So last week we were having a gear related discussion over at one of the Strobist groups on Flickr and it seems that UK high street photographic chain Jessops is once more in the process of killing off one of its low cost gear selling web stores.
Late last year Tecno fell victim, with customers finding themselves directed straight to the Jessops site, and now Cameras2U seems to be going in the same direction, beginning by limiting the product lists to just refurbished lenses and bodies. Ordinarily I wouldn’t object to a little consolidation within a company’s portfolio, especially when other arms also sell much the same stock, but in this case we’ll be left with a massive price hike. For example, the Portaflash LS2 lightstand, while bulky and aluminium, cost under a tenner at Tecno, last year and was retailing at Cameras2U for the princely sum of £9.49. Fear not, intrepid reader, for Jessops will still sell you the same item from their main store - for £35.95!
For the short term, you can still find the products you want at Cameras2U by using the search function, and they’re still honouring orders for those products. You just can’t browse to them off the front page.
If Jessops are hoping that limiting Cameras2U will push people to order from their main site, they’re going to be sadly mistaken. Given the overheads inherent in Jessops being a bricks and mortar store, a minor price increase is to be expected, but 350% is taking it too far - go on Jessops, pull the other one, it’s got bells on!
UPDATE: I’ve just been made aware (and have verified) that C2U have increased the price on the LS2 stand to £39.99 - slightly higher than the Jessops prices. Looks like that’s one more decent supplier gone.
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Tags: gear by Ben
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