This candle in the window of a boutique clothing store would be the ideal gift for Valentine's Day. Or perhaps for someone who forgot you on Valentine's Day, and who is receiving it belatedly.

On a less humorous note I found out today that Foto Riesel, a city-based camera retailer that I bought a great deal of gear from back in my Canon days (in part because the place I worked for got its photo gear from there, and as employees we got some rather nice prices on Canon gear), hit the wall late last year. The owners took it up market to become a boutique vendor of pricey gear and... well, that didn't work so well. I had pretty much stopped going there as there was nothing that I wanted at a price that I wanted to pay. On the plus side the carcass was bought out by Digital Camera Warehouse, a company that I have been dealing with extensively as well and who I've purchased all of my Olympus gear to date from. So the name lives on (as Foto Riesel from DCW), even if the business as such doesn't. Unfortunately the location is a lot closer to me than their Canterbury store is, so my credit card is quaking in anticipation.

Update, September 2022: That didn't last long. The "Foto Riesel from DCW" name looks like it lasted a bit over 2 years. The last Instagram post under that name was made in September of 2016. Google Street View shows that the name was still on Foto Riesel's original 360 Kent Street store as of July 2017. By October 2018, the store had relocated a block or so up the street to 447 Kent Street, a former YHA Backpackers Hostel which had been vacant by a couple of years by that point. The Foto Riesel name was gone, replaced by the DCW name. In March 2020 (from The Wayback Machine), there were 4 physical stores; that one, the Canterbury mother ship, one at 367 High Street Northcote in Melbourne Victoria, and one at 524 Ipswich Road in Annerley Queensland. The snapshot taken in March 2021 showed all but the Canterbury store gone. Of course, that was peak pandemic.

I stopped buying from them in 2019. Which is not to say that I never will again, just that I haven't since then, and my next purchases don't look like they'll come from there either.

First, there was the, shall we say, studious virtuousness in some of their social media posts, which I am getting SOOOO sick of businesses doing. If I want to buy a camera, I want to buy from a place that sells cameras. That, and ONLY that.

Then there's the fact that their web site would, IMHO, creepily stalk you. If you were subscribed to their newsletter and checked out a link, you'd start getting e-mails asking whether you were still interested in whatever-you-just-looked-at. Everyone knows that any company with an ounce of sense tracks visitor paths through a website to see what appeals, and what doesn't, usually in aggregate. Just as any company with an ounce of sense doesn't shove that in a customer's face by suggesting that they, personally, were being watched and stalked, even - no, ESPECIALLY - if they were just there to browse rather than having constant reminders to buy, buy, BUY! "You looked at it, you must be interested! Why haven't you bought it???" It almost feels like they need a supply of the candles in today's shot.

Finally... their prices are no longer as competitive as they once were. The last couple of pieces of gear I've bought, I didn't buy from DCW. And as I said... the next ones aren't looking promising either.

Last Year