Looks like Ritz Camera may be the next camera shop to fold. The Washington Post reports that they filed for Bankruptcy on Sunday. They need $85 million to cover payroll and debts to vendors (they owe Nikon $26.6 million, Canon USA $13.7 million and Fuji Photo Film $4 million).

They do some of the same stuff we do (VHS to DVD, movie film, slides), but they have to send it out to their "lab", it takes at least 3 weeks to do, and they can’t handle a complex or custom jobs.

Say you have 3 tapes you want to combine to one DVD and then make 35 copies for your family reunion this Saturday. Not going to happen at Ritz and in most cases their staff sends the customer to DDVF. We get a lot of referrals from the Ritz in Boscov's at the Concord Mall and we reciprocate when people ask us where to buy a camera or where to get prints made.

We had a similar relationship with Cutler Camera until they folded a few years back. It stunk losing the referrals, but we made out like bandits at the auction to clear out their Branmar store.

Hindsight is 20/20 but the attempt to branch out by opening Boater’s World in the 80’s may have helped cause the demise of Ritz. It sounds like digital photography has put the hurts on the company in the past few years and poor sales in the boating business (power boat sales were down 28% last year) may be the final blow.