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Saturday, May 17, 2003
A friend of mine's walking across America. She just sent over the link to her site. Best of luck.
Steven I. Weiss 11:38:00 PM
The NYT Style section totally ripped off Gawker this weekend with a piece on trucker hats. I'd been wondering what her response would be. I can't tell if she's pissed about it or being her typical "snarky."The New York Times just did an article on the hated trucker hats. I'm at a total loss for words. I know I said I wasn't going to post on weekends, but this was just too much.
Steven I. Weiss 10:45:00 PM
More on the camera store.
Unfortunately, I ran out of time before completing the story, but here's the rest, and it really touches on Anil's statements regarding progress towards digital developing.
We continued talking about the nature of his store:
His employees, "used to take the batteries out of disposable cameras and sell them out of a fishbowl, then donate money to the Gay Men's Health Crisis." He notes, "it's as if Zabar's closed, or as if some other icon," closed. The story of Clicks is, "a story about New York City's cruelty," about, "a small business that struggles that can't get financing," about, "people that get cut who work hard." As far as where he goes from here, he's "taking vacation next week," and says, "I don't know if I'll be back in the near future." He says he needed the SBA loan "to upgrade the equipment...my equipment at that point was already 10 years old." New equipment would be necessary to, "be able to do many of the things that people are looking for." He claims, "We were the innovative, imaginative, creative and cutting-edge source."
But what about digital photography?
"I knew that digital imaging as a concept was going to be the future back in 1996." He, "Rented a floor and decided to go after the commercial market -- ad agencies, publishers, graphic designers..." He, "wound up renting 2 floors, with 35 people, but what i wasn't sure of was how long and how much of a market would evolve for retail." He says that, "a consumer with a digital camer has very little use," for a photo store. He says the primary use for them is in, "e-mailing, storing to hard disk and CD or other media storage," and that if they want hard copy, they'll, "print out photos on an Epson or an HP." He says there's a fundamental difference between what film users want and what digital users want, and that this makes the business model for small photo shops obsolete. "When you have a person who captures lets say 100 images on a media card, they'll see the images and print out 2 or 3...if they want copies, they'll come to me, and they want 15, but they shot 100 -- I used to be able to print the whole roll and make money off it." In addition, most digital camera users that come in aren't prepared to deal with the market realities of the technology. He says a consumer will come in for copies, but they'll be unsatisfied because "they shot in a low-res...[or] they don't want to pay what it costs," among other reasons. He says that generally speaking, the main photographic companies have not developed a strategy to allow digital consumers to remain loyal to the markets that used to thrive on film-based products and services. "Kodak right now, they changed CEO's, they got a guy who came from one of the computer giants...their job is to try to demonstrate to the consumer that they need a photo shop." He notes a generational difference in the conflict between film and digital. "People in my generation, I'm in my 50s, we are accustomed to having albums," whereas for people my age(22), "you're not interesting in shooting pictures, you're interested in capturing images." So far, just within his family, three stores have closed, including Clicks, "my wife's store, and another store on 57th street." He says, "all the stores, they're hanging on, and they're working for peanuts, they're struggling to survive." He says there has been success for, "some of the stores that have 1-hr processing, but they sell a lot of other things," and therefore the processing doesn't have to be profitable so long as it draws customers to the equipment and other products in the store. He says "all of these little hole-in-the-wall stores...they're all struggling and they're all coming up against the inevitable."
Steven I. Weiss 9:11:00 PM
Friday, May 16, 2003
The blogosphere needs more real reporting. Anil Dash found an interesting sign a bit back; a photo store was deriding digital cameras. Anil saw this as flying in the face of progress, and the free markets seem to have proved him right, as the store is now apparently closed. But all that's left is conjecture -- what were these people really thinking? Why did they really close? Simply walking in the store and asking a couple of questions would've gotten an answer. Only the second image gave clues about the business: the name "Clicks". Turns out there's only one business listed with that name in Manhattan: Clicks One Hour Photo, located at 49 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010, with the phone number (212)645-1971. I called, but it only keeps ringing.
The store is listed by Pratt as being a "CGIM Resource," offering "Oversize Fiery Cannon Bubble Jet, color copies, one hour b-w developing and printing, photostats."
For whatever reason, Lexis-Nexis isn't loading, but I bet there's a lot more information there -- maybe even a way to contact the owner.
Here's what the New York Department of State has.
It appears I'm looking for Cliff Strome, and this might be him. Let's see.
Calling...
