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Support the Irish suppliers.
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it was interesting for you to suggest you had the Spydercube for sale on another thread and at prices that Ebay couldn’t beat when you include shipping etc
Yes, you mentioned an Epson V700 for €440 in the Film Forum the other day. Had I of been aware of this a month ago I would have gladly bought it from you at that price.
You need to market yourself. Please, please, please do yourself a favour and at the very least get in here on PI on a more regular basis and start promoting products and offers. All this cloak and dagger approach to online prices does you no favours. You’ve made two posts in relation to products/prices in the past week and people have taken notice.
I wish you well.
nfl-fan wrote:
Yes, you mentioned an Epson V700 for €440 in the Film Forum the other day. Had I of been aware of this a month ago I would have gladly bought it from you at that price.
same here.
(not trying to be negative)Hi Sheldon,
several times you mentioned when you posted that the purpose was not to have your website evaluated, that you were not an e-commerce business. I don’t think this is what is necessarily expected of you, rather that you might post up more information, including prices, turn around time, etc. The fact is that most people, when on the prowl for a specific piece of equipment, will do most of their research on the web before they even lift a phone.
I would agree that buying locally is generally better for the service and security it offers and as can be seen on the replies here, several people have said that they are prepared to shop local if the price differences were not so extreme. It was acknowledged that people appreciated being able to view and handle the product before purchase, this is understandable.
Gunnes is a long standing institution which demonstrates that it is not necessary to have an e-commerce site to survive and (hopefully) thrive in the current economic climate. They have a personal touch which you will never get from a broadband connection and are passionately customer orientated.
In the issue of price differences, while I know you state that DSLR’s would not be your mainstay, if someone is buying a bit of kit which is several hundred euro cheaper online then it could be the difference between whether or not they would be able to get the camera/lens or whatever. Buying from an Irish supplier or online isn’t just about being patriotic, it can be a deciding factor on if the purchaser even purchases.
Sorry for the long post, there seems to have been a lot of them in the replies to your initial comment (which was not short either) but I think your sentiments have been noted and appreciated and they answer appears to be that it is a two-way process and we should all listen to each other.P.S. I very rarely shop in Tesco. After their recent debacle regarding supposed price cuts and outsourcing from abroad, I have little faith in their interest and commitment to local issues and suppliers. I shop largely in the local SuperValu (Pettitts) as they are more supportive of local producers. (I’ll probably eat those words when NFL and Mick et al get stuck in to this) This is not to say that the prices are not an issue but then the difference is marginal then I’ll spend my money where it will benefit the local community more.
I’ve bought 90% of my gear in ireland, and while it’s not been the cheapest thing to go, it’s been the best value. I’ve dealt with at least 3 or 4 different suppliers, and they each do something for you to make a deal, and the aftercare service is there.
Good post Sheldon, and I wish ALL the irish suppliers well.
Merv.
Just my two cents….
A lot of Irish suppliers are too expensive. We hide behind various VAT/rent/wage/insurance excuses, but the fact is a lot are too expensive.
I don’t like being ripped off, so thats why I try not rip people off. I have no problem bargaining with a customer. I just wanna cover my costs (which I have kept low) and make a few pound on top.
I only sell products and services that I can offer a competitive price on, therefore, I don’t sell cameras, because its cheaper to buy them online.
The Irish suppliers I deal with have no problem bringing prices down on their products, but they only do so when asked.
I stormed out of a shop once when I saw what they wanted for a Nikon speedlight. It was so stratospheric I couldn’t believe it! If I’m buying a major new purchase I couldn’t live with myself if I was paying a 30% mark-up compared to online prices. If I bought stuff with that attitude at work I’d get suspended – I wouldn’t do it with someone else’s money so I’m certainly not going to do it with mine. I’m not talking about €5 here or there, but hundreds on a new camera or lens.
I think the problem the photography industry is experiencing is the same as that for nearly every industry and market in Ireland. Things have been on the rise so fast people stopped looking at prices – cars, pints of guinness, and groceries included. Suddenly we all look about and it seems to be a total surprise that when we check prices they’re . Now, there’s a serious drive to cut costs and remain competetive. I think it’s a bit like a piece of elastic being released, and instead of a gentle push over the last few years pressure is on to do it all at once. It doesn’t help that most people settle into a comfortable denial of the basic fact that things are much more expensive than they are in the new global markets.
Most companies conduct a SWOT analysis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis and some really tight budgeting every year to analyse where the big threats are, and avoid being caught standing. As nearly all the previous posts have mentioned, the internet counts as a massive threat but also a good opprtunity. That’s definitely the overriding theme of a lot of the replies. It can’t help that every big shop that sells a fridge now has about sixty cameras standing on a nifty display, with an interchangeable teenage drone who was selling toasters yesterday is now staffing.
