Ritz Closing 400 stores

[Rson]

http://sanantonio.bizjournals.com/sa...&ed=2009-03-27

Ritz Camera Center Inc. has taken another step in its bankruptcy reorganization efforts.

The Beltsville, Md.-based privately held chain has won the approval of rules governing the sale of assets at 400 stores it plans to shutter. Ritz has more 1,000 locations in 45 states. There are four Wolf Camera locations in San Antonio.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath ruled in Wilmington, Del., that bidding procedures for the stores Ritz wants to close are fair. She also approved Ritz's request to borrow $85 million from Wachovia Bank to help fund operations as it shuts the stores.

In court papers the company said it wants liquidators to bid for rights to oversee the sales by March 30. If more than one acceptable bid is received, it will hold an auction April 1. Ritz scheduled an April 2 hearing to approve the sale. Bloomberg News quotes Ritz Chief Restructuring Officer Marc Weinsweig as saying “The success of today’s hearing positions us for a successful reorganization.”

Ritz will have as many as 375 stores after the sales. Weinsweig is also quoted as saying two groups of liquidators have made bids. One consists of Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC and Hilco Merchant Resources LLC.

Walrath gave Ritz permission on March 19 to hire Gordon Brothers to shut down the company's 130-store Boater’s World chain.

In 1987 Ritz launched Boater’s World, a boating-and-fishing supply retailer with 137 stores now operating. A drop in consumer spending and slumping sales at Boater’s World prompted the bankruptcy filing. The rise in gas prices and other factors led to a “sharp” drop in sales at Boater’s World’s stores, Weinsweig said in the filing.

In 2001 Ritz acquired Wolf Camera, which had sought bankruptcy protection. Ritz began with a single store in Atlantic City in 1918. Its retail brands today include Wolf Camera, Kits Cameras, Inkley’s and The Camera Shop.

[texasguy3]

I personally know of one store in Dallas where the employees were told on Tuesday that they were closing and had to be out of the building by today.

[kula23]

Dang, everything sucks for all businesses down! This is really sad of what's going on!

[toverman]

Hate to hear of more businesses closing down, but as mentioned in a previous Ritz thread it seems like Boater's World was dead weight for the company lately. Tough times just keep getting tougher.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Guess Internet sales by others has knocked them down also having too many retail outlets for the market. (1,000+ stores would mean over 20 per state which is a bit much since there are a lot of independent sellers).

I remember when we had Barry's Camera, which had a pro shop on Harry Hines, which was bought out by Wolf and then Ritz took over though they kept the Wolf name in the DFW market.

Really the few times recently that I went into a Wolf/Ritz the staff was not that knowledgeable (in more than one store so it wasn't just that in one store) about some of the new models that were coming out (kind of knew what the brand rep told them but it felt like that they were never given a camera to take for 2 days to shoot and see what it could do) and with Target/WallMart/Internet/BestBuy/CircuitCity(RIP-not)/local shops around Ritz didn't/doesn't offer much of any incentive to buy a camera from them. (they used to offer a free workshop to new camera buyers to learn about photography but I have not noticed that around for a while).

I think there are around a dozen of their stores in the DFW area and they could probably drop that in half.

[Triana]

I was in the one here in Austin about 3 weeks ago and the shelves and the floor were just bare bones. Was really weird being in there. So I'm not too surprised, though it's extremely sad.

[Cajungaltx]

I'm a cold hearted capitalist.... and have stopped into Ritz's at our mall here in Katy several times... and honestly - they sucked.

I stopped in for a tripod... they had one kind. Pan and tilt. I asked the clerk about ball heads.... he said 'huh?'... so I explained it to him. They didn't carry those.

I stopped in for a couple of other things.... that they didn't carry either.

They were competing against 'big box' stores, in my opinion, because they were focused on a 'general' camera user....obviously NOT catering to the other end of the spectrum...where someone might be looking for more professional equipment.

I think it was a serious mistake on their part and it cost them.

[ka5txl]

I only use them for printing when i'm not that concerned about quality. Although I was suprised the last time I went in they had me sign form because "the pictures looked professional" I thought they were crap but I had watermarked them when I was doing the initial pp

[RKEnnis]

They brought it on themselves.

On my last visit to Ritz Camera:

Me: Where are your Nikon flash units?
Clerk: We don't carry any Nikon flashes in the store.

Me: Do you carry rolls of white seamless paper?
Clerk (looking confused): What?
Me: you know, the wide rolls of white paper...
Clerk: Oh, you can only get that if you buy the whole kit with stands and everything.

Me: Where are the Sandisk compact flash cards?
Clerk: We have these Extreme II 8GB cards for $59.95. They are really fast!
Me: OK, thanks anyway... have a nice day.

[Crashoran]

It was only a matter of time.

[ka5txl]

Similar story this time last year at a local Wolfs (oh how I miss Barry's)
Me: Do you have the new K20D?
clerk: Yes we do
Lets me hold it
Me: how much is it (I already knew) ?
clerk: $1299 plus tax body only
Me: Do you have any lenses?
clerk: No
Me: Your online store has it for $1299, they discount it by the amount of the tax and have free shipping. Will you match the online price?
clerk: No! He then proceeds to berate me for not wanting to pay taxes.
I leave and wait a few weeks then buy online from Beach Camera. A few days later I go back in to pick up some prints I carry my new camera with me.
Me: Are you the manager?
Mgr: Yes can I help you?
Me: see that clerk over there? He should be the employee of the month as he saved me a lot of money.
Mgr: Oh how so?
Me: Because he can't sell, I bought this online and saved $130 plus tax. Thanks