...just been busy. Besides, I haven't been in a writing mood. Holidays came and went. Didn't really feel like they were here. Is that a product of my age and station in life? Or am I just inured to the never-ending hoopla and rampant commercialization. Am I rejecting the consumerism that pervades our society? Dunno. But this year, more than ever, I just didn't feel any excitement and in the past I have.
Got a sad letter today: Raleigh Camera, a "competitor" of my store and an equally long-standing Brooklyn institution and camera specialty store is closing its doors this month. "Equally long-standing" refers to the camera store that my grandfather, father and then my brother Lee and I ran for so many years: Mayfair Photo. We closed it two years ago July. The cessation of business was a long time coming but the handwriting had been written on the wall. Photography, as a retail enterprize, is a "sunset business" as the Japanese like to say. Meaning, it's in decline. Why? I guess Kodak would like to know the answer to that question as well since they've been suffering so greatly. Digital, which has transformed all human endeavor, certainly is a large part of it: with digital has come the loss of film and processing sales. Processing was a mainstay of our profits at Mayfair and all camera stores.
But there's more: the very nature of retailing has changed so dramatically. Mail order combined with the power of the web lets you see and order any item you want with enough information and visual clarity to satisfy many buyers. From the comfort of their easy chair. And then it's delivered in a day or two right to their door. Don't like it? Send it back. Doesn't happen too often with me. It's very seductive and it accounts for a large fall off in retail shopping. And what mom and pop can compete price-wise with the price-choppers on the net? Not to mention competing with the big-box chains that have made their way inside the city borders. Add all that together and you have a very difficult situation for small stores. That's the story of Mayfair and countless of other camera stores -- from dozens in Brooklyn and Queens in the 50's to a handful or soon, none. Times are changing. Manhattan reflects that very clearly: Home Depot on 23rd Street and another on 3rd Avenue and 59th. Home Depot??!! In Manhattan? It's the homogenization of our cities re-made in the image of the suburban mall. Yech.
The letter from Raleigh announcing the end of their business, founded in 1938.
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