Yep, it's him. He says he had signs not only saying that digital cameras can cause blindness, but a bunch that said they can cause stroke, sterility, and other things.
Does he think digital cameras are putting traditional camera stores out of business?
"No, I don't think that they are, I know that they are."
He says Clicks is, "A very, very interesting story, I think it needs to be told." It's a business that was around for 17 years, once employed 28 people." He says, "We were the most innovative and popular and largest store for many many years."
So why did he have to close?
"As a result of 3 thigns digital photography, scaffold," and a Small Business Administration loan that he had had approved but couldn't receive because of technicalities he told me but asked me not to print.
As far as the scaffolding, he said he got the Daily News to do a story on it, called "Scaffolds Are a Blight on Businesses, Too" He "enumerated all kinds of possible remedies on how that as a necessity when construction occurs can be guided in a fair & reasonable manner." The scaffolding was assembled, he said, "without one minute's notice, and was "unreasonably low". He said "the work the building wanted to get done was to replace windows, but because it's a landmark on a landmark block, landmark preservation will" make many demands for additional repairs. The paperwork for this "takes a tremendous amount of time," and in the meantime it "kills businesses." He says buildings "should get all permits done in advance," that "people have lost their jobs...i have lost a business that I spent a life building."
About DP, he said, "I knew that if DP took over, I would not get the money to do a refinancing and get the equipment" he needed to remain competitive. It's a business that used to do 10 thousand rolls/month. He says, "We had digital imaging and we grew, took over 3rd floor and 9th floor," which are still in business as separate companies. The anti-DP signs were, "silly signs, just out of desperation, looking for attention." He added, "People would come in," asking of the signs "is it true." He'd explain, "it's sort of just my silliness" About his business, he says, "We used to do some very creative windows." He had a friend who was, "a foam contractor who used to do window displays." One said had huge slippers and the words "there's no place like clicks." Another was an 8-foot hand with light switch, "our color will turn you on"..."cab drivers used to pull up every month just to see the windows". The diversity in his company made it a "virtual UN". They'd have "a lobster party in the summer, halloween parties," and more throughout the year. One year, his employees bought him gold Rolex, by saving $10/week, 22 employees saved ang got him an $11K watch. Clicks for a time was 24/7, "the only one in the city."
Have to run...more to come...
Steven I. Weiss 5:26:00 PM
Jeff Taylor wonders why the terror alert is still yellow. He's got a great point.
Steven I. Weiss 1:55:00 PM
"We can be heroes..."
Steven I. Weiss 8:07:00 AM
BBC runs a way-out-of-left-field piece arguing that Jessica Lynch's rescue was staged, "Wag the Dog"-style. Perhaps not surprisingly, no effort whatsoever is made to seek comment from anyone within the US military or government, or anyone in the Lynch family. Essentially, this story lacks any attempt at confirmation -- and for such an inflammatory story as this one, that should be a bare minimum for any news agency, no matter how generally reckless it is.
(via Hit & Run)
Steven I. Weiss 7:34:00 AM
Thursday, May 15, 2003
The Village Voice offers a triple threat this week on race in America:
"Why White America Would Rather Learn Spanish Than Ebonics" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
"Making the Case for a United Latino Front" by Grace Bastidas
"Stanley Crouch, Jazz & the All-American Skin Game" by Daniel King
Commentary might come.
Steven I. Weiss 3:07:00 PM
Josh Marshall on Dems' national security problems.
Steven I. Weiss 2:46:00 PM
A big media story getting caught in the Jayson Blair undertow: The Columbia J-School Situation. (via Romenesko)
Steven I. Weiss 2:06:00 PM
Kaus wonders "Is famed Baghdad blogger Salam Pax coming to the end of his Western media fame cycle?" citing criticism by Instapundit and David Warren.
I really haven't followed the biographies of him that closely to be able to ascertain whether he's a Ba'athist or not. Suffice it to say that he risked his life to open up his world to ours -- that deserves something; if he ends up being a player in the Ba'athist regime, certainly he should face those consequences. But it's no crime to be the son of a wealthy asshole.
UPDATE: Jeff Jarvis has more.
UPDATE: Kaus links to Needlenose, who essentially, and authentically, paints David Warren as the Michael Moore of the anti-Salam crowd.
Steven I. Weiss 2:01:00 PM
Sunday, May 11, 2003
Portrait of the Dictator as a Wild Man. The exploits of Kim Jong Il.
Steven I. Weiss 1:56:00 PM
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