Ritz Camera files Chapter 11

Some more bad economic news that starts to possibly affect our interests. Ritz camera filed Chapter 11.

Part of the problem of course is the debt these companies like Ritz, Circuit City etc owe to the major camera companies like Nikon and Canon, and how it will affect them.

Circuit City converted to 7. The writing on the wall for them seemed to be there even when they filed for 11 (there were some rumblings at that time that vendors had started cutting them off before the 11 filing, no idea if that is true) Hopefully Ritz can actually work it out.

Will Ritz be liquidating soon?

I've gone to Circuit City three times in the last three weeks, and any of the things I might have wanted had been marked up just before liquidation sales began so that they'd still be at typical retails prices despite being "25% off" according to their prices. The temporary sales reps they've hired couldn't care less about actually selling anything. They just stand around hoping nobody asks them anything, because they don't care and they don't know jack about the products. It's a sad scene.

Ritz is in 11 AFAIK which is a restructure, hopefully they do not have to go 7. As to Circuit City, the store near me shut down immediately in the first round, so did not see what you described, though it does not suprise me. When CompUSA went out it was the same exact scene and the mark downs were not worthwhile to get anything (well at least the things I was looking at at the time, Canon XT for 10% off and less than what they had it for sale for in the past.)

I was talking to one of the salesmen in my local ritz last week and he was indicating that they were planning on just closing several of the less profitable stores and reallocating their stock rather than something like liquidate. They wont know for a few more weeks though... Hopefully things work out!