite well sorted for that but he was quite insistant. I finally had to look him straight in the eye and say pretty firmly I was only interested in the body/lenses. I mentioned this to the ex-Jessops guys who worked in Jacobs next door and they both agreed that that was one of the things that drove them from Jessops, the "insurance push" that came with every camera purchase. Lousy business model.

Take care.

[AlanF]

We used to be exceptionally well served by camera shops in Cambridge UK but we will be down to two shops (the same company) now that Jessops was closed last night. The local Jessops was a good shop with some good staff who knew their job, and the company was quite competitive in Canon gear, considering that the bodies all have Canon warranties. It's very sad for the staff that they are losing out. The insurance is a racket on low end goods because the premiums are so high relative to value. But, they maxed out at £205 for two years cover, which is a great deal on higher end goods, working out at under 2% per annum for all accidental damage and including all repairs for sensor cleaning etc. Fortunately, the insurance comes from a sound insurance company.