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B&H is a fine store, but comparing them to Circuit City is not apt. They operate more like Amazon than any brick-and-mortar store -- the vast majority of their

B&H is a fine store, but comparing them to Circuit City is not apt. They operate more like Amazon than any brick-and-mortar store -- the vast majority of their product is shipped online. And customer service isn't exactly what comes to mind when thinking about B&H. The operation is run to be efficient and maximize profit not to enhance the "customer experience", though often the two intertwine. They've found a good niche but if they tried to put one of these stores in every city across the country, as they say, "it wouldn't scale".

voidpointer 17y ago
Why exactly wouldn't it scale? The challenge is to make sure other stores are run in the same dedicated fashion and not by some dimwit that only hires other dimwits in order to cut costs. Retail chains seem to become prone to this once the whole organization gets big enough to put in place metrics that measure store performance mostly on a revenue basis and those in charge start to manage by the metrics instead of looking at reality because there is no more incentive for them to do just that.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- marcusbooster 17y ago
  It just doesn't make sense to add more operating costs when your product is shipped online. But there's also the place it has in the community. From their Wikipedia article (so take it for what it's worth): "Surpassed only by the Diamond District in terms of Orthodox employment, the company is a vital part of the community's financial health, with hundreds of Orthodox Jews on staff." That doesn't scale either.
wglb 17y ago
But they were a force in that market long before there was a web.
- marcusbooster 17y ago
  They were popular in the pre-web photography market serving New York artists and other professionals. They were not popular with general consumer electronics like a Circuit City (and I wouldn't say they are today either).
  - wglb 17y ago
    Interesting. Living in Chicago, I certainly knew of them in the '80s. Didn't they do some mail order then?

voidpointer 17y ago

Why exactly wouldn't it scale? The challenge is to make sure other stores are run in the same dedicated fashion and not by some dimwit that only hires other dimwits in order to cut costs. Retail chains seem to become prone to this once the whole organization gets big enough to put in place metrics that measure store performance mostly on a revenue basis and those in charge start to manage by the metrics instead of looking at reality because there is no more incentive for them to do just that.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
marcusbooster 17y ago
It just doesn't make sense to add more operating costs when your product is shipped online. But there's also the place it has in the community. From their Wikipedia article (so take it for what it's worth): "Surpassed only by the Diamond District in terms of Orthodox employment, the company is a vital part of the community's financial health, with hundreds of Orthodox Jews on staff." That doesn't scale either.

wglb 17y ago

But they were a force in that market long before there was a web.

marcusbooster 17y ago
They were popular in the pre-web photography market serving New York artists and other professionals. They were not popular with general consumer electronics like a Circuit City (and I wouldn't say they are today either).
- wglb 17y ago
  Interesting. Living in Chicago, I certainly knew of them in the '80s. Didn't they do some mail order then?