Interesting Article About B&H Photo
 

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05340/616255.stm

More of a human interest story than a business analysis or anything.

thanks.
nice article.

would like to visit them some day, but without cash, scheck, or cc.......

when do they have their first store at the west coast?

greetings

I should make the trip some time soon. Just to wander around and gape at everything.:)

I had to laugh---People don't push each other to get to a cash register---Everything is orderly and well structured. The guy makes B&H sound like some kind of flea market.

Double its retail store? I wanna see that.

Hmm, no mention made of the overhead conveyor belt system which delivers customer selections to the checkout counter. Overall it's a pretty good article, but I must agree with Rextilleon. I've never seen any "pushing and elbowing" there. It's always orderly. Crowded, yes, but orderly. The staff goes out of their way to help you. As far as brick & mortar retail is concerned, B&H is a class act all the way.

If their prices were about 5% lower overall, I would only shop at B&H. Love 'em, never had a problem.

Last week I walked through the doors of B& H for the first time, expecting to be overwhelmed. I wasn’t, simply because the layout is so well-planned that you feel like you know exactly where you’re going at all times. (It helps that I went there with a B&H junkie, I suppose, plus the bright arrows near the checkout make it pretty much idiot proof.)

But as Chris said, the people who work there make it such a cool place! We asked a guy if he had a tiny screwdriver handy because a lens had fallen out of my glasses. He didn’t, so we just thanked him and moved on. Nearly a half hour later, here came that same wonderful guy with a screwdriver he’d borrowed from one of the techs there!

At NAB last spring there were so many people around and I felt so overwhelmed by all the stuff that I didn’t get an opportunity to really play with the cameras. At B&H, they’re just tucked in that little section where folks politely take turns working with them. So easy. (How does one decide between the way the JVC GY-HD100 feels and the beautiful images that show up on the monitor of the XL H1???) :)

I also found my next tripod head, with all of them placed near the cameras for easy access. I’ll order it from B&H when I can afford it.

No wonder everyone brags about B&H. What a great store!!!

Did you make it upstairs to the used gear counter? Lots of buried treasure up there.

awright, lorinda, so what is the next tripod head?...details, details! (i'm in the market for another one myself and am having almost as much trouble as i am with the xl h1/hd100/z1/hvx200 complex....)

Heh heh…buried treasure is right. I have to admit I didn’t spend much time upstairs because it somehow took me back to the days I spent in cluttered tractor parts stores with my dad when I was a kid (hated that). But I’d have felt differently at B&H if I was looking for a specific item. I can see how it would be lots of fun for treasure hunters!

Meryem, the question I asked earlier about the cameras was tongue-in-cheek; there’s no way I’ll be buying either of them. Therefore, my next tripod head choice may not interest you. The Bogen 526 just felt so smooth—especially compared with my crummy 516. I tried out one Sachtler (no idea which) and it felt okay, but then when I went back to the 526 I knew I wanted it. No hitches, no creaking—just smooth as silk. (No load, either. Wish I’d asked to put a camera on it.)

Meryem:

Forget the HVX 200. Someone in the "biz" offhandedly commented to a group of us during a NYC lighting seminar that the HVX is already on it's way out since the P2 system just ain't doing it and it isn't catching on. I can offer no more than that because he was nebulous following that comment.

interesting tidbit, hugh. but oo la la, the hvx undercrank feature, so fabooolous.

i keep telling myself that now is not the time to buy a new camera or a new mac, wait six months for either the next-gen of both or else for lightly-used inventory to hit the market at more reasonable prices, but you never know when i might sleepwalk my way over to the computer and, zombie-like, push "add to cart" and "buy now"--it happens!

then again, one of the great teachings from the "the zen of poker" is:

"money flows from the impatient to the patient."

chant that mantra, grasshopper!

The Zen master who coined that saying must know me well. Speaking of Zen...

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

Panny cant even keep up with demand... on the way out? Sounds like a very uninformed opinion, not a fact...



ash =o)