What Really Killed Blacks Photography?   

It’s not surprising Blacks is closing their remaining stores.   Aden Camera, one of the most competitively priced camera stores in Toronto, recently closed one of their locations.  Henrys, Vistek, Downtown Camera - they are all struggling with the changing landscape of photography.   Yes, much of it is the impact of digital – only a tiny percentage of all the images taken are ever turned into photographs. This is not really news, it’s been happening for a decade but increases exponentially each year.  

Try to take in this fact: 350 million digital images are uploaded to Facebook EVERY DAY!  And that’s just FB, add to that instagram, twitter, flickr, and the dozens of other popular social media tools for image sharing.   In 2014 it was estimated that total image uploads reached 1.8 billion a day. Yes, THAT’S 1.8 BILLION - EVERY DAY! 

Knowing that prints are dying, Blacks diversified their offerings to include photobooks, large canvas prints,  calendars, greeting cards, mugs and  t-shirts.  Recently Blacks tried to attract customers from social media platforms. For example they began selling square prints to match the Instagram ratio. They offered apps so one could order fun prints and photobooks right from your phone or tablet.  But novelty photo items cannot replace the millions of photos we no longer print.

But the real reason Blacks is dead is the same reason other so-called brick and mortar stores have collapsed: online sales. 

Until a couple of years ago most Blacks stores still sold a fairly good array of cameras, from compact to mirrorless to the major brands of DSLRs.  They also sold lens, tripods, camera bags and other accessories.   But all of these items could also by purchased online, either from Blacks, other camera stores, or big box retailers like Best Buy.  Or from The Mothership:  Amazon.   Online prices are almost always lower and delivered right to your door.

 And Blacks print sales went online.  Order from home and if you wanted to, they were delivered to your door for no extra fee. I frequently ordered online and only picked up in a store because I live close to one and saved me waiting two days for Canada Post.  Order online, delivered to your door. Why would you ever set foot in a physical store?

A couple of years ago, after the Telus take over,  most Blacks outlets shrank from a real store to a photo kiosk, with a handful of cameras and a wall rack of frames.   Customer service declined because when you no longer sell cameras, you no longer need a staff that knows about photography, just someone to run the cash and ask if you want fries with that, I mean “would you like a frame for your photos?”