RE: [Leica] Leica] Washington DC Shops?

["Dan Honemann" <ddh@home.com>]

Penn Camera in Rockville has a Leica day scheduled for October 21st of this
year.  I'll definitely be there.  Perhaps those of us local to D.C. could
use this occasion to meet up.

Dan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Simon
> Stevens
> Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2000 9:10 AM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: [Leica] Leica] Washington DC Shops?
> Importance: Low
>
>
> >Which is all very curious about the lack of Leica presence when you
> consider
> >the huge (news, government, corporate and commercial) amount of
> photography
> >that goes on in DC.
>
> Steve,
>
> I just spent a week working as a contractor on a conference with some of
> those government photographers. They all seem to be die-hard F4, F5 or
> F-100 users. When I pulled out my M4-P on the first day their eyes
> fairly bugged out. The best part was when one asked me how wide I could
> go "on that thing", "15mm." I replied.
>
> Actually, I beleive that that good retailers can to some extent drive
> demand. Before I moved to DC I had a photo store about the size of Pro
> Photo. My experience is that quality equipment like Leica can be sold
> but the retailer has to learn how to sell them  - including being an
> active advocate for a brand, stocking and prominantly displaying it,
> knowing the catalog and being willing to do special orders. With the
> exception of Pro Photo, I haven't seen much evidence of that kind of
> behind the counter education and sales effort here, so only the most
> mass-market boxes-on-a-shelf have any penetration.
>
> Simon Stevens