> > "Well, I don't know anthing about it, I haven't read any of > > the reviews on it, and I don't make those decisions anyway > > the owner does. There's a lot of great gear out there that we > > don't carry." At that point he handed me the charge slip to > > sign and I took my yellow copy and left. > > One of the local dealers was telling me that no Pentax field sales > representative had been in to see them in several years. They're not > negative on the brand, they simply don't know what's going on or why > they haven't been contacted in so long.
I would find that hard to believe. I knew Pentax's rep for Northern California (his territory was bigger than that and included other states, but I'm not sure exactly how big), and he was in at least every other month, sometimes more often if there was new stuff to show. I think (without having time to read more posts in this thread) that the reason Pentax is not better shown in shops is primarily because of marketing. I'm not just talking about advertisements, though. Canon and Nikon (KonicaMinolta, too, before they chickened out) both offer a lot of marketing materials, ad co- ops, and other benefits to dealers. Pentax never seemed to have much of that compared to the other guys. In this down market, if a camera dealer can get help from a company, he'll do whatever it takes to get it. I know this was the case at my previous employer, as well as at others. Plus, I think we all know Canon, Nikon, and Sony are the juggernauts here. Pentax is more like Leica, and since both sell a lot less than the other brands, relative profit is much lower. Dealers have to sell what makes them money on a consistant basis, and thus the smaller guys mostly get left out. It's all about profit, people. Camera shops are having tough times, so they do what it takes to make a profit. It's unfortunate for us Pentax users, but what can we do? Besides trying to buy from local shops, not a whole lot. John Celio -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
