Note: This blog is based on my personal experiences and no locations will be given. I realise that the possibility of losing your job is horrible and that going into administration is a very serious matter. This is just my own perspective.
Location: A Jessops High street store
(Customer walks into store, looks at a selection of Canon cameras)
Shop Assistant: Hello sir, can I help you?
Customer: Yes, I'd like to look at a Canon 50mm f1.8 (about £90) lens please
Shop Assistant: Ok, I'll be right back.
(Shop assistant returns with a Nikon 50mm f1.2 (about £600, and the wrong make)
Customer: That's the wrong make, it won't fit my camera, and it's six times the price of the one which I had intended to purchase.
Shop Assistant: (with blank expression) Isn't it cross compatable? I'm sure they are, you're using a Canon and I'm sure that they fit Canon.
It was experiences like this, alongside pretty horrendous mark-ups, that put me off buying from my local Jessops. I do have friend's who've worked for Jessops and am aware that they would never do something as idiotic as the example above. The broader point though, is that Jessops' business plan seems to have been something akin to constantly balancing more and more empty cans without any support or ballast hoping that they wouldn't fall over.
The company has been in existence since 1935 and I know that it would be a travesty for it to disappear. I know that going into administration isn't the equal to liquidation but there will certainly be fewer Jessops on the high street. The problem with a store like Jessops is much like that which forced Comet out of business. Stores which thrive on selling expensive products, with only a limited amount of day to day items that people are likely to purchase, it's a difficult endeavour.
Whilst Supermarkets do sell expensive electronics, they also sell very cheap products. This is why they can become so successful, and continue to stay open. People will always need food. They will not always need cameras. I've brought 2 cameras in 2 years, both of them second hand and whilst I have brought accessories for them both, Jessops has more often than not been the most expensive (and least helpful) option.
I do have anecdotal accounts of Jessops shop assistants being directed to sell DSLRs when in fact what the customer needs is a compact. Or the example above of bringing out the completely wrong lens, putting me off ever going back into the store. As I said before, I'm not trying to tarnish them all with the same brush but these are genuine experiences. In a world where the High Street store carries less and less value from the perspective of the consumer, no one wants a bad reputation.
This isn't a fault with the individuals but rather with the companies training program. If someone who works for you can't tell the difference between Canon and Nikon, or more likely doesn't realise that their products are not cross-compatible, the fault lies with the person that gave the assistant the ok to go out and interact with the public. On this occasion, as with everytime such a thing has happened to me, I explained that that's not the case and that I would need a Canon fit. Not everyone is so polite.
It would seem that the overall business strategy of continuing to open more and more stores as the economic situation remains stagnate and people have less disposable income year on year is a deeply flawed one. In truth though, the Photography service business has taken a serious hit in the past decade since Jessops opened their 200th store in the shape of Digital Photography and cheap home printing. Photo sharing is now something done primarily online and people simply don't have the need to get photos developed and printed.
When was the last time you actually looked at a photo album? Let put one together using shop purchased prints from negatives. No, I can't remember either. It was probably sometime around 2003. The truth is that from a purely consumerist perspective we don't actually need shops like Jessops. We can get our photos developed via post, print our own photos on the machines in Boots, get all the advice we need from online blogs and reviews and easily return a camera to the online store we brought it from if we decide that it's the wrong one for us. It's sad but true.
Shopping is becoming increasingly dehumanised, which is great if you're neurotic, but some of us actually like to buy things from real people.
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