Dixons to end 35mm camera sales
High Street retailer Dixons, the electrical store which started by selling 35mm cameras, is to stop stocking the items because of the popularity of digital cameras. The company has said it will not be stocking any more after the current stock of the film cameras runs out holding then only digital cameras. Marketing director Bryan Magrath said the decision was a “sentimental event”. “35mm cameras were the first products we ever sold and film processing has been a part of our lives for several decades,” he added. ‘Right time’ Dixons was founded as a photographic studio in Southend in 1937, and its retail chain had been built on the growth of home photography. Mr Magrath said digital cameras were now the rule rather than the exception. “We have decided that the time is now right to take 35mm cameras out of the frame.” In 1989, sales of 35mm cameras peaked at 2.9 million in the UK, but now Dixons says it is an “increasingly niche” market. Electrical sales at airports Improved quality and lessening prices have seen digital cameras grow in popularity and this year sales will outstrip the 35mm by 15 to one. Dixons says that at this time last year the ratio of digitalcameras to 35mm sales was five to one, an indication of the growth in the new electrical technology. The electrical company will not go into detail about how many 35mm cameras they have left, however it says there are enough for all 221 Dixons outlets across the UK to still hold stock. However, the firm will continue to sell some 35mm cameras at its airport branches, to cater for professional photographers looking to buy duty-free products as well as digital cameras.
Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/4130620.stm