Re: [Leica] Leicas at the Post Exchange

["Roland Smith" <roland@dnai.com>]

In 1957, my grandmother made a trip to Wiesbaden in order to visit my aunt
and uncle, my uncle being in the US Air Force.   I gave my grandmother money
to purchase a Leica IIIg with a Summarit lens which she did saving about
$150 off the US home retail price.

Leica would not honor any warranty in the US since it was not purchased
here.   Fortunately, I had no problems, but, I did not receive the Leica
magazine because of Leitz attitude.

I still have the camera in its mint condition after many rolls of film
passing through it.

Roland Smith
Oakland, California

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Marc James Small" <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2001 1:22 PM
Subject: [Leica] Leicas at the Post Exchange


> At 02:11 PM 9/10/01 -0500, Jeffery Smith wrote:
> >In San Diego, the Commissary seemed to deal in one brand name to the
> >exclusion of others, and the brand names seemed to change from time to
> >time. So, if you wanted a tape recorder, it as Akai. If you wanted a
> >receiver, it was Sansui. I don't know of anyone buying a Leica there,
> >but I know they had the Mamiya 500TL and the Yashica D. I know of
> >someone getting a Petri there too. Most of the cameras were more
> >"consumer" level than pro level.
>
>
> Jeffery
>
> The deal about Leica in the PX (NOT the Commissary:  that's where you buy
> food, while the Class Six Store is where you buy your Lagavulin) was in
the
> late 1940's and early 1950's in Europe and never extended to CONUS.
>
> When the US PX system was being set up in Europe in 1945, Leitz and Franke
> & Heidecke were the only camera companies available to supply the system
so
> they received exclusive contracts for about a decade.  This gave both
> companies a huge boost in sales and ready income at a time when Zeiss Ikon
> and Ihagee were both struggling most mightily.  By 1960, this preference
> was gone and the Leica and Rolleiflex cameras were priced out of the PX
> system.  By the 1980's, PX's were a great source for the swathe of amateur
> Canon and Nikon gear but even that is gone today;  the water-down PX's now
> only sell bottom-end digital cameras and single-use jobbies, along with
> loud and cheap clothing and pasteboard furniture.
>
> The PX's in the Orient picked up Nikon and Canon gear when the ETO got
> Leicas and Rolleiflexes.  Again, by about 1960, the better stuff had been
> replaced by cheaper cameras.
>
> (The USAF and US Army have a consolidated "Army/Air Force Exchange System"
> or AAFES, while the US Navy has a separate system of Base Exchanges quite
> similar in nature.)
>
> Marc
>
> msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
> Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir!
>
>