(I apologise if I’m coming across as a tool, I’m running a massive temperature :oops: )
Fundamentally, this is the same kind of forced adapt-or-die situation that has driven every extinction since the first single-celled organism. It’s not unique to Ireland, it’s just life. But the only thing that can help survival is adaptation to recognise a changing market. It’s just crap when it’s you, as I can assure you, living on €204.30 a week. It’s a good example of a disruptive technology, in this case ease of transport and the use of the internet to sell stuff. And yes, the crap value of the pound is a massive player in all this… Instant massive discount for UK products.
Off to bed to shiver until dawn :(
Well, we are now approaching the end of the year and I’m wondering how people still feel on this subject. The last couple of months have certainly been interesting as far as I’ve been concerned. I’ve been having a nosey in various camera shops doing a bit of detective work and I’ve had some very mixed and interesting results. I won’t be naming any particular shops but nearly all have been mentioned in this thread.
Two shops I approached for camera cleaning gave me two prices with a difference of €70!! I kid you not. If this service is the exact same, and I was assured by an independent source who availed of the service that it was, then how can shop A justify wet cleaning a sensor for €70 more than shop B?
I went into a camera shop in September and, playing the dummy, asked if it was possible to “get something that I can attach to different lenses so that I can use the same filters on all my lenses”. I was told that they only did “this type” of filter and I would have to buy filters of different sizes for each lens. All this shop had in stock that I could see were screw in filters. Clearly the assistant in the shop had no clue whatsoever about filter systems which I find extraordinary. It’s like a mechanic not knowing that there are different type of tires. I think people would be very surprised who this shop is. Then again, maybe they wouldn’t!
I walked into a very well known shop in Dublin about a month ago and asked if they had a Cokin ND filter. I was told that they didn’t sell them and that “since the advent of digital cameras, people don’t use filters anymore” (these were his exact words). I said that I had a Cokin system and was looking to get a few replacement filters and whether there was anywhere in Dublin I could pick up some. I was assured that I wouldn’t be able to pick up any anywhere. Interestingly I was in Dublin Camera Exchange on Georges St. the same day and they had practically every Cokin filter ever made. Strange this, seeing as there are apparently none in Dublin.
Back to the subject of sensor cleaning, I clean my own sensors and went into town one day to get some Eclipse cleaning fluid, (I get my swabs from the States). This wasn’t detective work, I actually needed the fluid. I was told that I couldn’t buy cleaning fluid because people can’t clean the delicate sensors properly and they damage the sensor but they did “give a free dry clean and that I could leave my camera in for a service if I wanted”. Well exactly why do they care if people can’t clean their sensors properly? Outside of a couple of pros I know, I’m the only person I know who will attempt to clean their own sensor so I’d be surprised if they are over-run with requests for fluid. Maybe he thought I was some novice who was going to try and dismantle his €100 compact camera, who knows.
While these aren’t exactly examples of a rip off Ireland culture, I think they are an example of how little certain shops care about customers. The filter example in particular annoyed me. I was in retail for a few years and the golden rule is that you keep the customer happy. If you can’t provide the service then you steer the customer in the direction of someone who can. To suggest that the product can’t be found in Dublin indicates to me that this person had some sort of motive for saying it. It’s like someone in Arnotts saying that you can’t buy jumpers anymore then finding them in Clearys. Or maybe it’s just that I expect a bit too much from the people running these shops. Either way I will happily and actively seek out equipment in foreign shops. At least there I can find the kind of professionalism that I’m looking for.
Last year I was looking to buy a D300 and I checked the prices on line and compare it to the Dublin prices. There was almost €300 difference in the price on the Jessop’s website compared to the price in the shops in Dublin
I rang the Dublin shop and explained that I would prefer to spend my money locally instead of online but they said that they couldn’t match the UK price and the couldn’t move on the price…… I went off and thought about it for a while as it just didn’t sit well with me that theywere unable move on the price.
I rang them back again and the an explained my disappointment and they said that they would speak to Nikon and see what they could do…. in the end Nikon gave them a MB-D10 grip for free. ( value approx 300).
Ok so I ended up spending an extra 300 over the web price – but I believe I got value and the benefit of local services ( not sure If I could afford to shop local now though…..)
Its a two way thing, shops need to push back stronger on there suppliers to allow them to get closer to the web prices or provide something extra to bridge the gap….
I used to think that it was not about cost but always about value …….unfortunately its more about cost these days
I bought a 200-400 F4 Nikon lense there not to long ago.. bought it online and saved 1500 euro over buying it in Dublin.. That’s a hugh price differnce, where does the extra 1500 come from.. if there had of been a couple of hundred in the difference I would have bought it in Dublin..
I also bought a couple of D300 bodies and a nikon 70-200 F2.8 VR Nikon and to be honest after pricing these 3 items in Dublin and online it was a no brainer to go online… made a saving of over 1000 euro… And even trying to ask for a deal on these items in a shop in Dublin I was told they could no budge on the prices.. So I bought online.
I would buy all my kit in Ireland but sometimes the prices are too high and I can’t afford it..
John
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