Ritz Camera - SKY HIGH PRICES... And No Advantages
Written: Feb 02 '08 (Updated Feb 19 '08)
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When you are driving around town, you will see plenty of Ritz Camera and Wolf Camera stores. Just like any brick & mortar store, they have considerably higher prices than reputable online retailers, namely Amazon.com, Adorama, B&H Photo & Video, Beach Camera, and just about any other that has four star or higher ratings on epinions.com.
-BRICK & MORTAR VS. ONLINE-
*I am exclusively an online guy. I will research an item and then maybe play around with it at a brick & mortar store, and then purchase it online. Like any other brick & mortar store such as Best Buy, Circuit City, or an independently owned camera store, Ritz and Wolf Camera have very high prices on their items. While Ritz Camera may be slightly cheaper than Best Buy (Which is the most expensive big box retailer in regards to camera products which I have seen), it still prices itself considerably higher than the reputable retailers.
So if you are someone that buys your expensive products in the store, go ahead and do so. For many, paying those premiums is worth it. I was never able to understand why people would purchase products off of a brick & mortar chain's website. I then learned that some stores such as Costco and Best Buy, if I am not mistaken, allow you to return the item to the store if you have any problems with it. So, when you are purchasing from Ritz Camera online, aren't you getting the benefit of being able to walk into many of their locations in order to return the product?
-Brick & Mortar Does Not Equal Online Store-
*So the camera you purchased from the website is broken... What do you do? You can bring it into a local Ritz Camera location, right?! WRONG! I called five stores in the area, and all of them told me that it is company policy that you are unable to return an item purchased from the website to any of their physical location. On my second call, the employee went into detail about this. He told me that because you are receiving the items with free shipping and no sales tax, it can't be returned. He also said how it goes from a different inventory and what not. In other words, he was telling me that the website acts independently of the store. Therefore, the benefit of buying on a brick & mortar website for the sake of returning the item to a physical location is now completely gone. Therefore, if it acts independently from the actual physical store, you would expect competitive prices, right?
-PRICES-
*I have literally looked up every piece of equipment in my camera collection, and then compared how much you can pay (From reputable online retailers), versus Ritz Camera. Here are the price differences:
*Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Lens
-Adorama Camera - $399
-Ritzcamera.com - $529
-YOU SAVE: $120
NOTE: I purchased the lens gray market for $300, therefore gray market prices for the lens are by far the lowest. Reputable retailers easily sell it for ~$400.
*Canon EF 70-300mm f4-5.6 IS USM Lens
-B&H Photo & Video or Adorama - $529.95
-Ritzcamera.com - $649.99
-YOU SAVE: $120.04
*Tokina 10-17mm f3.5-4.5 AT-X 107 AF DX
-Beach Camera - $464.95
-Ritzcamera.com - Uh oh! They don't carry it!
-YOU SAVE: Probably a lot if they carried it.
*Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II Lens
-Amazon.com - $74.91
-Ritzcamera.com - Uh oh! They don't carry it!
-YOU SAVE: Probably a lot if they carried it.
*Canon Speedlite 430EX Flash
-Amazon.com - $249.99
-Ritzcamera.com - $299.99
-YOU SAVE: $50
NOTE: I Still do not own my own flash yet, I borrow a Canon Speedlite 430EX. But if I were to ever buy this flash, I can assure you that I would not be paying an additional $50 for no reason here when I can get it from Amazon.com for $50 less.
*Canon Speedlite 580EX II
-Amazon.com - $356.95 with $50 Rebate
-Ritzcamera.com - $449.99 with $50 Rebate
-YOU SAVE: $93.04
NOTE: I will be purchasing this flash before the rebate runs out. If you want to see the price without the rebate, please add $50. Anyhow, you still see Ritz Camera's price being significantly higher.
*Canon Powershot SD950IS
-B&H Photo & Video - $334.95
-Ritzcamera.com - $399.99
-YOU SAVE: $65.04
NOTE: As you can see, even other things besides SLR lenses and accessories are expensive. Cameras themselves are very expensive.
Technically, the list goes on and on. When looking through the lists of products, it is clearly evident that just by eyeballing the prices, Ritz Camera is considerably more expensive than the competition.
Even though Ritz Camera offers no sales tax and free shipping, so does Amazon.com and Beach Camera. Even if you have to pay shipping at Adorama or B&H, you still have FAR BETTER deals at those retailers anyhow.
-PRODUCTS-
*Ritz Camera mainly carries cameras and accessories. But by looking above, you can see that Ritz Camera failed to carry certain lenses that I was easily able to find at other retailers such as Adorama, Beach Camera, and B&H. They all had considerably larger selections and carry more brands. For example, Ritz Camera does not carry Tokina lenses. They also generally carry fewer lenses, such as the lack of Canon's very popular 50mm f1.8 lens ("Nifty Fifty"). Though, if Ritz Camera did actually carry those products, I am certain that they would still be higher than any of the lower priced retailers. Therefore, for most part, no matter what you buy, it will be overpriced. Also, the worse selection puts it far below other retailers.
-SHIPPING-
*If Ritz Camera actually offered any competitive prices, I would have technically shipped an item. Anyway, they offer free shipping. That's nice.
-CUSTOMER SERVICE-
*Once again, if Ritz Camera offered competitive prices, I would have possibly experienced this. Nonetheless, I can't comment on customer service since I was never able to actually order from the website.
-THE VERDICT-
*For everything I have ever purchased for my camera, I always checked out Ritz Camera. The prices are way too high though, and not by a small margin either. Usually you will be paying $100 or more for a product. This is clearly evident by my above analysis. The prices are comparable to brick & mortar stores, which customers justify by being able to hold the item in their hand and purchase it that day. People also like to be able to talk to sales staff. The sales staff are often quite helpful in independently run camera stores. You get none of that at the website though. In terms of the website, the only way that these prices could be justified is if customers could walk into a physical store if they need to return or exchange the item. This, however, is not possible. Therefore, Ritz Camera is probably (Not probably, it just is!) a waste of time. It makes no sense since you find brick & mortar prices, without the ability to actually walk into a store to return or exchange the item. This makes no sense.
Therefore, Ritz Camera is no different from any other reputable retailer where you simply buy online. You gain absolutely NO benefit from purchasing at Ritz Camera versus Amazon.com, Adorama, Beach Camera, and B&H Photo & Video. In fact, those stores offer a much greater advantage since they have a significantly larger selection! Therefore, avoid Ritz Camera unless you enjoy paying much more money for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Everything
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soupcraze
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