p.1 #3 · Ritz Camera files for bankruptcy protection, again
It's news, not gloating and Ritz dug this hole for themselves and didn't need any help to reach this state of affairs. They had debt and overhead and too many small stores in less-than ideal locations.
This is not their first dance with bankruptcy either. They did this in Feb-March 2009 too. At that time they had 800 stores and $54 million in debt. The owner's foray into Boater's World did as much damage as anything else. Readme.
They bought Wolf camera, incurring debt; they bought Camera World of Oregon, once an excellent west-coast retailer, and incurred more.
p.1 #5 · Ritz Camera files for bankruptcy protection, again
My local Ritz has big yellow closing sale signs in the windows. For a small town, College Station TX, the store has a good location but it still didn't help.
p.1 #6 · Ritz Camera files for bankruptcy protection, again
IMO what's saddest is not Ritz closing stores, although I understand it means local people are unemployed, a storefront is empty, and local taxes are reduced. IMO what's saddest is Ritz's original arrival may have hastened the demise of locally owned and operated camera stores which couldn't compete. For those who may not know. Wikipedia says College Station has a population of 94,000 and is home to the main campus of Texas A&M University.
p.1 #7 · Ritz Camera files for bankruptcy protection, again
Sad, but not nearly as sad as Kodak. Again, one guy leading a company over a cliff.
I thought there would be some oversight on the first Ritz bankruptcy so this wouldn't be repeated. BTW: From what I understand individuals cannot file a second bankruptcy for eight years. Corporations seem to have their own rules if Ritz refiled three years after the first bankruptcy.
